Leon103's brew days

[Leon103]

I am having a long overdue brew day on Sunday. Two young kids have postponed this day too long.

Below is the recipe, apart from the yeast. I have been a bit lazy and wasn't confident it would happen so haven't pulled out any of the liquid yeasts from the fridge so I plan to use US-04, not ideal. I did find a sachet of us-05 but best before date was may 17 and it had been left in my brew

 

[Leon103]

This new sight is doing my head in. I can't edit my post, I can click edit but not make any changes.

Should read in my brew book

 

[Leon103]

Gave all my equipment a good clean ready for tomorrow and got the grain ready. Made slight adjustments because I wanted to use up a few bits. 380g of torrified wheat went in and 150g of Crystal light. Looking forward to tomorrow now

 

[Leon103]

Brewday all done. Used my inkbird thingy to keep an eye on the mash temp. Only lost a degree despite the cold weather. Having it bluetoothed to my phone means I don't have to keep an eye on it. Got one (with 4 probes) to sell.

I stupidly left the lid on too long whilst waiting it to get to boil temp, hence the mess. Apart from that it all went smoothly including hop filter that worked perfectly this time. Adding hops every 5 mins is a faff.

Got 22l in the fv but a lost less grub than usual. All cleaned and put away within 5 hours. I guess the cold helped with getting it to pitching temp. I think I hit somewhere between 1.058 and 1.060, should pack a punch. Only issue was instead of 30g left for dry hop I have 20g. Not sure what happened there. May stick 50g of another Styrian hop in too.

This is most likely to be my last brew for a while. I have little base grain left and yesterday we came to an agreement to buy a neighbours house so I will be a little busy.

 

[Stephenj]

Couple of questions if you don't mind, you might have covered these in previous posts so tell me if you have and I search further .

What vessel are you using for the mash and boil?
Where did you get the temp probes from?

 

[Leon103]

Couple of questions if you don't mind, you might have covered these in previous posts so tell me if you have and I search further .

What vessel are you using for the mash and boil?
Where did you get the temp probes from?

No problems. Mash and boil in a peco boiler. Have a tea urn to heat sparge water.

Here are the probes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XVW62J6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have one that I need to sell. Will sell for £30 inc delivery. Brand new in box with 4 probes

 

[dan125]

What kind of hop filter are you using?

 

[Leon103]

What kind of hop filter are you using?

Nothing special. Just a copper pipe with loads of holes. In the past I have been known to knock it off into the grub

 

[Stephenj]

I am in process of buying new kit, and interested in your thoughts on the peco. Have you used other BIAB systems to compare? What is it like with the exposed element to clean etc?

 

[Leon103]

I am in process of buying new kit, and interested in your thoughts on the peco. Have you used other BIAB systems to compare? What is it like with the exposed element to clean etc?

Really good value for money. Thought about a grainfather but can't justify the money when the peck works so well. A sleeping bag around it keeps the temperature up. Gets the boil really quickly. Element is easy to clean. I was with water after use. Before usr I soak in got water and sodium procarbonate

 

[Stephenj]

Was looking at this on a couple of home brew sites which include a larger chilled than I have and a free kit. About 20quid more than the ACE I was looking at, but would have to make or buy a new chiller so price goes up.

 

[Leon103]

Was looking at this on a couple of home brew sites which include a larger chilled than I have and a free kit. About 20quid more than the ACE I was looking at, but would have to make or buy a new chiller so price goes up.

Got mine as a kit from homebrew company. Forum.members get 5% off and came with one recipe kit

 

[Stephenj]

Extra 5% is good for me. Out of stock at the minute.

How do you use your prob out of interest?

 

[Leon103]

Extra 5% is good for me. Out of stock at the minute.

How do you use your prob out of interest?

My what?

 

[Stephenj]

Temp probe. Sorry predicted text.

 

[Leon103]

Temp probe. Sorry predicted text.

Gets me every time.

Today I had two probes in. One for the mash and another in my sparge heater. You can set up alarms if it goes below/over your range. All linked to my phone. Shows graph of the temp changes.

I later used it when prepping my yeast. I use mine for cooking and sometimes testing the babies bottle. I am a multi tasked, especially when brewing so knowing I can check the temperature of the mash whilst not interrpting it is great

 

[Stephenj]

Do you ever use the temp probes when fermenting? Was thinking of setting up the chest freezer in the garage with a tube heater, wondered if these probes or similar would be helpful for this?

 

[Leon103]

You could do. I use the inkbird 308 for my fridge fermentation chamber

 

[Stephenj]

Cheers for all your help Leon. Really given me some good ideas with upscaling the brewing. Looking forward to reading more of you brew day musings.

 

[Hoddy]

i cant wait to hear about your prob again :laugh1: