Dutto's Brew Day

[Dutto]

I transferred the Oatmeal Stout to a Wilco Keg today with 50g of Brewing Sugar. At SIX weeks, this is the longest fermentation time ever (apart from lagering a brew at 10*C). Live and learn.

With an OG of 1.060, and an FG of 1.011 it gives an expected ABV of 6.43% (say 6.8% after carbonation).

I had a taste and it was quite strong on the chocolate flavour and fairly bitter. I expect both of these tastes to mellow after a few weeks conditioning on a shelf in the garage so it's looking good.

 

[Bigcol49]

I decided that I would keep the "Weigh, Mill and Mash" on Day One then "Boil, Cool and Pitch" on Day Two.

Hi!
Sounds like a great idea, especially in Winter when you don't need a fridge to keep your wort cool.
I should've tried it yesterday - a day that will live in infamy!
Washed and rinsed the entire system, including the pump.
Got the strike water on, added half a Campden tablet, weighed out the grain, conditioned the grain - while that was conditioning I set up the grain mill and prepared the ACE mash tun.
Milled the grain, added it to the mash tun and then . . .
SWMBO said, "It looks like rain - take the dog out." Took the dog out.
Got back and lunch was ready - ate lunch.
Underlet the grain and started the mash. Miscalculated the temperature of the strike water so the mash was too cool and it took several minutes for the element to heat up the recirculating wort. The rest of the mash went well - the PID kept temperature pretty much spot on.
Drained the first runnings, getting wort on everything as I changed the pipes around.
Miscalculated the sparge volume, so after the sparge I ended up with about 29 litres of wort.
Couldn't get it all in the boiler (about 8 litres too much) so out came the biggest pans we have and on to the hob went the remaining wort.
By now it was dark so I was working by floodlight, boiling in the ACE and also on the hob. If your lights were dim yesterday evening it's because I was pulling all the power from the grid (heaven knows what the lekky bill will be).
A 90 minute boil got me 20 litres @ 1.055, so pretty damn close to the recipe but I could've done without the hassle.
First thing I did was go online and buy a 40 litre boiler - yay! I have a 3 vessel system!

 

[Dutto]

"Mummy, why does everything about this mans' Brew Day seem familiar?" :wave: Look on the bright side, at least you didn't scald yourself! :thumb:Oh, and ANY problems caused by an interruption from SWMBO are "All your own fault." You should know that at your age, and if you don't believe me go and ask SWMBO!

 

[Bigcol49]

Oh, and ANY problems caused by an interruption from SWMBO are "All your own fault." You should know that at your age, and if you don't believe me go and ask SWMBO!

:thumb:

 

[Ajhutch]

A day that will live in infamy that ended in a new shiny kettle, doesn't sound so bad!

 

[Bigcol49]

A day that will live in infamy that ended in a new shiny kettle, doesn't sound so bad!

Yes, and an empty pocket

 

[Clint]

Not having big shiny kettle regrets are we? Think of the positives....1,shiny;2,big;3,shiny.......you will rise to the higher echelons of home brewing and be renowned on this here forum and other less ambiguous places...
Chippy Tea will turn into a large Donner with extra chilli and Gunge will cut his hair....Dutto is googling dishwashers as we speak......well maybe not!

 

[GerritT]

New shiny things ROCK.

 

[Dutto]

Today I brewed an English Bitter as follows:

Ingredients

• 4.0kg of Maris Otter Malt
• 0.25kg of Caramel Malt.
• 0.25kg of Crystal Malt.
• 0.25kg of Toasted Rolled Oats
• 75g EKG
• Wilco Ale Yeast
• Yeast Nutrient

Method

• Milled and mashed grain.
• Strike water 14 litres at 80 degrees.
• Mashed at 68 degrees for one hour.
• Sparge water at 80 degrees.
• Filled Boiler to 30 litres.
• Boiled wort for one hour.
• Added 50g of EKG Hops in bag for full 60 minutes.
• Removed hops and added Protafloc Tablet at 60 minutes for 10 minute boil.
• Added 25g of EKG Hops after 5 minutes of Protafloc boil.
• Flameout.
• Cooled to 22 degrees & transferred 21 litres of wort to fermentor.
• (Lots of debris in boiler.)
• Added a teaspoonful of Yeast Nutrient and 2 litrs of cold water.
• Pitched Wilco Yeast (straight from packet) at 22 degrees.
• Fermenting at 20*C in Trug.

OG 1.041

I cut back on the toasted oats because SWMBO was running out of porridge! (No kidding!) Another unusual thing is that the Blow-Off Bottle was giving out the odd "Glub" before everything was tidied up! My response? Wrap a towel around the blow-off bottle of course! :wave:I did the whole lot today because, according to the Met Office, it will be blowing a hooley for the next five days at least and (SHOCK - HORROR) I am running out of beer!

 

[dan125]

Fair play Dutto, you're putting the rest of us to shame in the Litres Brewed department. :hat:

I am reading your recipe right in that you take out your bittering hops after 60 mins but continue to boil for a further 10 mins? I haven't come across this before and wondered if you have a particular reason for taking them out?
:cheers7:

 

[Stephenj]

I probably plan as many brews as you dutto and brew about 1/10th :smile6:

 

[Dutto]

............
I am reading your recipe right in that you take out your bittering hops after 60 mins but continue to boil for a further 10 mins? I haven't come across this before and wondered if you have a particular reason for taking them out?
:cheers7:

No particular reason. After an hour in the Boiler, the Hop Bag takes ages to rinse out because of the stuff that is stuck to the fabric so I like to take the Bittering Hops out, wring the bag out to get as much flavour as I can out of the hops and then throw in Protafloc Tablet.

The 10 minute boil after introducing the Protafloc Tablet is "as per the instructions on the tin", however, I throw the Aroma Hop Bag into the Boiler for the last five minutes of the Protafloc boil.

Again, no particular reason apart from the fact that I read somewhere that boiling Aroma Hops is a self defeating exercise as most of the aromatic Hop Oils get driven off after ten minutes or so.

I guess it's a case of "It works for me!"

 

[Dutto]

Went out today full of good intentions to bottle the Robust Porter after it's 2 weeks in the FV. Bugger! The SG was at a soul destroying 1.020 after 2 weeks so I battered it with a paddle, chucked in a teaspoonful of Yeast Nutrient and raised the temperature a bit to 22.5 degrees. This evening the blow-off tube had a bubble right at the end so I presume that it is now back fermenting again.

At a loss of something constructive to do, I decided against my better instincts to check on the Vienna Lager and amazingly after only 9 days in the FV the SG was down to 1.010; so I sanitised the 2 x 10 litre kegs, added 30g of brewing sugar to each of them and they are now carbonating in the Brew Fridge.

When I got back in the house and reported things to SWMBO her immediate reaction was "Is it worth it? Transferring it into a 10 litre keg? They only last a few days!" It was about then that I felt bad about missing the bragging opportunity offered by participating in a "Dry January"; but not enough to do it.

 

[GerritT]

When I got back in the house and reported things to SWMBO her immediate reaction was "Is it worth it? Transferring it into a 10 litre keg? They only last a few days!" It was about then that I felt bad about missing the bragging opportunity offered by participating in a "Dry January"; but not enough to do it.

She's expecting you to drink straight from the FV?! Either she doesn't know you, or she knows you all too well! :smile6:

 

[Bigcol49]

She's expecting you to drink straight from the FV?!

Don't give @Dutto any ideas! :blush2:

 

[Dutto]

According to the Met Office, tomorrow is the only day in the next week when the wind isn't blowing/gusting into double figures here in Skegness! (There's a good reason why we have one of Europe's biggest wind farms just off the beach!)

As I boil outside, I decided that I may as well stick another brew on and chose to make an English Pale Ale to the following recipe:

ENGLISH PALE ALE
Ingredients

• 4.50kg of Maris Otter Malt
• 0.50kg of Crystal Malt (EBC25)
• 25g EKG leaf
• 15g Perle leaf
• 20g Citra leaf
• Wilco Ale Yeast
• Protafloc Tablet
• Yeast Nutrient

After getting the Wilco Ale Yeast starter underway today I did the Mash as follows:

• Strike Water = 3.0 litres per 1kg of grain = 15.0 litres at 85*C.
• Mash at 70-75*C for one hour. (Actual was 72*C.)
• Run off wort and circulate using two vessels until wort runs clear. (This took ages and still had a "floury" look to it.)
• Heat Sparge water to 80*C.
• Sparge at 1ltr/min until Boiler at 30 litres.

Tomorrow's plan is:

• Boil with 25g of EKG and 15g of Perle Bittering Hops for 60 minutes.
• Add Protafloc tablet and boil for 10 minutes.
• Flameout.
• Add 20g of Citra Aroma Hops and steep for 10 minutes before cooling.
• Cool to 20*C, run off into FV, take OG, add Yeast Nutrient and Yeast Starter.
• Ferment at 19*C in Brew Fridge 1 increasing to 21*C over 7 days.

On BrewersFriend, with a 65% efficiency, this recipe & method ticks all the boxes for a Premium Bitter in the English Pale Ale category.

I'm hoping that the Citra Hops give the brew a fairy hoppy aroma but if it's no longer there then I will add a Hop Tea made from 5g of Citra Hops before bottling.

 

[Bigcol49]

I'm hoping that the Citra Hops give the brew a fairy hoppy aroma but if it's no longer there then I will add a Hop Tea made from 5g of Citra Hops before bottling.

Hi!
Let us know whether you get the hop aroma from the flameout hops.

 

[Clint]

Today was our day of nice weather.....shmbo decided on a half day so got caught up in stuff.....brewing tomorrow.....I’m indoors so it can do what it likes.....although I haven’t decided what to brew yet...

 

[Dutto]

Hi!
Let us know whether you get the hop aroma from the flameout hops.

Will do!

Today was our day of nice weather.....shmbo decided on a half day so got caught up in stuff.....brewing tomorrow.....I’m indoors so it can do what it likes.....although I haven’t decided what to brew yet...

For me, despite it being winter and my normal swing towards milds and stouts, I was getting fed up with the taste of chocolate so the last three brews have all been pale coloured!:wave:Many years ago, I read that at least 50% of what you "taste" is governed by what you "see", be it in a glass or on a plate; and I tend to agree with them!

 

[Dutto]

Well, that's the boil stage finished and it's now in the FV and I am waiting for the first "Glub!"

Slight variation was with steeping the Citra Hops. After the 10 minute steep, they were giving off such a wonderful citrus smell that I wrung them out and dunked them back in again a couple of times. The citrus aroma was still there after cooling so maybe it will still be there after fermentation.

OG 1.051 as per the photograph.



And this is a Dutto style "Rolling Boil", which is probably why I lose up to 7 litres at the boil stage and why I boil the wort outside!