Anna's Brewdays

[Alastair70]

Lovely to hear from you again. I’m sure the Dubbel rejects will help take the edge off your canning trials.
I’m envious of your chosen homeland and I’m well overdue a trip to Scotland.
Cheers from a fellow Celt

 

[DocAnna]

Hi all

You know that feeling when you've left it too long to get in touch with a friend and then it feels awkward sending that 'Hi' text.... yep right there with this. Ok I've still been brewing but super busy with the newish job, which means timing brew days around being in Orkney half the month and working in the hospital when back down South. I'm also still baking lots, making sourdough bread, and even went along to Orkney 'Rockfest' which was a bit umm different.

Today though was cleaning the brew space...again.. sheesh. Since taking up the MSc course I'm a bit paranoid about cleaning. Everything gets a caustic wash then water, then acid. I've cleared out 3 kegs to make space for the lager that I made a few weeks ago. It's not quite as clear as I'd like but tastes pretty good given it was a bit of a spur of the moment yes I'm sure I've some hops that will do the job in the freezer. I'm keeping the lid on these days for the first 45 min of the boil since DMS is far more volatile than I think most people realise, and for a lager the main difficulty is actually keeping some in rather than worrying about it all being boiled off. My cooling set up still feels a bit Heath Robinson and I'm wondering about investing in a proper plate chiller.

I've realise my perfect brew space would be seamless waterproof and be able to be dowsed ceiling to floor to clean and preferably be able to take a peroxide vapour sterilisation overnight. I really am struggling a bit with mess, disorganisation. ... and stuff like bikes and recycling that are invading the brew space again .

 

[marshbrewer]

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an idiot here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

 

[DocAnna]

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an idiot here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/annas-brewdays.89471/page-50#post-1277511

It’s an alkali cleaner. I use it in a submersible pump to clean the kegs and fermenters. It’s nasty stuff.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hey welcome back Anna

 

[RoomWithABrew]

What do you use for the caustic wash? (I have a feeling I'm going to look like an idiot here when you say "er, caustic soda?" but I thought I'd ask

Lots of breweries do use caustic soda for cleaning.

 

[DocAnna]

A wee bit of mash for the morning ❤,…. And what makes this even better is that my guesstimate for a strike temp of 70C was spot on for a 64C target.
This is my ginger citrus Saison - well it will be eventually I hope. It’s also a good way to use up more of my grain stocks as I’ve not been going through as quickly as I should.

 

[An Ankoù]

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/annas-brewdays.89471/page-50#post-1277511

It’s an alkali cleaner. I use it in a submersible pump to clean the kegs and fermenters. It’s nasty stuff.

It's very nasty stuff.
The best drain unblockers (used to?) use it.
Don't let it anywhere near anything made of aluminium.

 

[DocAnna]

It's very nasty stuff.
The best drain unblockers (used to?) use it.
Don't let it anywhere near anything made of aluminium.

Good to know x

 

[DocAnna]

Trying a few things today on the brew day, some good, some not so. Since the boil needs to be vigorous more at the end than the beginning, I used the lid on at times to get the temperature higher then took the lid off once at rolling boil.

I messed up on the grind - tried not grinding the torrifed oats and using a coarse milling on the rest. Great for lautering, not so good on the extract. I undershot on the preboil gravity. This would normally be an issue but since I’m using honey in the secondary as a syrup with the zest - I can compensate if need be.

I also lowered the hop stand temp to 75 for the start - for half an hour - I’m not quite sure why I’d said 90C initially that wasn’t right. Oh and I had to swap magnum for warrior as I’d forgotten I’d switched to warrior as my neutral bittering hop stock.

Right time to chill properly and transfer - should be easier than usual as I’m pitching at 27 which is a lot easier to get to than my usual 9C for a lager!

 

[DocAnna]

Pasteurising the citrus peel and ginger : taken up to 70C and then off the heat. Has the added bonus of denaturing the proteolytic enzymes in the ginger which would otherwise affect head retention. I upped the ginger to 60g and just used what lemon and limes I had - 4 of each. Since I was off on my OG I’ve used dextrose rather than honey too.

As some who typically ferments slow and cool , there’s something almost indecent about this bubbling away at 25C …. It smells delish though .