Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

My next 2 brews. Already have an IPA conditioning but have taken a liking to them.

I'm going to brew my first bitter tomorrow. Was planning on trying the Greg Hughes Yorkshire bitter, have you ever tried it ?

No sorry, I’ve never brewed any GH recipe as it happens.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Todays brew-day (bitter) has not started as well as I’d intended. To clean my grain mill I opened up the rollers and guess what, I forget to reset the gap. Not noticing the grain crush was very coarse I’m now having to mash for probably a couple of hours rather than one. I’m not sure how I missed it except to say I don’t think I’ve ever had an issue with my crush and so just wasn’t taking any notice.

Perhaps I need a set of SOPs

 

[Leon103]

My next task was to clean all my beer lines, which I’ve decided will be done every two weeks in line with best practice. It’s at times like this having 7 taps is a bit of a chore!

View attachment 64210 View attachment 64211

For each tap, hook over a bucket, remove the gas and beer line from the keg and connect them to the bottle of cleaner. Open the tap and let the cleaner flow, leave it for a while to work on anything not immediately cleaned out. Here, all 7 beer lines are full of cleaner.

View attachment 64212
Connect up the water bottle to flush through. At the end of the flush invert the water bottle so gas pushes all the water out the tap leaving the pipe empty. At this point remove the disconnects and give them a boil for a couple of minutes.

View attachment 64213
Refit the disconnects, reconnect the kegs, open the tap to fill the line with beer. Taste each just to make sure

While I was at it I connected up my new batch of Raspberry Sour. This one used half as much fruit (I though the last batch had too much) and I used pectolase (I thought the last batch was too murky). I thought the new batch was better and it was clear. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture but I did bottle some for someone so I can show you that…
View attachment 64214

I need to improve my line cleaning regime. Which cleaner do you use and where do you get the connectors for the bottles?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The beer line cleaner is this one:

https://www.buzzcateringsupplies.com/entirepro-purple-beer-line-cleaner-5-litre.html
I deleted my records but I think I bought the carbonation caps from BKT:

https://brewkegtap.co.uk/collections/gas-co2-equipment/products/carbonation-cap-tee-piece-kit

 

[Leon103]

The beer line cleaner is this one:

https://www.buzzcateringsupplies.com/entirepro-purple-beer-line-cleaner-5-litre.html
I deleted my records but I think I bought the carbonation caps from BKT:

https://brewkegtap.co.uk/collections/gas-co2-equipment/products/carbonation-cap-tee-piece-kit

Thanks. I think I will try aliexpress fr the tee piece, not paying £15

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks. I think I will try aliexpress fr the tee piece, not paying £15

I bought it from BKT at the same time as other stuff. Do be careful though you need two carbonation caps plus a tee-piece per bottle.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Well the brew-day became something of a marathon after messing up my grain crush. The mash ended up taking 4 hours rather than the usual 1. The beer finished 1 point down in the fermenter but that’s within usual tolerance so I’m happy enough with the final product if not the time it’s taken!

Next week: Mild and a Wheat beer

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just kegged the West Coast IPA and it was the muckiest brew I’ve ever made. Even in the glass it looks grubby and didn’t taste or smell as good as I’d hoped. Obviously it hasn’t conditioned yet so who knows, maybe it will be amazing given a little time. If it doesn’t I’ll be assigning this one to Room101.

 

[St00]

You never know, it could turn out to be the best beer you've ever made. All of my American IPAs veer towards the West Coast, definitely my most brewed style. Are you fining in the keg?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

You never know, it could turn out to be the best beer you've ever made. All of my American IPAs veer towards the West Coast, definitely my most brewed style. Are you fining in the keg?

Fingers crossed! No, I’m not fining. I did use half a protofloc in the kettle. Most of the muck came from dry hopping and will hopefully settle out over a week or two.

Don’t have these problems with bitters or mild!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Fingers crossed! No, I’m not fining. I did use half a protofloc in the kettle. Most of the muck came from dry hopping and will hopefully settle out over a week or two.

Don’t have these problems with bitters or mild!

I fine mild with fag ash

 

[Clint]

I work we have "visitor parking". If any shopfloor workers park in them,even if all 10 spaces are empty we have the people with not enough to do come round pointing out we shouldn't be parked there.
Unless you are someone who doesn't work on the shopfloor then it's OK...blah,blah, blah.
Boils my pi55!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I work we have "visitor parking". If any shopfloor workers park in them,even if all 10 spaces are empty we have the people with not enough to do come round pointing out we shouldn't be parked there.
Unless you are someone who doesn't work on the shopfloor then it's OK...blah,blah, blah.
Boils my pi55!

I love you @Clint but wasn’t expecting this post on my brew-day thread. I imagine the cat has left the vicinity until it’s safe to return!

 

[samale]

I work we have "visitor parking". If any shopfloor workers park in them,even if all 10 spaces are empty we have the people with not enough to do come round pointing out we shouldn't be parked there.
Unless you are someone who doesn't work on the shopfloor then it's OK...blah,blah, blah.
Boils my pi55!

Funny that's the same in My work place.

 

[Clint]

I love you @Clint but wasn’t expecting this post on my brew-day thread. I imagine the cat has left the vicinity until it’s safe to return!

Hmm...I'm sure I posted that in the parking thread...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I brewed the Mild today as planned. An entirely uneventful brew-day and 20 litres of a nice looking wort tucked up in the fermenter. OG is 1040.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I was planning to brew a wheat beer next but I had a bottle of Hoegaarden and that’s put me right off a Wit. I do have a few bottles of Weissbier that will satisfy any short-term hankering for wheat.

I also won’t be brewing now until next week because I have a couple of funerals to attend.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Curiosity got the better of me and I just retried my West Coast IPA - well it’s been 3 days dammit!

It looks almost as murky I’d say but is actually just a tad more clear than it looks in the picture. Aroma and flavour are not so far from many commercial NEIPAs but at this point it’s lacking the clean taste I’m looking for. Patience…

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

In last months competition I submitted two beers; raspberry sour and saison.

Feedback on the raspberry sour was that it was a good beer but would have got a couple more points with a bit more fruit. I need to decide who I’m brewing this for because I prefer a bit less fruit, everyone else seems to prefer a bit more. D’oh!

Aroma 8/12
Appearance 3/3
Flavour 16/20
Mouthfeel 4/5
Overall 7/10
Total 38/50

The saison fell foul of my old nemesis, bottle carbonation. The feedback was that the flavours were all spot on but the beer was let down because of low carbonation which of course impacts every score category. I may need to bottle some beers routinely just to get more practice because all beers are bottled for comps and swaps so if I can’t get that right I’m doomed (that might be a bit dramatic ).

Aroma 8/12
Appearance 2/3
Flavour 15/20
Mouthfeel 2/5
Overall 6/10
Total 33/50

 

[Leon103]

In last months competition I submitted two beers; raspberry sour and saison.

Feedback on the raspberry sour was that it was a good beer but would have got a couple more points with a bit more fruit. I need to decide who I’m brewing this for because I prefer a bit less fruit, everyone else seems to prefer a bit more. D’oh!

Aroma 8/12
Appearance 3/3
Flavour 16/20
Mouthfeel 4/5
Overall 7/10
Total 38/50

The saison fell foul of my old nemesis, bottle carbonation. The feedback was that the flavours were all spot on but the beer was let down because of low carbonation which of course impacts every score category. I may need to bottle some beers routinely just to get more practice because all beers are bottled for comps and swaps so if I can’t get that right I’m doomed (that might be a bit dramatic ).

Aroma 8/12
Appearance 2/3
Flavour 15/20
Mouthfeel 2/5
Overall 6/10
Total 33/50

Perhaps bottle condition the saison- well a few bottles for comps and swaps