Skipping the boil

[Mrcloc]

I'm allergic to hops, especially hop powder so good luck trying to find the culprit, I found out just by bagging 10 pounds of hops in 1 ounce bags

I thought it might be a hop allergy, but they say you can't be allergic to hops. I wonder - it could be a hop allergy (to certain hops). In my youth, I was allergic to antihistamine for goodness' sake!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I thought it might be a hop allergy, but they say you can't be allergic to hops. I wonder - it could be a hop allergy (to certain hops). In my youth, I was allergic to antihistamine for goodness' sake!

I'm allergic to all preservatives, its possible its chemicals on the hop pellet or plant too

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I also get sleepy and foggy if I breath boiling wort, call it an allergy or not tolerating something being boiled off

 

[Zambi]

Hope you can work your way around your allergies!
I'm lucky. Haven't found anything I sm allergic to (yet).
Anyway, have you tried a no boil brew yet?

 

[Mrcloc]

Today is brew day. I started around 19:00 with the anticipation of load shedding from 20:00 to 22:00. Mash was done as expected, and I started the 3L boil of wort, expecting to turn the rest on to pasteurize when load shedding ends. It's now 00:00 and power is still off, so I'm heating 4L at a time to the target 165F, cooling down, and decanting into the fermenter. I've done one batch. It's going to be a long night, so I'm going to enjoy it with a Castle Milk Stout (my all-time favourite). I will link my recipe sometime, and I will post my findings. Perhaps I should do the same recipe with a full boil and compare, but that's going to take a long time.

 

[Mrcloc]

This is basically the recipe:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1127592/red-brown-pilsner

It's an experiment.

Power came on a bit after 00:00, so I could kettle-boil the rest of the wort (only heated to 165F).

 

[Zambi]

Load shedding....
Castle milk stout.....
You must be close to my part of the world

 

[Mrcloc]

I cold-crashed with gelatin for about 35 hours (usually I'm impatient and only do 20 hours or so). My usual method results in a fairly clear bottle, which goes crystal clear in the bottle in about a week, at which point I start to drink the beers with good carbonation, although not 100% carbonated yet.

The red/brown whatever it is (I'm going with English brown ale style) is perfect so far. Fermentation went as planned, it's carbing nicely in the bottles, and the colour is perfect. It was a bit more hazy than I'm used to, even at 35 hours of cold-crashing, but it looks like it's clearing up nicely in the bottles, and the colour is awesome! (did I mention that before?)

I like to do tasting when I can - usually before fermenting, and then at bottling, and both were great, and this might be the best tasting I've made, at bottling time. It's strongly malty, malt bitterness, and not an overpowering flavour of hops. Most suitable for my taste preference. The weather has been a bit chilly lately, so I might need to wait two weeks before a tester, and I can't wait! I so hope this beer doesn't have that metallic taste. I didn't taste it at all at bottling time, so that's a good sign. I'm going to test this one cold, and not so cold - maybe 10 degrees...

 

[Mrcloc]

Let's see if I can get an image up...

Notice the blown-out background. It's dark and rainy here. The beer is quite dark. I use glass as I can, but when I don't have enough, I use clear PP bottles. They're great if you can drink the beer within about 2-3 months, otherwise they start to go flat. I also like being able to feel if they're done or not, and I can purge the air when I put a cap on.

 

[Hawkbox]

I used PET bottles when i started too, and still use them on occasion. Nothing wrong with them at all.

Nice work!

 

[Donoroto]

Soda bottles make great growlers; with a carb cap you can carbonate in minutes.

 

[Craigerrr]

Soda bottles make great growlers; with a carb cap you can carbonate in minutes.

I do this fairly frequently myself

 

[Mrcloc]

I should definitely add that to my equipment list. I've been thinking of trying a Soda Stream to carbonate too. The only thing I'll miss is the "secondary" fermentation I hope for when bottle-priming, but it would be interesting to taste the beer before and after conditioning in the bottle a bit with a better comparison.

 

[Craigerrr]

I almost always take a sample in a 650ml PET bottle when I am setting my fermenter to cold crash.
Using a carbonation cap I put 10PSI of Co2 on it overnight in the fridge for a sneak preview of what is to come.
You can see below how much drops out of the beer just overnight in the fridge, this was on Tuesday of this week.
This is done of course in the name of Quality Control

 

[Mrcloc]

So here's my first taste. It needs more time for getting fully carbed, but it wasn't bad. Flavour is really good - I like it. It's a winter beer IMO, thick in mouth feel, strong toasted caramel, and a hint of dark chocolate. Unfortunately it does carry the metallic taste (not very apparent when cold, but it might become more apparent as it warms up), but I am suspicious of the biscuit malt. I am going to experiment with an extracted biscuit malt (the grains I have) and taste it when it has been extracted and cooled.

I used a large aluminum pot for heating some sparge water, and I suspected it, but I don't taste anything like that when I cook in it. I think it's just an old biscuit malt.

I would change this recipe to use a light crystal malt to bring out a little sweetness rather than a biscuit malt. How do I describe it? The flavours blend perfectly, but that biscuit malt is like an outsider, and the flavour doesn't combine in well, almost like putting ketchup on cake.

 

[Hawkbox]

I wouldn't worry about an Aluminum pot personally unless you're scrubbing it with steel wool. My first 10 or so batches were done in an aluminum kettle and some of them won medals.

 

[Craigerrr]

Nice color, and clarity

 

[Mrcloc]

I'm going to try a clear Pilsner or APA next, and buy new hops to go with it. The clarity was perfect, and my method seems to have worked. I kept some grains (sealed and cool), and they went sour very quickly, but the beer came out nice, in terms of no off flavours, etc. Pasteurization was perfect, as expected, and flavour integration was excellent. In fact, I really like the hops bill I used here, and I'll use the same for my next brew. For now, I have a LOT of beer taking up storage space, so I'll need to get rid of quite a lot before I do my next brew day.

 

[Piotrsko]

Not going to claim any technical prowess, but I do a similar process and being somewhat adhd about things boil for 15 minutes only since my homebrew lhbs indicated the haze proteins convert by then. I am also allergic to "Professional" mass produced beers, which I discovered on a trip to England. Can't see anything wrong about your process, but the metallic taste eludes me. The 165 temp intrigues me, hmmmmmmm makes me think, particularly since I like low IBV british style beer, and the hops won't go all bitter

 

[Mrcloc]

That is an interesting thought - to not boil the hops at all. But that's very much beyond my knowledge and experience. The flavours you could create are almost endless, though!