matt76's Brewdays

[matt76]

Oh my god, look at you saddo's with your charts and tables!

It's revenge of the nerds, baby!

(Admit it, a part of you is just a teensy bit jealous )

 

[matt76]

Breaking news...

What's that I've said in the past about brewing with flaked oats, and how you need to do a rest at 50degC otherwise your mash goes all gluey and the grain bag is impossible to squeeze properly?

Oops!

More on this story later

 

[matt76]

AG#24 Oatmeal Stout

Recipe from "Beer Craft" by Jon Finch, adapted for my scale and process.....

2430g Golden Promise
310g Flaked Barley
310g Flaked Oats
275g Medium Crystal
275g Chocolate Malt

(I was a little short on chocolate malt so I added 27g Carafa 3 to make up the difference)

Full volume mash 30mins using 15L water
30min boil
55g East Kent Goldings 4% AAU for 30mins (41.5 IBU's)
Cool to 20degC and pitch Wyeast 1318
OG 1.056

I'm still liking my revamped process - the combination of my new tea urn HLT + 30min full volume mash + 30 min boil is so much quicker. However, these changes mean all my usual numbers and rules of thumb for efficiency etc go out the window and I'm effectively starting from scratch.

I expect efficiency to be lower than before with a full volume mash but it really took a nosedive today - I'm annoyed with myself because I should know this. From previous experience, flaked oats needs a mash rest at 50degC or the mash goes all gluey and you can't squeeze the bag (or I imagine you risk a stuck sparge). I just mashed at 65 and so lost a load of liquor absorbed in the grain - doh!

As with recent brews, post boil and cooling I left it to settle so the crud would fall to the bottom so I could syphon the clear wort to the FV - except today. I thought I'd see if I could syphon the crud out from under the clear wort. In short I couldn't and I ended up wasting a bunch of time sorting that out. Oh well, you live and learn.

 

[MyQul]

AG#24 Oatmeal Stout

Recipe from "Beer Craft" by Jon Finch, adapted for my scale and process.....

2430g Golden Promise
310g Flaked Barley
310g Flaked Oats
275g Medium Crystal
275g Chocolate Malt

(I was a little short on chocolate malt so I added 27g Carafa 3 to make up the difference)

Full volume mash 30mins using 15L water
30min boil
55g East Kent Goldings 4% AAU for 30mins (41.5 IBU's)
Cool to 20degC and pitch Wyeast 1318
OG 1.056

I'm still liking my revamped process - the combination of my new tea urn HLT + 30min full volume mash + 30 min boil is so much quicker. However, these changes mean all my usual numbers and rules of thumb for efficiency etc go out the window and I'm effectively starting from scratch.

I expect efficiency to be lower than before with a full volume mash but it really took a nosedive today - I'm annoyed with myself because I should know this. From previous experience, flaked oats needs a mash rest at 50degC or the mash goes all gluey and you can't squeeze the bag (or I imagine you risk a stuck sparge). I just mashed at 65 and so lost a load of liquor absorbed in the grain - doh!

As with recent brews, post boil and cooling I left it to settle so the crud would fall to the bottom so I could syphon the clear wort to the FV - except today. I thought I'd see if I could syphon the crud out from under the clear wort. In short I couldn't and I ended up wasting a bunch of time sorting that out. Oh well, you live and learn.

Thing is, if you dont try stuff out you wont come across that technique (what ever it may be) that really works for you. Sometimes you'll crap out, like you did today and whatever you're trying wont work. But other times you'll stumble across something that really works for you're set up. It's all about trial and error

 

[Rodcx500z]

AG#24 Oatmeal Stout

Recipe from "Beer Craft" by Jon Finch, adapted for my scale and process.....

2430g Golden Promise
310g Flaked Barley
310g Flaked Oats
275g Medium Crystal
275g Chocolate Malt

(I was a little short on chocolate malt so I added 27g Carafa 3 to make up the difference)

Full volume mash 30mins using 15L water
30min boil
55g East Kent Goldings 4% AAU for 30mins (41.5 IBU's)
Cool to 20degC and pitch Wyeast 1318
OG 1.056

I'm still liking my revamped process - the combination of my new tea urn HLT + 30min full volume mash + 30 min boil is so much quicker. However, these changes mean all my usual numbers and rules of thumb for efficiency etc go out the window and I'm effectively starting from scratch.

I expect efficiency to be lower than before with a full volume mash but it really took a nosedive today - I'm annoyed with myself because I should know this. From previous experience, flaked oats needs a mash rest at 50degC or the mash goes all gluey and you can't squeeze the bag (or I imagine you risk a stuck sparge). I just mashed at 65 and so lost a load of liquor absorbed in the grain - doh!

As with recent brews, post boil and cooling I left it to settle so the crud would fall to the bottom so I could syphon the clear wort to the FV - except today. I thought I'd see if I could syphon the crud out from under the clear wort. In short I couldn't and I ended up wasting a bunch of time sorting that out. Oh well, you live and learn.

Don,t despair Matt today I did the same I did a witbier type brew with 500g of oats and 500g of shreddie's orange and lemon zest and 10g of cracked coriander, I had 23L in the kettle would it come out no chance, I finished up sanitising my hand and arm to lift the plate out it was solid what a mess, I still had to keep running my hand along the bakooka I got it out it's settled in the fv so I imagine I will lose some when it's fermented, I used a new yeast for me MJ M21 the guy in the shop gave a book on all their yeast and what to brew with them, next week I am getting a shed load of muslin bags onwards and upwards hope your brew turns out good

 

[matt76]

Thing is, if you dont try stuff out you wont come across that technique (what ever it may be) that really works for you. Sometimes you'll crap out, like you did today and whatever you're trying wont work. But other times you'll stumble across something that really works for you're set up. It's all about trial and error

Thanks @MyQul , and you too @Rodcx500z , for your words of encouragement, much appreciated

You're damn right, we get it a bit wrong, we have an opportunity to learn and improve.

The facts are, i ended up spending a little longer cleaning up, I will more than likely end up with some beer at the end (ok, maybe a few pints less than ideal, but meh) and I'm sitting here enjoying some of my previous brews just as I would have been if everything had gone perfectly.

So all in all there are worse problems to have

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Rodcx500z]

Thanks @MyQul , and you too @Rodcx500z , for your words of encouragement, much appreciated

You're damn right, we get it a bit wrong, we have an opportunity to learn and improve.

The facts are, i ended up spending a little longer cleaning up, I will more than likely end up with some beer at the end (ok, maybe a few pints less than ideal, but meh) and I'm sitting here enjoying some of my previous brews just as I would have been if everything had gone perfectly.

So all in all there are worse problems to have

Cheers,

Matt

That's the spirit opp's no pun intended

 

[MyQul]

Thanks @MyQul , and you too @Rodcx500z , for your words of encouragement, much appreciated

You're damn right, we get it a bit wrong, we have an opportunity to learn and improve.

The facts are, i ended up spending a little longer cleaning up, I will more than likely end up with some beer at the end (ok, maybe a few pints less than ideal, but meh) and I'm sitting here enjoying some of my previous brews just as I would have been if everything had gone perfectly.

So all in all there are worse problems to have

Cheers,

Matt

It's actually REALLY hard not to end up with some sort of beer if you follow the basic steps of mash, boil, ferment. As I always say, beer WANTS to be made

 

[matt76]

It's actually REALLY hard not to end up with some sort of beer if you follow the basic steps of mash, boil, ferment. As I always say, beer WANTS to be made

Yep, agreed with that.

I'm quite pleased that when I was messing around last night I'd not had a beer at that point - had I done so I'd have probably just gone oh stuff it and slung the lot in the FV. Nowt wrong with that except it'd go against my current aim to get little or no crud in the FV.

As it is, I got 5L in the FV last night - this has settled out with a tiny bit of trub. Airlock was bubbling happily this morning. I've just topped it up with the stuff I collected in bottles bringing it up to about 8.75L, and I reckon there's a bit more to come.

All in all I'm happy enough with that

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I had a panic earlier, I went to check on my Weizenbock which is conditioning in my daughters walk in wardrobe, opened the doors and I could smell beer, **** I thought, i've had a bottle bomb!! Looks like it may have been a broken bottle though as the 3 plastic bottles are firm but nowhere near solid. Phew!

 

[matt76]

Update: AG#24 Oatmeal Stout

Topped up yesterday with about 250ml of clear wort that had settled out in the bottles of gunk I'd collected.

With nothing left to lose I passed the remaining ~3L through some sanitised grain and hop bags to try and filter out some of the crud - surprising that even the coarse grain bag silted up really easily!

Anyway, I collected 2L of less gunky gunk and left it to settle in the fridge overnight. It settled out nicely and yielded another ~1L clear wort bringing the FV up to around 10L.

Happy enough with that and worth the extra effort to get a couple more pints out of it

 

[St00]

I've taken to keeping the wort extracted from the crud at the bottom of the kettle, freezing it, then using it for starters further down the line. Saves on DME.

That's genius. Like most excellent ideas it makes me think "duh! why didn't I think of that..."

 

[St00]

I need an update on AG#23 Bitsa SCA

 

[matt76]

I need an update on AG#23 Bitsa SCA

Heh heh... It's still in the FV, will be for another week or two yet. I had to move FV out of the water bath to make room for the stout so it's a couple of degrees warmer but it'll be fine.

In the meantime I'm still trying to figure out what it is, I mean more specifically than just "beer". It looks quite dark in the FV, but maybe that's just an impression and it'll look lighter in a glass.

 

[matt76]

Update: AG#22 GH Cornish Tin Miner's Ale

Had a sneaky taste of this the other day, 2 weeks after bottling, from an odd 330ml bottle I had...

Pleased with the colour and clarity - good news was there's chuff all trub in the bottles and didn't seem to be any chill haze! So it looks like my process changes might have paid off

In truth it didn't seem fully carbonated yet and certainly tasted very young.

It also stuck me as rather sweet - only 28IBUs so maybe it wants a few more hops. But I'll reserve full judgement until it's properly carbed and conditioned. Back to the cupboard with you...

In the meantime I also did some bottle cap labels for this one:

And while I was at it I also did some labels for my AG#21 Baltic porter, modelled after the Estonian flag:

 

[MyQul]

Out of interest. Whats your process for not getting chill haze? Are you somehow partially no-chilling or something?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Are those labels cut out and stuck on from something? Sure I've seen people talking about these.

Brings a lump to the throat to see a st piran's flag on a decent looking beer.

 

[matt76]

Out of interest. Whats your process for not getting chill haze? Are you somehow partially no-chilling or something?

1. After the boil I chill with an immersion chiller to 20degC
2. Then I put the lid on the kettle and leave it for >3 hours to let the crud settle out.
3. Then syphon the crystal clear wort to the FV, leaving the crud behind.
4. I also transfer the crud to sanitised bottles - once it's settled out again it seems I can reclaim another 2L or so of clear wort.

I think the issue previously was that I transferred everything to the FV, including the cold break material responsible for chill haze. This is the first batch where I've tried this method so jury is still out but fingers crossed - I've two more batches in the FV that used this method so should have a better idea soon (except one is a stout where clarity is rather hard to judge! )

 

[MyQul]

1. After the boil I chill with an immersion chiller to 20degC
2. Then I put the lid on the kettle and leave it for >3 hours to let the crud settle out.
3. Then syphon the crystal clear wort to the FV, leaving the crud behind.
4. I also transfer the crud to sanitised bottles - once it's settled out again it seems I can reclaim another 2L or so of clear wort.

I think the issue previously was that I transferred everything to the FV, including the cold break material responsible for chill haze. This is the first batch where I've tried this method so jury is still out but fingers crossed - I've two more batches in the FV that used this method so should have a better idea soon (except one is a stout where clarity is rather hard to judge! )

Ah, the chiller will be the key. For some reason I thought you had some sort of (no) chilling voodoo that didnt use a chiller but also didn't give you chill haze

 

[foxbat]

I tip the whole kettle into the FV and haven't had any kind of haze since I started kegging. Get some kegs Matt, you know you want to.