Homebrewed: Hop & Liefde Clone Part 4 - The Prestige
What's up Steemit and Beer Lovers?!
Today is time for closing the chapter on the Hop & Liefde clone project. Yesterday I had the two crates delivered to @exyle and we got to try a couple of bottles during our BBG event together with the very awesome Brisket.
I'm happy to say that both @exyle and @bennierex had positive reviews about the beer, it seems to have delivered especially on the awesome Citra hops aroma. The abv content was very pleasant and the beer was very fresh and extremely drinkable, with only a bit of carbonation necessary still, but that is expected only 6 days after bottling. There was a feedback that the bitterness could improve a bit, which is perfectly in line with what I predicted would happen after the issue with the stuffing of the hop bags which I covered in Part 1 of this project. As an improvement, I will make use only of the hop bazooka filter of my Easybrew 30 and throw the pellets straight in the wort, which will provide maximum alpha acid extraction, better isomerization and thus more bitterness.
I liked the clarity of the batch and I must admit I was a little bit worried at first because I did not ferment in two stages and went straight to the dry hop directly on the one fermenter. This made me believe that I would not get a great clarity of the beer but it turned out quite reasonably clear as you would expect froman APA. I made a shot through the light so you can better see the clarity, this also made for an awesome picture. As for the color, the dry hopping seems to have enriched the amber tones of the beer (probably by oxydation) and it turned a little darker than the samples, which is fine also as it looks quite good this way. The pictures look well dark but this is due to the room not being lit by natural light.
So overall this has been a very nice experience and I'm very happy with the results, and gladly, so are my friends. I feel ever more personally accomplished with this hobby and I really see a future for myself in beer brewing, and having the ability to log my progress forever on the blockchain is the best thing that could happen. As I improve my abilities and get to grips with the platform, I will look for new opportunities to contribute to the success on steemit, but for now, I hope this content has made you thirsty and anxious for your next cold beer.
Cheers!
I definitely would love to taste it, but what do you call the brewed beer you just made? It would really go a long way if there is a name in the beer. As I could see the beer is clear and the foam is at a good quality. Thank you.
This is a recipe I made was in an attempt to make a final beer like hop & liefde from de Molen brewery, so I just call it hop & liefde clone. It was a production entirely to my friends who helped me acquire the equipment to make it. I still have to do a few more of these hehe.
Glad to see the beer coming out great! Cheers!
Beautiful color on that beer! Looks professional and congrats on the new logo, looks great!
How many bottles did you brew?
69x 0.3l bottles, so approx 20.7 liters. My rig is not very big so it's still quite costly to produce, getting a bigger rig will be difficult in my current house, at most I could upgrade to 40l productions for now.
That’s better than nothing. I’m currently thinking about getting into brewing. Any suggestions for a first rig?
Sure, I suggest an all in one brewing system like mine. It cost me 385 euros plus all the other equipment you might be looking at a total of 500 euros worth of investment. You could replace the AIO system with a kettle and brew in a bag technique, but then you lose firm control over a lot of variables like mashing stages etc. Only recommend this if you really can't pool the funds for an AIO system.
I was thinking about something like a pico or going old school with a boil kettle and carboy.
There’s a pretty affordable 5 gallon kit with carboy and a lot of extras from a company called strange brew on amazon prime. You may need a few things along the way but it has all the essentials. $109 shipped
I’ve looked at the amazon kit. It looks pretty good.
I personally think the pico makes too little beer for the investment. You really wanna maximize output in order to keep cost/litre down. Trust me, each batch will evaporate faster than you think hehe.
Good point, I was looking at easy of use. However, cost is huge.