Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Several of my kegs are getting low now so time to brew another batch or six. First job is to replace the exhausted de-ionisation crystals in the 4th stage of my RO filter. I use colour changing crystals so you can see when they need replacing. When new they are very dark green, almost black. When they need replacing they turn orange. Here’s a picture of the exhausted crystals and what I’m putting in (same stuff).

To replace the crystals, remove the 4th stage, open the top and tip out the old crystals, strip down the components and give them a rinse off. Fill with fresh crystals, reassemble, and refit the 4th stage. Quick and easy. Now for some water for tomorrows brew.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Water is now collected for tomorrows brew. Because I haven’t brewed for about a month (having two weeks in Cyprus), I’ve given everything a rinse through and then circulated Starsan around everything to freshen it up before tomorrows brew.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m postponing todays brewday until tomorrow, I had far too good a day yesterday

A dozen neighbours have reduced stocks by quite a bit, especially the Czech Pilsner so I’ll add that to my brew list. Today we’re at the pub and they have live music so that should be good.

One bit of good news maybe is that I tried that problematic Summer Breeze again yesterday morning and it was actually much better! I’m going to keep it a little longer and see if it improves even more.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yesterday I brewed a spruce beer for the first time. I will also use beer from this batch as my entry for the Reading Amateur Brewers Homebrew Competition, the inspiration for this beer.

I haven’t included pictures from the base brew because more interesting is the seasoning for this brew which you can see here and being added to the hopstand.

Here is 10 seconds of relaxing video watching the hopstand.

I ended up with just short of 20 litres of lovely looking wort with OG =1055, now tucked up in the fermenter.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I brewed another beer yesterday, this time a premium bitter which I’ll be entering into the Great British Beer Festival competition run by CAMRA.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m going to have a day off from brewing today but will prepare for tomorrow’s brewday - Mild.

I’ll then have one more space in my fermentation cabinet for this tranche and I think I’ll fill that with a pale ale.

In a couple of weeks, when my fermentation cabinet is empty again, I need to get another Czech Pilsner on after last weekend and I quite fancy making a Swartzbier

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The mild is brewed and in the fermenter. One more down…

 

[YeastFace]

You are a brewing machine

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

You are a brewing machine

I like beer.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I'm hoping that you have other people who help you drink it too... Otherwise I honestly fear for your liver.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I'm hoping that you have other people who help you drink it too... Otherwise I honestly fear for your liver.

You’re not helping, sending me more beer!

 

[Agentgonzo]

You’re not helping, sending me more beer!

Guilty as charged!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Tomorrow I plan to fill the fourth slot in my fermentation cabinet with a pale ale, @Clint 3C/Pipster pale.

Grains are weighed out and milled, water additions are weighed out, RO water is being prepared. Tonight I’ll put 22 litres of treated water in my boiler and set the timer for 6am.

I think I’ve almost settled on my next batch of 4 brews when the four current brews are ready to keg. I’ll brew a Czech Pilsner, Schwartzbier, Weissbier and the fourth will be another English Bitter or a White IPA or a Summer Breeze…or something!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That’s it! No more brewing for at least a week because my fermentation cabinet is full. The pale ale is done.

I did decide the fourth beer of my next tranche will be an English Bitter because a keg only lasts two or three weeks. I think the bitter might also be the first brew of the tranche.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Today I also cleaned my disconnects and replaced the silicon hose. I love a nice clean hose!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Good morning! First job this morning is cleaning my beer lines before the day heats up. This is because I have to switch off the chiller (or the cleaning solution would freeze in the pipes) and I’m in and out the shed.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

While cleaning the lines I did a bit of a stock take (felt the weight of the kegs!) and I may just have to implement my contingency capacity. I have four empty kegs (actually 3 plus the Summer Breeze which I’ve decided to write-off) and another two kegs that are about to kick - saison and bitter

My contingency capacity is two more fermentation buckets with immersion heaters that I can set up in the garage.

 

[Pennine]

H would you be able to post up your bitter recipe again, apologies I lost the other one when I asked before. I have a bag of flaked barley ready!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

H would you be able to post up your bitter recipe again, apologies I lost the other one when I asked before. I have a bag of flaked barley ready!

Yes of course, here you go…

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/bitter.956/full

 

[Pennine]

Yes of course, here you go…

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/bitter.956/full

Thanks!