EightAce Brewdays - 1) Sitra

[Eight Ace]

So after a few failures with kits I'd decided after a break to go back in with an AG recipe pack - BrewUk's Sitra. Armed with my newly acquired 2nd hand Cygnet boiler I finally had the time to do this on the hottest day of the year.



Grainbill of 4.3kg MO. 0.3kg Munich and 125g Cara. Mashed with 16l at about 65°c. After 75 minutes and littleun safely off with the in-laws it's time to crack open a beer and get to work!

First runnings collected 10l, far less than planned. After adding sparge water I quickly treated another 4 litres to plonk in at the end. Sparge seemed to be a success though and 26 litres of wort sat proudly in the boiler.



20g of Citra in to start and so far things were going swimmingly. Halfway through and the boiler cuts out. First time this has happened (test runs all went okay), probably down to the heat. Nevermind, peco boiler will sort it. Except it didn't seem to want to work either!

In this time and empty again the Cygnet was back up and running. So for the second time a transferred scalding wort from one to the other. Panic over, all sorted. Except ***** here forgot to unplug the peco, which had decided to spring into life, with nothing in it . Cue a mad dash to switch it off, throw water in and wince as the bottom almost melted through.



The good news was the rest of the boil was painless. (25g Simcoe and 15g Citra added at the end of the boil). As wase chilling and adding to the fermenter. 20l collected and MJ M44 US West Coast pitched at 24°c to hopefully ferment at 20°c in the spare room. Currently it's in the bath though


Ignoring the boiler mishap this went pretty well for my first AG in a while. A proper mash tun will probably be acquired alongside a digital thermometer to improve things though. Onwards and upwards!

 

[An Ankoù]

Sounds like a fun brew-day.
I used to use Berko boilers with the exposed "butterfly" elements. Excellent boilers until you used seeded hops as the seeds would fall through the perforated false bottom (hop strainer) and clog the element so that it would cut out. So I know how frustrating that can be when you're trying to get a good rolling boil on.

 

[Eight Ace]

Annoying isn't it . Especially when you're limited in time! Still not sure if it's the boiler or the extension lead that had enough of the heat. But it all worked out alright in the end

 

[Eight Ace]

Well, 8 days in and looks like we're done just about. Currently 1.010 with a target fg of 1.011.

Sample was rather cloudy, bitter, and definite green apple tinge. Could be down to age or could be down to fv hitting towards 25°c at one point. It's now in a newly acquired beer fridge so hopefully no more hiccups!

Will throw 30g of Citra in on Tues before cold crashing and racking to bottle Saturday.

 

[Eight Ace]

Well, we have 34 bottles now sitting and waiting to carb and condition. Sadly I don't have much hope for this one. Hit planned fg of 1.009 but taste was grim, and no hop coming through. Likelihood is the high fermentation temp in the first few days killed it. But let's give it a month and we'll see if anything changes.

On the plus side, the process of brewing and bottling is getting tighter. And I have some free time coming up and everything for a cascade Smash (albeit with Columbus to bitter). We go again!

 

[Eight Ace]

Well, with my first beer currently in stasis in the vague hope that it becomes drinkable I was a little short of supplies. Luckily, possibly because I'd figured things would go wrong, I'd bought enough extras for another brew. And I had a few hours spare! So onto brew no 2.........

Few changes in method this time. After nuking my peco boiler last time out I was short of a mash/liquer tun. So BIAB it is! Secondly I had acquired a lovely brew fridge so will have no more fermentation issues. So what's on the menu?

30l water treated with 25m CRS and 4g Gypsum.
4kg MO
15g Columbus 60m
20g Cascade 15m
25g Cascade 5m
Mash at 68°c for an hour (16l, was supposed to be 10l but the bag was a little stingy)
Batch sparge with rest.
Boil approx 25l with additions as above et voila!
Pitched Crossmyloof Pia and ferment at 18.5°c.

Did have a few hiccups along the way though. Firstly the BIAB bag wasn't the greatest and to compound it I hadn't secured it properly leaving me swearing repeatedly under my breath as I manoeuvred a bad full of grain and water into position to secure without spilling it everywhere. Secondly the boiler cut out again! However it transpired that this was down to a rather annoying extension lead. Different one attached and problem solved!

Anyway, collected approx 19l (slightly less than planned) and OG of 1.050 (slightly higher than planned). All in all fairly happy with that. Let's hope this pans out better than a few weeks back

 

[Eight Ace]

Just took a reading/tasting.

Looks like we're done as reading is 1.014 which is on the dot. Even better, it actually tastes decent (if a little young). Decent bitterness and clean taste, no issues at all!

Will let the yeast tidy itself up and throw in the 55g of Cascade Wednesday morning, cold crash Friday ready to bottle Saturday. Certainly looking promising!

 

[Eight Ace]

Two updates for the price of one today!

First of all I've opened a bottle of the Sitra batch. Whilst it's cleared up a treat, there's no sign of it getting any better. So the decision has been made to send it down the drain. A moment's silence please........

In better news the MO/Cascade (with Columbus doing the bittering) has been bottled and appears to be a great success! Clean, enough malt coming through, decent bitterness and the Cascade dry hop doing it's job. 15 liters collected in the end.

Just to add, I decided not to rack into a bucket before bottling. I doubt I'll do it again tbh but will see.

Onwards and upwards

 

[Nicks90]

Don't bin it!!!!
Put them in a big IKEA bag and hide them out of sight, out of mind.
Come back to them in 3 months time and you may find it's one of the best brews in the universe.
I chucked all but 10 bottles of a Yorkshire bitter clone that tasted liked TCP. It was really really grim. So bad it was hard to put it near your nose. 3 months later I tried one and it was an astonishing pint. More than a little upset I chucked 30 bottles down the drain.

 

[Eight Ace]

Decided to box them and into the spare room they shall live.

 

[Eight Ace]

Tried the Cascade beer today (well I did try a bottle Sunday but was more than half cut and couldn't actually drink much of it). As a beer it was alright, but as my first successful AG homebrew it was an unqualified success! Carbed nicely but still cloudy (chill haze didn't help). Lovely straw colour, decent bitterness leading into some spicyness before a dank/grassy/floral taste takes over. Not a huge amount of citrus, but luckily I'm a fan of the flavours. And the balance of it is spot on. Just a bit one dimensional which isn't a surprise given it's basically a Smash!

The main thing is getting the process right, which I've achieved. And the recipe will act as a great base for me going forward. All in all pretty chuffed .

I'll take a photo in a week or so in the hope it clears. But aside from cold crashing I did nowt on that front so may not clear. I can live with that though