Return brew #1
Ok folks been a while since I fired up a boiler and as my BZ gen 4 was untouched by man I thought id give it whirl.
I bought a pile of extra Light DME a while back, and as tI wanted to do a test boil to measure boiloff etc I decided brew 1 would be a extract Pilsner so I bought a pile of Saaz 4.1% AA leaf hops and a packet of novalager.
Recipe and targets from brewfather -
taget 16L into fermenter
target ABV 4.6%
target OG 1.043
Target FG 1.007
IBU 28 ( I dialed it back from original online recipe as Im not a monster hophead )
30 Min boil
2kg Muntons Ultra light DME
45g Saaz 4.1% @30 mins
20g Saaz 4.1% @ 15mins
1/2 a protofloc at 15 Mins
20L of Charcoal filtered tap water treated with 0.3 g of Potasium metabisulphate to remove last of Chloramines.
I added DME to BZ when cold , set it for 70C , lid on with the recirc pump running ( to prevent any scortching of the wort) and left it alone for an hour or so while I did other stuff.
Brought it to a boil, outside it needed 103C to keep a good rolling boil yesterday
Boil and additions went well although I lost pump function ( see below why)
Used the kegland hop spider, with which I was quite impressed.
Cooled to 20C with the BZ immersion chiller which seemed imnpressivley fast, compared to the homemade IC i had back 12 yrs ago .
Lifted her inside and up on the kitchen top to drain to the fermenter ( lost pump function)
Let her sit to settle and pulled some trub and discarded that, then pulled a sample for the hydrometer ( see pic) once trub has settled I was very happy with the word clarity
I ended up with 17L going into fermenter which is accounted for by less boiloff than expected. this gave me a lower OG than expected but its still a healthy enough 1.040
I just added the yeast this morning at 20C and once it starts im going to drop it down to 18C under 12psi pressure.
Pump issue:
After the cleandown I put 10L of cold water in and switched the pump on and I can hear the pump spinning but Im getting no water coming through. .
I stripped the pump this morning and there are no blockages and Impeller is intact. if I turn the impeller I can feel the drag of the motor so it feels like the mag is working.
When I reassembled the BZ the motor is running but the impeller doesnt seem to be spinning.
I have a feeling the motor has broken free from the magdrive. time to contact the seller and Kegland .
Anyway here is a pic of my wort after the trub had settled
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I had a few temp issues during the ferment, lost power on the heatpads, and it dropped from 18C to 15C before I caught it. I tried to take it over 18C when Graivity started to level out but the heatpad wouldnt take the inkpad probe beyond 18C. last two days Iwhen I was trying to take it up to 20C .
At the end of fermentation I ended up with OG 1.040 FG 1.008
The test sample has a lovely colour and looks well carbonated, a bit cloudy but thats to be expected I suppose. The head it produced in the trial jar was a crisp white
I only had a sip from teh trial jar, but it tasted slightly sweet, smelt like lager but not overly so time will tell.
I have been slowly dropping the ambient temp in the room and was down to 12C before she went in the fridge. Set at 8C and ill drop it 1C a day till I reach 2C where it will stay till im happy its ready for the keg
Next update when Its kegged and I have had a good old glug.
Well I couldnt wait and pulled a quick half pint off tonight and all I can say is Its a lovelly pint so far, nice clean and crisp. still a tad cloudy but at 15 days old Im well happy
PS update on the pump,
seems it was faulty from the start. Jonny from BKT sorted me out a replacement in record time. Things will go wrong with kit and its how its gets sorted out that is teh difference between a good eperience and a bad one.. based on this experience BKT turned this from bad to great in a few day.. kudos.
