Anna's Brewdays

[Brewnaldo]

@DocAnna I think I remember you saying somewhere you are in Stirling. That being the case it probably puts you on similar or the same water as me in Larbert. Have you done much in the way of water treatment?

 

[foxbat]

Firstly, congratulations on setting up the full system and getting a beer on. It looks like you're all set and done and just need to wait a couple of weeks before you start drinking.

I do have one lingering question, well one at the moment anyway. The pressure on the regulator seems to suggest the cylinder is almost empty as shown in the picture. It still feels really heavy and I hadn't opened it till Sunday and it's not gone down since other than a tiny bit with the exploits with the Chemsan. Have I done something wrong or should I be going back to the supplier about this?

The high-side gauge always looks like its nearly empty and it won't change (except up or down a division or two with temperature) until all the liquid CO2 in the cylinder has evaporated and all you've got left in there is gas. At that point you're very close to empty and need another cylinder pronto. As for the actual reading, I've just checked mine and it's about 40-50 bar - the same as yours.

So far, with no leaks, I'm on my 17th keg from a 6kg CO2 cylinder that I'm expecting to run out soon so I've got another on standby.

Now you can start building a keezer/kegerator :)

[edited because I got my units wrong!]

 

[DocAnna]

@DocAnna I think I remember you saying somewhere you are in Stirling. That being the case it probably puts you on similar or the same water as me in Larbert. Have you done much in the way of water treatment?

Oh gosh yes - just a few miles away from Larbert! I'm using the 'Turret A' profile from Scottish Water's report since they supply our water.
This site will give you the location of your water supply: Water Quality Search - Scottish Water
The hospital in Larbert is on the Carron B supply - but it will depend where you are in Larbert so check your postcode. The 12 month detailed report will give some of the values you need and the link to the water hardness data will give a whole of Scotland report and you need to find the row with your supply on it for things like the carbonate values to enter into one of the water calculators. We have really soft water that seems to be consistent year on year so I'm not too concerned about using the mean average values in these charts. I started using Steve's water calculator but now use the one built into the brewfather web app since you can save your water profile and it can automatically do the calculations. I've only done a few brews with the water additions so I'm no expert but it's easy enough to do - though you do need a low reading set of scales - these are the ones I'm using which seem fine https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FQHE25U


Anna

 

[DocAnna]

Now you can start building a keezer/kegerator :)

I'm trying not to think about that! I think the children and OH need a bit of a pause in my brewing acquisitive behaviour given how much of the garage I'm now occupying. I'll take another look at the dial and see what units it's in , I went for the Italian one due to it's lack of visible plastic and let's be honest it's a nice shiny rather tactile thing too!

Thanks @Brew_DD2 for the note about the tare weight as I hadn't seen or thought of that either.

Anna

 

[foxbat]

I'm trying not to think about that! I think the children and OH need a bit of a pause in my brewing acquisitive behaviour given how much of the garage I'm now occupying. I'll take another look at the dial and see what units it's in , I went for the Italian one due to it's lack of visible plastic and let's be honest it's a nice shiny rather tactile thing too!

It'll be in 'bar' units. I edited my reply after realising I'd got the units wrong. The primary units on mine are psi with a smaller inner secondary scale in bar.

The Italian regulators are designed for industry use, are very well made and should not give you any trouble. Mines also Italian (TOF) which I bought after a cheaper regulator got a slow leak through the body that I couldn't find.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Oh gosh yes - just a few miles away from Larbert! I'm using the 'Turret A' profile from Scottish Water's report since they supply our water.
This site will give you the location of your water supply: Water Quality Search - Scottish Water
The hospital in Larbert is on the Carron B supply - but it will depend where you are in Larbert so check your postcode. The 12 month detailed report will give some of the values you need and the link to the water hardness data will give a whole of Scotland report and you need to find the row with your supply on it for things like the carbonate values to enter into one of the water calculators. We have really soft water that seems to be consistent year on year so I'm not too concerned about using the mean average values in these charts. I started using Steve's water calculator but now use the one built into the brewfather web app since you can save your water profile and it can automatically do the calculations. I've only done a few brews with the water additions so I'm no expert but it's easy enough to do - though you do need a low reading set of scales - these are the ones I'm using which seem fine Ascher 200 gram Portable Digital Pocket Scale with Back-lit LCD Display 200x0.01 gram Black: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products


Anna

Yeah I'm Carron B, just occured to me you might be the same. I have started testing it for hardness and calcium and theres precious little of either so it seems to be a blank slate. Was just interested in what you build it up to for your various beers if you were on the same supply. I guess it will be largely similar. FWIW I tested the alkalinity at 7ppm and the calcium at less than 10

 

[Clint]

With interest I read if your enthusiasm with the brewing DocAnna!
Are you the only one in your house who is into brewing,as I am?
Is anyone part of a brewing "team"?(probably needs a separate thread)!
I'd like my Mrs to be a bit interested...but she don't hardly drink! I do flavoured gin for her with fruit from the allotment but she takes ages getting through it. She also is totally obsessed and absorbed with her business so really doesn't switch off!

 

[DocAnna]

With interest I read if your enthusiasm with the brewing DocAnna!
Are you the only one in your house who is into brewing,as I am?
Is anyone part of a brewing "team"?(probably needs a separate thread)!
I'd like my Mrs to be a bit interested...but she don't hardly drink! I do flavoured gin for her with fruit from the allotment but she takes ages getting through it. She also is totally obsessed and absorbed with her business so really doesn't switch off!

Sorry, my enthusiasm can be a bit much and I'm aware at home to try to keep it a wee bit muted most of the time as it risks taking up lots of time which I really don't have. Any hobby such as this risks introspection and tends to insular activities that excludes other parts of the family so yes I recognise the wish for others to join in and be involved. My son did seem to be interested and did a couple of kit brews but hasn't done anything with the kit I bought him last summer before going back to university, but we've all had COVID on our minds so I can understand why he hasn't.

The issue is rather well illustrated by an experiment yesterday evening when I tried to do a brewday starting after dinner and tidying up... which I won't be doing again as it meant an evening away from the OH even if I did dot back and forth. I was keen to try out the snubnose which had been lying neglected since November.

Recipe as below, pretty simple really which was on purpose since the exercise was supposed to be about learning how to use the pressure fermenter:

• I had the seal in the wrong place initially between the two pieces of the cap, found out by pressurising first before trying it with wort.
• It's a right fash trying to keep the cap, float valve and all sanitised while not immersing it and while filling it from the brewzilla
• It's difficult to sprinkle on dry yeast through the top of the fermenter without touching and so contaminating the inside of the fermentre.
• The spundit valve is quite fun and it helped to test it out with the pressurised fermenter before adding the wort.

Other notes - I completely overshot on cooling using the immersion chiller given how cold the tap water is at the moment - so pitched at 15 deg! Which is annoying, and I'm rather hoping the dry yeast I'm using can catch up. but it's not even up to the right temperature this morning yet.

Overall though feeling a bit down about the experience. I think it's because the grain bill was so simple and my brewhouse efficiency wasn't great due to the whole leaf hops being used which are a bit of a pain since they are too big to fit easily all into the hop spider and retain quite a bit of liquid when emptying the boiler. Also not paying enough attention to the yeast, feels a bit inadequate just dropping in a sachet of dried yeast - I could have nurtured it a bit more. Oh and not having time with the OH in the evening was a bit meh too. So not my best or most interesting brewday... put it all down to learning though.

Anna

American IPA
6.2% / 14.8 °P

BrewZilla / RoboBrew 35L
75% efficiency
Batch Volume: 23 L (measured 21 litres)
Boil Time: 70 min
Mash Water: 24.75 L
Sparge Water: 6.29 L
Total Water: 31.04 L
Boil Volume: 27.33 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.055
Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.060 Measured 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.013
IBU (Tinseth): 50
Color: 9.7 EBC
Mash
Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min

Malts 6 kg (100%) — Crafty Maltsters Pop's Pale Ale Malt — Grain — 5.4 EBC
Hops (247 g)
29 g (36 IBU) — Citra 12% — Boil — 70 min
15 g (7 IBU) — Citra 12% — Boil — 10 min
15 g (7 IBU) — Simcoe 13% — Boil — 10 min
44 g — Citra 12% — Boil — 0 min
44 g — Simcoe 13% — Boil — 0 min
50 g — Citra 12% — Dry Hop — day 5
50 g — Simcoe 13% — Dry Hop — day 5

Miscs
2.15 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
4.23 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Mash
10.29 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
0.55 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Sparge
1.08 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Sparge
2.62 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Sparge
1 items — Protafloc — Boil — 15 min
1 tspn — Ascorbic Acid — Primary

Yeast 1 pkg — Crossmyloof Beirm Five 78%

Fermentation
Primary — 18 °C — 14 days (pressurised 0 psi till fermentation established then 10 psi)

Carbonation: 2.4 CO2-vol

Water Profile
Ca2+ 126, Mg2+ 18, Na+ 8, Cl- 55, SO42- 301, HCO3- 22

 

[DocAnna]

Oh and a couple of photos of the snubnose nicely fitting in my fermenting fridge and kitted out with it's own smart spundit

 

[DocAnna]

Dry hopped the American IPA today...

As you'll see from the pictures, I wasn't organised enough to have the dry hop bagged and magnets attached to the inner part of the snubnose - that's going to have to be a project for next time. So it was a case of release the pressure, I had been fermenting at 10psi and tip in the hops. Observations and learning:

• It's really fiddly to tip in the hops through the neck of the fermenter and I worry about sanitation of the outside of my ziplock bag of hops touching the dip tube.
• I added 5g of ascorbic acid mixed through the hops to scavenge any oxygen introduced with the hops, practicing what I described on a previous thread.
• After resealing I pressurised back to 5psi, released the pressure to purge the headspace of any air introduced and then pressurised again to 5psi
• Wow - the Krausen was really suppressed under the 10psi fermenting pressure and expanded to about four times it's thickness after the initial pressure release.
• Spundit valve to be set for 15psi, to provide scope for the remaining ferment to pressurise and stop leakage of all that hop goodness in the aroma.

So a lot of that was guess work... I realised I should really have checked here about whether to re-pressure the fermenter after adding the dry hop? I'm also going to have a trawl through the archives here to find out about how to use the magnets to dry hop, which magnets to use and how to sanitise the bag?

Anna

 

[DocAnna]

Quick kit wine on just because. A lot quicker to get one of these on these days than it used to take me... it’s all the fiddling around and racking that takes the time with these things. It is now happily set in my home office carefully out of Teams Meeting camera shot.

Anna

 

[Clint]

Is that incase you get "winebarassment"?

 

[DocAnna]

Hmm... first closed pressure transfer to a keg tried yesterday and well lots of learning is probably the best way of putting it. Top line is don't do this with loose dried hops .

The plan was simple.
Purge a chemsan filled keg using a beer-beer line till gas passing through line.
Connect empty keg to pressure fermenter: 1) gas-gas to equalise pressure then disconnect 2) beer-beer line
reduce pressure in keg with PRV to start flow of beer to keg and let pressure in fermenter push into keg (I had planned to keep the gas line connected and siphon it but the heights didn't work for that)

OK that's where I stuck... or rather the float line stuck.. nothing moving into the keg

Guessing that the hops had clogged the line I connected the gas cylinder line to the keg and released the pressure on the fermenter till finally there was a splurge and bubbles to unblock the line. Then swapped over the gas line to the fermenter, repressurised and released the prv on the keg to reverse the pressure difference (sheesh)

Back in business, except it got stuck again two thirds through. I really couldn't be faffed with reversing the pressure again so just turned up to tank pressure till finally it moved again. Not quick though. I finally had a full keg, beer not as clear as I'd like, and hardly what you'd call technically closed transfer but no air remotely close. Oh and already carbonated and no foam - to be fair it was at 2 deg C so foam was unlikely. Due to the lack of clarity I've moved the keg to my office to warm condition for a week just to make sure everything the yeast can mop up is consumed, I'll then put it back in the garage to chill.

I'm glad to have tried this first with a beer I wasn't that fussed about before the NEIPA, though based on the vented CO2 it seems the hop smell is rich and fruity, and I'm really looking forward to trying it. Now though I need to clean the snubnose... ho hum

Anna

 

[DocAnna]

In other news...

Finally got round to using my nice new 3 litre flask my mum gave me for my birthday - bit scary heating it on the hob. Tried on the halogen hob that lit the flask up and looked a bit scary - changed my mind v quick and heated on a standard ring. Didn't dare cool too quickly and risk cracking the glass so cooled in plain tap water. Now has pitched the coastal haze blend yeast and merrily whirring away on the stir plate ... I'm rather chuffed with this ☺

Anna

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hmm... first closed pressure transfer to a keg tried yesterday and well lots of learning is probably the best way of putting it. Top line is don't do this with loose dried hops

I guess you’ll be using a bag next time including a magnet with your hops?

I’ve done a couple of closed transfers now and find that as my brew fridge is on a 2 foot (60 cms) high plinth gravity assists the transfer and as the beer is syphoned down to my barrel, gas from the barrel back fills to the FV. I got a bit confused reading your description (easily done ). Do you pressurise your snub nose from a gas tank and vent the gas from your keg or return the gas to the pressurised snub nose?

 

[DocAnna]

I guess you’ll be using a bag next time including a magnet with your hops?

I’ve done a couple of closed transfers now and find that as my brew fridge is on a 2 foot (60 cms) high plinth gravity assists the transfer and as the beer is syphoned down to my barrel, gas from the barrel back fills to the FV. I got a bit confused reading your description (easily done ). Do you pressurise your snub nose from a gas tank and vent the gas from your keg or return the gas to the pressurised snub nose?

Yes I've some nice friendly PTFE coated neodymium magnets lined up with a far less high tech Sainsbury's vegetable bag for the hops next time

The plan was not to use the gas tank but transfer using the pressure from the snubnose, ideally return it to snubnose but like you said I'd need more of a height difference for that. So this time after faffing about with blocked tubes I just used the cylinder, not ideal but I was out of smiles by that time and just wanted it sorted.

All a learning experience.

Anna

 

[Buffers brewery]

Yes I've some nice friendly PTFE coated neodymium magnets lined up with a far less high tech Sainsbury's vegetable bag for the hops next time

The plan was not to use the gas tank but transfer using the pressure from the snubnose, ideally return it to snubnose but like you said I'd need more of a height difference for that. So this time after faffing about with blocked tubes I just used the cylinder, not ideal but I was out smiles by that time and just wanted it sorted.

All a learning experience.

Anna

IMO in order to achieve transfer you need a pressure difference between FV and keg. You can achieve this by having the FV higher than the keg with both vessels at the same pressure and venting gas from keg back to the FV.
Alternatively, pressurise both FV and keg to the same pressure (as you did). Then, with the beer/beer line only connected, gradually vent the gas from the keg to achieve transfer.
You knew that anyway

 

[grooves]

Yes I've some nice friendly PTFE coated neodymium magnets lined up with a far less high tech Sainsbury's vegetable bag for the hops next time

Another way to do this is to tie some cheapo (non-mint) dental floss to the bag and close the lid over the floss, then just use the floss to pull the bag out.

 

[DocAnna]

Another way to do this is to tie some cheapo (non-mint) dental floss to the bag and close the lid over the floss, then just use the floss to pull the bag out.

Smart idea - it's a pressure fermenter though so I can't see it working..... it took me a minute to realise what 'non-mint' meant .

 

[DocAnna]

Feeling a bit of a numpty. I'd been upset that the wine kit I put on didn't seem to have any activity in the air lock and I thought I'd been sold a duff kit with old yeast... cue a frantic order from crossmyloof for some new yeast and picked up some lager yeast as well.

This morning thought my office smelled vaguely of wine and yeast, examined the lid of the fermenter and pushed down on the bung..... instant and constant bubbling.... ah so I hadn't put the rubber bung in properly! Ho hum at least I'll have some spare yeast, I'll just have to think of something to use it in now .

Anna