DP Windsor Ale 25/10/08

[Wez]

Have a great one Jonnyv :party:

 

[Vossy1]

Have a good'un Jv :thumb:
I'm going to be doing a DP recipe as soon as I can

 

[Oblivious]

Have a good one, I was going to brew to day but the are gale force winds around and a lot of water and wind with some electricity may not produce a good recipe water

 

[Jonnyv]

HLT was up to temp... I had my mash tun preheated and ready to dough in - then realised I hadn't weighed out the grains yet

 

[Jonnyv]

Mash is going fine.. Bang on 65 degrees & now nicely wrapped up more than usual.

A little issue with treating the sparge water with CRS but hopefully nothing to worry about :shock: :whistle:

 

[A T]

Have a good one JV

 

[Kingfisher]

Enjoy your brewday JV :thumb:

 

[Aleman]

If you are pushed for space in the mash tun then a periodic fly sparge is probably the way to go

You simply top the tun to the brim with liquor, then allow it to drain so that the level falls to just below the level of the grain, then top it up again . . . its sort of fly batch sparging :?

 

[Jonnyv]

Sounds like a great idea Aleman.

I've managed to find a spare showerhead so I'll do a hybrid fly/batch sparge and see how things go.

Three hour mash is nearly over - just heating up sparge water now. DP say to sparge at 82-85 degrees, that seems rather hot? I usually batch sparge at about 77 degrees :hmm:

 

[Aleman]

I would do what you normally do . . .The sparge temps given could be for a spiny sparger which looses a lot of heat so you need a higher temp to start with . . . . Also You are aiming for a mash bed temp of around 72C during the sparge . . . again its not something critical

 

[Jonnyv]

Three sparge batches later and the boil is on - hops are in.

Almost had a boil over - must pay more attention when the two elements are turned on.

Should be cooled & pitched just in time for the chat room to open

 

[Jonnyv]

Pics!

My newly insulated HLT - makes a big difference to the time taken to heat up strike/sparge water:

Grain added to mash tun - not too full considering there's 6.8kg!

Underletting the mash tun

Doughed in, 65.5 degrees.

All snuggled up for the three hour mash:

First runnings recirc'd

Batch sparge round 1:

Batch sparge round 2:

Hop block:

Hops are in, boil away for two hours:

Cooling in the dark:

Settling before run off:

2 points under the SG and slightly over the target 23l :?

Mmmmm trub

12 hours later and fermenting away nicely with the Nottingham yeast. There's an incredible honey smell - I hope it's not all drawn off with the fermentation. Really looking forward to cracking this open at Christmas

JV

 

[Jonnyv]

Came home after more cider making with my brother to find the house smelling lovely - a real yeasty/beer/honey smell all around. Don't think SWMBO will be very happy tho

Thought I'd check on the Nottingham yeasties and see how they were doing... only to find they're escaping!

Never had a yeast explosion like that before - maybe it's the honey?

 

[Vossy1]

Gr8 photies Jv :thumb:
That yeast's keen :shock:

 

[Jonnyv]

This was bottled today - batch primed with 80g of glucose.

Here's hoping it carbonates and is ready in time for xmas :pray:

 

[Jonnyv]

**** - opened a bottle today - pretty much exploded everywhere.

80g of sugar - batch primed.

There I was complaining the other day that I had problems carbonating at all, and now I've bottle explosive bottles

Going to try relieving the bottles of the pressure and recapping :x

 

[Vossy1]

Gushing bottles are usually a sign of infection :shock:
Why not give the bottles a few more weeks. Place them somewhere safe..JIC one decides to explode
Chill before opening....goes without saying really.

Batch priming is great as long as the sugar solution...aka priming solution, is mixed in thoroughly.

 

[Jonnyv]

Gushing bottles are usually a sign of infection :shock:

So I shouldn't have drunk it then?

Why not give the bottles a few more weeks. Place them somewhere safe..JIC one decides to explode
Chill before opening....goes without saying really.

I chilled & opened another over the weekend to see if it's the same - it wasn't fortunately. Could have been a dodgly-santised bottle - fingers crossed :pray:

Batch priming is great as long as the sugar solution...aka priming solution, is mixed in thoroughly.

Possibly but I generally put the sugar solution in the bottom of the bottle bucket and then rack the beer onto which creates a very gentle whirlpool which I'd have thought would mix it ok - might need to think about that next time I bottle.

The bottles are outside in the fridge now - no sign of explosions so will try a bottle again in a few weeks :pray:

 

[Jonnyv]

Opened a bottle to check it was just a dodgy bottle that gushed. Phew - all is well:

Perfect! Just needs another seven weeks to take the edge of the hops

 

[Vossy1]

:drink: