Hopsteep Brewing

[user 18729]

Very nice. I wish you all the best with this project, you can’t just brew another batch next week!

I think the first few attempts will be exactly that, an ‘attempt’ but I will definitely get there after a few years of refining things, learning what I can and of course having fun along the way!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Sounds like fun but I should buy a few grapes and have a practice!

 

[user 18729]

Sounds like fun but I should buy a few grapes and have a practice!

Essex and Kent are the best counties in the UK for growing grapes... buy a vine or two!

 

[user 18729]

Brew day tomorrow!

I’ve been struggling to choose what style to brew next. It’s been like writers block!! I was about to brew a DIPA, then thought about an impy stout but as I wanted to brew a good 30L (to bottle 20 or so for the father-in-law) there was no chance the grain bill would fit in my 50L mash tun...

... so a full bodied sessionable Stout it is then!

Recipe to follow as well as obligatory brewday photos

 

[user 18729]

Beer is tucked up in the brew fridge, boiler left soaking in PBW as work got in the way of cleaning up this afternoon.

Time for a NEIPA or five...

 

[user 18729]

First brew day in ages!

Brewed a bit of a hybrid- a cross between a witbier and an American wheat

 

[user 18729]

Yesterday's brew day was a bit of a strange one.

I was part way through sparging when my fiancé persuaded me to be her taxi driver for the evening

Rather than pausing the brew day I decided to change the recipe slightly and reduce the boil to 30 minutes to allow me to get the boil and chilling done before my driving duties were needed.

So instead of a 30L batch with 34L in the FV, I ended up with a 34L batch with 38L in the tank. To account for the reduced evaporation and larger batch, I added more sugar to the boil and increased my bittering addition accordingly. I managed to hit all my numbers which was good!

Here's the tweaked recipe:

Blue Lunes
Witbier/American Wheat Beer

34L Batch

Colour 9 EBC
Est Abv 4.8%
19.6 IBU

Fermentables
Lager Malt 4500g / 52%
Torrified Wheat 2000g / 23.1%
Raw Wheat 1500g / 17.3%
Medium Crystal 60g / 0.7%
Table Sugar 600g / 6.9%

Boil
30 mins
Magnum 35g / 19.6 IBUs

5 mins
Corriander Seed 25g
Sweet Orange Peel 28g

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

Adjusted Water
Ca 130ppm, Mg 9ppm, Na 43ppm, SO4 96ppm, Cl 125ppm and targeting a mash PH of 5.3

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I had a similar issue a while ago when I was halfway through the mash my wife came out, bored, and wanted to go out somewhere .
I quickly revised the recipe for a 30 mash and 30 minute boil and went with that, cleaning up when we got back. I posted about it on here afterwards and some clever member said “why didn’t you just leave it mashing”? Hindsight eh!

 

[user 18729]

I had a similar issue a while ago when I was halfway through the mash my wife came out, bored, and wanted to go out somewhere .
I quickly revised the recipe for a 30 mash and 30 minute boil and went with that, cleaning up when we got back. I posted about it on here afterwards and some clever member said “why didn’t you just leave it mashing”? Hindsight eh!

Haha not just me then! I would have been clearing up at midnight if I left it though, so the 30 min boil saved my bacon!

 

[user 18729]

100L pot arrived today after snapping it up on eBay. It fits nicely on the brew bench which is good news.

I’ll be converting it into a copper over the next few days

 

[user 18729]

Woke up at 5 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep so decided to have a play in the garage.

Gave the second hand 100L pot a good scrub with Barkeeper’s Friend which brought it up like new, barely a mark on it

Started to make my element enclosures, hopefully a few more holes and they’ll be fitted later

 

[user 18729]

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Don't cross the streams.

 

[user 18729]

Don't cross the streams.

I might have to come up with a a ghostbusters related name for my next brew

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Try Zuul.

 

[user 18729]

Try Zuul.

Slimer?

 

[user 18729]

Finished the conversion and added a temperature gauge to my mash tun, because... well... why not

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

View attachment 46874View attachment 46876

Finished the conversion and added a temperature gauge to my mash tun, because... well... why not

Needs a test now

 

[user 18729]

Needs a test now

Needs a proper leak test before drowning some hops!

 

[user 18729]

Busy today but managed to sneak into the garage for half and hour to have a play around with everything. Leak tested everything with cold water and so far so good. Will CIP with some hot PBW tomorrow to remove any cutting oil etc and to give it a final leak test