marshbrewers brewdays

[pms67]

Ok mate cheers
Their old Kolsch yeast? Have they changed it?
I thought it was one of the best of the first ones they brought out also, real ale was terrible
Must try the Celtic though.

 

[marshbrewer]

No, sorry, I meant the Kolsch yeast from their original range. That they still do.

Can't seem to get my words out tonight!

 

[marshbrewer]

Using my house Edwardian era IPA recipe modified to be a single hop beer, namely First Gold, as I want to see what this brings to the party on its own.

Mash is on, recipe to follow..

 

[marshbrewer]

Today's Recipe:

India Ale - First Gold
English IPA
5.1% / 11.9 °P
64.1% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.009
IBU (Tinseth): 42
Colour: 7.7 EBC


Mash
Strike Temp — 71.9 °C
Infusion — 67 °C — 90 min
Malts (4.25 kg)
2.5 kg (55%) — Thomas Fawcett Pale Malt, Maris Otter — Grain — 5.9 EBC
1 kg (22%) — Simpsons Lager Malt — Grain — 3 EBC
750 g (16.5%) — Corn, Flaked — Grain — 2.6 EBC
Other (300 g)
300 g (6.6%) — Demerara Sugar — Sugar — 3.9 EBC — Boil
Hops (100 g)
30 g (29 IBU) — First Gold 7.5% — Boil — 60 min
12 g (9 IBU) — First Gold 7.5% — Boil — 30 min
20 g (4 IBU) — First Gold 7.5% — Boil — 5 min
38 g — First Gold 7.5% — Aroma — 0 min hopstand
Yeast
1 pkg — Crossmyloof Pia 75%
Fermentation
Primary — 20 °C — 14 days

 

[marshbrewer]

Kegged my JOSHUA TETLEY & Sons X K BITTER BEER 1868 today. I'm a bit short on beer so I've set it to force carb using the set and forget method. Ideally, I would have naturally carbed it. The First Gold India Ale has been set to cold crash, I'll probably naturally carb this. Have to plan my next one now.....

 

[marshbrewer]

Kegged the India Ale today, and set to naturally carb at 19°C. Had a sneaky taste of the Tetley ale that has been force carbing up for a couple of days; it's very green so it's hard to tell if it's any good.

 

[marshbrewer]

Got the water and grains ready tonight for another attempt at nailing a house Brown Ale. Recipe is;

Meadow View Brown Ale

4.9%
67.1% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 60 min

Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.009
IBU (Tinseth): 26
Colour: 33 EBC

Mash
Infusion — 66 °C — 90 min

Malts (3.7 kg)
3 kg (70.9%) — Thomas Fawcett Pale Malt, Maris Otter — Grain — 5.9 EBC
300 g (7.1%) — Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt — Grain — 118 EBC
200 g (4.7%) — Thomas Fawcett Amber Malt — Grain — 101 EBC
200 g (4.7%) — Crisp Brown Malt — Grain — 128 EBC
Other (530 g)
500 g (11.8%) — Lyle's Golden Syrup — Sugar — 25 EBC — Boil
30 g (0.7%) — Blackstrap Molasses (Meridian) — Sugar — 1875 EBC — Boil


Hops (50 g)
30 g (19 IBU) — Fuggles 4.5% — Boil — 60 min

20 g (7 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 5% — Boil — 15 min


Yeast
1 pkg — Mangrove Jack's M36 Liberty Bell 76.5%
Fermentation
Primary — 20 °C — 14 days

Updates tomorrow.

 

[marshbrewer]

Mash is on. I've been messing with the settings in Brewfather as I was constantly getting a lower mash temperature than I expected. I may have over cooked it, as I hit 68 rather than 67. After 30 mins this has settled down to a constant 66. Got a mind of its own. I think my mash tun will be the next area of improvement I look at.

 

[marshbrewer]

18L @ 1046. I seem to be loosing 2L or so somewhere, or more likely, I haven't accounted for my losses. I think I've now added them to the correct section in my equipment profile in Brewfather - we shall see next time. I really need to look at my mash tun insulation as it doesn't seem to hold temperature very well.

Other than that, all went well. Sample tasted very promising. It's sat at 21° in my one of my fermentation fridges. It's set to heat only, in other words the inkbird will keep it at 21° but if it chooses to romp off so be it; a bit of yeast character won't do any harm.

 

[marshbrewer]

Brewing had been non existent this year, since the garage door went tits up, collapsed in my head, then jammed half open, resulting in much swearing. I got it closed, but had to remove half the mechanism, so now it can be precariously propped open to get my bikes out, but brewing around it with over 20L of scalding wort has been a no no.

Tuesday, a man is coming to price up a set of 3/4 - 1/4 side opening doors, so hopefully I shall be back up and running soon. Going to cost more than a grand, though.

 

[marshbrewer]

First brewday in ages. 1864 Lovibond XP. Tons of EKG, all early in the boil the latest being at 30 mins, and pale malt. That's it.

Should have been something like Chevalier, but I'd run out so went for Baird's Marris Otter plus a bit of Munich to try and make up for the lack of Chevalier honey-ness . It's not authentic but smelt great.

Just used my very hard / mineral rich water and Phosphoric acid. Brewfathers calculator suggested some additions, but it's the first time I've used Phosphoric acid rather than CRS so I want to see what it's like. I also need to get some jewellery scales as the additions for my brew length (20L in FV) always seem miniscule.

Cooled to 23°C , and pitched MJ Liberty Bell. Now sat at a constant 20°C in one of the fermentation fridges.

Things I learnt; My efficiency is better than I had previously dialed into Brewfather (I got an OG of 1066, rather than expected 1053) and I am loosing 2L somewhere as I got 18L in the FV. My pre boil gravity was also up, so I don't think I am loosing it to boil off.

My side opening garage doors are ace as they a) don't drop on my head ( see post above) and b) give you loads more room that previously would have to be left for the up and over's 'swing' so I think I can finally build custom shelving for my brew system to minimise lugging stuff around - watch this space.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Glad you're back in the groove - and congrats on the doors: the increase in usable 'real estate' hopefully makes up for the price tag :hat:

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Need to do that with my doors, cost you over a grand you reckon? Was there any brick/block work required as well?

 

[marshbrewer]

Need to do that with my doors, cost you over a grand you reckon? Was there any brick/block work required as well?

Cheapest I could find the doors I wanted online (not fitted) was £900ish plus delivery. Bloke quoted / charged £1135 fitted, took old door away, etc.

After seeing them fit it, in the wind, and after trying to fit a small uPVC door in my shed myself, it was worth every penny extra!

They sorted the frame, etc, no brickwork or anything required. All done in an afternoon.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Cheapest I could find the doors I wanted online (not fitted) was £900ish plus delivery. Bloke quoted / charged £1135 fitted, took old door away, etc.

After seeing them fit it, in the wind, and after trying to fit a small uPVC door in my shed myself, it was worth every penny extra!

They sorted the frame, etc, no brickwork or anything required. All done in an afternoon.

Ha! Yes I think I would defo need someone to install it, my garage door is knackered and I want to replace with something like you've got, I haven't got as far as getting a quote so that's quite interesting thanks!

 

[marshbrewer]

Fermenting away happily. Liberty Bell smelling as lovely as always; if the main desirable characteristic of yeast was to smell awesome while fermenting, Liberty Bell would win hands down!

 

[marshbrewer]

Started to build all the shelving / racking that will make my 3 vessel brewery gravity fed. Today, I made a sort of trolley for my boiler so I can safely move it from it's boil position, over to the brew fridge, where an empty FV will be waiting already in the right location. It will then be filled by gravity. No more lugging 20L of liquid about!

 

[marshbrewer]

Sort of finished. Needs a bit of tidying up, but I had a BBQ to be getting on with. The shelf that the HLT sits on was already there, and it could probably do with being raised 6'' or so, but I'll try it as it is.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Sort of finished. Needs a bit of tidying up, but I had a BBQ to be getting on with. The shelf that the HLT sits on was already there, and it could probably do with being raised 6'' or so, but I'll try it as it is.

View attachment 48193

Nice work. Do you think a little bit of cross-bracing (e.g. diagonal wires) might improve stability?

 

[marshbrewer]

Na, it'll be all reet.

The legs of the shelves are made from CLS so it's quite stable, but I'll brace it if need be. The shelving is screwed to the wall either by brackets or CLS so the Whole structure is pretty solid. The boiler trolley might benefit from some bracing, but we'll see.