Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[moto748]

[post deleted]

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I'm sure i read recently that Styrian *was* Bobek? Or, more precisely, that 'Styrian Goldings' was a generic term that included Bobek and a couple of other varieties.

Yes I believe you are right, read that just after I posted my previous post.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This morning I’ve started the mash of “Smooth Operator”, my new nitro stout. The mash is in progress, recirculating to maintain an even temperature. I cold steeped the roast grains and having passed the soup through a sieve I have a beautiful thick black stout cordial!

 

[matt76]

Thanks Matt. I have plenty of PTFE tape so I’ll give it a go if needed. It sounds like I need to get this working reliably with water before I think about using it on my precious beer!

Dunno if you tried this yet, but I kegged a beer yesterday using my filter. A bit of PTFE on the threads worked perfectly and it was a cinch to do it up tight by hand with no leaks PTFE FTW!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Dunno if you tried this yet, but I kegged a beer yesterday using my filter. A bit of PTFE on the threads worked perfectly and it was a cinch to do it up tight by hand with no leaks PTFE FTW!

No, I haven’t used it yet. I didn’t use it on my Pilsner because I want to do some test runs first and that beer needed to be kegged. Thanks for the update though

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The stout is done and in the fermenter, 20 litres, OG 1051. I’ve previously added roast grains at the end of the mash to avoid any “stewed coffee” notes in my stout. I went further this time and cold steeped the roast grains, my thinking here is that even coffee on a hot plate (already separated from the ground beans) can stew. Maybe the stout will be even more smooth with no mash and virtually no boil. We’ll see. This is me adding 3 litres of black gold to my kettle just before flameout.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just kegged another Summer Breeze. No dramas, just as I like it.

Now preparing another keg for my latest bitter, ready to keg from today…

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve got that bitter kegged now. It’s such a reliable beer, I’m looking forward to a few of these when I put it on tap.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m down to my last 5 kegs on tap and I guestimate between 5 and 10 pints are left in each. These are “old stock” now so I want to drink these before I put on the new stock. This will give me 5 kegs. I have two beers fermenting at the moment so that conveniently gives me 3 to brew for and I have 3 planned - perfect!

Next will be another Saison followed by a West Coast IPA and an East Coast IPA. It looks like Tuesday might be the next day with half decent weather.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve got another Saison mashing this morning. Hopefully this one will be my submission to the LAB Open in May.

After brewing that stout I gave everything a thorough clean and even stripped down joints and the pump. The pump was starting to get quite mucky so I think I need to do a strip down a bit more often to maintain that in a gleaming condition. I also replaced the cheap brass ball valve that was fitted to the pump because I was unable to get inside and couldn’t get the ball cavity clean. Nice new stainless one fitted now.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Boil is in progress now. Mash pH was 5.34, pre-boil gravity was 1042 according to my refractometer and the pre-boil volume about 27 litres.

 

[samale]

I’ve got another Saison mashing this morning. Hopefully this one will be my submission to the LAB Open in May.

View attachment 63506 View attachment 63505

After brewing that stout I gave everything a thorough clean and even stripped down joints and the pump. The pump was starting to get quite mucky so I think I need to do a strip down a bit more often to maintain that in a gleaming condition. I also replaced the cheap brass ball valve that was fitted to the pump because I was unable to get inside and couldn’t get the ball cavity clean. Nice new stainless one fitted now.

Looks good my saison is fermenting at the minute. I have just upped the temp to 24

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Looks good my saison is fermenting at the minute. I have just upped the temp to 24

What was your OG and where are you hoping to finish? How many IBUs?

 

[samale]

That's my post I ended up with 20 litres at 1.046. I will brew this again with more pilsner malt so I end up with 6% abv. I am looking to hit 1.002 final gravity

Mashing in a saison. I was a bit light on pilsner malt

2.4kg pilsner
1kg Vienna malt
400g wheat
300g sugar

15g magnum@60mins
20g hallertau blanc@10mins
30g hallertau blanc@flameout
50g hallertau blanc@dryhop

Yeast will be wyeast french saison 3711

I will update later with figures. Hopefully around 1.050 for 20 litres

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I finished with 20 litres in the fermenter at 1050. I’m looking for an FG of about 1004 giving me 6%abv but I’m using Belle Saison so there’s every chance it will end up at 1000 and 6.5%abv!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just kegged my latest Belgian Tripel which after 19 days in the fermenter has reached an FG of 1006. The OG was 1076 so I’m looking at an ABV of 9.2%.

At this stage the aroma and flavour are nice but I won’t know how good a batch this is until the yeast has settled out and the beer has had time to condition. There is two months until the LAB Open competition, hopefully that will be enough.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I recently introduced mixed gas to my setup and because I couldn’t wait to try it I’ve had the gas bottle connected via the primary regulator directly to the corny keg. I wasn’t planning to leave it like this though and today I completed the installation by adding a secondary regulator and a four-way manifold with incorporated non-return valves. I’m feeling better about the installation now I don’t have to worry about filling my regulator with beer!

While I was doing the work I’ve been sampling the beers in the King kegs. The two you see in the picture are my 9.2% vintage ale and 9.8% hazelnut imperial stout, both kegged in December 2020. I’m feeling the benefit already

I also have a King keg behind me with a plum porter (which I also sampled but luckily this is only 4.7%). The porter was kegged in February last year so is just over a year old.

This is a picture of the imperial, it’s starting to mellow at last!

 

[YeastFace]

Has the hazelnut rounded out? I tipped mine away yesterday, hadn't improved much and woll need the kwg soon.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Has the hazelnut rounded out? I tipped mine away yesterday, hadn't improved much and woll need the kwg soon.

Not enough yet but it’s started to soften.

 

[YeastFace]

I admire your patience :)