marshbrewers brewdays

[marshbrewer]

It finished at 1008°, so it did drop a little further after I upped the temperature. The yeast seems quite well suited to a mild. Very slight esters, but fairly clean and neutral. It appears to let the malt shine through but I'll let it carb up and give a proper review.

 

[marshbrewer]

Remarkably, my mild appears to have fully carbed up in four days, so I'll leave it until tomorrow night just to be sure then set the brew fridge to 4° to try and crash it for Christmas Day.

I'm liking this yeast.

 

[marshbrewer]

Tomorrow, I'll be brewing a Cascade / Chinook / Centennial golden ale. I've treated the strike water and set up the boiler ready, so I'll get the water on early before I take the kids to school, so hopefully should be mashing in at about 9am. I'll be trying out Brew father in brew day for the first time, and this will be the first brew that I hope to put into my cornie keg, so it's a lot of firsts!

 

[marshbrewer]

Sortng the water and kit out the night before is a good plan. I shall do more of that in the future ~ I was all mashed in and eating breakfast by 9:30!

Here is today recipe, as per Brewfather so take all of the figures with a pinch of salt as I don't think I've got it dialled in for my kit yet (Brewers Friend gives different ABV, OG and final IBU's for instance);

ABV 4.5%
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 15.5 L
Sparge Water: 15.96 L
Total Water: 31.46 L
Boil Volume: 26.96 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041


Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.012
IBU (Tinseth): 40
Color: 9.3 EBC


Mash
(I've deleted this as the strike temps and mash length were wrong. I was aiming for a mash @ 67, which I hit, and will mash for 60 mins)

Malts (4.5 kg)
4 kg (88.9%) — Muntons Pale Ale Malt — Grain — 6.3 EBC
500 g (11.1%) — Simpsons Vienna Malt — Grain — 7.5 EBC


Hops (140 g)
15 g (23 IBU) — Chinook 13% — Boil — 60 min
25 g (3 IBU) — Cascade 5.5% — Boil — 5 min
25 g (6 IBU) — Centennial 10% — Boil — 5 min
25 g (8 IBU) — Chinook 13% — Boil — 5 min
25 g — Cascade 5.5% — Dry Hop — 3 days
25 g — Centennial 10% — Dry Hop — 3 days


Yeast
1 pkg — Danstar Nottingham (Except I'm going to use CML Pia yeast which isn't in the database)


Fermentation
Primary — 18 °C — 14 days

All went to plan, and I stired the mash after about 30 mins. Just waiting now to begin the batch sparge in 15 mins or so.

 

[marshbrewer]

Boil on and bittering hops in. Smells very nice. I have the 5 min addition hops in a bag. Its way more that I would usually add ~ the bag looks very weighty by my 'usually brews mild' standards! So far so good. Musn't forget to put the chiller and Protofloc in at t - 15mins, as there aren't any 15 min additions on this one.

 

[marshbrewer]

So, I hit 1050. Which is what Brewers Friend said I would hit! I really need to spend some time setting up Brewfather properly. Anyways, all went well, except the amount of protein break material in the bottom of the boiler was immense. I noticed this last time I brewed, except it was more noticeable in a pale wort. Both times I was using Muntons Planet malt, which I brought a 25Kg sack of. Meant that I lost an extra litre in the boiler so only got 19L in the FV. Still, I can live with that, and I just need to factor it in next time.

The CMP Pia yeast is a funny one - I re-hydrated it and most of it formed clumps that needed breaking up with a sanitised teaspoon rather than just stirring with the thermometer. I pitched at 14, which is way to low (I over cooled the wort, lol) but its pitched and the fermentation fridge set for 17°.

 

[chrisb8]

So, I hit 1050. Which is what Brewers Friend said I would hit! I really need to spend some time setting up Brewfather properly. Anyways, all went well, except the amount of protein break material in the bottom of the boiler was immense. I noticed this last time I brewed, except it was more noticeable in a pale wort. Both times I was using Muntons Planet malt, which I brought a 25Kg sack of. Meant that I lost an extra litre in the boiler so only got 19L in the FV. Still, I can live with that, and I just need to factor it in next time.

The CMP Pia yeast is a funny one - I re-hydrated it and most of it formed clumps that needed breaking up with a sanitised teaspoon rather than just stirring with the thermometer. I pitched at 14, which is way to low (I over cooled the wort, lol) but its pitched and the fermentation fridge set for 17°.

I have used the CML Pia yeast a few times recently and last time I didn't bother with rehydrating before pitching and I was pleasantly surprised to see significant airlock activity after just 3 hours

 

[marshbrewer]

Well, this is a bit weird.

The top of the airlock had popped slightly off, so I thought it had started fermenting. So I put it back on, and there was no airlock activity at all. Took a peak inside, and there was no krausen, just a few bubbles.

Ok, I thought, the yeast had gone to sleep because I pitched it too cold. I was about to get a long spoon, sanitise it and give it a stir when I saw the lava lamp type action through the fermenter, which would suggest what? Peak crausen has been and gone in 19 hours?!? What's people's thoughts? I'm reluctant to fart about with it stirring or taking readings unless I really have to, but I'm taking my youngest to party in town a bit later and could nip into Wilko's and get some notty if the yeast is a gonner. It's a weird one, that's for sure.

 

[marshbrewer]

Ok, it must have been at the inoculation / multiplying stage or whatever is called, as it's off now and has a healthy krausen. I can leave it alone now for a few days then dry hop it - Although it was smelling lovely and citrisy already.

 

[marshbrewer]

£25 off Faceache, fully working. With a bit of juggling of shelves, I have measured it up and can fit 4 corny kegs in easily. Kegorator build thread coming up soon.....

IMG_20200113_132513

• marshbrewer
• Jan 13, 2020

 

[marshbrewer]

Just dry hopped the Golden ale with 40g of Cascade and 40g of Centennial. It should have been 25g of each; I must have been having a senior moment. Hopefully, it ain't be too flowery. I'll start cold crashing Monday evening with a view to packaging next Friday.

 

[Dutto]

.......... With a bit of juggling of shelves, .........

Hope you saved the shelves as I'm bitterly regretting throwing mine out!

I knew I should have saved them and sure enough, after only three years, I need one!

 

[marshbrewer]

The Golden ale has finished at 1015, even after a rouse, temp increase and sacrificing of a lamb. I mashed quite high, so I suspect that is the issue. The sample I took is chilling in the fridge at the moment so I'll give it a cheeky taste in a it.

Update - Sample tastes good ~ it has the levels of hop bitterness, flavour and aroma I was looking for so that great.

 

[marshbrewer]

Today, I shall be making something that I've totally made up. Its a Kentucky Common recipe that Ive done before, changed to up up things that need using up. I was reading an article on Kentucky Commons and apparently, at some point in history they started using sugars in them (like British brewers), so I've modified the recipe to use 500g of candi crystals. I know - illogical / wrong for the style / call the police. I'm also using Carared + Amber rather than crystal because I have some that needs using up. So, it's ended up nothing like a KK. I will be brewing it with CML's Cali Common yeast though! Mash is on...

 

[marshbrewer]

Boil on. Mash stuck with 2L to go ~ I think I'm going to have to get into the habit of conditioning this Planet malt. Mount Hood hops smell interesting. Full recipe is;

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Another Chicken

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Kentucky Common
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 29.5 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.038
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 5.49%
IBU (tinseth): 39.28
SRM (morey): 20.27
Mash pH: 5.73

FERMENTABLES:
3500 g - Planet Pale (75.4%)
426 g - German - CaraRed (9.2%)
216 g - United Kingdom - Amber (4.7%)
500 g - Belgian Candi Sugar (160L) - (late addition) (10.8%)

HOPS:
15 g - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 27.51
25 g - Mount Hood, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.8, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 8.4
25 g - Mount Hood, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.8, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.37

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Strike, Temp: 66.1 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 14 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 76 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 18.1 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg

 

[marshbrewer]

Finished bang on 1050, and I got the planned 20L, which is satisfying. The wort is a lovely amber colour; nice bitterness. Hard to tell how much hop taste there is. I'm thinking of dry hopping this with the remaining mount hood. We'll see.

Pitched a pack of CML California Common at 19.5°, and set the fermentation fridge to 18°, but with the cooling unplugged so I'll let it drop to 18° naturally, but not below that.

I'm thinking this is looking more like an American Amber than a Kentucky Common, but obviously, that was the plan all along. Ahem.

 

[marshbrewer]

All fermenting away happily this morning. I'm leaning towards a hop tea on day 5, but might dry hop.

Then ramp up the temp to 21° for a few days, cold crash, then keg + condition at 5° for a few weeks.

 

[Dutto]

All fermenting away happily this morning. I'm leaning towards a hop tea on day 5, but might dry hop.
.......

I find that the flavour from a Hop Tea dissipates when I use it before fermentation has finished, so I recommend the dry hop.

I tend to stick a Hop Tea into the brew as I transfer it to the keg. (At the same time, I also use the Hop Tea to dissolve any priming sugar that I'm using.)

 

[marshbrewer]

Thanks for that @Dutto. I've got 50g of Mount Hood left, I think I might do 20g tea, 30g dry hop. A lot will depend on how a sample tastes once it is near FG.

 

[marshbrewer]

So Another Chicken has finished bang in 1009°. I've raised the temp to 20.5° just to make sure and will start to crash it down to 4° tomorrow. Sample tastes good, so I'm not going to dry hop this one. The ambient temperature is no CE and cool so I'll give it a few days at 4° then just have it in the garage at ambient to condition for a bit, which should free u the brew fridge for my next brew. I also need to buy another couple of Corny kegs. I had been warned that they would start to multiply!