AlderneyBrew's Brewdays.

[Little Rock Brewing]

Tomorrow is the day. First run with the Brewzilla. Watched a few videos, read a few threads and I think I'm ready!
I'm going to do an IPA, inspired by the hops in the MJ Mango kit.
I'm thinking -
22l finished volume.
5kg Maris Otter.
250g Caramunich.
65C for 1 hour.
30g EKG at 60 mins.
20g mix of Citra and Azacca at 20 mins.
20g of same at flameout.
20g of same for whirlpool at 80c.
Then a load for dry hopping later.
Mangrove Jacks West Coast M44 yeast.

Hoping for a 5.5 to 6% finished product so as it's my first time I've got some DME if it falls short.

I'm not advanced enough to play with water profiles yet, so just a campden tablet.
Sounds easy when I type it!

 

[foxbat]

Good luck. Don't rush and take measurements at these stages so you can fine tune later:

Strike temperature
Mash in temperature
End of mash temperature
Pre boil volume
Pre boil gravity adjusted for temp.
Post boil volume when cooled
Post boil gravity when cooled.

Easiest way to measure volume is to measure with a ruler down from the top of the kettle to the surface of the liquid then do the maths to get volume later when you've finished and can relax.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Great advice, thanks Foxbat.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Sounds a decent brew, Things i learned on the brewzilla first brew, the nut on the bottom of recirculation arm was not tight and weeped a little, when undoing the camlock turn the pump off at the switch and mind you don't burn your fingers apart from that enjoy your brew day o and i find the brew father profile is pretty spot on the mash water looks a lot it is not though the dead space under the mash tube is about 6.75 litre's

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Cheers Rod. Yeah all the water quantities baffle me a bit. What sort of quantity will evaporate on the boil?

 

[Rodcx500z]

Not done a proper check yet but i recon 3L boiling with just 1900w

 

[foxbat]

Not done a proper check yet but i recon 3L boiling with just 1900w

About 3l per hour for me as well.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

And we're off! After last night's session on the homebrew with some friends I decided to make this a bit more sessionable, as we were all trollied!
Reduced the grain bill to 4.5kg and aiming for 23 litres at 5%.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

40 mins in and in go the Citra and Azacca. Had a boil over as I left the lid on as it came up to the boil and took my eye off it for a minute.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

4 hours in now, just chilling. Literally!
29C now.
Just realised I've broken the rule about having to drink homebrew when you make homebrew.
Getting close to being an acceptable time of day though!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Well now I know why it's called a brewday! Finally done after 5 hours or so, plus half an hour cleaning.
Ended up with 20 litres, boil evaporation was pretty high at nearly 5 litres, but I did have a boil over.
Lessons learnt -
1. Draining and sparging took a lot longer than I expected.
2. Cooling took ages but I took the chiller thing out at 24c to whirlpool.
3. I dont really understand whirlpooling!
4. I under estimated the amount of sparge water required, those grains are thirsty!
5. The brewzilla is a cracking bit of kit but I need to be patient and realise the non brewzilla elements such as sparging and cooling take time. It's only a water heater and pump after all!

Time for a beer comrades!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Oh and it ended up at 1.054, so the session ale idea is out the window!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

A tribute to La Chouffre will be appropriate. My first AG brew, but with a lot of candi sugar instead of malt!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Nice one! The clearing up is my least-favourite part, but it's even worse if you leave it until the following day

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

It's Sunday, so it must be Brewday!
This time I'm doing a hazy NEIPA.
Found a nice recipe on a download of the American magazine "Craft Beer and Brewing".
Here's the grain bill and hop schedule.

Haven't got the right yeast so it'll have to be MJ West Coast M44.
Let's get the water on!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

This is the description, sounds lovely!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

The instructions say a 45 min mash but I'm having trouble maintaining 67C throughout the volume of grain. Got the pump on and stirring occasionally.
So I'll do 60 mins to compensate.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Well it all went pretty well, no boil overs this time!
My only issue is cooling the wort.
The coil chiller thingy only gets it down to 25C as our cold tap water is 23C!
Outside temp is, today, above 20C too.
So I've put it in a FV in the garage where it's a bit cooler.
Is it OK to leave it like that overnight and transfer, airate and pitch the yeast tomorrow?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

It won't come to much harm if you cover it up... plan (b) however might be to stand the FV in the bath (or a garden trug) full of water with a bag of supermarket ice chucked in; or a wet towel with a fan blowing on it?