BeerCat
Landlord.
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Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. What a wonderful feeling. :)
IainM's brew day
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IainM
Landlord.
Thanks BeerCat. It really is nice having a little baby around the place, though I could do with a bit more sleep!
IainM
Landlord.
Its been over 5 months since I last mashed anything, mostly because of the wedding and baby, and we bought a house that needed work so I've been busy changing nappies, building floating shelves, stripping, scraping, sanding, priming, painting, plumbing, repointing, drilling, screwing, gardening and even some light building, all squeezed around a full-time job! This is all good for the brewing though, as I now have brewing space, and a range oven than can fit in enough bottles to heat sanitise a whole brews worth of bottles in one go as well as wok burner that is easily powerful enough to boil 15L, with a very decent extraction hood, so I can I do stove-top maxi-BIAB at the same time as brewing on the Bulldog Brewer. Plus, I have a shed, and I got an almost new larder fridge for �ã30 off ebay from a lass whose uncle croaked shortly after buying a larder fridge. I knocked together some shelves using some spare wood.
The tube heater and sensor aren't in the pic, but you get the idea �" I can do two AGs at a time and ferment them at the same time. Wahey! I haven't completely stopped brewing though this busy time though; I stripped a friends pear tree and did some perry, as well as the mother-in-law's apple tree for some cider, and I managed to forage enough to make a gallon each of blackberry and elderberry wine. I also chucked a couple of kits into the new brew fridge to test it out (Cwtch and Bure Gold, subbed the yeast for US-05 and upped the dry hop for both, and they are both pretty decent). Today, though, was the first day of proper brewing, and I did 25L of Brew by Number 01:01 Citra Saison on the Bulldog Brewer and a 20L maxi-BIAB of best bitter using Chevallier malt, a heritage malt that was highly regarded for its taste but eventually stopped being grown in favour of strains of barley that were easier to harvest and had higher yields.
Brew#60 (AG#25): Citra Saison: Brew by Numbers 01:01 clone (from Craft Brew, by Euan Ferguson, scaled up to 25L)
25L, 1.044-1.002
1.7kg Maris Otter extra-pale malt
1.35kg Pilsner malt
1.01kg Wheat malt
338g Flaked wheat (I subbed with torrified wheat)
225g dextrose (I didn't add this in the end)
65C mash, 60 mins (mine was closer to 75 mins; had to drop the lad at nursery)
Hallertauer Magnum 12.9% AA, 6.25g, 60 mins (I subbed with 4.8g Warrior leaf 17.2%)
Citra 12% AA, 12.5g, 10 mins
0.5 protofloc, 10 mins
Citra 12% AA, 12.5g, 5 mins (mine were 13.2%, pellet)
Citra 12% AA, 62.5g, flameout. Steep for 10 mins before chilling
12.5g crushed coriander seeds, 5 mins (I forgot to add these)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison (1.6L starter)
24C for 48h then rise slowly to 27C. (I pitched and set the brew fridge at 22C)
The wheat and torrified wheat was crushed with a 0.8mm gap size, and the barley with 1.1mm. 18L strike water was heated to 72C and after mash in it hit 65C. Recirculation was fine all the way through, and I stirred it a couple of times during the mash. The 15L 80C sparge ran smoothly through the grain bed in about 15 mins giving 30L to boil which, on max at 2500W dropped to 26L after an hour. I forgot to add the crushed coriander seed for the last 5 mins of the boil, so I might add some to primary. I didn't add the dextrose as I was expecting higher efficiency than the recipe assumed, so I thought I'd add whatever I needed to hit OG. As it happened I got 80% brewhouse efficiency and got 25L at 1.044 into the fv, which is bang on what I wanted anyway, so I didn't need any sugar at all. This yeast is a beast. Thick krausen has appeared just 6 hours after pitching!
Chevallier best bitter
20L, 15L boil size maxi-BIAB, 1.042 to 1.010
3kg Chevallier malt
400g pale malt
200g amber malt
118g crystal malt
25g torrified wheat
75min boil
38g fuggle leaf (6.4%) 60 mins
10g EKG pellet (6%) 10 mins
0.5 protofloc, 10 mins
Wyeast Scottish Ale, 1.6L starter made a couple of days in advance, spent wort decanted.
I didn't really know what to expect with the Chevallier malt, but I wanted to showcase it so I held back on the hops and went with clean fermenting malt-forward yeast, adding the amber and crystal for a bit of colour and body. The grain was crushed as finely as I could with the smallest gap between the rollers I could get away with. I did 12L strike water and sparged with 8L and overshot the boil volume by a couple of litres, so it didn't fit into my stock pot, but I just boiled the rest in the casserole. I absent-mindedly forgot that when I crush this fine I need to stir the mash a lot more when doughing in and take time to avoid dough balls, so by the time it was insulated I was at 62C instead of 65C. I stirred a couple of times during the mash. I got 73% brewhouse efficiency so, after topping up in the fv to 20L I ended up with exactly 1.042, which is spot on what I wanted. Happy days! I'm really looking forward to this one and seeing what the Chevallier malt brings to the table.
The tube heater and sensor aren't in the pic, but you get the idea �" I can do two AGs at a time and ferment them at the same time. Wahey! I haven't completely stopped brewing though this busy time though; I stripped a friends pear tree and did some perry, as well as the mother-in-law's apple tree for some cider, and I managed to forage enough to make a gallon each of blackberry and elderberry wine. I also chucked a couple of kits into the new brew fridge to test it out (Cwtch and Bure Gold, subbed the yeast for US-05 and upped the dry hop for both, and they are both pretty decent). Today, though, was the first day of proper brewing, and I did 25L of Brew by Number 01:01 Citra Saison on the Bulldog Brewer and a 20L maxi-BIAB of best bitter using Chevallier malt, a heritage malt that was highly regarded for its taste but eventually stopped being grown in favour of strains of barley that were easier to harvest and had higher yields.
Brew#60 (AG#25): Citra Saison: Brew by Numbers 01:01 clone (from Craft Brew, by Euan Ferguson, scaled up to 25L)
25L, 1.044-1.002
1.7kg Maris Otter extra-pale malt
1.35kg Pilsner malt
1.01kg Wheat malt
338g Flaked wheat (I subbed with torrified wheat)
225g dextrose (I didn't add this in the end)
65C mash, 60 mins (mine was closer to 75 mins; had to drop the lad at nursery)
Hallertauer Magnum 12.9% AA, 6.25g, 60 mins (I subbed with 4.8g Warrior leaf 17.2%)
Citra 12% AA, 12.5g, 10 mins
0.5 protofloc, 10 mins
Citra 12% AA, 12.5g, 5 mins (mine were 13.2%, pellet)
Citra 12% AA, 62.5g, flameout. Steep for 10 mins before chilling
12.5g crushed coriander seeds, 5 mins (I forgot to add these)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison (1.6L starter)
24C for 48h then rise slowly to 27C. (I pitched and set the brew fridge at 22C)
The wheat and torrified wheat was crushed with a 0.8mm gap size, and the barley with 1.1mm. 18L strike water was heated to 72C and after mash in it hit 65C. Recirculation was fine all the way through, and I stirred it a couple of times during the mash. The 15L 80C sparge ran smoothly through the grain bed in about 15 mins giving 30L to boil which, on max at 2500W dropped to 26L after an hour. I forgot to add the crushed coriander seed for the last 5 mins of the boil, so I might add some to primary. I didn't add the dextrose as I was expecting higher efficiency than the recipe assumed, so I thought I'd add whatever I needed to hit OG. As it happened I got 80% brewhouse efficiency and got 25L at 1.044 into the fv, which is bang on what I wanted anyway, so I didn't need any sugar at all. This yeast is a beast. Thick krausen has appeared just 6 hours after pitching!
Chevallier best bitter
20L, 15L boil size maxi-BIAB, 1.042 to 1.010
3kg Chevallier malt
400g pale malt
200g amber malt
118g crystal malt
25g torrified wheat
75min boil
38g fuggle leaf (6.4%) 60 mins
10g EKG pellet (6%) 10 mins
0.5 protofloc, 10 mins
Wyeast Scottish Ale, 1.6L starter made a couple of days in advance, spent wort decanted.
I didn't really know what to expect with the Chevallier malt, but I wanted to showcase it so I held back on the hops and went with clean fermenting malt-forward yeast, adding the amber and crystal for a bit of colour and body. The grain was crushed as finely as I could with the smallest gap between the rollers I could get away with. I did 12L strike water and sparged with 8L and overshot the boil volume by a couple of litres, so it didn't fit into my stock pot, but I just boiled the rest in the casserole. I absent-mindedly forgot that when I crush this fine I need to stir the mash a lot more when doughing in and take time to avoid dough balls, so by the time it was insulated I was at 62C instead of 65C. I stirred a couple of times during the mash. I got 73% brewhouse efficiency so, after topping up in the fv to 20L I ended up with exactly 1.042, which is spot on what I wanted. Happy days! I'm really looking forward to this one and seeing what the Chevallier malt brings to the table.
What do you get up to when you're not busy?
Oneflewover
Landlord.
That is a really handy sized fridge!
Intrigued by the chevalier malt, interested to hear how that turns out.
I made the Citra Saison from that book in the summer, and was well pleased with it. I thought that the dextrose was in there to dry it out a bit, but I guess that yeast is a pretty high attenuator? I used the coriander seeds, but not sure what difference they made, it's mostly about the yeast, citra and the wheat malt in my (limited) view.
Intrigued by the chevalier malt, interested to hear how that turns out.
I made the Citra Saison from that book in the summer, and was well pleased with it. I thought that the dextrose was in there to dry it out a bit, but I guess that yeast is a pretty high attenuator? I used the coriander seeds, but not sure what difference they made, it's mostly about the yeast, citra and the wheat malt in my (limited) view.
![BREWING THERMOMETER STICKERS ACCURATELY MONITOR FERMENTING BEER & WINE LIQUID TEMPERATURES 5PCS HOME BREW SPIRITS WINE LCD ADHESIVE [US]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311DDjo2X3L._SL500_.jpg)
Sadfield
Landlord.
Just about to order some Chevallier malt. From research it comes out much fuller and sweeter than modern malts. Looking at recipes from around the era when Chevallier was commonly used, bittering additions were massive and often IBUs were in triple figures to balance out the sweetness, particularly on IPAs that were only around 5.5%. It's interesting that as Chevallier went out of use brewers started using crystal malt to compensate.
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Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
IainM
Landlord.
Hmm... I wonder why that is. Perhaps it is a bit lacking in alpha-amylase. I'll give the trial jar a taste before cold crashing and if it is cloying then I'll order some isomerised hop extract to add to the bottling bucket to compensate. Hopefully the pale malt and the fact that I undershot my strike temperature will help dry it out. If you remind me in a couple of weeks then I'd be happy to send you a bottle. It might help you figure out what to do when you brew with the stuff.
IainM
Landlord.
I took samples of the two beers today, six days in to fermentation. The krausens have dropped from both. From the trial jars I can tell that these will be good. The Chevallier bitter is down to 1.006, an astonishing 85% attenuation, and the Citra Saison is down to 1.002 at 95% attenuation! So, both attenuated a whopping 12 points higher than the maximum attenuation noted by Wyeast. Nevertheless, from reading various forums it appears that both these strains are known for having higher attenuations than Wyeast advertise. I was in the middle of ramping up the temperature on the Saison to 27C to finish, but I don't think there will be much point now and it can't go much lower than this.
The Chevallier one tastes remarkable. Not cloying, but for a 1.006 finish it doesn't taste dry. Bags of flavour too, definitely a unique malt. The saison tastes good too - very balanced. Not too spicy from the yeast, the citra is there but subtle. I think I'll add a smallish citra dry hop to this one, maybe 20g.
The Chevallier one tastes remarkable. Not cloying, but for a 1.006 finish it doesn't taste dry. Bags of flavour too, definitely a unique malt. The saison tastes good too - very balanced. Not too spicy from the yeast, the citra is there but subtle. I think I'll add a smallish citra dry hop to this one, maybe 20g.
IainM
Landlord.
Do it. I'll happily swap a bottle for one of yours if you want to give it a try first though.
IainM
Landlord.
Right, those two were bottled last night. I got 45 500ml bottles of the Saison and 34 500ml bottles of the Chevallier one. With those out the way tomorrow is going to be another double brew day. This time lagers to ferment slowly over the festive period. The Bulldog Brewer will be doing a Munich Dunkle, and I'll also do a Czech Pilsner as a stove-top maxi-BIAB.
Munich Dunkle, loosely based on a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles
25L, using Ashbeck water, 1.055-1.013.
6kg Munich malt
250g BlackPrinz
60 min Mash @ 67C
75 min boil
40g Hallertau (5%) 60 mins
10g Hallertau 20 mins
2x Mangrove Jacks M76 Bavarian Lager, though I'll probably buy another one from LHBS as this is under-pitching.
Czech Pilsner, loosely based on a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles
22L maxi-biab with 13L boil size, using Ashbeck, 1.055-1.014.
5.5kg Pilsner malt
250g carapils
90 min mash @ 64C
75min boil
70g Saaz (3% AA) 60 mins
80g Saaz 30 mins
40g Saaz 10 mins
10g Saaz dry hop
Wyeast Czech Pilsner 2L starter.
I'll set the fv to 10C and slowly ramp to 11.5C over 4 days. Then I'll be away for work for a week so I'll ramp it up to 14 when I get back for a diacetyl rest then slowly drop it down to 2C.
Munich Dunkle, loosely based on a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles
25L, using Ashbeck water, 1.055-1.013.
6kg Munich malt
250g BlackPrinz
60 min Mash @ 67C
75 min boil
40g Hallertau (5%) 60 mins
10g Hallertau 20 mins
2x Mangrove Jacks M76 Bavarian Lager, though I'll probably buy another one from LHBS as this is under-pitching.
Czech Pilsner, loosely based on a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles
22L maxi-biab with 13L boil size, using Ashbeck, 1.055-1.014.
5.5kg Pilsner malt
250g carapils
90 min mash @ 64C
75min boil
70g Saaz (3% AA) 60 mins
80g Saaz 30 mins
40g Saaz 10 mins
10g Saaz dry hop
Wyeast Czech Pilsner 2L starter.
I'll set the fv to 10C and slowly ramp to 11.5C over 4 days. Then I'll be away for work for a week so I'll ramp it up to 14 when I get back for a diacetyl rest then slowly drop it down to 2C.
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
If I was to be a beer nazi, maxi-Biab for a pilsner possibly wouldnt be a good idea as the concentrated wort may give you a darker colour than you would ideally want
IainM
Landlord.
Hmmm... good point. Perhaps I should do it in the peco instead. However, last time I used it the wort kept scorching, and there is nowhere to hide that sort of flavour defect in a Pilsner. I can't really reduce the boil time, DMS and all that.
Ah, got it. As it has the longer mash schedule anyway I'll do the mash in the peco while boiling and chilling the dunkle, then I'll transfer the wort to the Bulldog Brewer and boil the Pilsner in that too. That way I can also use more strike and sparge water, increasing the efficiency so that I can do a 23L brew instead, plus the larger boil volume will help hop utilisation so that I don't have to use so much Saaz early in the boil and I end up with more than a pitiful 10g left over for a dry hop. Happy days!
Thanks MyQul, you as a beer nazi is, ermm, my favourite kind of nazi.:???:
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
Ve have vays ov making you brew. ZIEG HOPS!!!
Sadfield
Landlord.
IainM
Landlord.
Well, the Dunkle is in the fv. For some reason the recirculation got stuck during the mash, even though the grain was only crushed with a 1.05mm gap. This seemed to hit my efficiency a bit, so I got 1.052 instead of 1.055, but it isn't far off. I also recirculated when cooling to get clear wort into the fv. It suck with a couple of litres left in the fv, so I only got 23L instead of 25L, but I don't mind because the wort was crystal clear, which is just as well considering that its going to be spending some time on the yeast cake. Just doing the boil for the Pilsner now.
IainM
Landlord.
Just got the Pils in the fv and tidied up. I overshot this one in volume and gravity, with 23.5L of 1.060. I guess I'll just have to put us with having it stronger and more of it. I've got 30g Saaz left over and I'm umming and arring about whether or not to dry hop with it. I'd love the flavour but I don't want any hop haze.
IainM
Landlord.
I've been slowly ramping the lagers up from 9C to 12.5C. The Dunkle has dropped to 1.012, giving 5.3% and the Pilsner to 1.004, giving 7.3%. Trial jars are good. Very clean fermentation, with the Dunkle malty and the pilsner crisp and hoppy. I'll leave them at 12.5C for another 3 weeks then cold crash, keg and lager. During that time hopefully I'll be able to set up a keezer/kegerator to serve them from.
Zephyr259
Landlord.
That is a big pilsner... :-o
The dunkel sounds tasty, which brand and cloud of Munich malt did you use? I've been curious to try a beer with entirely Munich as the Base malt.
The dunkel sounds tasty, which brand and cloud of Munich malt did you use? I've been curious to try a beer with entirely Munich as the Base malt.
