Bezza's Brewdays

[-Bezza-]

In the Growlers, I still carbonate using sugar even though I will serve the brew using a tap and a CO2 connection.

I use a low sugar ratio (1g per litre) because, after carbonating, a brew can sit for up to three months conditioning and all I wish to do is create a CO2 blanket to stop it spoiling.

I can see why but two things are stopping me doing this.

Firstly, priming with sugar creates more sludge. The cornies draw from the bottom of the keg so seems to me I'd be drawing off sludge which is a bit silly. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Secondly, I have a huge bottle of co2 so have it to spare!

I would like to get some growlers mind.

 

[Dutto]

I can see why but two things are stopping me doing this.

Saving on CO2 consumption is way down the list of considerations. The main reasons are:

1. I carbonate the Growlers with Pressure Relief Caps which means that I can leave them to condition for months, knowing that they are carbonated enough to prevent any spoilage.
2. The low level of carbonation results in very little trub. It also removes the problem of foaming when it's time to de-pressurise, remove the PR cap and insert the dip-tube/tap. (When the Tap is installed, I then put the Growler under CO2 pressure.)
3. The carbonation of 1g per litre results in very little trub at the bottom of the Growler. As shown in the photograph, the attachment on the end of the flexible dip-tube stops it sticking to the bottom of the Growler and the only time I get any trub into the glass is in the first 100ml.

 

[-Bezza-]

Brew #10 - Young's New World Saison Kit. Tastes awful at the moment - incredibly malty. Letting it sit in the keg for a while to see if things improve but it's not looking promising.

Brew #11 / AG#3 - Hefe Weiss

Malt Miller recipe:

2kg Pale Wheat
1.8kg Maris Otter
130g Munich

Also added 200g rice hulls to help sparging.

25g Hallertauer Hersbrucker - 60min

No finings used.

19l batch size

Mashed 16l:
43C for 20 mins
67C for 40 mins
76C for 10 mins

Yeast: MJ Bavarian Wheat @ 19C

Target OG: 1.049
Target FG: 1.013

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First time using the Grainfather and first up, what a revelation that is! So, so easy to brew compared to BIAB. All the frustrations I was having around lifting the grain bag, sparging, temperature control and chilling just disappear.

I would probably score this brew day about 7.5/10 on the perfection scale.

I filled the GF with water the night before, along with half a campden tablet. I then set the delayed timer so that my water was at mash temperature ready for an 8am start. That was really useful as it saved wasting an hour or so in the morning which, with 2 young kids at home, is all important. The excess water was pumped into my Burco boiler for sparge water, leaving the 16l in for mashing.

As a note, I heated the water to 48C to get the right mash temp of 43C for the first rest. Having done that, I forgot to turn the temp down to 43C on the controller so the GF continued to heat the water up to 48C whilst I was doughing in. Next time, I'll probably not bother with a strike water temp and just heat to my first rest temp and dough in slowly to allow the GF to maintain the heat.

Step mashing was a doddle with the controller and I could leave the whole thing for the hour or so that it took to mash. I was liking the recirculating pump too. Again just meant that once I had started the mash, I could go back indoors for a while and help with the kids.

Sparge was easy, perhaps a little too easy in that the water was sparging through a bit quicker than I would have expected (although this was the first time I had sparged). Possibly the rice hulls or possibly because the grain bed needed pushing down a bit.

Boil wasn't an issue.

Cooling was a doddle. I was really surprised at just how effective the chiller was at getting the wort down. It did use a lot of water, perhaps around 45l in the end, but that mostly got used for cleaning. I'm planning on getting some water butts soon which can take any excess water too.

Used the GF aeration paddle to aerate the wort in the FV. That is a pretty mental piece of kit when attached to a Makita drill and the wort certainly looked very aerated once I'd finished. Hopefully leads to a nice healthy ferment.

Into the fridge at 19C where it'll stay for 2 weeks, then into a keg. Hoping to be drinking this in Mid May if it's not too soon.

Things that went a little off:

1) It turns out my stirring paddle isn't long enough for the Grainfather, given it is thinner and taller than the burco. That meant I couldn't scrape the bottom during the boil so was a bit worried about burning but didn't seem to be an issue in the end - there was a little bit of trub baked on but wasn't burnt and cleaned off without issue.

2) The recipe was meant to have 20g of hops to give 10 IBU but the packet was labelled up as 25g. Not sure if that has been adjusted for a reduced AA% or if I've picked the wrong pack out of the freezer. Can't see it making a massive difference.

3) Missed the target OG and got 1.042. Volumes were slightly down going into the FV so I had topped up to 19l. That might have been because I had a fan blowing over the top of the GF to drive the steam out the shed door which might have caused more evaporation, but even then that shouldn't have affected the SG. Perhaps it was something to do with the first rest getting too hot? Happy to chalk it down as a learning experience and, as it's a wheat beer, prime the keg with some sugar to bring the ABV up to the 4% mark. As it's meant to be a cloudy beer with yeast in suspension, I'm thinking the sugar won't have a detrimental impact on the final beer. Plus it's got a high FG too.

4) The connection between the cooler and the hose leaked (blame the hozelock fittings). I was brewing in my shed with the GF in a wheelbarrow so I could move it around if needed which fortunately allowed me to catch most of the water. But I think for future brews, I'll get a length of hose that I fix to the barb connection and connect that to the hose outside. That way, the leakage will be less messy.

 

[-Bezza-]

Decided to add in 250g sugar into the FV after a week, just to bump the alcohol slightly and make up for lost efficiency. Shouldn't have too much of an impact on the FG.

Will keg this coming weekend. The Cornies accidentally multiplied over the weekend so lots of space to fill...

 

[-Bezza-]

The Hefe Weiss has turned out fantastic.

Final beer was about 4.3-4.5% taking into account the sugar addition. I ended up with something closer to 20l of beer which probably accounted for a little bit of the lost efficiency.

I had a taste 3 days after kegging, which still had the beer very young. Initially had that wonderful wheat beer sweetness, very Erdinger in style, but 3 or 4 seconds later I got this nutty/grainy/husky taste. I was worried that there was something going wrong as the previous extract kit I made was tasting extremely malty/grainy.

Anyway, let is sit in the keg for a few more days and tasted again about 4 days later and the nuttiness had completely gone. Served at a BBQ last weekend, so only 3 weeks from brewing, and it went down very well. Got plenty of comments about how people didn't know it was homebrew, which annoyed and pleased me in equal measure.

Should still have half a keg left, perhaps just under, so looking forward to seeing how this develops further over the next few weeks.

Would be keen to make this one again, especially as it can be ready for drinking in such a short timeframe.

Onto the next one - BIPA being brewed tomorrow morning, with an overnight mash tonight.

 

[-Bezza-]

Brew #11 / AG #4 - BIPA (https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/help-with-black-ipa.81788/)
Brewed: 18 May 2019

First attempt at water magics.

Malt Miller kit:

Crisp Pale Ale Malt (7000 grams)
Weyermann® Carafa Special® Type 3 (350 grams)
Crisp Crystal Malt (350 grams)
Chinook Pellets (70 grams)
Cascade Pellets (150 grams)
Simcoe Pellets (150 grams)
SafAle™ US-05 11.5g (1 packs)

Method
Beer Style (main): American Ales
Beer Style (sub): American-Style India Pale Ale
Batch Size: 23L
Original Gravity: 1079
Final Gravity: 1012
ABV %: 8.8
IBU: 55

THE MASH
Temperature °C: 64
Length (mins): 60
Out temp °C: 75
Out time (mins): 10

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 90

Additions and timing:

70.00 g Chinook Pellet – Boil 90.0 min
100.00 g Cascade Pellet- Boil 0.0 min
100.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] – Boil 0.0 min

Secondary additions and timing:

50.00 g Cascade Pellet – Dry Hop 3 Days after fermentation complete
50.00 g Simcoe Pellet – Dry Hop 3 Days after fermentation complete

Yeast: Safale US-05
Fermentation temperature/steps: 20c until FG achieved

Water Prep:
36l total water, with 11.40ml of CRS (to get to 20ppm alkalinity)

Mash water (25l)
4.05g Calcium Chloride
4.01g Gypsum
3.36g Epsom Salts
4.01g Gypsum

Boil additions (27.5l total volume)
1.16g Calcium Chloride
1.14g Gypsum
1.02g Epsom Salts

Tried an overnight mash on this one as was keen to have as little time away from the family as possible (https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/least-distruptive-brewing.81949/). Mashed overnight at 67C and then did a 10 min mash-out at 76C in the morning. I think the mash temp possibly dropped to around 65C whilst the recirculation pump was off. Should probably be less of a tight-arse about that and just leave it on overnight.

Ultimately, got woeful efficiency. Target OG was 1.082 but I got 1.073, so looking set for a 7.3% beer rather than a 9.1%. Apparently that's 61.9% efficiency.

Thoughts as to what might have caused this:
- The kit was a Christmas present and had been kept in the house. The grain is conceivably 6 months old.
- 20ppm alkalinity was too low for the water and the mash pH dropped below 5.2. My litmus strips only go as low as 5.2 and I'm colour blind so have no real idea what the mash pH was. Solution is to get one of the yellow pH testers! I was initially going for a slightly higher alkalinity level, around 40ppm, but Beersmith was estimating my mash pH would be around 5.6 so wanted to bring it down slightly.
- Water volumes looked to be out. Beersmith was telling me to use 25l of mash water but guessing 19.25l would have been a bit more appropriate. That therefore only left 8l for the sparge - I ended up using more, which wasn't a bad thing as the boil-off was higher than expected.

Tagging @strange-steve as he was asking why the efficiency was so low.

At the end of the day, 7.3% is a respectable strength and I might have struggled to drink a 9.1% BIPA quick enough. Different with a stout where you can take your time without worrying about hops fading. However, a bit annoying when things don't go to plan and you can't really figure out why.

 

[-Bezza-]

Got to 1.014 so in with the dry hop. Will get in the keg on Sunday.

 

[-Bezza-]

- Water volumes looked to be out. Beersmith was telling me to use 25l of mash water but guessing 19.25l would have been a bit more appropriate. That therefore only left 8l for the sparge - I ended up using more, which wasn't a bad thing as the boil-off was higher than expected.

I think I've figured out why Beersmith was giving odd values on the water. It looks like where I was doing a stepped mash, I would achieve each increase in temperature by adding boiling water rather than just ramping the temperature up on my Grainfather. As I'm planning the next beer (Golden Biscuit Ale), I've stripped out these mash step water additions and everything looks to be much more in line with the Grainfather calculator.

Anyway, kegged the BIPA last Sunday and just waiting for it to carb up before giving it a try. The volumes were a bit over - I probably had 2l left in the FV which is a bit annoying given this was meant to be a strong beer. Couldn't be bothered trying to bottle these off and priming as, being the dregs, I would have needed to put into a bottling bucket to settle off and then bottle - I didn't have a suitable bucket around but will add one to the shopping list as wasting beer is just silly! Anyway, 7.7% is the end result and the little snifter of trial-jar waste tasted promising, if a little more bitter than I might normally have gone for. Let's see what it drinks like once it's carbed up.

 

[-Bezza-]

Woah, been away from here for a little while. Two young kids will do that to a man.

Brew #12 was brewed back in November - Red Brick Rye. Got a bit of a bollocking from the wife for this brew as it took too much time, hence why I haven't brewed since. Well, that and it being winter so not really having as many people round drinking beer like we do over the summer.

Spoiler: The recipe

Red Brick Rye (Malt Miller Kit)

2.7kg Maris Otter
0.7kg Rye Malt
0.5kg Carared
0.06kg Roasted Barley

16g Columbus 14%, 75 min
Protofloc 15min
10g Chinook 13%, 10 min
5g Cascade 5.5%, 5 min
7g Chinook 13%, 0 min
15g Cascade 5.5%, 0 min

100g Chinook Dry Hop

US-05 yeast

Did an overnight mash with this one which, trying to learn from my previous mistakes, I did with the GF recirculation pump on. Hit pretty much the right OG in the FV at 1.043 (vs 1.045 target) but only fermented out to 1.014 rather than the estimated 1.005 suggesting I only got to 3.8%ABV vs expected 5.25%. Interestingly the grain was a little old so was expecting to be low on efficiency but seems something went wrong on fermentation.

Anyway, as before, I've given up worrying about ABV and only concerned about the taste. And have to say this one is pretty good - clean ferment with some nice nutty rye flavours, well balanced bitterness and some good dry hop flavours.

For next time, I used the Christmas money from my Nan to buy a cheap pH meter from Amazon as I wanted to play closer attention to water chemistry. I also really need to get some of this clean-up operation working a bit better.

Cheers all.

 

[-Bezza-]

Brew #13 - Friday 29 May 2020

Spoiler

Golden Lemon Biscuit Ale
British Golden Ale (12 A)


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 19.00 L
Boil Size: 23.00 L
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 20.50 L
Final Bottling Vol: 17.00 L
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage

Date: 29 May 2020
Brewer: Bezza
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Grainfather
Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.6 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
35.51 L​	-MY WATER- 11.8CRS, 0.5 Campden​	Water​	1​	-​	-​
11.80 ml​	CRS (Mash)​	Water Agent​	2​	-​	-​
0.50 Items​	Campden Tablets (Mash)​	Water Agent​	3​	-​	-​
4.60 kg​	Pale Malt, Maris Otter (2.3 SRM)​	Grain​	4​	82.1 %​	3.00 L​
0.50 kg​	Biscuit Malt (25.0 SRM)​	Grain​	5​	8.9 %​	0.33 L​
0.50 kg​	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)​	Grain​	6​	8.9 %​	0.33 L​
10.00 g​	Magnum [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min​	Hop​	7​	11.2 IBUs​	-​
0.25 Items​	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)​	Fining​	8​	-​	-​
15.00 g​	Citra [13.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min​	Hop​	9​	11.2 IBUs​	-​
15.00 g​	Citra [13.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min​	Hop​	10​	4.5 IBUs​	-​
2.0 pkg​	Liberty Bell Ale (Mangrove Jack's #M36)​	Yeast​	11​	-​	-​

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %
Bitterness: 26.9 IBUs
Est Color: 6.9 SRM

Measured Original Gravity: 1.058 SG

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
Sparge Water: 14.00 L
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE
Est Mash PH: 5.62
Measured Mash PH: 5.20

Total Grain Weight: 5.60 kg
Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Target Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Acid Addition: None
Sparge Acid Addition: None

Mash Steps

Name​	Description​	Step Temperature​	Step Time​
Protein Rest​	Add 21.60 L of water at 53.8 C​	51.0 C​	30 min​
Saccharification (overnight)​	Heat to 67.0 C over 15 min​	67.0 C​	600 min​
Mash Out​	Heat to 76.0 C over 10 min​	76.0 C​	30 min​

Sparge: Fly sparge with 14.00 L water at 75.6 C
Mash Notes: Two step profile with a protein rest for mashes with unmodified grains or adjuncts. Temperature mash for use when mashing in a brew pot over a heat source such as the stove. Use heat to maintain desired temperature during the mash.

Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Fermenter:

Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Carbonation Est: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Carbonation (from Meas Vol): Keg with 12.54 PSI
Age for: 14.00 days
Storage Temperature: 7.0 C

This recipe has been in the planning for quite a while and I've tinkered with things quite a lot along the way. The aim was to make something that gave strong lemon and biscuit flavours from the hops and malt, came it at around 4.5%, didn't give the strong dry-hop flavours that most of my recent brews have done and generally having the vibe of a pale golden british summer ale.

I had a shufty through my box of malt and realised I had 6kg of maris otter that all went off at the end of December, as did the carapils and biscuit. Figuring that this would impact efficiency and also taking account of the low efficiencies I have been getting on my brews recently, I figured I'd add an extra kilo of pale to the mix, otherwise it was just going in the bin. Original recipe was for 3.5kg. Well, turns out the mash went very well on this and ended up getting far more points out of all this than was expected.

Interestingly, I compared my water profile to some of the profiles within Beersmith and I was already in the range of "Yellow Full" and a few others with only the CRS and campden treatment. So no water additions made. Not sure whether this helped or the lack of any darker malts or whatever, but all went swimmingly.

Something went a bit awry with the water volumes. At the end of the sparge I had about 29l against an expectation of 23l and I've had 26l rather than 19l into the FV (although I suspect there's a bit more trub than needed!). Net result of 1.058 in 26l vs 1.060 in 19l. Looking like I'm on for a 6%er. Ooops.

Sitting in the fermenter. Intrigued as to how this one works out and what I'm going to do with the spare 7l of beer that won't fit in the keg!

The big winner from this brew session was having access to a huge catering size stainless steel pot-wash sink for the clean-up. That made things a doddle!

Thoughts for next time:

1) Try leaf hops in the boil
2) Use fresher ingredients so I don't have to second-guess everything.

 

[Dutto]

What a sad tale of woe that was!

I have never heard or seen a more blatant request for a small PB/Growler or a more feeble explanation as to why someone has made more "falling down juice"!

Here are the really sad bits:

1. It will probably be much better the longer that you leave it (I recommend at least three months before even tasting it.)
2. The portion allocated to the new PB or Growler can be put away and saved for Christmas! (Just make sure that the vessel is holding pressure!)

Enjoy!

 

[-Bezza-]

Well I think I might force carb the excess in a corny and then bottle into flip tops from there (I have about 100 going spare). I'm not gong through the beer particularly quickly at the moment and most are in the kegs for about 18 months, which doesn't seem to be causing them any great issue. But a smaller keg or growler would be just great!

 

[-Bezza-]

The Lemon Biscuit Golden Ale is ready to drink. I ended up with a spare quarter of a keg after filling the first keg, so have gone through the extra already.

The soft bitterness I was looking for has come through and there is absolutely no harsh flavour at all. Coupled with the sweetness of the biscuit malt and the light hand on the citra hops, I'm left with a very gentle beer. The beer also has a decent amount of body so it's very full in the mouth. Yeast took a little while to floculate too, so early tastings had a bit of a "weiss" flavour to them.

I may well brew this one again in the future but would make a couple of changes. I would probably look for a bit more crispness to the final beer, so potentially adding some gypsum and adding a few more IBU. I also think it could do with a touch more citra on flameout. And, as ever, I shouldn't let patience get the better of me and just let it condition a bit longer (as Dutto rightly said). Other than that, no complaints.

Last comments is that the second keg is pouring very lively at the moment. Not sure if there's too much pressure in the keg, because I conditioned in the shed rather than being in the cool or just on account of the weather being so hot. Beer is absolutely fine once it settles in the glass, so it's just annoying rather than a problem.

 

[-Bezza-]

All ready for Brew #14 - American Wheat (long mash, quick boil).

Spoiler

American Wheat
American Wheat Beer (1 D)

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 19.00 L
Boil Size: 24.06 L
Boil Time: 40 min
End of Boil Vol: 22.40 L
Final Bottling Vol: 17.00 L
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage

Date: 21 Aug 2020
Brewer: -Bezza-
Equipment: Grainfather
Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.6 %

Prepare for Brewing

• Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
• Total Water Needed: 35.67 L

Mash or Steep Grains
Mash Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	%/IBU​	Volume​
2.30 kg​	Wheat Malt, Bel (3.5 EBC)​	Grain​	50.0 %​	1.50 L​
1.80 kg​	Lager Malt (3.5 EBC)​	Grain​	39.1 %​	1.17 L​
0.30 kg​	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (29.5 EBC)​	Grain​	6.5 %​	0.20 L​
0.20 kg​	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (4.0 EBC)​	Grain​	4.3 %​	0.13 L​

Mash Steps

Name​	Description​	Step Temperature​	Step Time​
Protein Rest​	Add 19.00 L of water at 52.6 C​	50.0 C​	30 min​
Saccharification​	Heat to 69.0 C over 15 min​	69.0 C​	180 min​
Mash Out​	Heat to 76.0 C over 10 min​	76.0 C​	10 min​

• Sparge Water Acid: None
• Fly sparge with 16.67 L water at 75.6 C
• Add water to achieve boil volume of 24.06 L
• Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.049 SG

Boil Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	%/IBU​	Volume​
20.00 g​	Citra [12.86 %] - Boil 40.0 min​	Hop​	24.4 IBUs​	-​

Steeped Hops

Amt​	Name​	Type​	%/IBU​	Volume​
20.00 g​	Citra [12.86 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min, 90.2 C​	Hop​	0.0 IBUs​	-​

• Estimated Post Boil Vol: 22.40 L and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.055 SG

Cool and Transfer Wort

• Cool wort to fermentation temperature
• Transfer wort to fermenter
• Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 19.00 L

Pitch Yeast and Measure Gravity and Volume
Fermentation Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	%/IBU​	Volume​
1.0 pkg​	Bavarian Wheat (Mangrove Jack's #M20)​	Yeast​	-​	-​

• Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.055 SG)
• Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 19.00 L)

Fermentation

• 21 Aug 2020 - Primary Fermentation (14.00 days at 18.0 C ending at 18.0 C)

Dry Hop and Bottle/Keg

• Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.017 SG)
• Date Bottled/Kegged: 04 Sep 2020 - Carbonation: Keg with 13.24 PSI
• Age beer for 14.00 days at 8.0 C
• 18 Sep 2020 - Drink and enjoy!

The wife is away this weekend and whilst I have to look after the kids, I'm working from home so can dough in and start mashing before collecting them from nursery and can take care of the boil and cleanup once they're in bed. So this is very much an experiment as to whether I can do a brew without interfering with life's commitments!

This will be the first time using whole hops too as I was interested in giving those a try.

Just need the postman to turn up with the ingredients. He's also bringing the ingredients for a Citra Single Hop Pale and a Cali Common.

Hoping this will actually be ready to drink on 5th September, which might be possible for a wheat.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Looks good, I'd comment that using m20 will throw 'European' wheat beer characteristics

 

[-Bezza-]

Looks good, I'd comment that using m20 will throw 'European' wheat beer characteristics

I didn't realise there was a difference really! What does one give vs the other?

Being stuck on dry yeasts for now my options are a bit limited. Didn't spot an American wheat but didn't look particularly hard because I didn't know better.

Currently mashing...

 

[-Bezza-]

So the wheat beer is now being dubbed Transatlantic Wheat on account of Belgian yeast.

Brew went fine although apparently I'm 10 points down on efficiency. I think that is because the water quantities were wrong and I had too much water in the mash. Didn't get anywhere near to using as much sparge water as beersmith was suggesting. So note to self is to manually check.

Also, the whole hop experiment wasn't the best. I chucked them straight in on the boil which made clean up a bit harder - the pellets just run down the drain which the leaves don't. I'll use a hop spider next time and see if that is easier, otherwise it'll be back to pellets.

Anyway, end result is 1.045 which should make for a tasty 4% all told.

 

[-Bezza-]

Transatlantic Wheat:

I've got this one into the kegs fairly quickly, in the hope it's ready for drinking at the weekend. Finished at 1.015 so ended up at 4.1%. The volumes were definitely out though as I think I had about 2-3l left in the FV which suggests the BH efficiency was about 72% overall. I need to make a note to manually calculate water volumes for the next brew. The one surprise was just how clear the beer was on transfer to the keg - it seems to have flocculated a lot more than I would have expected. I made sure to stir a little up on transfer.

Vanillacoffeechocolatemilkstout:

Interesting this one. With only having space for two kegs in the keezer until recently (4 keg now built) and stout not being everyone's favourite, the keg had been relegated to the back of the fridge for about a year or so. Having endured the harshness of winter and summer, I plumbed the keg back in, chilled down and tasted. Still absolutely fine to drink, even though it didn't turn out particularly strong. I might have a go at botting the dregs of this one off.

 

[-Bezza-]

Brew #15 - California Common

Spoiler

Cali Common
California Common (19 B)


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 25.08 L
Boil Time: 70 min
End of Boil Vol: 22.40 L
Final Bottling Vol: 18.50 L
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage

Date: 18 Sep 2020
Brewer: -Bezza-
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Grainfather_18.5L Keg (20l batch)
Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.5 %

Prepare for Brewing

• Hydrate yeast with 534.72 ml warm water and add optional 26.7 g of GoFerm
• Clean and Prepare Brewing Equipment
• Total Water Needed: 29.39 L
• Mash Water Acid: None

Water Prep

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
29.00 L​	-My Water- 9.2ml CRS, 0.5 campden​	Water​	1​	-​	-​
9.20 ml​	CRS (Total)​	Water Agent​	2​	-​	-​
0.50 Items​	Campden Tablets (Total)​	Water Agent​	3​	-​	-​
0.35 g​	Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash)​	Water Agent​	4​	-​	-​
0.13 g​	Baking Soda (Mash)​	Water Agent​	5​	-​	-​

Mash or Steep Grains
Mash Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
3.00 kg​	Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.5 EBC)​	Grain​	6​	71.4 %​	1.96 L​
0.80 kg​	Vienna Malt (9.0 EBC)​	Grain​	7​	19.0 %​	0.52 L​
0.40 kg​	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (150.0 EBC)​	Grain​	8​	9.5 %​	0.26 L​

Mash Steps

Name​	Description​	Step Temperature​	Step Time​
Protein Rest​	Add 15 L of water at 53.9 C​	50.0 C​	45 min​
Saccharification​	Heat to 65.0 C over 15 min​	65.0 C​	720 min​
Mash Out​	Heat to 76.0 C over 10 min​	76.0 C​	10 min​

• Sparge Water Acid: None
• Fly sparge with 14 L water at 75.6 C
• Add water to achieve boil volume of 25.08 L
• Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.039 SG

Boil Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
42.00 g​	Northern Brewer [7.00 %] - Boil 70.0 min​	Hop​	9​	35.8 IBUs​	-​
0.53 g​	Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Boil)​	Water Agent​	10​	-​	-​
0.20 g​	Baking Soda (Boil)​	Water Agent​	11​	-​	-​
1.00 Items​	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 20.0 mins)​	Fining​	12​	-​	-​
17.00 g​	Northern Brewer [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min​	Hop​	13​	5.1 IBUs​	-​

Steeped Hops

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
34.00 g​	Northern Brewer [7.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min, 90.2 C​	Hop​	14​	0.0 IBUs​	-​

• Estimated Post Boil Vol: 22.40 L and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG

Cool and Transfer Wort

• Cool wort to fermentation temperature
• Transfer wort to fermenter
• Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 20.00 L

Pitch Yeast and Measure Gravity and Volume
Fermentation Ingredients

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
1.0 pkg​	Californian Lager (Mangrove Jack's #M54)​	Yeast​	15​	-​	-​

• Measure Actual Original Gravity _______ (Target: 1.046 SG)
• Measure Actual Batch Volume _______ (Target: 20.00 L)

Fermentation

• 18 Sep 2020 - Primary Fermentation (4.00 days at 19.0 C ending at 19.0 C)
• 22 Sep 2020 - Secondary Fermentation (10.00 days at 18.0 C ending at 18.0 C)

Dry Hop and Bottle/Keg

• Measure Final Gravity: _________ (Estimate: 1.007 SG)
• Date Bottled/Kegged: 02 Oct 2020 - Carbonation: Keg with 1.32 bar
• Age beer for 30.00 days at 8.0 C
• 01 Nov 2020 - Drink and enjoy!

So dare I say that I've actually had my first ever perfect brew session with this one!?

Trying to learn from issues on previous brews, I largely ignored the water calcs provided by Beersmith and just used the ones from Grainfather. This resulted in a thicker mash and greater sparge volumes than previous brews but the end result was that my volumes and points were spot on. Well, one caveat, I boiled off more than expected so was 10pts higher but this watered back down to where it should have been.

I also continued with the whole hops but this time used a hop spider which made clear up a lot easier. The only slight downside was that brewing a slightly smaller volume meant the spider didn't sit low enough in the wort but thankfully I had some long stainless steel BBQ hooks that I could hang the spider from which got it a bit lower down.

I also steeped my hops properly this time - assuming this is the proper way. I cooled the wort down to 85*C then chucked the steep hops in and left them for 15 mins whilst I got on with the first stage of cleaning. Came back and chilled properly into the fermenter.

Glad with how things went with this one, both to prove to myself that I'm not completely incompetent (and give me a bit more confidence to go on and brew some different styles) but also because this is one beer that I really wanted to nail.

Now watch my stuck fermentation, or oxidisation or infection...

 

[Dutto]

.........

So dare I say that I've actually had my first ever perfect brew session with this one!?

...........

Now watch my stuck fermentation, or oxidisation or infection...

That's the spirit! Optimism and pride followed by the cautious words of experience; so you are definitely learning.

It probably is time to start experimentation but I offer a caution by recounting the tale of a mate who decided to make Rhubarb Wine. He took one look at the recipe and told his wife "I don't need all that sugar." and even though it made your buttock cheeks pucker, his wife made him drink every last drop of it! An exercise that took him the best part of a year!

BTW, one of my "perfect brews" (the finished product tasted marvellous) was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I poured boiling wort over my feet and the fungus infection that this caused lasted a lot longer that the brew!

Enjoy!