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I finished up shortly after a break for lunch, as usual fitting in a few other jobs in the brew space. I've tidied and swept up so I won't worry about mice 😱... which I was a bit. I've also made up some non alcoholic fizz from diluting juice and salts made up to match San Pellegrino. It'll take a couple of days to stabilise with the CO2.

The 33 litres of Dubbel are tucked up nicely, I went high on the pitching with 2 packs of CML Flushed Nun (Anyone have an idea of what this yeast actually is?) and at 26 °C now cooling to 19°C for the next week. I wanted the yeast to get going quickly to minimise the risk of infection since I'm brewing it in one of the big fermenters and the head space is quite big. I was worried I'd slightly undershot the OG but realised I'd not temperature corrected so reckon it's at the 1.067-1.068 mark 😊. I had to read through the side of the test cylinder as well as my more accurate hydrometer only goes up to 1.06 - which I'd forgotten so ended up displacing more fluid than meant, and had to go back to the old multicoloured one!
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I've never made a Dubbel before, this one has Candi sugars rather than syrups and some of the grain bill is decidedly British rather than Belgian but I've tried to go for equivalents. Depending on how this goes I quite fancy making one following the Gordon Strong Modern Homebrew recipe with D syrup an dD-90 syrup.

I was a bit surprised by an acidity issue following the discussions with @peebee, my mash pH was stubbornly at 5.8 both after 5 min and after an overnight mash, despite first adding 2ml lactic acid then a further 8ml.
 
I was a bit surprised by an acidity issue following the discussions with @peebee, my mash pH was stubbornly at 5.8 both after 5 min and after an overnight mash, despite first adding 2ml lactic acid then a further 8ml.
pH can't have been too far off - sounds like you got a decent level of conversion :-)
Have you calculated the mash efficiency?
 
I was a bit surprised by an acidity issue following the discussions with @peebee, my mash pH was stubbornly at 5.8 both after 5 min and after an overnight mash, despite first adding 2ml lactic acid then a further 8ml.
Peebee does that to me, too. I make a point of never talking to him before adjusting my mash pH. :laugh8:
 
pH can't have been too far off - sounds like you got a decent level of conversion :-)
Have you calculated the mash efficiency?
The volumes are a bit difficult to calculate at the moment, but I'm looking at about 82% efficiency on the mash, which isn't too scruffy 😄 .
 
looking at about 82% efficiency on the mash, which isn't too scruffy 😄 .
That’s excellent - about what I’d get on a good day from a step mash with recirculation athumb..

That said, I do sometimes get brews where the mash efficiency goes way lower than others for no readily apparent reason. Maybe the level of calcium…
 
I was a bit surprised by an acidity issue following the discussions with @peebee, my mash pH was stubbornly at 5.8 both after 5 min and after an overnight mash, despite first adding 2ml lactic acid then a further 8ml.
Hell's teeth, I haven't got a clue what the discussions were!

Don't worry about what @Clarence says: There's less than a handful of folk on this forum, like Clarence, who'd I'd purposely feed duff information to. Damn though, has he got wind of me?
 
So the OH messages me last night at work to ask if I can have some cans ready for end of term staff presents by 6pm today.... umm .... Wondering where in the day I am going to find time to use the can filler, sealer, design an extra label, print them fix them... so I said yes of course.
So as a one off I'm reckoning this is a first - using a hairdryer to dry my labels onto the cans while trying not to cook the beer. They're not my best - but they'll be ok I hope.

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So the OH messages me last night at work to ask if I can have some cans ready for end of term staff presents by 6pm today.... umm .... Wondering where in the day I am going to find time to use the can filler, sealer, design an extra label, print them fix them... so I said yes of course.
So as a one off I'm reckoning this is a first - using a hairdryer to dry my labels onto the cans while trying not to cook the beer. They're not my best - but they'll be ok I hope.

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Hey - any interest by one’s other half in the result of the brewing activities is to be encouraged IMHO!
 
My son had a 5 o’clock flight to catch this morning, so that meant a rather early start to drive him to the airport.

Since I was up early, I thought I might as well have a brew day! 😀🎉 Not planned at all so this is going to be a bit of fun because normally I spend far too long thinking and planning these things.

So today we have a Bohemian Pilsner, 50 litres with a full 10 kg of Lucky’s lager malt with a bit a acidulated malt, and because I’m not getting into the faff of decoctations, there’s 130g of red crystal in there as well.

Lots of grain and undershot a bit on strike temp for the first temperature for the mash - as you can see the central grain temperature is a fair bit lower than that at the bottom temp sensor.
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So today we have a Bohemian Pilsner, 50 litres with a full 10 kg of Lucky’s lager malt with a bit a acidulated malt, and because I’m not getting into the faff of decoctations, there’s 130g of red crystal in there as well.
Sounds good. Is the red crystal a rye malt?
 
Taken a bit longer than planned as heating and cooling 50 litres takes longer than a single batch. Since this is a lager and I hadn’t done a starter, I took off about 2.5 litres half way through the boil into a sanitised fllask, chilled and am using it to resuscitate my stored OYL-111 which was from a previous overbuilt starter. I’ve now got that on the stir plate and will give it 12 or so hours while I chill the wort down further to 9 deg.
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Taken a bit longer than planned as heating and cooling 50 litres takes longer than a single batch. Since this is a lager and I hadn’t done a starter, I took off about 2.5 litres half way through the boil into a sanitised fllask, chilled and am using it to resuscitate my stored OYL-111 which was from a previous overbuilt starter. I’ve now got that on the stir plate and will give it 12 or so hours while I chill the wort down further to 9 deg.
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Your stir-plate looks dwarfed :-)
 
Love the use of whole hops here. Keeps the hop material out of the fermenter (and keg)!
Personally I prefer pellets for lots of reasons, but I've loads of Saaz leaf hops so this is a single hop variety lager which I've made before. Last time I put the hops in loose and it turned the boiler into hop soup, bunged everything up completely and it had to be drained by tipping it up! I don't have that option with this batch size so the hops went in bags - but they need a fairly hefty weight in there too otherwise they float.
 
I'd be afraid of knocking it over and sending it tumbling
@The-Engineer-That-Brews it's a 3 litre flask which is made of really thick glass which tolerates direct heat. It sits quite comfortably on the stir plate and means I can make a full 3 litre starter in one go. ( My mother bought me it for Christmas a couple of years ago 😄 -she thought it was an 'interesting present' !)
 
So I gave in …
I’d been watching the starter for the last 24 hours and not seeing any activity- I think my OYL111 was past resuscitation 💀. So I’ve added two packs of Hell to the starter and will add that to the wort later tonight. I’d chilled the wort down to 5 deg in the hope it would reduce the risk of bacteria spoiling it before I got there with the starter.

So it might be a mixed yeast fermentation- which I’ve absolutely no idea how it will work out. 😂
 

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