Ag10/11 - Poor weather in Orkney

[craigite]

Don't brew much in the summer, can't stand the flies trying to get into my beer; there's not enough to let them get it but the weather wasn't too good up here and the beer cupboard was empty :cry: ; so thought about making beer :
A trip to the Swannay brewery http://www.highlandbrewingcompany.co.uk/ made my mind up.
I had made the usual rubarb brew, I go for only about 2% alc and ferment to a still drink, then add simple lemonade for a refreshing summer drink.

So, first thing was an 'EverySecond' for the better half. This is a good brew cos we both like it and as it's a 3% light(ish) brew with plenty of hops, it has proven ideal for me to harvest my yeast.

Gone back to my old way to harvest yeast; I drop the brew into a clean fermenter bucket at 24-48hrs after pitch, 48hrs seems best as this leaves most of the gunk at the bottom of th old FV. After about 4-5 days fermenting and when the gravity is static for about a day I drop the brew in 3rd bucket, the clean yeast in the bottom in then spooned into sandwich plastic bags at about 1 tablespoon per bag, squeeze out air and tie a knot at the top, then simply store in fridge.

AG10/11 (my 11th brew this year)
So, i've got my yeast so I'm ready for my brew. This one will (or should) be more to my taste. I'm going for a malty sweetish darker brew not too hoppy but the hops are there.

93.2% Pale malt 4.4kg; 1.4% Crystal Malt 0.68kg; 2.8% Chocolate malt 0.133kg; 2.6% Wheat Malt 0.122kg

Fuggle 33g + Styian 33g 60mins
Fuggle 33g + Styian 33g 30mins
Fuggle 33g + Styian 33g post boil soak 30mins

aiming for 25 litres, 1044 OG and 1011 FG with IBU=35 (not sure of the sums )

I don't treat the water other than 1/2 campden at start.
Made a 2 litre starter with 100g of dry light malt extract and added one of the yeast packs made earlier 24 hrs before brew day.

My brew kit hasn't changed much recently. A HLT with a circulation coil from the mash in it. A PID for the HLT and a shinny boiler with a home made cooler. The pump is a 12v for solar panel heating systems run via an old train transformer.

So, I heat the water in the HLT to 76°C, then pump 11.6 litre over to the mash, add the grain and put the lid on.

Gave up with my old method of reducing the disruption of the grian to this new method. A floating thermometer shuved up the tube. Does doth jobs perfect; stops excessive disruption of grain and give me the temp of the mash. I'm looking for 68°C for this one.

I top up the HLT and set the PID to 69°C

Make sure I'm at 68° mash temp, now to wait for the 72mins.

So, at 72mins I turn up the HLT PID to 78°C for sparging.
As soon as 78° is reached I switch the valves in the system to allow the wort to run into the boiler and the water from the HLT to keep about 1/2 inch of fluid on top of the grain.

This time I allow 16.1 litres of water to sparge before I switch the valves again to let the remainder of the water from the HLT to pour into the boiler and the mash tun drain.
Looking for about 28-30 litres in total.

Bring up to the boil and boil for 90mins. I find that if I boil with the lid on but wedged open about 3" I reduce the liquid loss and keep the boil at about the right roll.

After 30mins boil I added the first hops, they smell great. I much prefer these foil rapped hops.
After 60mins the second hops.
After 75mins in goes the irish moss.
Then just before the 90mins are up I drop in the cooler to make sure it is clean and sterile.

At 90mins I turn off the boiler then it's cooled to about 90°. I stop the cooler here and add the 3rd hops, let them steep for 30mins before the cooler is turned on again. I use the water coming out of the cooler to clean as much of the brewery as I can. The grain goes into a bag for friends chickens.

When it cools to 21° it into the FV

Was aiming for 1044, got 1046 which is fine by me.

Pitch the yeast starter and set aside somewhere where it will ferment at about 19°. Typical, the weather gets summer like so need the wet tee-shirt

Expect will drop into 3rd FV at day 4 or 5 when gravity is stable, use gelitine and set in cool garage for 5 days before bottling.

My bottling setup. Last time, the every second, I dissolved 100g white sugar in 400ml boiling water; into 4th FV, racked the brew onto that then bottled straight from there. Got 43 bottles.

I'll give the Longpool a little taste before I bottle to decide how to prime; but it will only be 90g this time as I prefer this brew with less fizz. Sugar or dry malt extract :hmm: probably sugar, so brown or white :hmm: , that'll wait for the taste.

3 weeks then this brew is mine :drink:

 

[rickthebrew]

:clap: Great post looks like you`ve been busy, how long can the recovered yeast sit in the fridge for? Also can you just keep doing this process for each brew?

:drink:

 

[Tony]

Absolute cracking set of pics and a great brew! Nice work Craig!
:

 

[craigite]

:clap: Great post looks like you`ve been busy, how long can the recovered yeast sit in the fridge for? Also can you just keep doing this process for each brew?

:drink:

I've been using this yeast since December. Every 5 or so brews I harvest 6 on so packs, but I never use the last just in case I get a bad batch.

Every year or so I might harvest yeast off of a bottle of bottle conditioned beer that I like and try that, but they don't always make good home brew yeast.

In the fridge the yeast packs seem to last for months. There's a small amount of "beer" in the bag to keep the yeast happy and plenty of space in the bag for any expansion. Suppose yeast would survive long enough this way? However the longer in the fridge the longer I work the starter for. So, say two day starter for three months in fridge?

 

What a totally brilliant brewday post!
Every thing you did was subtly different to the "accepted" norm.
Your yeast culture proceedure is excellent, you could try acid washing to keep the strain true.
To aim for 1044 and acheive 1046........what can I say!

I'll just ignore your low abv's!!!

 

[rickthebrew]

Cheers Niel - i`ll try this with my next brew, also i`m hoping to get some wet yeast from a local brewery soon that would be great to keep going :thumb: I always keep some yeast from my brews in a tub in the fridge that i use for bread making so i should have done this ages ago

hope the brew turns out a good un :thumb:

 

Craigite,

Do you get your hops and grains E.T.C, from R.A Finn, beuy? I was in the shop the other day and his prices are, as always, exellent, but I was wondering about the freshness of the malt and hops?

 

[craigite]

Craigite,

Do you get your hops and grains E.T.C, from R.A Finn, beuy? I was in the shop the other day and his prices are, as always, exellent, but I was wondering about the freshness of the malt and hops?

Yes, I go there for most of my stuff.
Asked him for the hops vacuum foil packs as they seem to get me the best result.
Asked him to order me 25kg of malt as I tend to go through quite a lot.

I've ordered 25kg online before and it was a lot cheeper, however wherever possible I prefer to buy local.

Have you got your brewery setup? Started brewing?
I'm thinking of putting on a starter tomorrow and follow that with a brew on Sunday.

 

Thats good to know..... I have spentr a good few quid in there over the years.

In reply I have always had a Kit brew set up but am looking at AG set up now, Especally since I fitted a solar water heating system to the roof o the house. Had to run off about 5 gallons of hot water(75 degrees +) today to stop the system from over heating. So instead of wasting it I am brewing again will be purchasing a 70ltr nordic soon, I hope to start the AG ball rolling.

 

[leedsbrew]

Cracking looking brew there matey! What is your rhubarb recipe? We get a lot of rhubarb from the Mrs' Grandfather (even though we live in the rhubarb triangle!) and make Rhubarb (+ various adjuncts!) mead! I'd be very interested in other rhubarb recipes!

Cheers

LB

 

[craigite]

Thats good to know..... I have spentr a good few quid in there over the years.

In reply I have always had a Kit brew set up but am looking at AG set up now, Especally since I fitted a solar water heating system to the roof o the house. Had to run off about 5 gallons of hot water(75 degrees +) today to stop the system from over heating. So instead of wasting it I am brewing again will be purchasing a 70ltr nordic soon, I hope to start the AG ball rolling.

When I moved to AG brewing the difference was massive. I'll encourage anyone to make kits and extract brews, but if they have a little more time I'd say to brew all grain. It easier than it sounds, I started with one plastic 5 gallon bucket (and still have it) and a grain bag.
:thumb:

 

[craigite]

Cracking looking brew there matey! What is your rhubarb recipe? We get a lot of rhubarb from the Mrs' Grandfather (even though we live in the rhubarb triangle!) and make Rhubarb (+ various adjuncts!) mead! I'd be very interested in other rhubarb recipes!

Cheers

LB

That one didn't have much of a recipe. :wha: About 7 good stalks chopped, with enough demerra sugar to get about 3%. Alc. Two small lemons and a big lump of Ginger. Added boiling water to kill all the nasty bugs then let it cool before I added a half litre starter of dry malt extract and my harvested brew yeast. :hmm: that's about it.
Do you want the exact weights etc?

 

[leedsbrew]

:thumb: Cheers lad, that'll do! Sounds like the methodology for our rhubarb brews! :thumb: