Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

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A few days ago I carried out a caustic clean on my plate chiller and found it to be very much better than my usual sodium percarbonate (oxy) clean. As I don’t have a brew day today I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a full caustic clean of my boiler, grain basket, taps, filters, hoses, and the plate chiller again. Not much muck this time round but a renewed sense of cleanliness and a brighter shine on my kit. I ran the caustic cycle for 4 hours, rinsed, ran an acid cycle for an hour, and then a couple of rinses to finish.

I don’t know if this will have any impact on my beers but maybe time will tell.
Would love to know more details, if possible
 
Would love to know more details, if possible
Hi Leon. Sure. This is my setup, inside the boiler is my grain basket. I set up a simple circulation from the boiler through the pump, plate chiller, and back to the boiler via the spray nozzle in the lid of my boiler.
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I put 10 litres of cold water in the boiler and heated it to 60C using the boilers own heating element and then added 200g sodium hydroxide. Left it circulating for 4 hours and I opened, and part opened the taps periodically to get into the ball joint. Emptied, rinsed and then filled the boiler with another 10 litres of cold water which I treated with Starsan to give an acid wash. This isn’t the best acid but it’s what I had to hand and was a bit of a faff because of all the foaming. A wash and a rinse later and all is done.

Anything else you wanted to ask about?
 
…if you didn’t see my post about cleaning my plate chiller…

I thought this might be of interest. I’ve just finished a batch of brews and now deep cleaning some of the more troublesome kit, in particular my plate chiller. This is a sealed unit so there’s no way to get inside and it utilises very thin passageways for the wort (and cooling water) to navigate. Clearly this is a good candidate for a build up of protein clumps and hop debris.

I’ve already flushed this through from both directions with hot water for several minutes.

I’ve already circulated and soaked everything in a hot strong oxy solution.

Now I’m flushing through some sodium hydroxide (caustic soda / lye)…

View attachment 88491
 
Hi Leon. Sure. This is my setup, inside the boiler is my grain basket. I set up a simple circulation from the boiler through the pump, plate chiller, and back to the boiler via the spray nozzle in the lid of my boiler.
View attachment 88756
I put 10 litres of cold water in the boiler and heated it to 60C using the boilers own heating element and then added 200g sodium hydroxide. Left it circulating for 4 hours and I opened, and part opened the taps periodically to get into the ball joint. Emptied, rinsed and then filled the boiler with another 10 litres of cold water which I treated with Starsan to give an acid wash. This isn’t the best acid but it’s what I had to hand and was a bit of a faff because of all the foaming. A wash and a rinse later and all is done.

Anything else you wanted to ask about?
Thanks. Is 4 hours the recommended length or could I do it for less?
 
I’ve had quite an eventful day today. It all started with me thinking it’s two weeks today since I cleaned my beer lines so that’s my job for today.

I got as far as my first round and the keg of stout. When I unplugged the beer ball-lock I and the entire inside of the brew shed got sprayed in stout 🤬. See if you can spot the problem here…
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The o-ring that seals around the poppet was pushed out through the hole allowing stout at 40psi to escape. Every item and every surface, including the ceiling, got sprayed. I spent a good deal of today clearing everything out of the brew shed and cleaning up the mess. Everything is back to normal now and I have managed to clean my beer lines but I learned another lesson today (so many lessons) - I need to blow the PRV before pulling the ball-lock off my nitro beers.

Back to something more positive, I put two new kegs of beer on tap after cleaning my lines; German lager and that bitter where I forgot the protofloc. I’m pleased to say both taste good and the bitter is almost crystal clear. I expect you’ll see me on the other channel very soon with a bigger glass.
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Today I packed up my beers for the Anglian competition, replaced the deionisation crystals in my RO machine, kegged two beers (Pirate Pale and Pipster Pale), and prepared for a brewday tomorrow now I have space in the fermentation cabinet. I’ll be brewing another batch of bitter. Pictures below are the two beers kegged today Pirate (top) and Pipster.

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Another batch of bitter brewed today. The Schwarz can come out from tomorrow but I might just leave it there a day or two longer as I have space and we’re going to Norfolk for a couple of days. Tomorrow though I will be brewing another batch of my Pirate Pale to fill that empty space on the top shelf. 😉

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This morning I kegged a dry cider. It finished at 1.002 for an ABV of 6.0% so I guess that qualifies as a dry cider.
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I intend to keep this as a plain dry apple cider and add sweetening or flavours at the point of serving so I can get many variants from just one keg. I can add a little lactose/glucose to make the cider medium or sweet and I have all the most popular flavourings: elderflower, cherries & berries, toffee apple, mango & apple, blackcurrant.
 
The saison brewday is done and I have 21 litres looking a bit lonely in the fermentation cabinet. All went without a hitch - apart from the weather of course 😉.
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I’ve also prepared the grist and water ready for tomorrows brew of a Belgian single. I’m going to call it a day and have a beer, see you on the other channel.
 
I just finished my brewday and 21 litres of Belgian Single are in the fermentation cabinet keeping the Saison company.
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Tomorrow I’ll be brewing another batch of my Pirate pale. I had thought I might brew a Bitter but the Pirate pale got more of a hammering at the weekend so I’ll brew the bitter in tranche 2. The water and grist are prepared so time to “clock off”.
 
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Third brewday complete and another slot filled in the fermentation cabinet.
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I’ve also prepared for tomorrows brewday but in a bit of a twist I’m brewing the bitter in place of the porter because I discovered I don’t have enough brown malt - essential for the porter. The porter will now have to go into tranche 2.
 

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