Well the brew day went ok ish, most of the problems were operator error.
I was going to repeat a Czech pilsner that I had made before, using M54, there was a **** up there, more of which later.
Up till now I've been happily BIAB, not true BIAB, because I sparge, in my converted plastic FV with absolutely no problems and making (to me) surprisingly good beer.
Yesterday, was almost like I'd never brewed before.
First problem, why isn't the pump pumping? Open the tap you *****!
Next, when I reached strike temperature I lifted the lid to mash in and thought that'll balance on it's edge between the the pot and the basket nicely, it did, trouble is I forgot, until my feet got wet, that water was being pumped out of the other side of the lid!
Turned the pump off and closed the taps.
Next, my new mash tun/boiler is 450 diameter, I'm now brew in a basket, with a circulation pump.
Because of the triple element I've fitted, the bottom of the basket needs to be 80mm off of the pot.
Brewfather suggested 25ltrs for the mash, after mashing in a good deal of the grains weren't even wet.
Luckily I had already heated some water in my hlt so put another 5ltrs in the kettle.
Lid on, pump on, not pumping! Open the bloody taps!!!
I have a query about my pid, but I'll ask it at the end because I know your riveted by my exploits.
After an hour it was time to sparge.
My original plan was to take 15ltrs out, put 15ltrs of water back in, the recirculate for 20 minutes but I'd used 5 of this, so I'd do it with 10.
So, I disconnected the inlet hose to the pump to drain 10ltrs of wort into a spare fv, I flooded the worktop with the wort in the tubing above the pump, turn the bloody tap OFF!
Anyway, recirculated for 20 minutes, drained the basket, helped it by pushing the grain down with my spoon, whilst the kettle came up to the boil.
Pretty uneventful from then on.
I normally try for 27ltrs into the fv, I could see I was going to be short of that, but on checking with my refractometer after cooling to pitching temp, I had far exceeded my target OG of 1044.
Adding 4ltrs of r/o water gave me my 27ltrs at 1044, perfect.
Now the other problems.
My bill is pretty simple, 3.7kg of pils, 2kg of Vienna.
I had some Vienna left over from the last brew but on weighing it was about 260grms short, I didn't want to open a new 5kg bag delivered the day before, mostly because it would be a bugger to reseal it with the vacuum sealer with only a small amount taken out.
In my stock of grains I have about 2.5kg in a bag that for some reason has no labeling on.
No problem says I, I have never bought anything larger than 1kg that isn't a base malt, so it's got to be Maris otter or similar, that'll do, 260g, what harm can it do?
After I filled the FV, and as I was pitching the yeast, I though "mmm, that looks a lot darker than last time"
As I was cleaning up my neighbor came home and could see I had been brewing.
"Not brewing some of that lovely porter again are you?" he says.
Porter, s#it, I went into check my invoices from GEB, oh dear, I had been making a lot of porter in the winter, and had in fact ordered a 5k bag of brown malt, and checking my brews I should have about 2.5 kg left!!
I'll let you know what pils with brown malt tastes like.
If anyone is still awake, I have a question about the Inkbird PID.
The readout wasn't smooth.
By that I mean the temperature reading, it was jumping around a lot, sometimes 4 or 5 degrees higher or lower than the 65c I was after for the mash.
I put a alcohol thermometer in the mash in various places and the temperature was about right.
I have the thermowell right next to the tap that the pump is drawing from.
I have tried three different pt100 sensors and they aren't making any difference.
I have altered the settings to take the pt100 sensors.
Is this normal? will it get better? Is there something I'm not understanding?
