Dutto's Brew Day

[GerritT]

Happy 2018 @Dutto Just dryhopped my Dutto ESB, smell was already incredible!

 

[Dutto]

Yesterday our visitors from Glasgow arrived at 2pm and were showed the selection of beers available on this visit.

By 4.30pm I suggested that Roy might like to go easy on the Vienna Lager (4.5% ABV) and Coopers Stout (5% ABV): taken with whisky chasers ... :thumb:

... and at 7.30pm he fell into bed! :lol: :lol:

Today we stuck to the Golden Pumpkin Ale at 3% ABV, cut back on the whisky chasers and he retired at the respectable time of 11.30pm. :lol:

The GPA isn't crystal clear and has had nowhere near enough time to be "conditioned"; but it is still very tasty! :thumb:

 

[pms67]

Welcome back bud 👍

 

[Dutto]

I got another Brew Fridge today, for FREE! :thumb:

Obviously, it doesn't work as a fridge so I will fit a small heater in the bottom and use it for fermentation and carbonation only.

I picked it up from North Shore Caravan Site here in Skegness. If anyone local requires a broken Brew Fridge they still have a few left. :thumb:

 

[Clint]

If we didn't know you so well Dutto there would be concerns about the half one in the morning fridge wrangling.....

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
A nice Winter fermentation cabinet. Well spotted, that man.

 

[Dutto]

It rained all day today and tomorrow I have to take a neighbour to hospital, so I changed my normal routine.

To keep myself out of the rain I confined today's activities to the garage and carried out the Measuring, Milling, Mashing and Yeast Starter. Tomorrow, I intend to do the rest of the operation as per the attached Plan.

It's another AG Mild Ale as follows:

INGREDIENTS
1.50kg Maris Otter Malt
0.30kg Chocolate Malt
1.50kg Caramel Malt
2.0kg Crystal Malt
0.4kg Dark LME
20g EKG Whole Leaf
20g Perle Whole Leaf
Wilco Ale Yeast
Yeast Nutrient
15g Perle Whole Leaf for Hop Tea after fermentation.

15th January
Preparation
Begin Wilco Ale Yeast Starter
Mill 1.50kg of Maris Otter Malt
Mill 0.30kg of Chocolate Malt
Mill 1.50kg of Caramel Malt
Mill 2.0kg of Crystal Malt

Mash & Sparge
Strike Water = 14 litres at 78 degrees (2.6ltr/kg)
Mash at 65 to 70 degrees for one hour
Sparge water = 80 degrees
Sparge at one litre per minute
Stop sparge when Boiler at 30 litres

16th January
Preparation
Add 0.4kg of LME to wort
Prepare 20g EKG Whole Leaf
Prepare 20g Perle Whole Leaf
Put out Yeast Nutrient

Boil
Boil wort with 20g of EKG Bittering Hops in bag for 60 minutes
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for 10 minutes
Add 20g of Perle Aroma Hops in bag at Flameout

Wait for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally

Cool
Cool to 20 degrees and whirlpool
Run off into FV and add 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient
Pitch Yeast Starter and ferment at 20 degrees

Before bottling add Hop Tea prepared from 15g of Perle Whole Leaf Hops

Just checked the recipe on Brewers Friend. After adding the LME and reducing the EKG the recipe ticks most of the boxes for a Mild Ale.

 

[IainM]

Wow. That is a lot of caramel/crystal. I'm interested to hear how this turns out.

 

[Dutto]

Wow. That is a lot of caramel/crystal. I'm interested to hear how this turns out.

:laugh:
I agree!

Maybe I should have pointed out that it's a "Brew to use up stuff that is out of date!" but by adding the LME it actually brings it into the Mild Ale category; a beer that I particularly like in winter!

Here's hoping! :thumb:

 

[Zephyr259]

Woah! I'd thought the same when I saw 1.5 kg of caramel, then I saw 2kg of crystal... Going to be a very interesting brew. :-)

 

[Dutto]

That was interesting. :laugh:
I set off to make a Mild Ale but, according to BrewersFriend, the results show that I achieved a 75% efficiency which has resulted in a "Robust Porter"! Here are the FINAL stats (and why they changed from plan A):

INGREDIENTS
1.50kg Maris Otter Malt
0.30kg Chocolate Malt
1.50kg Caramel Malt
2.0kg Crystal Malt
0.3kg LME (Should have been 0.4kg but it was so damned cold it wouldn't pour out of the jar!)
30g EKG Whole Leaf (Discovered that 30g was all that I had that was already opened.)
20g Perle Whole Leaf
Wilco Ale Yeast
Yeast Nutrient

BOIL & COOL
It took only 50 minutes to bring the wort from 10 degrees to boiling with an ambient temperature or 5 degrees and high winds!
Boiled for 60 minutes with 30g of EKG Leaf Bittering Hops. (During the boil I "lost" almost eight litres of liquid! That new burner is working a treat!)
Added Protafloc tablet and boiled for 10 minutes. This resulted in very little flocculation!
Added 20g of Perle Hop Leaf Aroma Hops for 10 minutes at Flameout.
Cooled to 20 degrees with immersion cooler. (Again, very little flocculation!)

Ran off 22 litres into FV and took OG at 1.059. (It tasted superb at this stage! Here's hoping!)
Added 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient and pitched yeast. Currently fermenting at 20 degrees.

With an OG of 1.059 and being Mashed at 65 degrees the ABV should be somewhere about 6.5% or it may be a bit sweeter and stop fermenting that bit higher.

Any ideas on why so little flocculation?

PS
I regard BrewersFriend as my "go to" site for every experimental brew and I am constantly amazed at how many beers and lagers there are and how a good search of what's available can result in a brew that ticks all the boxes for a particular style.

Amazing! I've never made a Robust Porter before! :UKflag:

 

[Zephyr259]

When you say little flocculation, do you normally see an effect when you add the protafloc? I used coarse irish moss which i believe is essentially the same stuff and I never notice anything obvious during the boil. There's always a heap of gunky hops and protein left behind though, I guess these additives work by flocculating the proteins so they drop out but I've not seen it visibly.

 

[Clint]

Sounds quite delightful! I thought flocculation was the drop out of the yeast after fermentation. .....
As for getting out of the jar....a recently boiled kettle.....??
I do like a porter though!

 

[Dutto]

When you say little flocculation, do you normally see an effect when you add the protafloc? I used coarse irish moss which i believe is essentially the same stuff and I never notice anything obvious during the boil. There's always a heap of gunky hops and protein left behind though, I guess these additives work by flocculating the proteins so they drop out but I've not seen it visibly.

I usually see flocculation in the boil itself shortly after stirring in the Protafloc; and even more after cooling. Because I don't use a filter I normally whirlpool the wort after cooling and let it stand for ten minutes before draining it to the FV. This time there was virtually nothing in the bottom of the boiler! Weird!

Sounds quite delightful! I thought flocculation was the drop out of the yeast after fermentation. .....
As for getting out of the jar....a recently boiled kettle.....??
I do like a porter though!

Normally, there's a shedload of tiny proteins contained in the boiled wort and products such as Protafloc (an Irish Moss derivative) clump the fine lumps together so that they can be removed before transferring the wort to an FV. Removing them at this stage apparently aids the clearing process curing conditioning.

This is the first time I've seen so little in the boiler! Weird!

BTW, I did throw the Protafloc into the wort and stir it in as per my normal practice. (It being a possibility that I have already discounted!) :thumb:

 

[Zephyr259]

Very strange, maybe a side effect of having so little base malt? Not sure how much protein crystal malts have. I wouldn't see any flocculation as with the GF there's always an amount of grain that seems to get through the base plate and into the boil, I always hope it's mostly hot break but doesn't seem to impact the beer.

 

[Dutto]

Quick Update - my Robust Porter is "glubbing" away nicely at 20 degrees in the new Brew Fridge! :thumb:
I was worried that the lack of flocculation would cause a huge krausen (with the usual overflow), but so far I can only see a 1cm line of it through the side of the FV so "Here's hoping!" :thumb:.

 

[Dutto]

Remember this from the 1st of January?

................

The Oatmeal Stout? Bugger!

I checked it on the 29th expecting it to be ready for bottling and discovered that it was stuck at 1.024. As a "sweet" Oatmeal Stout the Brewers Friend Recipe had predicted an FG of 1.016 but at 1.024 I decided to do the usual. i.e. "Beat it as if it owed me money." and chuck in a packet of Wilco Ale Yeast for good measure.

Sure enough, by the time I had finished tidying up the garage and lifting the Golden Ale out on to the shelf to condition it was "glubbing" away again. :thumb:

I'll leave it for another couple of weeks before checking the SG.
............

Well, here we are THREE WEEKS later and when mashing the Vienna Lager (recipe to follow) today the Oatmeal Stout was still producing a "glub" about once every fifteen minutes!

Despite having the heating pad switched "ON" all the time for the last three days the maximum temperature I've seen is 23 degrees so I deeply suspect that the original problem was that it just wasn't being heated enough on the worktop.

I will leave it a few more days before taking an SG. In the meantime it's back to "Here's hoping."

 

[Ajhutch]

If it's slowly warming up could it just be CO2 coming out of solution rather than a fermentation still going?

 

[Dutto]

If it's slowly warming up could it just be CO2 coming out of solution rather than a fermentation still going?

It's been a long time for CO2 to be coming out. I reckon it's more likely to be a secondary fermentation by something nasty ...

... which is why the "Here's Hoping!" system is in full swing!

 

[Dutto]

Updates:

One
The Robust Porter has really quietened down after seven days. I will check it and see how it's getting along next Tuesday. If it's finished it will go into the King Keg Top-Tap which currently holds the dregs of the Wilco Pilsner with Lowicz Cherry brewed last August.

Two
I decided that I would keep the "Weigh, Mill and Mash" on Day One then "Boil, Cool and Pitch" on Day Two. It makes both days a piece of cake with less of my usual screw-ups!. So over the 21st and 22nd I did a Vienna Lager as follows:
21st January 2018

• Put on a Yeast Starter. (Wilco yeast.)
• Milled and mashed grain.
• Strike water 14 litres at 80 degrees.
• Mashed at 67 degrees for one hour.
• Sparged water at 80 degrees.
• Filled Boiler to 30 litres.

22nd January 2018

• Boiled wort for one hour.
• Added 40g of Hallertau Hops in bag for full 60 minutes.
• Removed hops and added Protafloc Tablet at 60 minutes for 10 minute boil.
• Added 10g of Halertau Hops after 5 minutes of Protafloc boil.
• Flameout. Cooled to 20 degrees & transferred 20 litres of wort to fermentor.
• (Lots of debris in boiler.)
• Added 2 litres of cold water, a teaspoonful of Yeast Nutrient and pitched Wilco Yeast Starter at 21 degrees.
• Fermenting at 19.5 degrees in Fridge 1.
• The OG was 1.056.

After fermentation, Plan A is for it to go into 650ml flip-top bottles, be carbonated for a week at 20 degrees, cold crashed at 1*C for another week and then conditioned on the shelf. I used this method last year. Put on the shelves to condition on 6th April my comment was "Bottles finished by 23rd June 2017. Very nice!":thumb:Three
The Oatmeal Stout is still giving out the odd "glub" so I lifted the FV lid a fraction of an inch and had a good sniff. It smells beautiful.

As I've just finished the Golden Pumpkin Ale (sob! sob!), I will transfer the Oatmeal Stout into the Wilco PB on Wednesday with just 50g of Brewing Sugar. I will then leave the PB on the Heat Pad to carbonate for a couple of weeks before moving it to the shelf for a few more weeks. With a bit of luck it should be ready to drink by mid-March!