Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[stripeyjoe]

Hi @Hazelwood Brewery,
For your nitro do you use a normal bottle of mixed gas or the little 4g gas canisters? I tried the little canisters but I practically had to use a fresh one with each pour! I think I might need to invest in a proper regulator and a 3 or 6kg bottle...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi @Hazelwood Brewery,
For your nitro do you use a normal bottle of mixed gas or the little 4g gas canisters? I tried the little canisters but I practically had to use a fresh one with each pour! I think I might need to invest in a proper regulator and a 3 or 6kg bottle...

Hi Joe! I use a 6Kg 30/70 mixed gas bottle and the associated mixed gas primary regulator. The investment will soon pay for itself considering the cost of those gas bulbs - your first bottle of gas can be offset against the cost of 1,500 x 4g gas bulbs!

 

[stripeyjoe]

That is true, spend to save as I will tell my better half!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Given that on average I get a brew on every week and I’ve only brewed one beer in 7 weeks it doesn’t take a genius to see I’m heading for a problem if I don’t get back to it asap.

First job is a good clean of my kit after it’s been sitting for several weeks. This is the cleaning setup. Everything gets back-flushed with ball-valves half open to allow access to the void around the ball (a hot-spot for unwanted bugs). I’m using hot sodium percarbonate, heated by the boiler element. A minute of pumping, ten minutes of soaking, repeat for as long as I can be bothered then rinse and flush through with Starsan for a while. There are other bits like hop bag, bazooka, pipes, spoons inside the boiler. After it’s all done I will strip down the pump and give that a clean ready for brewing - maybe tomorrow.

Clean up done and looking shiny and new.

The pump was mucky but also now nice and clean.

Just milled the grain and after replacing the deionisation crystals (the orange colour indicates they need to be changed) I’m collecting some RO water for a brew tomorrow.

This will be another batch of Best Bitter which I will follow with a Brown Ale, a Porter, and something hoppy but not yet decided.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The Best Bitter is now in the fermenter. I quite enjoyed my brewday today and pleasingly hit all the numbers on the nose.

Tomorrow I’ll brew a Brown Ale.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That’s the Brown Ale in the fermenter. This is a new recipe so I’m already keen to try it. OG is 1053 so I’m looking for something around 5%.

Porter next, and this will be another new recipe.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The Porter is done.

My fourth brew was going to be something hoppy but now I’m not sure. I currently have 3 hoppy beers but only 1 bitter so I’m considering getting another bitter brewed. Not decided for sure either way so I might not brew tomorrow while I ponder.

 

[samale]

The Porter is done.
View attachment 78452
My fourth brew was going to be something hoppy but now I’m not sure. I currently have 3 hoppy beers but only 1 bitter so I’m considering getting another bitter brewed. Not decided for sure either way so I might not brew tomorrow while I ponder.

I brewed a porter myself today. I plan to dry hop with some coffee beans. Still haven't work that bit out yet

 

[stripeyjoe]

I plan to dry hop with some coffee beans. Still haven't work that bit out yet

For my clone of Elusive's Spellbinder I just threw in 100g of coffee beans in about the same time as I would normally dry hop. Left them in at 18C for a few days, cold crashed it and racked. This was for a 20l batch. Came out fairly mild in terms of coffee flavour.

 

[stripeyjoe]

Given that on average I get a brew on every week and I’ve only brewed one beer in 7 weeks it doesn’t take a genius to see I’m heading for a problem if I don’t get back to it asap.

First job is a good clean of my kit after it’s been sitting for several weeks. This is the cleaning setup. Everything gets back-flushed with ball-valves half open to allow access to the void around the ball (a hot-spot for unwanted bugs). I’m using hot sodium percarbonate, heated by the boiler element. A minute of pumping, ten minutes of soaking, repeat for as long as I can be bothered then rinse and flush through with Starsan for a while. There are other bits like hop bag, bazooka, pipes, spoons inside the boiler. After it’s all done I will strip down the pump and give that a clean ready for brewing - maybe tomorrow.

The pump was mucky but also now nice and clean.
View attachment 78321 View attachment 78324
View attachment 78322 View attachment 78325
View attachment 78323 View attachment 78327

That's come up lovely and clean, guess I should check my pump!! Do you find you get a dry white deposit after using sodium percarbonate? I use B&M's Oxi powder and get a powdery white deposit after rinsing.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That's come up lovely and clean, guess I should check my pump!! Do you find you get a dry white deposit after using sodium percarbonate? I use B&M's Oxi powder and get a powdery white deposit after rinsing.

I don’t because I rinse with clean tap water. From a toxicity perspective you don’t need to rinse but if you don’t want that powdery residue you do need to rinse. Also note that each of those particles can form a neucleation point if you don’t rinse out your bottles and all those neucleation points could lead to gushers.

 

[stripeyjoe]

Also note that each of those particles can form a neucleation point if you don’t rinse out your bottles

I have to admit I just rinse my bottles and give it a good shake after pouring and then dry upside down, occasionally I'll get the bottle brush out. I then just sanitise and stick on the bottle tree on racking day... So far so good!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Busy day on the brewing front today. I’ve cleaned bottles, cleaned kegs, cleaned my beer lines, kegged 2 beers, and selected the beers I want on tap for guests coming round at the weekend. This afternoon I’ll be bottling beers for swaps and comps. Todays kegged beers…

First up a Brown Ale. This turned out at 4.8% and is pretty clear out of the fermenter. Sweet, caramel, floral, bitter.

Next a porter at 4.6%. Also pretty clear out of the fermenter. Roasty, hints of chocolate and coffee, mild floral notes, moderately bitter finish.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I’m thinking of brewing a Smoked Porter and kegging it. Have I left it too late for Christmas? Either tomorrow or next Tuesday?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m thinking of brewing a Smoked Porter and kegging it. Have I left it too late for Christmas? Either tomorrow or next Tuesday?

You have really. It might well still be nice but not at it’s best.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

You have really. It might well still be nice but not at it’s best.

Merci

 

[Leon103]

Also cleaned my lines today

 

[YeastFace]

Edit - just remembered I started a thread about line cleaning which you replied on.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I finally got round to kegging my latest batch of best bitter this morning.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

It’s been two weeks since I last cleaned my beer lines so today is beer line cleaning day - yay! While cleaning the disconnects I noticed a small problem with a split adapter. I’ve replaced it with a spare but will look out for this from now on because a failure here could potentially result in a keg of beer being sprayed around the brewshed.

After the line cleaning I always test the beers on tap. In part I am actually making sure the beers are all still tasting good but mostly I’m just enjoying a beer . All the beers on tap I’m pleased to say are good to go.

While cleaning the lines I also turned my mind to my next batch and decided it is likely to include Rye IPA for the swap, another porter because that’s gone down quickly, another Butterfly Effect because by the weight of the keg I’m about to run out, and of course a bitter because that’s my staple. I’ll check on stocks and get an order in for anything I need so I can start early in the new year.