Neil Brewday

[Neil Whittaker]

OK, so this is my first ever AG brew so maybe I should have expected a more stressful time than I originally predicted.


I was going for a modified version of a Cloudwater DIPA clone. I edited the ingredients to be use standard 100g amounts of hops & the base malt to be a nice round number.


Never used my BrewZilla before. So, loaded the unit up with the strike water and got it warming. Note this is a small batch brew so I only needed 15l to start off with. I got my little helpers working hard.


Mashed in, no drama, kids still helping. Did notice my temperature was a little off 65c, but then I worked out I only need the 500W and if no wort is returning via the centre pipe this can have an effect on the readout. Mashed out @ 75c.

Pulled the basket and sparged to get to my preboil volume. The sparge water was travelling through slow, so this took some time.

Started the boil, and this is when the first stress kicked in. The instructions say raise the temp to 120c and just use the 1900W element to maintain. My BrewZilla, once it got to 99c, the next increment was just HH, then back to 1c. Mine is version 3.1.1 and the instruction manual had not been updated. HH just means fully on.

First hop edition in and it is boiling away nice. In fact, to nice. HOW MUCH STEAM!!!!

I was in the bathroom with the extractor on, but I still had to open the window during storm Denis. Stress as the wife did not like the smell in the rest of the house and the bathroom door would not fully close due to the electric cable and the wind. Stress on the up.


Went to sort the fermenter. I’ve got a FermZilla and although good, tis a bit of a pain too. I had it cleaning with VPW for a day but still I could see a bit of crud behind the bottom seal. So, fully disassembled it, gave it an extra clean, rinse and chemsan. If you own a FermZilla you know that is just stress.


The supplied chiller is ok, but on a small batch only three coils actually makes contact with the wort. Anyway, chilled to 75c and let the 5 min addition have a little more time.

That’s when I found that my pump was not blocked. Stress. Thank god the BrewZilla has a lower drain tap. In my effort to free the pump, I had put all the hops is to suspension. Luckly, I put my hop spider into the FV, so as the wort transferred, the spider acted as a filter. Good job as it caught a lot.

Started at 3pm and finished at 10pm, with all the clean up etc…

There is a whole list of lessons learnt that I need to make sure is addressed before the next brewday!!!!

24 Hours later we are at 1o psi @ 19c and looking good.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Extra info,
My plan was to take lots of readings throughout the brew to understand PH level, Brewhouse efficiency & Mash efficiency. Did none of that :-(
Did not even take my OG as I thought there would be a little left in the bottom, but had non left in the kettle.

Cloudwater DIPA V13 Clone
Double IPA

Batch Volume: 12 L
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 15.09 L
Sparge Water: 4.48 L
Total Water: 19.57 L
Boil Volume: 16.54 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.060

Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU (Tinseth): 61
Color: 15.8 EBC

Mash
Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min
Mash Out — 75 °C — 10 min

Malts (3.79 kg)
3 kg (77.1%) — Simpsons Pale Ale Golden Promise — Grain — 4.5 EBC
640 g (16.5%) — Briess Oats, Flaked (Briess) — Grain — 2.8 EBC
150 g (3.9%) — Warminster Crystal 100 — Grain — 135 EBC
Other (100 g)
100 g (2.6%) — Briess Dextrose — Sugar — 2 EBC

Hops (220 g)
20 g (35 IBU) — Magnum 9.7% — Boil — 60 min
35 g (13 IBU) — Mosaic 10.4% — Boil — 5 min
30 g (14 IBU) — Citra 12.8% — Boil — 5 min
70 g — Citra 12.8% — Dry Hop — 2 days
65 g — Mosaic 10.4% — Dry Hop — 2 days

Yeast
1 pkg — Wyeast Labs 1318 London Ale III

 

[dhendy91]

Lovely to see another bathroom brewer, although I don't have any wonderful assistants just yet. Just did my second brew in the Bathroom brew with my Brew Devil I can tell you the second goes a lot easier than the first as you know how to set everything up and where to put everything if that makes sense? This looks like a nice beer!

P.S luckily for me the wife loves the smell of the sugary wort as it stinks out the 1st floor the next 24 hours after I brew!

 

[Rodcx500z]

Bin there done all that happy days and well done on your first brew, I now brew outside less stress for swmbo and me

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Yeah, I thought I was organised, but did not have a few things in place which threw me.
Long term I want to be 100% in the garage as my bathroom is tiny, but the garage is not attached to the house so I would need to sort:
1. Ventilation / Extractor
2. A clean drinking water supply.
3. Sink and drainage for cleaning.

So it's bathroom for months to come. The shower makes cleaning easy!!!!

Thank you for the comments. :-)

 

[bikesandbeer]

Young kids*, standing on baths / toilet lids in socks, water, boiling hot wort, extension reels - bloody hell...…. my heart was in my mouth
Glad you all got out alive!

*I've got two and know how bloody clumsy they can be

 

[Neil Whittaker]

lol, yeah, and the electric extension was on the floor too.
My risk assessment is, I know from testing the electric safety in the house is top notch, so no risk to life.
Low risk of the whole thing going over, but could happen. Keep myself within reach to manage risk.
Once above 65c, they were order out, as any a accident over that temp could be life changing.

Once we are in the garage, It might be a little better under feet for them.
Good spot, always worth thinking of the danger, I bet a few home brewers have been injured doing this hobby.

 

[thesteve]

got to love how people get so worked up about sterilising everything then brew the beer right next to the bog!

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Where do you think the strike water came from.