Back to Basics Challenge!

[Muddydisco]

What happened to your pics Bones?

 

[bones]

I know.. i'm all ready to go.. cant seem to load them...

HELP!!

 

[Wez]

Hi Bones, we've had to stop attachments.

Would you be able to upload them, see MD's ace guide:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5745

 

[dandan]

What do we do with the finished results (whos judging who wins the challenge)

I've designed a label already, with the brew happening tomorrow or thursday!

Heres the label:

 

[Muddydisco]

That's friggin awesome!!! My fav film of all time

We need an independant judge :hmm:

Edit: Brew update

This has fermented down to 1018 now so i've chucked it into the secondary Fv. Good old S-04 has pulled all the trub and break down to the bottom, very clear beer already. and smells like no other beer at all, it's a very sweet smell like toffee or honey. I had a drink out of the left over out of the jug. I'm considering doing this larger scale! with no scales of course!

 

[dandan]

Cheers MD!! The Back to the future label had to be done!!

Here was the plan:

Used 1 bag 1kg of Pale Malt
200g of Munich Malt (what I had left so aprox 200g)
Hand full or so of Roasted Barley
Hand full or so of Choc Malt
Pinch of Black Malt

about 5g of EKG and about 5g of Progress at 60min
same again at 15min to go!

My cunning plan of using the slow cooker/rice cooker to mash the grains didn't work as the tests I did in it yesterday did not hold the tempature so reverted to sticking a pan full of hot water and grains into the oven

Brew Done!! Heres the proof!

Heating the water

Dough in!

Into the oven

The oven is suited to brewing temps :party:

Run off

Spent Grains

Boil

Cold break!

and its still cooling now before th S-04 treatment!! :thumb:

And the spent grain is now becoming bread!

 

[Wez]

Some great posts!

I have to get mine done soon.

As for the judge, i'll have a think but how about we all post one bottle to one independant judge, as mentioned by MD?

 

[corby_brewer]

Me thinks i should be the Judge

 

[Wez]

Me thinks i should be the Judge

i think we might have a few volunteers :lol:

 

[bones]

Bones Crimbo Brew :

600g pale malt
10g chocolate malt

Hops:
10g first gold 90 mins
5g 15 min
irish moss

Nott yeast

Target: 5 pints@ 1042

Load Mash Tun

Mash Tun To Bed

Mash Strainer

Gravity System

First Gold

Spent Grain

Boil

Cold Break

Hop Stainer

Bit Cloudy

I must say at mo don't taste great....

But we'll leave that to the judge

 

[Wez]

That my friend, is genius! :thumb:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Love the heat exchange MD, is it one of Charlie Dimmocks water features, you had "Ground Force" in??

 

[Franklin]

Interesting...
and an entertaining read :)

 

[Aleman]

Well the boil for the Effin Back to Basics brew is underway, and around an hour to go.

I chose one of the Durden park recipes (No 93. Ushers Stout), and went back to the original brewing ledgers which gave the recipe in Quarters of malt and hops in lb per barrel (Converting to metric measurements (A Quarter is 8 Bushels and a Bushel is 8 Gallons) and reducing down for a 1 gallon brew length gave me the recipe as.

1.1L Pale malt
325ml Pale Amber Malt (Which I home roasted last night)
250ml Black Patent Malt
125ml of Amber, Brown and Crystal (Each)

And a damn big handful (~40g) of 2008 Home Grown Fuggles

This is going to be an interesting one for me, Utilised the steamer for a mash tun, then the basket of the steamer as a lauter tun, and the pressure cooker as the copper . . . no I'm not pressure cooking the wort . . . although that would give me a higher hop extraction, and a much better hot break :hmm: . . . . . :nono: :nono: :nono:

Pictures will follow of the whole process

 

[Aleman]

OK as promised the picies.

First off the recipe calls for Pale Amber malt . . . This is nothing like amber malt of today . . . even diastatic amber does not come close. So the only way to make it is to roast your own. Malt in a baking tray into an oven at 110C for 30 minutes to drive out any moisture . . . then raise to 150C for 30 minutes . . . . Then start checking the doneness . . . crack open a few corns and if the colour of the majority is just slightly darker than those of pale malt its done.

The mash . . . The stock pot of the steamer is just a bit small for this at 4L, I should add I also used the famous elbow thermometer . . . and if you can just keep your elbow in the water its about at mash temp 65C

And into the oven to keep it warm for 90 minutes

I then transferred the mash to one of the steamer baskets and allowed it to drain into the copper. I then did a single batch sparge with 2.5L of water, and again allowed it to drain.

The lovely hops from the garden - grown in 2008, and having been stored in vacuum and in the freezer smelling really great.

And a good rolling boil

and Finally crash cooling . . . When cool I'll transfer it to a demijohn and pitch yeast . . . probably Nottingham

I ended up with 4L of wort at 1.??? and ??? IBU . . . Its dark and bitter :lol:

I guess by taking part I've excluded myself from being the impartial judge :evil: Oh and I apologise for the use of Shiny . . . you can make perfectly good beer with plastic :lol:

 

[Vossy1]

:lol: looks like a cracking brew day A...you might even get away with leaving the pots in the sink for someone else to do :whistle: :lol:

 

[Wez]

Love it :thumb:

My brew is going to happen in the few days between Christmas and New Year

 

[Aleman]

My brew is going to happen in the few days between Christmas and New Year

:P Yeah, Yeah, Yeah . . . Heard it all before . . . . I'll believe it when I've tasted it :lol:

For what its worth Mine appears to have finished after only 36 hours fermenting . . . but then if you pitch enough yeast it will do that and 11.5g of SO4 in 4L of wort is about enough :lol: . . . I'm off next week and might just do a 50L batch of Oatmeal stout, to repitch the yeast slurry

And I'll be honest with everyone, this has been the most fun I've had brewing for ages :shock:, absolutely fun with no worries about temperature, flow rates, pH or any of the other myriad factors I put into a normal 18 Gallon session

Thanks for the idea Wez . . . Back to Basics it may be, but it did remind me that brewing is supposed to be fun . . . :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Vossy1]

Wise words Aleman

 

[Muddydisco]

Right come on then We need an answer on who's going to be the impartial judge I know tubby said that he was will to do it, and aleman has brewed himself out of it. I'm looking at posting out alot of beer fist week of jan, forum brew has to go out as well as some stout , and this caveman brew!
I want answers!