Kit O' Beer #4 - Canadian Blonde redux

[Glass]

I refuse to be beaten by this beer :cool: so we do again.

Canadian Blonde Redux.
This time we are going with ~11gms of Coopers yeast. It is probably closer to 13gms.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers Canadian Blonde extract
1 kg Coopers Brew Enhancer #1
260g approx additional dextrose
2 pkt Coopers ale yeast - 7gms each less some. approx 11gms total.

Changes:
Coopers Enhancer #1 instead of the LHBS fermentables used in KoB #2
260g additional dextrose - boost OG

OG 1.040

Brew temp: 20C - ambient
Pitch temp: 22C - wort
Current temp: 22C - wort

Notes:
While this is supposed to be a comparo of 2 yeasts in the same beer (see KoB #2) it isn't going to be apples v apples. Boosted the OG with 250gm/ 1/2 pound dextrose because I think the kits are a bit light on. Seems most kit brewers do these kits to 20L not 23L.

Going to be hot next few days 38C/100F but nights are low 20C or less. Then into 30C days, 15C nights. This will be interesting.

[Libertytree]

I'm interested if you have better results using the Coopers yeast vs the Safale. One other thing, somewhere I remember BT saying you might want to try upping your yeast to 22gms?

[Glass]

It's an idea. There's room for more. The Coopers yeast in KoB #1 worked well. That was a damn fine batch if I do say so myself. That was std 7gms. That's all they give you.

Today it was hot 37.5/100. Ferment ran to 24C. I added chill this morning. It was 22C when I did that. I may have dropped it 1C. Trying to bank some thermal capacity for later in the day. We would have done 26C if I hadn't.

I think the fermentation has been going off like a frog in a sock. The color is already close to the golden I had in KoB #2. It has lightened a lot. I intended to glass bottle half of these. I better get me a bottle capper soon.

They say storms tonight and 30C/86F tomorrow. I think they have been spraying today. Above the clouds. I'm feeling a winter drought coming on. Not looking good. Cooler for the next week though.

[Glass]

Day 5. Took the first reading day 5 which was yesterday.

Original Gravity was 1.040.
1st reading was 1.013 (@20C Day 5).

Ambient today was 26C/78F Fermenter ran at 21C. Outside it was 30C. Cool clear days. Damn near perfect weather for being out in it.

As I said a few days ago this ferment was going off. 11gms or so of coopers yeast is a powerful thing. The day of my last post the fermented cooled down to 22 and held that all day. I let it continue as was over night with out any active cooling. Just the water bath. By morning the fermenter was running at 26C which was a fair jump for just over 12 hours.

I added some chill which got us to 23C by the end of the day. The ambient temps have been pretty low so I have removed the wet towel and turned off the fan. Just letting it ride the ambient temps. We are steady at 21. I think this will fall a bit more tonight. Maybe below 20C. tomorrow I may drain the water bath and let it set in free air for the day.

This beer is murky as heck. A lot of yeast has to settle before we bottle. I'm ready to bottle any time from here. I got a bead on some second hand beer kit. Xmas gift. One brew sell it on kind of thing. Gumtree which is like Craig list. I need a capper. Those are $60 new here. for $100 there would be capper, round fermenter, airlock, hydromteter, spoons, caps, priming sugar and I think a heat belt??. I could use fermenter as a priming bucket or for beer. Heat belt would be handy soon. I see $100 value there.

Anyways I think the guy is dicking me around. Tells me yesterday can't grab for a couple days, today a mystery guy is looking to buy it today which is not a couple days, asks how keen am I? We will see.

[Glass]

Day 7. Things are looking clearer or are they?

Original Gravity was 1.040.
1st reading was 1.013 (@20C Day 5).
2nd reading was 1.012 (@23C Day7).

Ambient today was 26C/78F Fermenter ran at 23C. Outside it was 29C.

Fermenter started at 21C ended up at 24C for the day. Just sitting in a water bath with garbage bag over for light. I added chill to bring it back to 22C. I might put a wet towel over it tomorrow but it won't need a fan on it. Should hold it down a degree or so over the course of the day.

Removed the krausan collar. Beer looks clearer in the fermenter. Still a fair bit floating around in the hydrometer. I don't think that is a bad thing at this point and I might like to see a bit of that go into the bottles. Very little happening on top.

The tricky dicky guy trying to sell his home brew kit txt'd me and ask to delay meeting until tomorrow. Strange. I thought he had a super keen buyer to sell to. So I didn't expect to hear from him again. Oh well. I'm busy for the next couple of days so it will have to wait.

[Glass]

Day 9. Warm one today. Humid morning. I went for a 30kms ride by the river after work. It's addictive and you get thirsty.

Original Gravity was 1.040.
1st reading was 1.013 (@20C Day 5).
2nd reading was 1.012 (@23C Day7).
3rd reading was 1.012 (@22C Day9).

Ambient today was 27C/78F Fermenter ran at 22C. Outside it was 34C.

I added chill this morning down to 21C. We were pushing 24C last night and today was a warm spike. Swamp cooler back on. Steady for the day.

Beer is clearing. It's still cloudy but not chunky. I initially thought it was 1.008 for the reading today but it isn't it was 1.012. At this point the beer is a bit less sweet than KoB #2 IMO. Still way tasty.

Seems like we might be done. I'll ride it until Friday and see. Can't bottle before then anyway.

[Glass]

Day 13. We bottled this one today. No movement in the SG since l Day 9, well day 7. So no movement in 6 days.

I pretty much let the thing alone the past few days. I've been cleaning a couple cases of bottles. I was hoping to score a capper on the cheap but no luck so far. Didn't intend to use glass on this one but for the next one would be good. Like to move to bulk prime from here.

Anyway
Original Gravity was 1.040
Final Gravity was 1.012

Fermenter was running about 24C

Finished with 30 bottles, some how? Not sure exactly how. We were down about 21 litres but still filled 30 even. Used carbonation drops and this time I gave them a more vigorous shake. It's a messy business this bottling. Need to get that hose for the filling wand so there is no/less bottle handling.

Now we see how this carbs up.

[Glass]

These are progressing ok it seems. Bottles getting firmer. Still squeezable. Might fridge one tomorrow @ day 7 and try day 8.

Our tricky dicky friend may have done us a favour by messing me about for a week and then selling to someone else. I went back to the forsales and found another guy selling 2 complete brew kits and other gear for the same $100. So I went and checked out today. I bought it all home.

Going through it all there are some bit which I wont be using but there is still enough value there to keep me happy. I got
2 fermenters - will need new seals. There are kits of seals so no biggie. Complete with airlocks, bungs and spigots
1 paint stirrer paddle. Good cond
1 long spoon. bit scratched so no good for beer.
2 x hydrometers glass - classic style. One is a pocket hydrometer. Its about 5" long. too hard for my eyes to read
3 x filling wands. 2 styles. 1 like I already have. clearly the better design.
Some finings
Some Hop Extract oils or something. comes in a dropper bottle. Its saas but there is no aroma I can detect.
A Bottle capper - this was what I wanted. Works good. I tried in on some twist top bottles I have. Was concerned these bottles could not be re-used but the internet says they will work. Seems they do. Upside down. watching for leaks. Needs bolting to a board/plank.
Some crown bottle caps - maybe 60.
A heat belt - excellent. Got to test this
A basic electrical timer switch which is worth about $20 on it's own
About 3 dozen 750 ~25oz glass bottles. These need some time in PBW but should scrub up ok.
A tub with enough PBW equivalent to clean the bottles. Nice one.
2 x coopers extract cans. 1 Dark ale - 6mths past date. 1 lager expires Sept. Disappointed the dark one was out of date. Was hoping to brew that. They have been stored in a metal garage over summer. Not sure they will be any good. No yeast. Just cans
A tub of what looks like a chocolate malt. Well stale me thinks. No aroma.

the fermenters have been used a bit more than I suspected. Remember to take a torch if buying something no matter what. I can see a bit of light scratching on the bottom. One of the tubs you can feel a few of them with the finger. The other is much less and most of it seems from the outside, sitting on the ground etc.

I wanted one for bulk prime and the other for actual fermenting. Might still be able to use them this way based on the amount of scratching.

All in all I think it's a good catch so thank you tricky dicky. I wouldn't have seen this deal otherwise. Oh yeah and thanks to the guy who sold em to me. A cool dude. He had 2 kegerators. One was a kind 70's retro fridge he was doing up. Very nice. Amazing paint job. Keg on.
--H H--

[Libertytree]

Congrats on the big score dude! The screw top bottles will work but ya gotta pay real close attention when capping them. I mistakenly used 6 of them and 2 wound up flat, I didn't like the odds and have since pulled them.

[Glass]

yeah thanks. I tested a couple more since and while the caps seem on ok I opened them and the caps came off too easy IMO. These only had water in them but I'm not so confident they will seal under pressure now. I was going to do 1/2 batch in glass bottles. I've got some twist tops and non twist tops so I'll mix it up and compare how they perform.

[Glass]

Tried the first one of these last night. It's been in the fridge since Sunday. It's going to be green.

So far it's looking good. It is a little less sweet than the 1st one I did. Thats a good thing. It is crystal clear. Looks great in the glass. No head to speak of but it is nearly as carb'd as the first one ended up. Some slow ongoing carbonation.

For me there is no difference in the flavour between them, so the yeast didn't seem to have an impact on flavour. KoB #2 used SafAle. KoB #4 used Coopers yeast. I think I can afford to let this sit for longer than the others. I had hoped to get #5 on the go but I will have to wait until next week. Probably a Wednesday brew. If I can manage it I'll try and get 2 down next week. Will have to see. Got lots going on right now.

[Libertytree]

So, the jury is still out on the Safale vs the Coopers? And, why would this batch be able to sit longer?

[Glass]

So, the jury is still out on the Safale vs the Coopers? And, why would this batch be able to sit longer?

i think I will get a better result with the coopers. OR it will condition faster. A bit more time needed to tell but it seems that way. I can wait more this one because I have more other beers to drink. I got through most of the other batches before they got to 4 -5 weeks in the bottle. I'd like to see ~3 months on them.

[Glass]

another week has passed. I drank a KoB #3 yesterday and a KoB #4 today. hmmm I am going to have to get a second opinion. To me these taste the same. #3 is a Draught/Draft and #4 is the Canadian Blonde.

The only difference between them is the colour. When I bottled the Draught/Draft it had a nice malty flavour. This is undetectable now. It has a flavour I can't describe easily. It is crystal clear. Its ok carb'd but there is a bitterness I did put down to being a bit green. The blonde tastes the same. KoB #2, Canadian Blonde was a nice sweet beer, about the same carb, a bit cloudy but deliciously sweet. KoB #4 redux is not showing those traits. Its amazingly clear but not sweet. It is carbing well. To me #3 and #4 taste identical.

I will be near the LHBS tomorrow morning. I think I will swing by and set up a taste test. See if they can tell me where the beer is at. There is a month or so age difference between these batches and they are different beers, I think, but to me they taste identical. I can't find a way to describe the flavour. Its a mix of things but no thing distinct. Not complaining because I will drink just about anything, I just want to do a good job. Make the best beer I can. Fortunately I have good notes on what I did.

I need to go there anyway because the seals I bought for the 2 extra fermenters I scored are the wrong size.

[Libertytree]

This will be interesting, I wish I had someone to taste test different batches with. Keep me posted!

[Glass]

Well I didn't go to the LHBS in the end. I worked out how the seals fit the fermenter lid.

I went to a mates place - that means a buddy's place in 'straylian and took a KoB #2 (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?75026-Kit-O-Beer-2-Canadian-Blonde) and a KoB #3 (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?75640-Kit-O-Beer-3-Draught-Draft). We had the #2 talked about here (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?76966-Kit-O-Beer-5-Lager). I left #3 with them because it wasn't cold. They're going to try and and tell me something. maybe.

I cracked a #3 yesterday. 3 words - It was great. No head to speak of but enough carbonation. Was smooth and malty. My tatse buds must have been on strike last time because I enjoyed this one just fine. That's what the problem was. I was using my tatse buds and not my taste buds.

[Glass]

I had 2 of these on Friday. 4 weeks in the bottle now. Not long in the fridge. Progressing well enough. Still a tasty drop. I think we can give this more time although I'll be drinking more of these as we go. I'm going to do this again and dry hop it with some citra or similar.

[Libertytree]

See if you notice a difference in a bottle that's been in the fridge for 4 days vs 2 days.

I've thought about dry hopping too, yet another experiment waiting to happen.

[Glass]

2 more of these tonight. This is still pretty young but its tasty. This is too drinkable. I wasn't sure about this beer type but it's great. I think this will probably be the main one I'll brew for the next while. If I do this every second batch that should be a good rotation. I'll play around with it as the base and add some things. It needs more head retention so I might do some steeping of light grains for it.

[Glass]

We had to go back a ways to dig this thread up. I'm might be confused but anyway. I found what I think was the last one of these and chilled it down. I say I think because I could have sworn it was the draught when I poured it. I put the # on the caps for ID and thought 4 was for Draught.

I don't have the cap anymore so I can't check what it was.

Still not much in the way of carbonation. The beer was very tasty. It had a nice darker colour to it which was why I thought draught. I did think that it was light on for malt flavours but there were some. So maybe it was a blonde.

Anyway was good.