Kit O' Beer #14 - Cascadian Blonde 2UP

That's right no #13. Jumping right on into KoB #14. Don't call me 'spicious.

I changed nothing from #8. Exact same ingredients but something turned out different. This is a slight variation to #12 which is another dry hopped Cascadian.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers Canadian Blonde
1 kg Dry Light Malt Extract - from the preferred LHBS
1 pkt Bry-97 yeast - 11gms
0.3kg Dextrose
~30 gms Cascade pellet hops - dry hopped ~ day 7 - 8.


Changes:
I changed nothing from #8. Exact same ingredients however something is not the same. Unexpected OG reading.

OG 1.067
Volume: 23L

Brew temp: 17C - ambient
Pitch temp: 20C - wort
Current temp: 19C - wort

Notes: I thought gravity on #8 was way over the top. I should read my notes because the next thing I said was

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We didn't need the extra dextrose at all.

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. This one is even higher. I found a spare hydrometer for a second opinion. Same reading.

I also said I thought the ABV for #8 would be 5 - 5.5. Not sure it got there. It was a very nice brew with a lot of sweetness. Only thing I can think of is the scales were out. I did have a conversation with the scales about how confident I was that it knew what 300gms was. Jury is out on the scales.

I have to chuckle...when I saw you post #12 I wondered about you posting #13 with a name like Superstitious Blonde but lo and behold you skipped #13 altogether, lmao.

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Originally Posted by Libertytree

I have to chuckle...when I saw you post #12 I wondered about you posting #13 with a name like Superstitious Blonde but lo and behold you skipped #13 altogether, lmao.

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thats a good one. If I had of thought of it I might of done. But anyway I'll just do like the chinese. I think its clear sailing now until brew #665.

Tested this one this morning. About 11 days

OG. 1.067
SG. 1.020

Smells great. A huge amount of fizz in this one. When I poured the sample there was a lot of carbonation in the sample. After sitting about 1 hour I could see the guage through the foam. Still some time to go.

I've been thinking on this one when I brewed it. I scored a 1Kg/2lbs of dry LME for this one where as the #12 I used 1.25kg brew booster mix which was mostly dextrose maltodex mix. I think usually it is about 75/25%. When I bought this I was buying two kits for #12 & #14. The store charged me 2 x the brew booster and 0 x the dry LME thinking they were both the same by appearance.

The dry LME was supposed to be 1kg. Now I am thinking on it, I suspect the LHBS has made a mistake when packing the dry LME. I think they put in 1.25kgs and not the 1kgs. I remember having the bag of brew booster and the dry LME next to each other and thinking briefly or noticing in passing that the bags were the same size and height of contents. I did not click at the time but now I am thinking that the dry LME was 250gms more than expected. That would explain the OG reading being so high.

I think once you start getting above 6% ABV you are going to get some alcohol flavours in the beer. Definately when you get upto 9% you do. Been there before with a Duvel which was about 9% ABV. Messy beer that one.

Anyway I am going to have to start weighing the dry sugars/malt extracts to confirm what I am putting in the beer.

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Originally Posted by Glass

Anyway I am going to have to start weighing the dry sugars/malt extracts to confirm what I am putting in the beer.

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Yes, you are... :)

The other thing you should do is start replacing all those sugars with DME or LME.

Giving yeast junk food in the form of sucrose/fructose/dextrose in excessive quanitity screws them, and the fermentation, up.

Maltose should be the dominant (way dominant) fermentable carbohydrate in your beer.

yes, main driver to move to AG is the sugars. I am trying to avoid as much dextrose as possible. Going with LHBS blends which are more malt. I was thinking of going two can and using a can of L(ight)ME in place of any dry fermentables. The can's of LME are 1.5Kgs. Not sure if = same sugar amount as dryME per weight or is less.

So 1.7Kg hopped LME and 1.5Kg unhopped light LME. Seems like a lot. I added 300gms/10oz dextrose to the LCBA #7 as well as 2 x 1.5kg light LME cans. I guess that one was only 1.044 SG.

I've seen a few people using liquid glucose. Prefer to focus on going AG.

I think I am going to rack this one to secondary today. Not for hopping yet. The thing is still fermenting. The krausen is still about 1/3" thick. I don't think that is going to fall through the beer so I was going to pull the beer out from under it and then let it settle.

Not sure if I should pump in some more heat. running at about 21C/70F. I don't want to end up with butterscotch but I feel a need to get the beer out of primary. It's been in there a while now. 20 days. Nearly 3 weeks.

I was at the LBHS yesterday and spoke with them about the OG on this one. Just to let them know they may have over filled the last lot of LME they packaged up for sale. While I was there I did see another light malt which was a bit stronger mix and I thought maybe I grabbed one of them by mistake, put back on the wrong shelf for me to pick up. Checking my receipt it doesn't seem to be the case. What I think I bought is what the receipt says I did so I'm putting it down to over filled packages.

While I was prepping to rack this I realised that the beer was further along than I thought. After moving the fermenter it was easy to see the krausen was a lot thinner than it appeared.

I prepped the other fermenter because I figured I was going to secondary and then later dry hop. Then I figured we were ready to dry hop or close to it. That fermenter was prepped so we racked to it not the jerry. I think its still a bit yeasty. No more than the last time we used this yeast which was #10 or #11. The next week should clear it out.

So I dry hopped it into the bargain. 30gms/~1oz Cascade. Same method. Stocking boiled 10 minutes.

Smells great.

Only down side is I've got a fermenter tied up for a week. Got the gear for the next brew. Aiming to put that together later today.

Do you have 2 favorites so far? Why are they your 2 favorites?

Tough question there LT. None of these beers are very sophisticated beers.

I'd have to say the Cascade Canadian Blonde is the most liked beer I've done so far. Liked by me and friends. Women who have tried it like it too. Its going to be this summers go to brew.

The Australian Pale ale was also good. Nice and clean tasting. dry. Much better than store bought version of same. I want to do this one a few more times and hop it each time with something different. I'd like to do some citra, centential and amarillo with it. Single hop at a time. I went shopping for a kit on Friday but the LHBS did not have any in stock. Are moving premises so stuff was everywhere.

The Australian Lager is good also. I think the one I did with hallertau is tasty. It's really subtle as I've said but I like it. It makes me think of the smell of ginger ale or brandy even. It smells kind of classy in my head. 1980's classy if there was such a thing. hard to explain what I am thinking.

I've still got a bunch of other kits to try out. No doubt I'll change my mind. Good news is so far I've had nothing that would cause me to give up home brewing.

Bottled last night this morning. Epic bottling session. I think I started prepping about 6 and finished at 2. Found myself asleep at one point. Tired catching up.

Other than that, all went smooth.
Primed with 165gms dextrose dissolved in ~ 1 cup/8oz boiling water

Smells great. Flavour follows aroma. This will be as nice as the first one. It is a simple flavour and I'm sure we will enjoy it but I'd like to get some other single hop beers done.

There was a bit of residual yeast and I think there is still a decent amount still suspended. the style is for a bit of a haze appearance. It looks on the money to me.

Capping experiment.
The idea is to use some glass twist tops and regular crown bottles. Compare for carbonation.

I don't know about the performance of the capper this time. Didn't seem to be sealing crowns as well. Last time I ran the bottles through twice. This time when I did them a 2nd time I found the crowns were depressed in the centre. The whole surface area of the cap where the bottle opening/mouth is underneath was sunken in. The cap didn't seem to be as well curled round. Don't have one from last batch to look at. will grab one tomorrow and see.

might need to replace the bell.

What type of capper do you have? I have the old stand up kind and had to modify it too, I found some magnets, cut them into circles, glued them together with super glue and then glued them into the bell. I don't know if this could work for you as well?

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Originally Posted by Libertytree

What type of capper do you have? I have the old stand up kind and had to modify it too, I found some magnets, cut them into circles, glued them together with super glue and then glued them into the bell. I don't know if this could work for you as well?

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The capper I have is a simple double level, and it came with a magnet in the bell. I didn't know there were any made without a magnet...

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Originally Posted by BrewTech

The capper I have is a simple double level, and it came with a magnet in the bell. I didn't know there were any made without a magnet...

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Mine was made in the 1920's, it might have had one initially, or not, IDK.

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Originally Posted by Libertytree

Mine was made in the 1920's, it might have had one initially, or not, IDK.

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I had forgotten that yours was an actual antique!

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Originally Posted by BrewTech

The capper I have is a simple double level, and it came with a magnet in the bell. I didn't know there were any made without a magnet...

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Did you mean "double lever"? Is your a stand up or a hand held with levers on each side?

I looked at the new modern cappers but they were disposable junk. The antique one caps better and will stand the test of time.

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Originally Posted by Libertytree

Did you mean "double lever"? Is your a stand up or a hand held with levers on each side?

I looked at the new modern cappers but they were disposable junk. The antique one caps better and will stand the test of time.

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I did mean double lever... hand held. Mrs. Brewtech does the actual cap installation so it's something I don't deal with much. Last time I used it was to bottle four beers for GABF. Wish me luck!

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Originally Posted by BrewTech

I did mean double lever... hand held. Mrs. Brewtech does the actual cap installation so it's something I don't deal with much. Last time I used it was to bottle four beers for GABF. Wish me luck!

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Hell yeah man, Good luck! Though with your artisanship and acuemen I doubt luck luck has anything to do with it :) You really should give Mrs BT a break and buy her an antique stand up bottler, lol.

ETA...I do have a hand capper and used it once for a 5gal batch. It was awkward and ineffecient, I could never really feel certain it was sealed properly and once I found and used the old stand up model I was sold. You can feel the cap set and can hear a little pop. I've only had one bad cap and it was on a screw top bottle that somehow found its way into my collection.

Its a single lever type. It has a magnet in it. fairly strong one. It could be the caps were a bit thinner than others so the indentation in the top occurred? I'll be bottling again tomorrow or Monday so I'll take a look at that. I have a different brand to try and I have a hand full of the other type left.

Then with of the cap wrapping around the crown I'm going to show someone some from this batch and some earlier ones just to make sure it's not my eyes. Or I might take some photos and see what they look to zoom in a bit. I was looking at them again today on the shelf and they don't look capped properly but when I pick them up and look, they look ok.

Anytime I'm in doubt I go outside and give it a little shake.

I get indentations in my caps to and they re all ok. Ms. BT just said she prefers to see the ring indent as it confirms the cap was installed properly. She is the expert, not me... ;)

I don't think I ever gave a review. I drank it all and I can't remember. I think it was ok. I hit the last one yesterday and it had some kind of off taste and smell. Slight funk. Been there a while. I remember I had one brew where there were I did have about 8 or 10 that got a bit of air in them when filling. So every now and then I get an off one. maybe this brew. There's nothing wrong with the recipe and I'd recommend it. shit happens.