New Year Blonde

[Gib]

Hi Guys,
made a brew a couple of days ago - the first of this year (first of many hopefully). I didn't really have any fixed plans on a type of ale I just wanted to use up some ingredients that were getting a little old - mainly the hops (perle and goldings). I decided to try a koelsch style beer as I only have ale yeast available although I won't be lagering it for any length of time (don't have anywhere cold enough). I increased the brew length from 23L to 50L as I have recently added a 70L thermopot to my equipment.

Details - nothing complex here

Hops
Perle 50g (10g added final 15 mins of boil)
Goldings 30g

Grain
Pale Malt 10Kg

I was aiming for an initial gravity of around 1.045 but forgot to check so we'll never know what it ended up as.
Here's some pics:

10 Kg Grain next to the mash Tun

The Mash

Pumps running sparge in progress

Sparging

Spent grain

Boiling away

New Counterflow chiller

Remarks
Generally the brewday went well although it took a little longer than usual as I still had to cut some lengths of hose for the counterflow chiller plus I still had some soldering to do.

The blue hose that I use is quite stiff so it's difficult to get the copper return manifold that I put together flat against the grain bed when sparging - I'll have to rig something up for this.

The counterflow chiller was very efficient - a little too efficient actually but then the tap water was only 5 deg C so I had to slow the rate from the tap right down. The flow rate due to gravity for the wort was slower than expected, so it still took 30 mins + to chill the beer.

 

[llannige]

Great pics there Gib,nice set up too.

A good brewday. :thumb: Hope it turns out well for you.

 

[Muddydisco]

Great brew Gib :thumb:
Excellent pic too. I too was thinking something like this to get rid of some small amounts of grain and hops I have left.
Looks like it will happen now :grin: Shh don't tell the wife :nono: She doesn't know about the cornie it's going into :rofl:

 

[EskiBrew]

Nice looking setup Gib :clap:

 

[Gib]

Thanks guys.

My brewery has been constructed from ideas/observations gained from reading this forum. It's a great source of information and inspiration - not sure it's good for my liver though :?

 

[damfoose]

May I point out a little ermmmm well point I suppose .... Its damn cold outside at the moment and will be for a while yet why not bung the FV outside in a shed or even just outside covered in a few black bin bags that will lager for you for a while.

If you think im being cheeky the idea was pointed out to me by a fellow brewer last year who has been brewing for a good number of years, It is just the thing I shall be doing this weekend to help all the yeasties and other things hit the bottom of my FV's so I can keg whats in them and then hopefully get a lager brew on myself I am hoping to get 2 cornies filled with lager if I can manage it but its going to be one heck of a brew to do as I only have one keg for a boiler. So after a week of low temp fermenting outside the FV's shall go to lager for as long as its cold enough to lager at.

 

[Wez]

Looks like a good brew, nice set up :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Great post and pics Gib, love the brewery :thumb:

 

[Gib]

Yeah I realise it's a bit chilly outside DF but I've had too many things go walkies from my back yard to trust putting anything out there.

Plus another problem with lagering is the amount of time needed to do it and I don't usually have enough patience for it - I'll just condition as I normally do under the stone table in the pantry for a few weeks, I'm sure it'll turn out ok. :)

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Hi Gib,

I'm new to this and am just starting with a kit, but I'm planning on scaling up my brewing operations as soon as money permits. Did you buy your kit locally in Bradford?

Thanks

 

[Gib]

Hi Bishopsfinger,

welcome to home brewing it's great fun. Most of my kit was obtained from all over the place really - that's the beauty of the internet I suppose, it allows you to purchase products from anywhere in the world. You might have seen reference to a company called Nordic Optical in other posts on this site - this company were selling large pots on the UK ebay site but they seem to have stopped selling through this route. They do however still sell on the french and german ebay sites. I bought my mash tun and copper (boiler) on the german site - here's a link. They speak english and will post to the UK.

My HLT is just a 30L tea urn/water boiler that I got second hand from ebay - it's actually a bit small now and I will probably upgrade this at some point in the future.

I'll be doing another brew next week (probably monday or tuesday) so you're welcome to pop over and have a look if you have the time.

 

[corby_brewer]

My HLT is just a 30L tea urn/water boiler that I got second hand from ebay

Gib i take it that its a 30ltr BURCO, if so what size tap did you replace the original one with was it a 15mm?

 

[Gib]

I think the make of the water boiler is parry and it is a 15mm ball valve that I replaced the standard tap with.

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Cheers Gib thats very kind of you. My only worry is that I'll then want to buy every piece of shiny kit available and get kicked out by my wife after promising not to get carried away!

 

[Navin]

Hi Gib,

that's a great set up, I particularly like the counterflow chiller in all-copper, is it 22/15 or 22/10?

Any chance you you post a close up picture of the connections I'd like to construct something similar.

Navin

 

[Gib]

Hi Navin,

it's 15/10 - 22/15 would be better though. I bought it off ebay but it was shipped from the states. The internal pipe is convoluted to help heat transfer - don't know where you can get this.

Here's how it arrived

Here's a closeup of the ends of the copper pipes

I put some standard garden hose connectors on it from Homebase for the cold water supply

 

[Vossy1]

The internal pipe is convoluted to help heat transfer - don't know where you can get this.

It's incredibly expesive when you do track it down, and comes in very large rolls.

 

[Gib]

Nevermind Bishopsfinger I understand. I never let my wife know the true cost of the things that I buy for this hobby and she's not too keen on me smelling the house out when I brew, but she's away at the moment that's why I'm going to get another sneaky brew on before she gets back. :

 

[Navin]

Gib,

thanks for the pictures, it gives me some ideas.

A company I used to work for in the States makes a counterflow blood warmer with an aluminium inner and a plastic outer, the heat exchanger part is straight and only about 45cm long but the inner has a barley-twist in it and is very efficient at warming.

Navin