I started watching this playlist at 12 AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) while Drunk since I couldn't sleep for whatever reason so decided to brew an ESB because it was already set up.
I'm catching up on this whole challenge series and what I really like is the way you dive into a particular aspect of brewing every so often. Really breaks it up and gives each episode value instead of it just being brew after brew after brew. I prefer the videos where the other person doing the tasting knows a bit about beer. Having a commercial example to compare might be a nice touch.
Oh my goodness!!!! Not only do I look forward to these incredible and informative videos every week, I get treated to an amazing soundtrack every time as well! Thank you for all you do!
Its great that you've been kind and responding quickly to comments about FG, lagering schedule etc. It'd be great if you included fermentation & conditioning schedules, FG, ABV etc consistently in your videos themselves as talking points. Keep up the good work!
I don't know for sure for all of the hop brands, but it might be worth trying... I've found that some hop packaging can be resealed with a vacuum sealer so that you don't actually have to use vacuum bags for everything. Also you can save on how much "oversize" you go with the bags by only trimming the corner rather than all the way across. I've found it's easier to get a good seal that way as well.
Instead of cutting and resealing your vacuum hop bags each time you open them, you can now get vacuum bags having one-way air valve! Those are CHEAP, fully reusable, and come bundled with a compact and handheld rechargeable vacuum pump. Search for "Vicarko sous vide bags and pump" on Amazon. This is the product I use to store opened dry yeast packets as well as hop packets.
Following all of your brew days, very interesting to see how all of these beers turn out. I notice your carbonation process gives good results, be nice to see a quick review/out take which covers that. Just about to brew your Czech Premium Pilsner! Keep up the good work. Rich
Love your channel mate. In terms of freezing hops - whats the max length of time you could store them? Do you find they stay fresher longer? Finally, do you add them to the boil from frozen? Cheers!
Thanks. Freezing them and vacuum sealing should keep them fresh a good while. I don’t know an exact shelf life but I’ve been using some hops for over a year now and still getting good results. And yes straight from the freezer to boil kettle.
I buy my hops in bulk too, and find a day off on weekends and vacuum seal individual 1 oz bags and put it back into larger bag they came in....come a brew day, I just grab one ounce at a time.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge my vacuum bags are 8 inches wide. I cut a two inches strip then cut it in half. Then seal it three sides leaving the top open. Each of these half will hold one ounce and seal no problem. After I seal the bag, anything left on top of the seal is chopped off to reduce the size of that 1 oz bag. Then they go back to the original big bag.
these videos are great. I do like to see them as soon as they pop up on my notifications. Silly question for everyone???? Who are the two people who did thumbs down?
Sweet video. What's the point of brewing all the BJCP styles if you aren't going to follow the guidelines? Not trying to ruffle feathers just curious....
Yeah have played around with ingredients a bit, but have always stayed within the guidelines for SG, IBU, SRM, and ABV. Many of these beers are quite similar, so trying to mix it up a bit to have some different tasting beers on tap.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge I guess I'm referring mainly to characteristic ingredients. Brewing a german lager with victory and kolsch yeast for example. I get your approach though. Cheers!
Is this an ale that uses lager yeast strain? Do you just ferment like normal ale method at 68, or do you ferment like lager at much lower temperature and raising up the temperature last few days before bottling to get rid of diacetyl? And how long do you condition for or do you just carbonate?
Despite me calling it a "lager" multiple times in the tasting section, this is actually brewed using an ale yeast. I fermented at ale temps (68F). Conditioned for four weeks. Sure came out tasting like a lager :)
Serious question, can a beer fermented as an ale really be called a lager? To be called a lager it really should at least follow the lager yeast process shouldn't it? Otherwise you are brewing an ale, a german ale which they did brew as a distinction from lagers. Im not trying to nitpick but if its brewed warm with ale yeast and not cold conditioned then calling it a lager is a bit silly, as you could call anything brewed with pilsner malt a "lager" but its the fermenting process and to a lesser degree the cold storage that make a lager. To be fair thats a lite Kolsch beer and not a lager. Some beers have very fine distinctions in technique and not ingredients and this trend to call ale fermented beers lagers is i think a disservice to the history and style of lager. I know that sounds harsh but i think a line needs to be drawn here as the people of Cologne for example never called their beers lagers. Anyway i hope you understand this is not a personal go at you, i love what your doing and have followed every brew and will keep following, i just think this needs to be a line in the sand
Yeah that message got a bit confused. His last beer tasting on camera was American Light Lager and this beer is the German equivalent (even though it was fermented with ale yeast)
I like these videos, but I cringe every time you speak American English, especially saying zee instead of zed. Just because you live in the US, you don't need to sell your soul 😢
Why didn't I think of cutting the hop resealing bags a bit bigger when resealing hops. This channel is brill
I started watching this playlist at 12 AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) while Drunk since I couldn't sleep for whatever reason so decided to brew an ESB because it was already set up.
Lol. What could go wrong?!
@@TheHomebrewChallenge Absolutely nothing went off with out a hitch
I'm catching up on this whole challenge series and what I really like is the way you dive into a particular aspect of brewing every so often. Really breaks it up and gives each episode value instead of it just being brew after brew after brew. I prefer the videos where the other person doing the tasting knows a bit about beer. Having a commercial example to compare might be a nice touch.
Oh my goodness!!!! Not only do I look forward to these incredible and informative videos every week, I get treated to an amazing soundtrack every time as well! Thank you for all you do!
Thanks 😊
+1
Its great that you've been kind and responding quickly to comments about FG, lagering schedule etc. It'd be great if you included fermentation & conditioning schedules, FG, ABV etc consistently in your videos themselves as talking points.
Keep up the good work!
Agreed. Need to get better at remembering to talk about that.
I don't know for sure for all of the hop brands, but it might be worth trying... I've found that some hop packaging can be resealed with a vacuum sealer so that you don't actually have to use vacuum bags for everything. Also you can save on how much "oversize" you go with the bags by only trimming the corner rather than all the way across. I've found it's easier to get a good seal that way as well.
Good tip about snipping the corner and just resealing that
I'm going to brew one of these this weekend
great videos. Homebrewers go all out on TH-cam for the relatively small community; hope to see your channel grow.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for having the video caption convert pounds to pounds and ounces to grams. Thanks for your videos, man.
Hugs from Brazil..
Instead of cutting and resealing your vacuum hop bags each time you open them, you can now get vacuum bags having one-way air valve!
Those are CHEAP, fully reusable, and come bundled with a compact and handheld rechargeable vacuum pump.
Search for "Vicarko sous vide bags and pump" on Amazon. This is the product I use to store opened dry yeast packets as well as hop packets.
Great tip thanks.
you must have a ton a friends or an amazing metabolism
Or a lager of lager!?!
Another great video and top tip with storage of the hops.
Cheers. 👍🍺
delicious looking beer......................cheers Martin...
Following all of your brew days, very interesting to see how all of these beers turn out. I notice your carbonation process gives good results, be nice to see a quick review/out take which covers that. Just about to brew your Czech Premium Pilsner! Keep up the good work.
Rich
Thanks. I force carb at 40psi for 36 hours. Seems to work out most of the time. Good luck with the pils.
Love your channel mate. In terms of freezing hops - whats the max length of time you could store them? Do you find they stay fresher longer? Finally, do you add them to the boil from frozen? Cheers!
Thanks. Freezing them and vacuum sealing should keep them fresh a good while. I don’t know an exact shelf life but I’ve been using some hops for over a year now and still getting good results. And yes straight from the freezer to boil kettle.
Great job! Always lookin' forward to your videos :)
Thanks!
I buy my hops in bulk too, and find a day off on weekends and vacuum seal individual 1 oz bags and put it back into larger bag they came in....come a brew day, I just grab one ounce at a time.
Oh I like that idea. Then you have pre-measured hops on hand.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge yes, and believe me, they'll fit back in the original bag.
How do you create the little bags?
@@TheHomebrewChallenge my vacuum bags are 8 inches wide. I cut a two inches strip then cut it in half. Then seal it three sides leaving the top open. Each of these half will hold one ounce and seal no problem. After I seal the bag, anything left on top of the seal is chopped off to reduce the size of that 1 oz bag. Then they go back to the original big bag.
jafarym77 I love this tip. I just got a vacuum sealer, and plan to use your method. Thanks
these videos are great. I do like to see them as soon as they pop up on my notifications. Silly question for everyone???? Who are the two people who did thumbs down?
Thanks. My pronunciation of “leicht” deserves at least two thumbs down.
Sweet video. What's the point of brewing all the BJCP styles if you aren't going to follow the guidelines? Not trying to ruffle feathers just curious....
Yeah have played around with ingredients a bit, but have always stayed within the guidelines for SG, IBU, SRM, and ABV. Many of these beers are quite similar, so trying to mix it up a bit to have some different tasting beers on tap.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge I guess I'm referring mainly to characteristic ingredients. Brewing a german lager with victory and kolsch yeast for example. I get your approach though. Cheers!
Yeah my first response to the yeast choice was "its a kolsch lite!"
Funny you should mention Kolsch....
The Homebrew Challenge I hope you didn’t put victory malt in your kolsch!
i like the baby making music
Love your videos. What do you do with all that beer you brew? I’m in Winston-Salem. I could help you out with that! Lol
Stop by with some empty kegs and I’ll fill them up! So much beer....
How long was fermentation for this beer? Looks yummy and I may want to brew this to get my buddy off Bud Light
Good call. Fermentation finished in about 10 days then lagered for 3 weeks
@@TheHomebrewChallenge thank you!!!
I know its a late one, but what is that water pump in the bucket of ice water you used to cool down your wort? Tyvm.
Love your videos 👍🏻
What FG did you get?
Thanks. Came down to 1.005
Is this an ale that uses lager yeast strain? Do you just ferment like normal ale method at 68, or do you ferment like lager at much lower temperature and raising up the temperature last few days before bottling to get rid of diacetyl? And how long do you condition for or do you just carbonate?
Despite me calling it a "lager" multiple times in the tasting section, this is actually brewed using an ale yeast. I fermented at ale temps (68F). Conditioned for four weeks. Sure came out tasting like a lager :)
Serious question, can a beer fermented as an ale really be called a lager? To be called a lager it really should at least follow the lager yeast process shouldn't it? Otherwise you are brewing an ale, a german ale which they did brew as a distinction from lagers. Im not trying to nitpick but if its brewed warm with ale yeast and not cold conditioned then calling it a lager is a bit silly, as you could call anything brewed with pilsner malt a "lager" but its the fermenting process and to a lesser degree the cold storage that make a lager. To be fair thats a lite Kolsch beer and not a lager. Some beers have very fine distinctions in technique and not ingredients and this trend to call ale fermented beers lagers is i think a disservice to the history and style of lager. I know that sounds harsh but i think a line needs to be drawn here as the people of Cologne for example never called their beers lagers. Anyway i hope you understand this is not a personal go at you, i love what your doing and have followed every brew and will keep following, i just think this needs to be a line in the sand
Yep completely agree this is an ale not a lager (despite what we said in the tasting). But boy it sure did taste like a lager.
Why do you present it as a lager to your friend when it's an ale?
Yeah that message got a bit confused. His last beer tasting on camera was American Light Lager and this beer is the German equivalent (even though it was fermented with ale yeast)
@@TheHomebrewChallenge ok, yes you brewed an ale
You should start your sour beers now to be ready for gueuze...
I had been thinking the same thing for the sours. Doing the fully blended and aged gueuze would be impressive dedication.
Your recipe in the description and the recipe in the video are different.
Thanks, fixed.
I like these videos, but I cringe every time you speak American English, especially saying zee instead of zed. Just because you live in the US, you don't need to sell your soul 😢