Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

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The mash is on. Pilsner and Vienna malts, and oats. Also 30g of high alpha hops in the mash to complex metal ions.

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Some more pictures and info on this brew. The gravity at the end of the mash was 1.060 and pre-boil is 1.048. I’m now heating the wort for the boil. Pictures show…

The grain and mash hops at the end of the mash. Clarity of the wort is improved by recirculating the wort through the grain.
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The colour of the wort at the end of the mash.
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In this picture I’ve just batch sparged and was waiting for the grain to drain.
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Finally for now, the pre-boil pH which should ideally be between 5.2 and 5.6. This brew is right on target at 5.41.
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The brew is boiled and chilled and now resting before it goes in the fermenter.

The post-boil pH was 5.02 so is just inside the preferred range of 5.0-5.2. I’m happy with that because a pH of 5.0 is good for hazy hoppy beers.
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This beer has a large (150g) hopstand addition for 30 minutes.
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Here you see the recirculation I’m using to keep the wort moving and hopefully extract as much glavour as I can from those hops.


A bit later I’ll post the transfer to the fermenter where I’ll be adding dry hops from the start.
 
Question if I may. Are the hopstand hops loose or contained and what temperature? Are you dry hopping before fermentation to avoid the perils of oxidation from adding hops towards the end of fermentation? We'll have to wait and see but do you think dry hopping a large quantity of hops for a long time will effect the bitterness? Thinking ahead, have you a cunning plan for "oxygen free" transfer?
 
Question if I may. Are the hopstand hops loose or contained and what temperature? Are you dry hopping before fermentation to avoid the perils of oxidation from adding hops towards the end of fermentation? We'll have to wait and see but do you think dry hopping a large quantity of hops for a long time will effect the bitterness? Thinking ahead, have you a cunning plan for "oxygen free" transfer?
The hops are in a bag, you can see the bag in the video clip. Temperature is 158F (70C).

I’m dry hopping from day 0 because this encourages haziness to develop and because I want to take advantage of any bio-transformation these hops and this yeast offers. There should be reatively little bitterness from dry hopping.

No, no cunning plan for the transfer, just mash hopping to reduce dissolved oxygen, gentle handling to minimise any oxygen getting into the beer, and a few grams of ascorbic acid to scavenge any that does. Also, of course, drink the bugger quickly! 😂
 
The beer is in the fermentation cabinet now, 22 litres with an OG of 1.056 so 2 points lower than designed but that’s good enough for a first brew of a new recipe. This brew will sit in the fermentation cabinet at about 18C for 12 days.

In this picture I’ve added the dry hops to the fermenter (I also added 25g of Vista that weren’t on the recipe sheet - just a whim). I’ve also sprinkled in the yeast.
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Here you see the wort going into the fermenter. The colour is good and it’s even looking hazy at this point!😂
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The next update on this one will be at kegging.
 
Other tips for success with a NEIPA would be to monitor you PH’s. Mash should be 5.2-5.3 at 20 degrees C. Pre-boil 5-5.1, post boil 4.9-5.05, sparge 5.5-6, post ferment 4.3, post dry hop 4.5-4.8.
 
The day has come to keg my NEIPA. The colour doesn’t look too bad and the beer is certainly hazy at the moment. It finished at 1010 giving me an abv of 6.0%. The aroma was good and fruity and the taster I had was similarly fruity, tropical rather than citrus. Although the finish is quite dry there’s a slight sweetness that accentuates the fruity flavours. I had intended to add some keg hops but because the aroma is good I haven’t put any hops in the keg. As the beer conditions I’ll review this decision and add some if I think I need to.
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I’ve had a busy couple of days brewing. Yesterday, in between taking our grand-children to lunch and ferrying them around, I brewed another batch of my Pirate Pale - this batch to go in a corny keg. Today I’ve already brewed another batch of my Full English Bitter and I’ve got the mash on for a batch of my 49’er Porter. It did well in the UK Nationals with 3rd place and received very complimentary feedback about the flavours but the judges thought it could do with a bit more body - the FG was 1.024 so I wonder if this was more a perception of low alkalinity/minerals giving a poor mouthfeel. Looking at the water profile now it’s all wrong, I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I’m updating the recipe sheet with an inspirational glass of the porter I entered in the nationals.

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It’s been in the keg 9 days now so time to try that 6% NEIPA. The colour is good and there’s clearly no oxidation at this point because the beer is clean and bright. The head was just a touch lively but settled down after a couple of minutes. The aroma is nice with tropical fruit notably pineapple, mango, and orange, maybe a hint of something fresh like passion fruit. The flavour mimics the aroma and there is a little sweetness as you swallow the beer but this then dries and zesty orange takes over before the beer dries out completely leaving a soft zesty bitterness. An attractive and nice tasting beer so far. Pictures show the beer immediately after pouring and a couple of minutes later when the head settled.

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