Pavalijo’s Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

From your reported 'total hardness' (20.5 mg/L) and pH (7.59) the calculator I use gives the estimated Bicarbonate concentration as 30.4 and Carbonate as 0.1
The good news is that using the mean numbers from your report, the positive and negative ion concentrations balance, which is a good sign that the numbers are about right

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

So it looks like you've got pretty soft water there without a great deal of calcium or bicarbonate in it - which means it should be pretty straightforward for you to brew a range of beers without any great difficulty

For comparison have a look at the rock-juice that comes out of my taps here:

 

[Pavalijo]

Edit - this reply is to T-E-T-B’s post #20

That’s really kind. Before I use tap water I’ll read the thread and come up with my plan and run it past you if I may.

That will be next year though as I have lots of kit beers that have been conditioning whilst away plus a bit of the Clibit Citra Pale Ale (CCPA, the AG01 brew as above) and need to get through some of that to free up bottles!

I have a Razorback that is pretty good but not as good as the superb first attempt; a Youngs AIPA that is so bitter as to be unpleasant enough to have me wondering whether to dump it (no idea why as all went well enough other than a very long ferment even with well controlled temperature); a Cwtch that has matured nicely, although I‘m not sure I didn’t prefer it at the 2 month stage ( I had read that it’s much better after 6 months, so didn‘t have much before I went away); a Golden Stag that I‘m not too fond of but that others love for its Belgian beer banana taste qualities (I’m convinced that Festival must have slipped in the wrong yeast, it’s not HB twang); a load of Simply Ginger Beer for the missus and a few odds and sods and maybe a dozen bottles of the CCPA.

I have brewed too many kit beers that have been ok but not great (as well as a few great ones) so am looking forward to demolishing that stock and replenishing it with better AG stuff.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

For reference these are the target water profiles that are suggested by Murphy & Son for British ales.
I've used the ‘bitter’ and ‘mild’ profiles and am very pleased with the results.

The key bits are the Chloride and the Sulphate, and the Calcium can be a bit higher than that if you need it to be (but you do want at least 100ppm)

View attachment 50360

 

[Pavalijo]

So it looks like you've got pretty soft water there without a great deal of calcium or bicarbonate in it - which means it should be pretty straightforward for you to brew a range of beers without any great difficulty

That‘s good to know, thanks. I don’t do this to save money (more for enjoying the process), but the £7.20 I just spent on Ashbeck would be much better directed over the bar at my local!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

As you can see by comparison with your own water (Calcium 22, Sulphate 29, Chloride 15) with anything except lagers you definitely need to look at increasing the sulphate and chloride levels.
The challenge that gives most people is that it pushes the calcium too high - but that's not going to be a problem for you. I'm envious...
You could definitely use this instead of the Ashbeck IMHO - probably with half a Camden tablet just to take the chlorine out.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Incidentally with that one that's too bitter, unless you've already had it for a while it's worth keeping to see it it rounds out a bit over a couple of months (they often seem to)

 

[Pavalijo]

Incidentally with that one that's too bitter, unless you've already had it for a while it's worth keeping to see it it rounds out a bit over a couple of months (they often seem to)

The Young’s AIPA was bottled 27.12.20. It was undrinkable when first tried in February and has improved a little since then - I’ll give it another few months before dumping…..

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Ah yes. I'm not personally a fan of AIPA.

 

[Pavalijo]

Pavalijo AG#02 - Shipyard Clone

I read that there is an American brewed Shipyard and a slightly different version brewed in the U.K.. I’m not entirely certain which this recipe I found is supposed to emulate.

I have used the ingredients in the recipe except that I have used the Columbus I have in the freezer as buttering hop instead of Summit (having read that this is a recognised alternative).

I adjusted the recipe to create a 21L batch (fermenter volume). I got about that, eventually transferring 19.5L from conical fermenter to bottling bucket.

Marris Otter. 5.0 kg
Chocolate malt 27.5g
Crystal Rye. 365g

Columbus 16.0%aa. 18g at 60 minutes
Amarillo. 8.7%. 18g at 5 minutes
Cascade. 6.5%. 24.5g at 5 minutes
Citra. 12.8%. 12.5g at 5 minutes
Mosaaic. 11.9%. 13g at 5 minutes
Amarillo 30g dry hop last 5 days
Citra. 24g dry hop last 5 days

IBU (Tinseth) 45

Wyeast 1187 Ringwood (18-22’c)

I used Tesco Ashbeck. 8.2g Gypsum to mash and then to the boil added 6.65g Gypsum, 1.5g table salt and 4.9g Epsom Salts

Target OG 1056 FG 1009 ABV 6.15%

The recipe I found is attached at the bottom. That uses a different yeast, but Ringwood was recommended in the thread where I found it.

Using a calculator I intended to heat 16L of water to 75’c in the Peco and add my 5.64kg grain bill (at 18’c) to mash at 68’c for 60 minutes. Brain fog saw me add water at 78’c instead (the temperature calculation for sparge water!) So I added 0.5L cold water to adjust the temperature.

After the last brewday I had added two layers of yoga mat around the Peco, which doubles as mash tun and boiler. I stood it on a slab of Kingspan insulation and wrapped two sheepskins and a few blankets around it. The mash had dropped to 66’c by the end of the sparge.

During that hour I heated 10L of sparge water on the hob whilst weighing out the hop additions. It took longer than I had thought to heat the sparge water and so the mash went for nearly 10 minutes longer than intended.

Then I discovered that my sparge pot won’t hold as much as I thought - a bit of the sparge water overflowed as I dunked the bag in. Another lesson learned!! I also missed my sparge temperature target of 75’c and was 4 to 5 degrees lower. I didn’t have enough containers to lift out and contain the bag and put the sparge pot on the wok burner and I didn’t want to burn the bag or grain, so left it be. Need to sort that out for next time.

I then took the boiler outside and added a little more water to take the boil volume to 27.5 litres, along with the water adjustment salts.

It was a reasonably mild day, but the yoga mats around the Peco certainly helped me to get a much better rolling boil than last time. Also it didn’t cut out a few times as it did last time, so the boil went much better. Hop additions went as planned, using the timer on my phone, along with half a Brite Wort tablet at 15 minutes.

During the course of the boil I sterilised my conical fermenter and smacked the Wyeast smack pack - a first for me!

As well as the yoga mat I had added a new steel tap with a 12” bazooka filter (a very tight fit and took a bit of fiddling) which meant that draining the boiler was very much simpler than last time.

I drained the hot wort into my two (sterilised, maybe unnecessary but no harm) steel pots and put these into cold water baths. I had forgotten to put our dozen or more freezer packs into the freezer the day before and so cooling took longer than last time. I had thought about using the empty 5L Ashbeck bottles for cooling the wort, as well as then being able to shake to aerate before adding to the fermenter. However an experiment with boiling water showed that they are not up to the job.

I added the wort to the fermenter and left for another couple of hours to cool. I added a tea spoon of Harris Pure Brew. I think this may contain a yeast nutrient (?) and hope it may assist the slightly unreliable Ringwood and my persistently slow fermentations. After aeration with a sterilised whisk I pitched the yeast (the pack was a bit expanded but not turgid) at 22’c (the upper end of the yeast’s 18-22’c quoted range), expecting the wort to cool further overnight before any vigorous fermentation started, given the reputation of Ringwood as a slow starter. My OG was 1053 against a target of 1056. I’m more than happy with that as I would be happier with lower ABV than estimated, when fermentation finishes at 1009 .

The wet room/fermentation chamber is kept at a reasonably constant temperature, giving me fairly consistent fermentations between 19-20’c.

However on this occasion we left early the following (Friday) morning, returning Sunday lunchtime when fermentation was vigorous and the temperature at 22.6’c

Having cooled it down to 20’c within 24 hours fermentation then progressed at the aforementioned 19-20’c range.

After 15 days bubbling had slowed to around every 45 seconds, another 6 days later it had finally stopped. Dry hops were added with the gravity at 1.012, 3 points higher than expected. Bubbling started up again, and whilst I expected this for a short period (hops being a point at which CO2 gathers and escapes suspension?) it carried on for another week before stopping again, when I racked off to a CO2 filled bottling bucket.

FG 1010, ABV 5.64% (plenty high enough for me).

I didn’t have room in the shed so it stayed inside for a few days to clear (a bit) before I bottled 37 x 450ml and 3 x 500ml (18.15L total, plus a quarter of a pint sample, tasting which suggests that in spite of all my mistakes this has turned out not too bad at all - so far!)

LESSONS LEARNED/ IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED

1. Still need to get to grips with water treatment. TETB gave me a good deal of help and says that my tap water is pretty good. So next time I will collect that the day before and add a Campden tablet to get rid of Chlorine/Chloramines and see how that goes. Saving £6 on Ashbeck will be a step forward.

2. Need to resolve getting my mash and sparge temperatures right (and heating the sparge water a bit quicker), and I’d like a bigger pot for dunk sparging. I’m not too concerned about complicating my sparge procedure to get the last gram out of the grain bill.

3. I want a cooling coil. I’d like to reduce the time taken to cool the wort. I bid for and won one on eBay, only for the vendor to pull out (he hadn’t set a reserve!)

4. Patience! Wait for the wort to cool more before pitching the yeast at a temperature to allow for warming as vigorous fermentation commences.

5. Get to the bottom of my almost consistent very slow fermentation times. I am thinking that i need to spend 5 x as long aerating the wort. What else can it be?

Now to go and clear up the bottling room (aka wet room/fermentation chamber) before Mrs Pavalijo notices the mess!

 

[Tanglefoot]

Well done !

Regarding point 2 above;
As another option, I and many other people BIAB with no sparge, adjusting the grain bill. Software like Brewfather can calculate this for you.
Means you can brew in one pot, although I use a clean fv to squeeze the bag in.

Costs a little more for grain but saves hassle, my brewhouse efficiency is regularly 70% which is very reasonable to me

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Pavalijo AG#02 - Shipyard Clone

Great writeup
FWIW it's unusual that I get to the end of a brew-day without something unexpected happening or realising that I forgot to add something... but the beer usually seems to turn out OK :-)
Your fermentation times seem alright to me, and I wouldn't bother about more aeration if I were you: these days I just give everything a couple of weeks in the FV and then an extra week to clear down a bit before kegging.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

By the way with the Wyeast 'smack packs' I do find it's best to activate them at the beginning of the brew-day so as to give the yeast time to properly wake up