Effin Bohemian Pilsner - 02 November 2008

[Aleman]

Sometime this weekend I am hoping to brew my Effin Bohemian Pilsner. The obligatory pictures will be forthcoming

 

[Dunfie]

Looking good A. Looking forward to the photos. :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Have a great brew day A :thumb:

 

[Wez]

All the best Aleman :thumb:

 

[BrewStew]

yes mate, have a goddun'! :thumb:

 

[Kingfisher]

Bit like waiting for a royal birth A . Any news yet I'm going to try similar tomorrow using water treatment, as you suggest, for the first time.

 

[Aleman]

Ok, well for once I managed a decent nights sleep, and didn't get the burners on till 06:45, having filled the copper the night before, I had to get the temp up from 6C . . . This is after 10 minutes

Took just over an hour to heat the 35L of strike liquor up to temperature . . . then having transferred it over thought that there was too much So left a few litres behind. . . also got the liquor too hot.

and it took over an hour to cool to the strike temp . .. not that I was bothered, as it made for a relaxing brewday
Here's one of the Pico system all set up to go

And the grain bill . . . all 15 kilos of it is in this grain sack

When I mixed it in, I had a much stiffer mash than I like, but there just wasn't enough room in the tun for any more liquor . . . Before doing another batch I need to commission the 80L thermobox Tun :?

Still Strike Temp was where I wanted it . . .

pH was a bit low at around 5.0

and the temperature is a bit cooler at the top of the tun which favours beta amylase, so I should end up with a nice crisp balanced beer.

 

[A T]

Nice pics Aleman, have a good day :

 

[Kingfisher]

Nice to see you up and running A :thumb: A very impressive set up there :clap: Have a good one.

 

[Wez]

Have a great day Aleman :thumb:

 

[Aleman]

So far things have gone well . . . . . I have managed to crack the carbon seal in my Mash pump, but only lost a couple of hundred ml of wort so that's not really a problem especially as the March May arrived on Friday .

I have 91l of wort at 10.6 Brix so approximately 1.041 which is spot on 75% efficiency, which is what I base my recipes on.

First lot of hops are in (100g of saaz pellets in each fermenter, only around 1.6%aa)

Pictures to follow

 

[Aleman]

OK just to update the thread. This is one of the kettles, just after I started transferring wort from the tun, with the First Wort hops added (100g Saaz Pellets)

So while I was removing wort from the tun, I had to sparge the grain . . for this I use a really hi-tech piece of equipment . . . Note the recirculation Manifold left in place

Estimated that I needed to collect around 90L of wort . . . . which gave me my second problem . . . The coppers only hold 50L max . .. it was a bit full as they came to the boil, I was concerned in case it boiled over.

However, I was fairly lucky, and soon achieved a rolling boil . . . one benefit of FWH it does tend to make boil overs a little less likely

Not to sure about the colour of that wort though, who ever heard of green beer ? :sick: Still this stack of hops is still waiting to go in.

After 90 minutes I cooled the wort in each copper down to 35C . . . Note the formation of a good Hot Break'

and then the brewday was interrupted by the Brazilian Grand Prix, followed by a very nice roast Lamb Henry dinner .. . meant I resumed brewing at around 9 PM, so a quick transfer of the cooled wort (which had dropped to 25C at this time). After transferring the wort to the FV I was left with this

In the copper. However I did get 71L of wort at 12.2 Brix (1.047) in the FV.

Which was well aerated

Unfortunately I just screwed up the Yeast stuff So the wort was left to cool, and this afternoon (almost a whole 24 hours after transferring the wort into the FV) I pitched 125g of Saflager W34/70 yeast in 1.5L of sterile water.

Fermenting Pics will follow

 

[Vossy1]

Gr8 pics A :thumb:
That green boil does look strange :shock:

 

[Aleman]

Well a quick update, After leaving the wort with no yeast pitched for 18 hours They took a bit of time to get working. This is it after 25hours (from pitching)

And here is a close up

This morning (about 39hours after pitching it is fermenting well

And who says Lager yeast doesn't form a thick yeast cap

All you need to do is to pitch sufficient yeast in the first place

 

[MEB]

Great pic's A. Love the brewery. :thumb:

 

[Wez]

Love those pics

 

[jamesb]

Not to sure about the colour of that wort though, who ever heard of green beer ?

More often than you might have thought actually

 

[Aleman]

Well a quick update after 7 Days of fermentation at around 10C

It looks to be finishing, so the temperature controller has been set to 15C (+/- 1C Ish) for a diacetyl rest. . . . . It has fermented quicker than expected (12 Days) but that could be down to the amount of yeast (125g) that was pitched.

 

[Aleman]

9 Days into fermentation and the Gravity is 6.13% Brix (~1.010) I'd say that was done, so today I've started to turn down the temperature from its current 15C (Diacetyl Rest) to ultimately 2C, which will take place over the next couple of days. After a week at 2C It will be racked into a 60L FV for lagering, and a Corny, which will also be laagered . . . but will be used for Quality control, just to see how the main batch is clearing. . . . etc

 

[Aleman]

Happy new year! Following a rebuild on the Kegereezer (TM) The 3 full sized cornii were transferred to ultra low temperature lagering today. They are going to sit at -2ºC for a week or so to really help drop the sediment. Initial taste samples are showing a very bitter beer, but that could well be the result of the high yeast load in the small corny, once the beer has cleared I'll be able to do a definitive taste analysis. At the moment I'm getting an marmalady cooked oranges taste, which could well be from the Pacific Gem hops . . . if that is the case I'll be dropping them from this beer in future, and using just the NZ Saaz