Hi all,
Thought I would try and write up my brew days here... This was my second go at an all grain brew - the Malt Miller Elusive Spellbinder coffee porter clone.
Set up was quite straightforward, as I was doing BIAB I decided to mash with 26l and just have 4l sparge water on standby in a saucepan rather than using my HLT as well.
My set up is based on a 27l Burco boiler, a home made PID and one of those cheap 'solar panel' pumps for recirculation. As the boiler is old school with an exposed element I've concocted a stand out of a pizza tray and some 60mm bolts, you can see it on the table next to the PID. This keeps the bottom of the bag away from the element. It's got some nylon string attached so I can pull it out before starting the boil.
The PID:
Small amount of salts added (1g each of table salt, Epsom salt & baking soda), I'm in London so my water is a good match for dark beers. Brewer's Friend suggested the pH would be 5.5 without adding any acid.
Up to strike temp (71C), time to dough in:
No pics of doughing in, really should have got my son to help!
Hit mash temp spot on at 67C but, for some reason, the pH was way off at 6.2, maybe the meter needs adjusting/calibrating but it was showing 7 in the deionised water.
An emergency Google for acid additions which didn't help, so I winged it and added 4ml of 80% lactic as I thought that wouldn't effect the Cl/SO4 levels too much. That brought it down to 5.7.
Set up the pump to recirculate, such the lid on and left it for 30 mins. (actually I didn't leave it, I pissed around trying to gerry rig a sparge arm using the back of my plastic brew spoon, that probably explains the next bit!)
Came back and checked the top temp with a thermometer, annoyingly despite the PID showing 67C the top temp was only 63C so I increased the PID temp to 71C and left it for the last 30mins.
After the hour I lifted the bag and stuck an old wire fridge shelf under so it could drain, this is the bit I like least, everything gets so sticky! Must come up with a better way of doing this, maybe a bucket or old FV with holes in the bottom to make a malt pipe type thing.
After a good squeeze I dumped the bag into a bucket and poured over the other 4l of water, more lifting and squeezing and then poured the results into the boiler.
I was a good 5-6cm below the 27l mark so guestimated I had around 24l in. Took a gravity reading and it was spot on to the recipe at 1.053 though my volumes are down. Note to self - don't be lazy, get the HLT out, have it on standby and sparge properly into the boiler so I get the proper pre-boil volume!
Up to boil now, seem to take an age today, nearly 30mins.
Lots of headroom at least so not too worried about a boil over, far less crap on top compared to my last brew (GEB Pimped Up APA).
Hops in and set a timer for 45 mins. After 45 mins I chucked in a Whirlfloc tablet.
Hour is up, as an experiment I tried to set up a whirlpool using the pump and put in 4ml of Brausol clarity agent - didn't seem to be doing much so I switched it off and did a manual one with my paddle for 5 mins or so, not entirely convinced this works, seems to make all the muck remain in suspension!
Final move of the day (other than the clearing up) was to pour into my no-chill container and leave it sitting overnight to cool down.
Looking at the markings on the side I appear to have around 18l, so 10% down on what I hoped. OG at 1.062, which came out at 1.064 when adjusted for temp.
So tomorrow will just be a case of pouring from where the jerrycan is straight into my All Rounder, hopefully leaving any more trub that settles out overnight, give it a good shake and pitch with two packs of S-04. Then I'll whack it in the fermentation fridge at 20C for 5 days. This is followed by 'dry hopping' with 100g of coffee beans, I'll probably just throw those in loose, 1 day more at 20C then down to 5C for 3-4 days.
I'm going to keg half of it in my 9l 1/2 Corny for drinking in a few weeks and bottle the rest for Christmas.
Next brew I'm planning is the Mountain IPA that the Craft Brew Channel did, looks to be a hoppy monster so should be good for the summer, if we ever get one!
Cheers!
Joe
Thought I would try and write up my brew days here... This was my second go at an all grain brew - the Malt Miller Elusive Spellbinder coffee porter clone.
Set up was quite straightforward, as I was doing BIAB I decided to mash with 26l and just have 4l sparge water on standby in a saucepan rather than using my HLT as well.
My set up is based on a 27l Burco boiler, a home made PID and one of those cheap 'solar panel' pumps for recirculation. As the boiler is old school with an exposed element I've concocted a stand out of a pizza tray and some 60mm bolts, you can see it on the table next to the PID. This keeps the bottom of the bag away from the element. It's got some nylon string attached so I can pull it out before starting the boil.
The PID:
Small amount of salts added (1g each of table salt, Epsom salt & baking soda), I'm in London so my water is a good match for dark beers. Brewer's Friend suggested the pH would be 5.5 without adding any acid.
Up to strike temp (71C), time to dough in:
No pics of doughing in, really should have got my son to help!
Hit mash temp spot on at 67C but, for some reason, the pH was way off at 6.2, maybe the meter needs adjusting/calibrating but it was showing 7 in the deionised water.
An emergency Google for acid additions which didn't help, so I winged it and added 4ml of 80% lactic as I thought that wouldn't effect the Cl/SO4 levels too much. That brought it down to 5.7.
Set up the pump to recirculate, such the lid on and left it for 30 mins. (actually I didn't leave it, I pissed around trying to gerry rig a sparge arm using the back of my plastic brew spoon, that probably explains the next bit!)
Came back and checked the top temp with a thermometer, annoyingly despite the PID showing 67C the top temp was only 63C so I increased the PID temp to 71C and left it for the last 30mins.
After the hour I lifted the bag and stuck an old wire fridge shelf under so it could drain, this is the bit I like least, everything gets so sticky! Must come up with a better way of doing this, maybe a bucket or old FV with holes in the bottom to make a malt pipe type thing.
After a good squeeze I dumped the bag into a bucket and poured over the other 4l of water, more lifting and squeezing and then poured the results into the boiler.
I was a good 5-6cm below the 27l mark so guestimated I had around 24l in. Took a gravity reading and it was spot on to the recipe at 1.053 though my volumes are down. Note to self - don't be lazy, get the HLT out, have it on standby and sparge properly into the boiler so I get the proper pre-boil volume!
Up to boil now, seem to take an age today, nearly 30mins.
Lots of headroom at least so not too worried about a boil over, far less crap on top compared to my last brew (GEB Pimped Up APA).
Hops in and set a timer for 45 mins. After 45 mins I chucked in a Whirlfloc tablet.
Hour is up, as an experiment I tried to set up a whirlpool using the pump and put in 4ml of Brausol clarity agent - didn't seem to be doing much so I switched it off and did a manual one with my paddle for 5 mins or so, not entirely convinced this works, seems to make all the muck remain in suspension!
Final move of the day (other than the clearing up) was to pour into my no-chill container and leave it sitting overnight to cool down.
Looking at the markings on the side I appear to have around 18l, so 10% down on what I hoped. OG at 1.062, which came out at 1.064 when adjusted for temp.
So tomorrow will just be a case of pouring from where the jerrycan is straight into my All Rounder, hopefully leaving any more trub that settles out overnight, give it a good shake and pitch with two packs of S-04. Then I'll whack it in the fermentation fridge at 20C for 5 days. This is followed by 'dry hopping' with 100g of coffee beans, I'll probably just throw those in loose, 1 day more at 20C then down to 5C for 3-4 days.
I'm going to keg half of it in my 9l 1/2 Corny for drinking in a few weeks and bottle the rest for Christmas.
Next brew I'm planning is the Mountain IPA that the Craft Brew Channel did, looks to be a hoppy monster so should be good for the summer, if we ever get one!
Cheers!
Joe
Nice write-up, Joe! For a second AG brew, it looks very highly "engineered", so good on you.
