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Right this wasn’t part of the plan … our rather lovely rector came to visit just as I was trying to bring the mash to the boil - with me in jeans, messy trainers and fleece :eek: 😂…. She very gamely came through to see my brew boiler… I’m not quite sure how this has her view of me as a doctor 😜
 
Right this wasn’t part of the plan … our rather lovely rector came to visit just as I was trying to bring the mash to the boil - with me in jeans, messy trainers and fleece :eek: 😂…. She very gamely came through to see my brew boiler… I’m not quite sure how this has her view of me as a doctor 😜
As Dawkins wrote, and has never ceased to labour the point, "Religion is the root of all evil." Fancy coming unannounced on brewing day, without so much as by your leave or kiss my elbow, just to catch you red-handed profaning the Sabbath. I hope you gave her something to bring her a little closer to God. cheers:
 
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I’ll post about the grain mill later …

Right now I’m wondering what in the name of John Palmer possessed me to yet again put hops loose into the boil🙈 I mean you’d think I’d learn!

The extended version may come later, The short version; pump blocked, can’t use the counter flow chilli, how on earth do I attach an immersion chiller which hasn’t been heat sanitised, and then found that the tap had also blocked when trying to empty the boiler 😢.

BB10D531-69BE-4182-AA55-52B780E834FB.jpeg


Now trying to recover my happy place doing Gammon with roast potatoes and veg for Sunday dinner. I don’t really feel like dancing yet as I want to seethe quietly on my own.

Anna
 
I’ll post about the grain mill later …

Right now I’m wondering what in the name of John Palmer possessed me to yet again put hops loose into the boil🙈 I mean you’d think I’d learn!

The extended version may come later, The short version; pump blocked, can’t use the counter flow chilli, how on earth do I attach an immersion chiller which hasn’t been heat sanitised, and then found that the tap had also blocked when trying to empty the boiler 😢.

View attachment 56286

Now trying to recover my happy place doing Gammon with roast potatoes and veg for Sunday dinner. I don’t really feel like dancing yet as I want to seethe quietly on my own.

Anna

I blocked my tap with heather tips once, and I was doing no chill at that point, so a boiler full of boiling wort and no way to move it. I was in that cold sweaty, anxiety ridden rage phase at that, so can well sympathise.....
 
Ok some updates before I call it quits for the evening.
How to get the most out of a Brewzilla eh 👏👏
Yes it is a bit of a big grain bill but it drained well with the sparge and I was able to recirculate during the mash a bit.
That mill is a thing of beauty.
Yeah, where can I get one?
I do really rather like my grain mill 😍, it was an expensive online click but it munches through grain at a really rapid rate, it is surprisingly quiet and generates no dust at all due to the cover it's mounted on. My only wish would be that the diameter of the hopper was greater to make pouring the grain in a bit easier. Sadly I can't find anywhere online that has it in stock at the moment.

















As Dawkins wrote, and has never ceased to labour the point, "Religion is the root of all evil." Fancy coming unannounced on brewing day, without so much as by your leave or kiss my elbow, just to catch you red-handed profaning the Sabbath. I hope you gave her something to bring her a little closer to God. cheers:
She's lovely and is welcome anytime, and we gave her a cup of coffee but nothing stronger today 😃. As for Dawkins, he used to write sense about genes, but he doesn't half go on about stuff that is well out of his realm these days and quite frankly is a bit embarrassing.
Is that with a white sauce?
It was honey glazed, though a bit overcooked as the oven thermostat stuck on so roasted at 250 deg C ish, the potatoes were even more crispy than usual, the roasted courgettes were a bit dark too. I rather like making a decent sauce vierge but it's not that popular with the OH so I don't make it often.

As for the brew, it ended up spot on target at 1.074 but remarkably a litre over batch at 21 litres - but I did sparge with an extra litre which rather explains that one. Rather than Wyeast London 1968 ESB which I used last time and a starter, I'm using two packs of Crossmyloof 'The Firm', simply because it's a lot easier and I had it in the fridge. I'm double pitching due to the high OG, which may not be needed but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Ok that's Anna out for the evening ... time to catch up on Strictly.
 
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Not drinking tonight since I’ve work still to do and my daughter has friends round …. And still don’t have a new CO2 cylinder 😩 …I was called late in Friday by the supplier to say they had one in stock but they weren’t open over the weekend.
However right now having a rather good Sunday- I’ve discovered I can sync the music between kitchen and dining room so I can bop to Halloween party music while cooking Sunday dinner 😍 and wandering around the house.
 
Yay! I have a new cylinder of CO2 🥳.

I've taken the opportunity to rearrange the tubing a bit to incorporate a new two outlet manifold for the force carbonation outlet. It's also made me realise I should rearrange where the cylinder is closer to the fridges, and add a new hole to the fermentation fridge to bring in a tube to provide for force carbonation while chilling or lagering. This will need to be a bit of a project at some stage, a nice bit of distraction for a weekend.
 
Yay! I have a new cylinder of CO2 🥳.

I've taken the opportunity to rearrange the tubing a bit to incorporate a new two outlet manifold for the force carbonation outlet. It's also made me realise I should rearrange where the cylinder is closer to the fridges, and add a new hole to the fermentation fridge to bring in a tube to provide for force carbonation while chilling or lagering. This will need to be a bit of a project at some stage, a nice bit of distraction for a weekend.
Reminds me to go and weigh my cylinder - it surely must be getting low by now after 18mths
 
Just a bit of a heartbeat of an update - just really busy with all things work and so behind in brewing, bottling and all other things homebrew. I've so much to do at this time of year it is so busy with home things too. Still keeping up to date with everyone here, and will try to post a bit more of an update once I extract the digit and get on with all the bottling I need to do for Christmas - I've two sets of work colleagues expecting a delivery of Christmas beers!
 
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Just a bit of a heartbeat of an update - just really busy with all things work and so behind in brewing, bottling and all other things homebrew. I've so much to do at this time of year it is so busy with home things too. Still keeping up to date with everyone here, and will try to post a bit more of an update once I extract the digit and get on with all the bottling I need to do for Christmas - I've two sets of work colleagues expecting a delivery of Christmas beers!
I was beginning to get @DocAnna withdrawal symptoms ashock1
 
Oh at long last I’m getting a brew day 😍🎉. I have so missed this, there’s something really calming about the stepwise progression from grain to wort that feels so very apart from my day to day work. It’s almost meditative, measuring the mash water, weighing and adding salts, weighing the grain, grinding then mixing the grain and now to mash… and breathe 😌.

Today is a batch of Twinnie the Bohemian Pilsner, she’s an old fashioned step mash with a dash of acidulatrd and carbohemian malt for a bit of balance. The boil has a whole load of saaz for spice and floral notes, aiming for an Audrey Hepburn classic with sass.

… so that’s the mash on, all programmed in to do its thing for the next 90 min ❤.
 
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