The sun was shining I was up early so why not brew....... :grin:
Todays effort was the above named, 21 litres of 5% bitter.
Rob from the malt Miller included in my last order a free yeast, the packet marked " Try ! " so I forsaked my preferred Sa-04 and in the spirit of adventure I decided to use this NBS West Coast Style Ale dried yeast.
the blurb says :- Neutral, fast fermenting yeast that is ideal in any product that requires the hops and malt to shine rather than the yeast. Best used in the temperature range of 17-22c. Medium to high attenuation and highly floculant, this can be further enhanced by cooling... I like my yeasts to lie down when they are dead and not stagger about like John Wayne during a death speach.
I was going to do an overnight mash but due to problems with a slight water leak on the HLT the mash didn't get underway till this morning. Although I'd got everything weighed out and set up on the bench in readyness, so it was a case of HLT checked and switched on. As usual my total water got an addition of a campden tablet, as yet I've not added anything else to my water for my brews.
With only 1 element in the HLT it took 90 mins or so for the water to heat to strike temp but a few coffee's and the Mash was soon on. Hit the mash temp of 66c spot on. The brew was covered with my trusty 2 foam rings and the lid of the thermopot secured and locked down. ( The pot had been pre warmed with a few litres of boiling water while awaiting the hlt )
The 90 mins soon passed and I deviated a little from my normal practise slightly. I ran off the whole mash liquid ( strike volume plus the 7 litres thats under the false bottom ) and recirculated it through the grains. I then did a couple of batch sparges with water at 80c to get my required volume of wort for the boil (35.2 litres according to Brewmate) what the hell...lets go for 36...live dangerously ha.
The resulting wort in the boiler was very clear and dark...much darker than I was guestimating... I had added the first hops to the boiler prior to the wort being poured in...Target hops for bittering. The 2 elements were switched on and we were away....
There was only one small addition of aroma hops ( Bobek ) late on but I'd decided to follow Alemans recent advice and not add these till after the boil and the wort temps were below 80c. Not the best brew choice to try this out on but hey ho....
60 min boil ( protoflok added after 50 mins together with my chiller to sanitise itself and at the required time the elements were switched off and the chiller allowed to do its job. I had a good vigorous boil throughout but strangely the max temp I reached was 98c... I usually ret into the 99c...perhaps our sea level height has altered since my last brew.. :wha:
10 mins later and the wort was down to below 80c and the Bobek hops were scattered into the brew, the chiller switched off and the hops allowed to steep for 20 mins. After that the chiller switched back on and the brew cooled to below 30c
A 20 min rest was then given for the hops and shi...er trub to settle and the lot then run off into a steralised fermenting bucket.
I then got brutal for 5 mins with a paint paddle in my electric drill and ended up with 22 litres of a wonderful smelling wort all frothy, which tested out at 1056 temp corrected...lovely.
bucket labeled with name and date, temp probe fixed and into the fermenting fridge set at 18c
Meanwhile the yeast had been made up as instructed on Robs web site and this was added to the brew.
The big clean up followed ( the worst part of the day ! but not to be scrimped ! ) I find its easier to get straight on with the clean up.
Lunch and nap followed...ha haaa.
Sorry for length of this post but aware that we are getting new members all the time, I hope they found the write up helpful
Todays effort was the above named, 21 litres of 5% bitter.
Rob from the malt Miller included in my last order a free yeast, the packet marked " Try ! " so I forsaked my preferred Sa-04 and in the spirit of adventure I decided to use this NBS West Coast Style Ale dried yeast.
the blurb says :- Neutral, fast fermenting yeast that is ideal in any product that requires the hops and malt to shine rather than the yeast. Best used in the temperature range of 17-22c. Medium to high attenuation and highly floculant, this can be further enhanced by cooling... I like my yeasts to lie down when they are dead and not stagger about like John Wayne during a death speach.
I was going to do an overnight mash but due to problems with a slight water leak on the HLT the mash didn't get underway till this morning. Although I'd got everything weighed out and set up on the bench in readyness, so it was a case of HLT checked and switched on. As usual my total water got an addition of a campden tablet, as yet I've not added anything else to my water for my brews.
With only 1 element in the HLT it took 90 mins or so for the water to heat to strike temp but a few coffee's and the Mash was soon on. Hit the mash temp of 66c spot on. The brew was covered with my trusty 2 foam rings and the lid of the thermopot secured and locked down. ( The pot had been pre warmed with a few litres of boiling water while awaiting the hlt )
The 90 mins soon passed and I deviated a little from my normal practise slightly. I ran off the whole mash liquid ( strike volume plus the 7 litres thats under the false bottom ) and recirculated it through the grains. I then did a couple of batch sparges with water at 80c to get my required volume of wort for the boil (35.2 litres according to Brewmate) what the hell...lets go for 36...live dangerously ha.
The resulting wort in the boiler was very clear and dark...much darker than I was guestimating... I had added the first hops to the boiler prior to the wort being poured in...Target hops for bittering. The 2 elements were switched on and we were away....
There was only one small addition of aroma hops ( Bobek ) late on but I'd decided to follow Alemans recent advice and not add these till after the boil and the wort temps were below 80c. Not the best brew choice to try this out on but hey ho....
60 min boil ( protoflok added after 50 mins together with my chiller to sanitise itself and at the required time the elements were switched off and the chiller allowed to do its job. I had a good vigorous boil throughout but strangely the max temp I reached was 98c... I usually ret into the 99c...perhaps our sea level height has altered since my last brew.. :wha:
10 mins later and the wort was down to below 80c and the Bobek hops were scattered into the brew, the chiller switched off and the hops allowed to steep for 20 mins. After that the chiller switched back on and the brew cooled to below 30c
A 20 min rest was then given for the hops and shi...er trub to settle and the lot then run off into a steralised fermenting bucket.
I then got brutal for 5 mins with a paint paddle in my electric drill and ended up with 22 litres of a wonderful smelling wort all frothy, which tested out at 1056 temp corrected...lovely.
bucket labeled with name and date, temp probe fixed and into the fermenting fridge set at 18c
Meanwhile the yeast had been made up as instructed on Robs web site and this was added to the brew.
The big clean up followed ( the worst part of the day ! but not to be scrimped ! ) I find its easier to get straight on with the clean up.
Lunch and nap followed...ha haaa.
Sorry for length of this post but aware that we are getting new members all the time, I hope they found the write up helpful
