Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Any way to purge with CO2 before filling? They definitely go fast!

Yes, you press a red button that allows CO2 into the bottle while you have the bleed valve open. This purges the bottle. You then close the bleed valve and press the red button again to pressurise. Then you open the beer tap and gently open the bleed valve to allow the gas out of the bottle. You can open the bleed valve more or less to control flow.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yesterday I cleaned my beer lines. I’m always happier knowing my beer lines are clean.

Today I bottled some beers to take to homebrew club tonight so if I post at all on the drinking thread tonight it won’t be until later evening. Despite using my itap I managed to stop myself posting another video of the bottles filling . Here’s one of the beers instead.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve been doing a few odd jobs today starting with cleaning out a keg ready for my next beer which I took out of the heated fermentation cabinet and put outside to cold crash in this chilly weather - also fitted a CO2 filled foil balloon in place of the bubble trap to allow for draw back.

Then I filled some bottles for competitions: UK Nationals, Forum comp (Feb), and LAB Open.

Finally I placed an order for some more grain because I want to get another couple of Imperial stouts on the go and they use a lot of grain. One of these will be another batch of the bourbon barrel-aged imperial as that’s all gone, I might post about that in the same thread I used for the first batch

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This morning I dry hopped my fermenting batch of Butterfly Effect IPA and I had planned to keg the batch of Best Bitter I put outside to cold crash yesterday but I think I’ll give it another day.

I now need to think about my next lot of beers because I have several empty kegs and a few more that are below half full. I’m already planning on a couple of imperial stouts and I think I will also brew another bitter, pilsner, DIPA, and maybe a regular strength stout or a Belgian Tripel (or Single)…or a Schwarzbier…or a dark mild… Decisions!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I’m the same regards empties as follows

Empty

1. 50cl brown
2. 50cl clear
3. 33cl brown
4. 50cl swing top
5. 🛢19 L
6. 🛢10 L
7. 🛢 4 L
8. ️ 23 L

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m the same regards empties as follows

Empty

1. 50cl brown
2. 50cl clear
3. 33cl brown
4. 50cl swing top
5. 🛢19 L
6. 🛢10 L
7. 🛢 4 L
8. ️ 23 L

Yep, you need a brewday or six too.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Yep, you need a brewday or six too.

That’s after filling 32 bottles today. You’re right need to get a brew on tomorrow.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

A few days ago I kegged that Best Bitter and my Porter is now ready to keg too. Time to start another batch of brews. I’ve decided I will start with a Pilsner, Bitter, and an Imperial Stout (which will take up two slots in the fermentation cabinet). This imperial will be a bourbon barrel-aged one so I’ll have to get the barrel prepared for that one too.

Tomorrow I will brew the Pilsner and then I’m planning the Bitter on Thursday and the Imperial Saturday (must remember to get those yeast starters under way in time ).

Before all of that I want to do a deep clean on my grain basket, pipes, pump, and plate chiller. I’ll get that done while collecting the RO water for tomorrows brew.

All done now. All went well with one small exception, I reassembled the pump and put it on the worktop right next to an o-ring that should have been inside the pump. D’oh!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That’s the Pilsner in the fermentation cabinet with no dramas. I might keg the porter tomorrow.

 

[Wigglebutts Brewery]

@Hazelwood Brewery I just read the thread on last years imperial stout, did you finish it over the holidays? Great story, would you consider the 600ml bourbon as the amount for the next version?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

@Hazelwood Brewery I just read the thread on last years imperial stout, did you finish it over the holidays? Great story, would you consider the 600ml bourbon as the amount for the next version?

Yes, I would. Initially I thought it was too much but after a while the flavours mellowed.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yesterday I kegged my latest batch of porter and something isn’t quite right, it was a bit slow through fermentation and finished a few points high - even after another week in the fermenter. My regular recipes are all pretty consistent so this is unusual, the only thing I know was different was the Maris Otter malt. THBC ran out of my regular MO so I bought some generic MO from them. This really shouldn’t make much of a difference though so I’m not entirely convinced. I use 2 packs of yeast in a 20 litre batch too so it’s not as if I’m under pitching.

Tomorrow I’ll be brewing another batch of my Best Bitter because you just can’t have too much. I’ll be using the same MO malt as I used in the porter. To make matters worse THBC ran out of Liberty Bell yeast so I only have 1 pack. No matter, I’ll make a starter to build up the cell count…

1 litre of boiling water in a jug
Whisk in 220g light DME
Add another 2 litres tap water

This gives me 3 litres of 1030 wort at 30C. Half goes in a 2-litre lemonade bottle with the packet of yeast. Later I’ll tip off the spent wort and add the other half of the fresh wort. It’ll be good for tomorrow.

Now, one more thing worthy of note. I store my grain in large buckets with tight fitting lids - one sack of grain fills two buckets. As the second bucket gets low I order another sack, fill the empty bucket, tip whatever’s left of the old stock on top, and then fill the other bucket. This has been good up to now. This morning though I found a nasty mildew residue in an empty bucket (it has been sat a while but did have the lid on). A new lesson for me - wash out the buckets every time before reusing them even if they look clean.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Why do you use two packs of yeast for 20 litres?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Why do you use two packs of yeast for 20 litres?

To get the cell count where I want it, one pack might be a bit marginal.

You need about 5 billion cells per litre of wort (up to about 1050) so for 20 litres you need 100 billion cells. Admittedly this is for harvested yeast rather than fresh yeast (which has better viability) so I might be overstating the requirement a little but I’d rather over pitch than under.

The data sheet for Liberty Bell yeast says there is something over 5 billion cells per gram of yeast so assuming the worst a 10g pack will contain 50 billion cells.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I’ve never used more than one on ales, never made a starter, just open the packet and sprinkle the yeast. Works every time.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve never used more than one on ales, never made a starter, just open the packet and sprinkle the yeast. Works every time.

It will still work if you under-pitch but you are more likely to get esters and phenols through stressed yeast. If you’re happy with the results there’s obviously no need to change what works for you.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I got that Best Bitter brewed today and as usual with this well rehearsed recipe the brewday was uneventful and I hit all the numbers. The yeast starter built nicely yesterday and overnight as you see below.

I now have 21 litres of best bitter wort fermenting in the fermentation cabinet.

 

[brewhaha]

I got that Best Bitter brewed today and as usual with this well rehearsed recipe the brewday was uneventful and I hit all the numbers. The yeast starter built nicely yesterday and overnight as you see below.
View attachment 81406

I now have 21 litres of best bitter wort fermenting in the fermentation cabinet.
View attachment 81407

Out of interest, what temperature have you got your cabinet at in order to ferment a pilsner & ales?

Very jealous of the cabinet by the way!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Out of interest, what temperature have you got your cabinet at in order to ferment a pilsner & ales?

Very jealous of the cabinet by the way!

It’s 19C. For the Pilsner I’m using Californian Lager Yeast which ferments at ale temperatures.

 

[brewhaha]

It’s 19C. For the Pilsner I’m using Californian Lager Yeast which ferments at ale temperatures.

Ah I see. How do you find it compares to a traditional lager yeast?