LeithR
Landlord.
Brew day 14/02/2013
Well, having completed the manufacture of my immersion cooler and having received my grains and hops from Rob I planned to do a 19L brew of Theakstons OP from Graham Wheelers book "Brew your own British Real Ales".
From the off it was a voyage of discovery, I learned a number of lessons during the brew day. Used Safale S04 and made up a good going starter.
The first lesson learned came early, its important to understand the volume of your planned grain bill relative to your boiler. Having measured out 4.51Kg of pale malt I realized that the total volume in my 5G boiler was not going to leave much room for the grain bill and liquor. A quick re-think and re-calculation decided me on a 10L brew.
The grain bill
The hops
I brought the liquor up to the boil and added the grain bill to the mix
The 90 minute boil worked well, another learning came about here, my boiler is rated at 1800W, it was enough to get my 14L of wart up to the boil but it was clearly labouring, for a larger boil it might not have coped up to 100 deg C. Also, another little learning here in that I have a lid for the boiler which excludes the need to allow - in my case 4L of liquor - for evaporation, the boiling liquid condenses on the lid and returns to the body. There was very little steam escaped into the garage which brought to mind some comments by others about steaming up their kitchens. The positive outcome to this was that I eventually recovered 12L of wart rather than the 10L I was aiming at, I was however concerned that the OG would be lower than the potential OG of 1058.
Cooling the wart went well but another learning, I used the Big Yin's excellent how to to make my immersion cooler. Its worth mentioning here another learning - that the dimensions of the cooler need to be considered in the light of the vessel in which the cooler is immersed. Mine should be shorter and wider to more effectively cool the wart. Ultimately got it down to 25Deg C and transferred it to the FV
Ultimately I got an OG of 1050 @ 24Deg C corrected to 1051 @ 20Deg C. I was happy with that. It tasted pretty wonderful as well, looking forward to trying the finished product
Added a few cones of Styrian to dry hop the brew for aroma and pitched the starter.
I'll add another picture in a day or 2 once the fermentation has established.
15th Feb - day 2.
All seems to be going well so will leave it for a week.
I had a great time doing this brew and learning about all grain BIAB, it was so different to doing a kit brew. I'll look at concocting a recipe and try another probably BIAB again the next week or so. Am still working on putting together an all grain brewery so I can sparge etc in the full blown brewing activity.
Now on the look out for a larger boiler.
Well, having completed the manufacture of my immersion cooler and having received my grains and hops from Rob I planned to do a 19L brew of Theakstons OP from Graham Wheelers book "Brew your own British Real Ales".
From the off it was a voyage of discovery, I learned a number of lessons during the brew day. Used Safale S04 and made up a good going starter.
The first lesson learned came early, its important to understand the volume of your planned grain bill relative to your boiler. Having measured out 4.51Kg of pale malt I realized that the total volume in my 5G boiler was not going to leave much room for the grain bill and liquor. A quick re-think and re-calculation decided me on a 10L brew.
The grain bill
The hops
I brought the liquor up to the boil and added the grain bill to the mix
The 90 minute boil worked well, another learning came about here, my boiler is rated at 1800W, it was enough to get my 14L of wart up to the boil but it was clearly labouring, for a larger boil it might not have coped up to 100 deg C. Also, another little learning here in that I have a lid for the boiler which excludes the need to allow - in my case 4L of liquor - for evaporation, the boiling liquid condenses on the lid and returns to the body. There was very little steam escaped into the garage which brought to mind some comments by others about steaming up their kitchens. The positive outcome to this was that I eventually recovered 12L of wart rather than the 10L I was aiming at, I was however concerned that the OG would be lower than the potential OG of 1058.
Cooling the wart went well but another learning, I used the Big Yin's excellent how to to make my immersion cooler. Its worth mentioning here another learning - that the dimensions of the cooler need to be considered in the light of the vessel in which the cooler is immersed. Mine should be shorter and wider to more effectively cool the wart. Ultimately got it down to 25Deg C and transferred it to the FV
Ultimately I got an OG of 1050 @ 24Deg C corrected to 1051 @ 20Deg C. I was happy with that. It tasted pretty wonderful as well, looking forward to trying the finished product
Added a few cones of Styrian to dry hop the brew for aroma and pitched the starter.
I'll add another picture in a day or 2 once the fermentation has established.
15th Feb - day 2.
All seems to be going well so will leave it for a week.
I had a great time doing this brew and learning about all grain BIAB, it was so different to doing a kit brew. I'll look at concocting a recipe and try another probably BIAB again the next week or so. Am still working on putting together an all grain brewery so I can sparge etc in the full blown brewing activity.
Now on the look out for a larger boiler.
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