Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve got that bitter in the fermentation cabinet. This is another dependable brew and again the numbers all hit home.

 

[Caramel Ox]

I was thinking of brewing something hoppy next and coincidentally I received my rosette from the LAB Open competition along with a pack of NEIPA yeast. Looks like it’s time to come up with a new recipe.
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It also has a quoted 13% abv tolerance - I used it the last time I made an imperial.

 

[Twostage]

An English bitter should have some esters, you might find it just doesn’t quite taste like a bitter?

Yes, I was thinking about that so maybe fermentis S-23. Wouldn't do any harm to make a test batch would it ?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yes, I was thinking about that so maybe fermentis S-23. Wouldn't do any harm to make a test batch would it ?

That could work maybe. No harm and maybe you’ll hit on something great. Do remember to tell me if you do

 

[Twostage]

That could work maybe. No harm and maybe you’ll hit on something great. Do remember to tell me if you do

Checked my stock and I have some S-23. What I don't have is an empty brewfridge, so its going to have to wait for a week.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Checked my stock and I have some S-23. What I don't have is an empty brewfridge, so its going to have to wait for a week.

You could probably buy another fridge today?

 

[Twostage]

You could probably buy another fridge today?

Actually one is arriving today Needed for the cornies though. Got another larder fridge. This one has a lot more shelf options than the previous so I’m going to use this one for bottles and the new one for cornies and bottles.

 

[Twostage]

This one has a lot more shelf options than the previous

Oh no it hasn't. In fact the only difference between this Russell Hobbs and the previous English Electric is the door, everything else is exactly the same . At least I don't have to mess about swapping bottles about.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m getting another brew on tomorrow and having just noticed it’s been a year since I last brewed a Czech lager, that’s what I’ll be brewing.

The last beer in this tranche will be an American Pale Ale, my Butterfly Effect.

The first beer of the next tranche will, I think, be a NEIPA version of my Summer Breeze ale utilising that “Saturated” yeast I won as part of my prize from LAB Open.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I brewed that Czech Lager today and all went well - this is the finished wort. 21 litres now in the fermentation cabinet.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Despite what I said 2 posts ago, my final beer in this tranche is going to be another batch of my Full English…

Today we went out for a pub lunch with friends and I was drinking cask ale. My own bitter is very nice and even won a gold award from CAMRA but it isn’t a cask ale and I’d like to see if I can get a bit closer to a cask ale without buying a load more gear so I have a cunning plan.

I’m going to brew the beer just the same as usual but instead of kegging the beer and force carbonating it I’m going to put it in one of the King Keg pressure barrels I’ve been trying to give away for the last two years along with 40g of priming sugar and let it carbonate and condition for a couple of weeks. Then I’m going to put it on a high shelf and connect the tap from the pressure barrel via a length of tubing to one of my keg taps (which will be lower than the base of the pressure barrel). The beer will be dispensed via gravity and a little pressure from CO2 in the pressure barrel which I will replace as the beer is poured by a low pressure CO2 feed.

I’ve no idea if this will work as I hope but I feel that it could . I’ll let you know, I’m brewing the beer tomorrow.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Wot! No NEIPA?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Wot! No NEIPA?

It’s on my schedule and I’ve already built the recipe so I just need some space in my fermentation cabinet - end of next week or start of the following week.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That’s it, my fermentation cabinet is full so no more brewing for a few days.

Today I brewed a second batch of my Best Bitter, this batch will go in a King Keg primed with 40g of sugar and once ready will be fed under gravity to one of my taps. Photos show the wort being transferred to the fermenter and the beers now fermenting in the fermentation cabinet.

The Pirate Pale was also dry hopped today - 30g each of Ernest, Olicana and Jester. They’ll be in there 5 days until the beer is kegged.

 

[Buffers brewery]

What's your secret for a trub free transfer @Hazelwood Brewery ? My wort is clear like that in the middle of transfer but the beginning and end are very trubby (if that's a word).

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

What's your secret for a trub free transfer @Hazelwood Brewery ? My wort is clear like that in the middle of transfer but the beginning and end are very trubby (if that's a word).

First use protofloc then chill quickly and then leave it to settle for a couple of hours so the muck all settles to the bottom. Finally, leave the last 1-2 litres of muck is the boiler.

I should also have said I recirculate the wort through the grain bed while mashing. This takes out a lot of particles leaving fairly clear wort from the mash.

 

[Buffers brewery]

That's exactly what I've done in the past, even left it overnight to settle out. The tap in my boiler/kettle must be low as I don't seem to be able to eliminate the first litre or so that is very trubby as it settles at the tap entry. Then as the level drops, I throttle the flow back but trub is still pulled off the top. Going to try syphoning my next brew.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I didn’t note I’d kegged a couple of beers last week. On Thursday I kegged the Pirate Pale and the Full English Best Bitter. These are the beers that went into kegs.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I haven’t had a project for a while so it’s time. Look out for news soon on the next iteration of brewshed changes/re-fit…

 

[Twostage]

I didn’t note I’d kegged a couple of beers last week. On Thursday I kegged the Pirate Pale and the Full English Best Bitter. These are the beers that went into kegs.

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I’m busy trying to empty a couple of kegs so I can brew some more beer/lager but they are clinging on. They’ll probably both go at the same time.