Anna's Brewdays

[YeastFace]

Congrats @DocAnna!

 

[AlDaviz]

I’ve stayed in the Scrabster Hotel a few times when doing some of the NC500 route Luv that section of road A9 over to Latheronewheel.
Went off track there, Popeyes bar which is part of the hotel do excellent fish&chips if your ever waiting for the ferry

 

[Rodcx500z]

Congrats Doc A on your new venture

 

[Sadfield]

Escaping to a remote island for when you revisit that short boil thread, sensible.

Sounds like a great move and opportunities. Congratulations.

 

[DocAnna]

I’m feeling a bit happier…. I’ve not been brewing for a while. Bit of post trauma from the roofing disaster that damaged so much of my kit . I am though on leave for a week and so I’m determined to do a couple of brews with current stock. I have though ordered some new yeast to play with.

First on the menu is a version of my standard crisp lager. This time using Pop’s Pale malt - as I’ve quite a lot of it. This is just under 10kg of grain I’ve just milled for a 46 litre batch tomorrow. I’m going to be using WHC Hoppin pils yeast. Since I don’t have any Magnum (I know shocking ) I’m going to use H. Tradition for bittering.

 

[The Baron]

Good luck hope you haven't forgot how to do it
Enjoy

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Great to see you back Anna I hope you enjoy the brewing

 

[Buffers brewery]

Anna who?



Good to see you "back in the saddle"

 

[clyne]

I've not been brewing for a few months, lots on, and since it's now public I can be open about one of the reasons I've been away and not had time for brewing. I've a new job working with NHS Orkney, and will be moving up there, at least on a part time basis initially, from late January next year. I'm currently looking at whether to rent or buy... and looking at houses that might be able to support a pilot sized brewing kit. There are also six distilleries and three breweries on what is quite a small island, and I'm rather hoping one of them might be willing to accept some volunteer help some time over the weekends! It's all a bit anxious/exciting/crikeywhathaveIdone!

I somehow missed this originally, but if you’re ever on the mainland waiting for a ferry drop me a message if you fancy a blether. I live in Halkirk (6 miles from Thurso) and work in Thurso 3 days a week.

Highly recommend the distillery just a few mins from Scrabster by the way (Wolfburn). I’ve got some great friends on the Orkneys and love the Orkney brewery (Dark Island is my all time fav!).

 

[DocAnna]

I do appreciate that as a first brew for a few months, a 46 litre brew isn’t quite easing myself back.. but hey I’m planning an update to my Dubbel next which is anything but simple. Rather than dark candi sugar I’m going to use dark Demerara sugar as I can pick that up from the local Sainsbury’s and I’m after a more rich flavour than I managed with the last one. To be honest, these two brews are more about trying to use ingredients up that I already have. @The Baron all joking aside I am feeling a bit out of practice. Lots of theory from the course and I’m going to be scrupulous about documentation now so I will know why something turns out how it does and either how to tweak or replicate.

Mash water measured out with salts added to dissolve overnight… as if I wasn’t making my life complicated enough, I’ve two loaves of sourdough retarding in the fridge after proofing today with a new starter I made last week in Orkney. There’s apparently a tradition of naming a sourdough starter so I’m calling him Breadgar as it had a nice ring about it ….

 

[The Baron]

Like riding a bike Anna, once on it you will be away

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Demerera pah.

Get making your own, great fun and you can put all the expression you want in.
You could make your candi syrup with the demerera.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/20-lb-of-sugar-and-a-jar-of-yeast-nutrient.114837/

 

[DocAnna]

Interesting with the mash temperature today....
Garage temp 12°C, target of 30 min @63°C then 30min @70°C for a max fermentability lager wort.

I've had issues with the strike temp being too high in the past and the last thing I want to do is go too high, so mashed in at the water at 64°C, but I'm also using an external temperature probe down the central mash pipe overflow for a core mash temperature, which was only 56°C. I've left for an hour and the core temperature is only at 61°C despite the recirculating liquid being held consistently at 64...

This is not a bad thing, as I reckon I've just managed a very gradual stepped mash temperature effect. I've just stepped it up to 70°C on the heater and will leave till the central temperature stabilises within a degree of that or another hour whichever is sooner. It is making for a long mash but that's no bad thing. For the Dubbel later this week though I will go for a considerably higher strike temperature as I want to avoid those pesky beta amylases chopping up the dextrins and drying out the taste.

The more I study and practice this the more I realise it is so often the initial temperatures of things that count. Bringing the liquids to a target temperature later is usually too late .

 

[The Baron]

Yes even if using a AIO the strike temp needs to be calculated in so that when mashed it is at the correct temp required.
I am now a big believer in the first 15mins of the mash are where most of it happens so getting it there is critical to get what you want out of the mash.
The water/wort at the bottom of a AIO is usually higher than in the mash and as it is pumped albeit at a slowish rate it takes a while to raise the mash temp up which can be past the 15 minutes and then it has thinned the beer out

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

mashed in at the water at 64°C, but I'm also using an external temperature probe down the central mash pipe overflow for a core mash temperature, which was only 56°C. I've left for an hour and the core temperature is only at 61°C despite the recirculating liquid being held consistently at 64

Yes I too routinely see a few degrees difference between the recirculating liquor and the deeper levels of the grain bed; and when I'm mashing in I certainly give it a good stir to equalise everything.

The more I study and practice this the more I realise it is so often the initial temperatures of things that count. Bringing the liquids to a target temperature later is usually too late .

I agree - the more I read about it, the more I realise there's a lot going on in a mash; and even some of the 'low temperature' enzymes can work pretty fast. I'm frequently surprised how fast the wort starts getting sweet even at 40-50 degrees.

The jury is still out for me on the best mash profile for body vs. flavour vs. efficiency; but these days I tend to aim for an initial grain temp of 55ºc (beta-glucanase and a bit of proteinase) and then ramp straight to an initial rest of 65 (beta-amylase plus a bit of alpha to give the beta more 'ends' to work on) for half an hour then 68 for another 30-45min (recently I'm finding 30min isn't quite enough with slightly undermodified grain).

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Having warmer grains help and a really high flow of that hotter or heated liquor onto the top of the grains. This requires a high liquid to grain ratio which can compromise sparge liquid. Putting some of the grain in at the lower temp fools the ratio and then a second dough in during ramping stops the thermal shock. Also means enzymes working at different temps and times.

 

[MashBag]

I agree with all the points above and Anna I do so much agree with core temps.

All too often you see people referring to short step times, and the timer starts when the wort temp probe hits temp, not the core of the malt tube. In some cases I doubt all the malt even gets to desired temp let alone gets the full rest time.

I was visiting a distillery yesterday and their mash tons have stirrers, and they still experience this issue.

Not the place to mention camurri brewer is it?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I was visiting a distillery yesterday and their mash tons have stirrers, and they still experience this issue.

I think maybe this is also why they tend to have wider, shallower mash tuns so they get less temperature variation with depth

 

[DocAnna]

I know it’s not the done thing to post selfies here. Just about to get to the boil, dancing around the ‘Brewery’ to Måneskin and having adapted my youngest daughter’s headphones to Bluetooth and replaced the padding things … I get my own personal brewery disco at a volume I like without embarrassing the children or worrying about the neighbours!
… back to brewing the predicted Brix seems far higher than expected. I think that slow mash has extracted more sugars than expected.
Based on the HW course and the boil module - I am boiling with the lid partly on giving me a far more vigorous boil at half the wattage = happy Anna . This will give me the temperature effect needed from the boil, will clear the volatiles and is more efficient- in other words yummy stuff.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Watch out for boil over with the lid part on! It LOVES to do it as soon as your back is turned…