AG#42 & AG#43 - Everyday IPA and Peanut Butter Porter

[kev]

Off we go......loads going on today. Overnight mash, new mash tun, new HLT, fancy new recipes, etc. Loads happening, but also loads to go wrong..........it didn't - just thought I'd build up tension!!

Planning a double brewday today and have 2 recipes from a book that my Brother kindly sent over from Canada. The first is a typical IPA with Columbus for bittering and Cascade for everything else. The second is a Porter with a load of peanut butter thrown in the boil and using a Belgian yeast. I poofed out of the peanut butter (bought it but decided against it) as the recipe talks about separating the oil during the boil and skimming it off the top......I really don't want to do that to my beer so I'm brewing the porter minus the peanut butter. It also asks for a Belgian yeast, but I'm using White Labs British yeast......because it's my beer and I say so. The end.

Righty ho, first overnight mash with the stainless thermo pot. No particular reason other than seeing how they perform overnight and also to reduce the brewday time as I was planning a double batch. How did the Thermopot perform? Wow. That's all I've got to say. I mashed in at 66c bang on as I had pre-heated the tun a wee bit. I have never needed to do this but on the last brew I lost 2c filling up the tun for some reason. Last night was even colder than that day so I chucked in some hot water before filling.....anyway mash hit 66c at about 9pm last night. I set my alarm for 0630 and was totally gobsmacked at the temps I got in the tun. In the centre I got a reading of 65.3c......a f**king loss of only 0.7c over 9 hours in the freezing winter?! Awesome. However, I got about 64c half way from middle to outside and got about 60c on the outside wall. What that actually means for the mash......I've no idea.

So off we go with "Everyday IPA"

Ridiculous grain bill :

Centre of mash tun at 0630 after mashing in at 2100

Recirculating whilst HLT is heating sparge water

Hops counted out

Recirculated for about half an hour.........super clear wort into boiler

YEAST!!!!!! San Diego super yeast to be exact

Starting the day off right......homemade sausages

Sparge-mungus

Almost at my 55 litre target

My new "hybrid" sight-glass. I was concerned at the polycarbonate would be affected by heat coming up the side from the propane so I replaced the bottom third with copper

Boil on - This took about 90 mins to get boiling because of wind and cold today. Wee bit fed up of propane for this reason after seeing another setup last week (electric) get boiling in 30 mins.......guess what? Two elements already ordered.

First addition

Break starting

Break getting bigger

BOOM! Dropped clear now

Clear wort into fermenters

First brew all tucked up - 45 litres at 1060! Was aiming for slightly lower volume but slightly higher gravity.........all's good though.

Final colour

Now for the Peanut Butter Porter......without the Peanut Butter.

First of all I had to finish my new "pilot batch" small scale mash tun as doing 5 gallon batches on my 100 litre system really does not work at all.

Best mash tun's EVER!

Off we go, leak tested and everything's cool.

Grain's in

Underletting

Mash temp hit bang on

......and that's as far as I've got. Mash is on and has about 45 mins to go. Will update when all done.

K

 

[stuey]

Recirculating whilst HLT is heating sparge water

Looking good Kev :)

Do you pump your recirculating wort or will it run ok due to the head of liquid above the valve?

Sorry if this is a daft question

Stu :)

Edit:

Have answered my own question.... found your info on pumps in another thread..... You pump it :)

Do you heat the recirculating liquor or does it not lose much?

 

[kev]

Yeh you're right, I pump it. You need to pump it as the mash tun output is below where you want the liquid to be. You could jug it out and pour on top, but I like to set the pump going and do other things when doing >40l batches.

Righty-ho......mash of the porter is done and wort is approaching boil. I slightly overshot the volume as I came up short (brand new mash tun after all?!) and started sparging with more liquid.....then 2 forum members came round for a blether and I forgot to keep an eye on the volume.......sparged 5 litres too much. No big deal. Brew was planned to be 7% ABV anyway so there's a bit of room for movement. Might boil longer, might end up with 25 litres at 6.5% ABV.....who knows.

That reminds me.......I had to finish building the mash tun whilst brewing the Everyday IPA.......here goes :

Mash temp after 90 mins - very impressed with the loss....or lack off

Can't be arsed hooking the pump up for a wee recirc so decided to just jug it out.....took 2 mins

MASH

Sparge done

 

[abeyptfc]

looking good kev, 2 tasty beers!

 

[kev]

Okey dokey, the porter is boiling........

......and these have just gone in......

Update on the Everyday IPA......5 hours after pitching yeast.....bubbling away like a good 'un

K

 

[stuey]

That Porter looks mouthwateringly rich :)

Cheers for clarifying the pumping/recirculating question.

Do you heat the recirc'ing wort or does it not lose too much temp?

 

[kev]

Nah doesn't lose too much. Only recirc'd for a wee bit before getting pumped into boiler anyway.

K

 

[stuey]

Nah doesn't lose too much. Only recirc'd for a wee bit before getting pumped into boiler anyway.

K

Cheers for that Kev :thumb:

Building the reference library in the old brain for my first AG :

 

[PD]

kev...explain the recirculation of the wort for me ( jug fashion as no pumps yet )
I do batch sparge and finally collect the whole of the wort I require. Do you then suggest jugging the whole lot back into thermopot on top of grains and letting it flow through before being transferred to boiler ? Have I got that right ?

 

[kev]

Basically, recirculating the wort enables you to get clear wort straight from the mash tun. In simple terms, you're taking wort out the bottom and putting it back on top. That then makes the grain in the liquid settle on the bottom as it can't get through the filter. The liquid you're then pouring on top then has to pass through the grain bed, therefore filtering it.......clear wort.

I normally pump it out and then put back on top as it's easier than jugging it.......for a >40L batch it can be quite a few jugs! However, for my 20L batches I just ues a jug and pull off about 2 litres then sprinkle it on top. Repeat this about 4 times and you're good to go.

Back to the brew day.........

Well I cocked up a wee bit on volume for my 20 litre batch. Basically I sparged with 25 litres and that made me 8 litres short of my boil volume, so I put about 17 litres (only wanted to do about 5 - wasn't paying attention) of water back through the grain......and ended up 8 litres over. Yes that's right. I was aiming for 20 litres and got 28. What a fanny. In addition, was aiming for 1063 and as a consequence of my volume issue.....I got 1046. Ironically, that means I hit my efficiency numbers bang on........but I've got too much beer.

In addition........my fermenters are only 27 litres, therefore pouring 28 litres of aerated wort into them means that I have been forced to try open-fermenting for the first time?! LOL! This batch is doomed! If it turns out even remotely drinkable I'll be impressed.

Porter chilling

Pouring into fermenter......hang on......there's too much

*****

LMFAO! An open fermented porter?!

 

[PD]

Cheers Kev....

keep your cabinet door shut for a few days lol

 

[Dunfie]

Well done Kev. :clap:

Some really good photos in there.

 

[kev]

Well the Porter hasn't shown any sign of life yet. I know the yeast was quite old and I didn't make a starter......naughty naughty. I'll keep an eye on it and if it's still dead after 24 hours I've got a decision to make. I reckon it'll be ok and the yeast is just needing a bit of time to kick off.

The Everyday IPA on the other hand.........

 

[kev]

20 litres of the Everyday IPA got kegged today. Potentially a keg to be brought do to the Spring Thing.....who knows?!

Anyhoo - ended at 1010 exactly making it a 6.6% abv brew. Lovely stuff. Wee taste out the hydro jar and it's really nice so looking forward to cracking this open. Also - was planning to fine with gelatine as I always do but the runnings into the keg were SO clear and the sample was pretty much crystal clear....I didn't bother.

The remaining 25 litres will be bottled ASAP.

Colour and clarity directly from fermenter