ppsmith's Brew Days

[ppsmith]

Not my first brew day (by my reckoning this is AG#38), but a brew day of firsts:

• First brew on my new stainless kettle
• First brew using a pump (and therefore first using my prototype fly sparging and whirlpool arms)
• First brew where I'm adjusting my water chemistry rather than using pure unadulterated council pop

A simple recipe, as I'm easing myself in to the new way of doing things:

Aiming for 20L in the fermenter:

• 3.44kg Maris Otter (95%)
• 180g Torrified Wheat (5%)
• Mash @ 65°C for 60 mins
• 60 minute boil
• 16.1g Mosaic @ 60 mins
• 8g Mosaic @ 15 mins
• 13.6g Mosaic @ 5 mins
• US-05 yeast

I ended up increasing the aroma hops slightly to finish off the packet, but the IBUs should be relatively on target.

First thing to go wrong: Filled the mash tun with water from the HLT at 75°C aiming for the strike temperature of 72.1°C, and... 68°C??? Not sure what happened there as I preheated the mash tun the same way I always do and it's not usually under. Threw in a (domestic) kettle full of boiling water to bring it up to temp with a mental note to reduce the sparge volume accordingly.

Mash went well, recirculated using the pump for the last 5 mins then slowly fly sparged, beating the numbers for pre boil gravity and volume. Not sure if it's the water chemistry or the new sparging method but I smashed my usual mash efficiency. That sprinkler head is going to be built in to the mash tun lid before my next brewday I think.

The boil was uneventful, but the new pump is definitely not up to the job of whirlpooling properly. Think I'll try and find a better hop spider instead and ditch the whirlpool altogether.



Anyway, final result is 21L in the fermenter @ 1.038 OG, but with more trub than I'd like. Still, calling this one a win.

 

[ppsmith]

Not quite a brew day, but a prep day - I'm going to attempt a kettle soured Berliner Weisse over the weekend, so today I'm making (I hope) a Lactobacillus starter culture, as per the recommendations on Milk the Funk

• 100g Light DME in 900ml Water, pasteurised for 15 mins
• Cooled to under 40 degrees
• Add 1/2tsp yeast nutrient, 1.5g calcium carbonate, 100ml apple juice
• 3-4 teaspoons of Fage 0% greek yoghurt to provide the bacteria
• Flush with CO2 and add an airlock
• Incubate at 38-43 degrees for 24h

This is going to be my first kettle sour, so I've no idea how this is going to turn out. I'll be brewing something akin to BYO's Berlin Smoothie recipe - the absence of hops worries me slightly, but I like the sound of the pineapple and blueberries.

 

[ppsmith]

A catch up of a few days of non-brewing, brewing, panicking, waiting, and finally... success?

Saturday was a write off courtesy of Friday night's Laphroaig, postponing the initial stage of the Berliner Weisse brewing to Sunday.

Recipe & brew log: Brewfather

One of the smallest grain bills I've had I think, at 3kg - 50% lager, 50% wheat. It's a while since I've made a wheat beer, so I was a bit concerned about a stuck mash, but had no problems at all.

Mash efficiency was way up (for me) at 82%. This was my first time using Crafty Maltsters' Lager malt and it seems what everyone has been saying about it's high potential has held true.

The near disaster came after the pasteurising first boil and lactobacillus starter was pitched. I'd set up my controller with a thermocouple hanging into the kettle but I guess the sensor location was such that it massively overshot its target of 35°C, reaching around 60 before I'd realised.

With thanks to @strange-steve for the reassurance, I waited until it had cooled again and threw in a single-serving tub of Fage 0% to provide reinforcements for any survivors. Seems to have worked as the pH dropped from its initial 4.6, down to 3.7 on Monday evening, then 3.4 this morning when I brought it back to the boil to finish it off.

Smashed the expected OG and volume, hitting 87% brewhouse efficiency despite the less than smooth brew day. Next step will be to grab some frozen pineapple and blueberries for secondary in a few days time.

 

[strange-steve]

View attachment 34198

I love your starter setup!

 

[ppsmith]

I love your starter setup!

I had to improvise there - realised I didn't have a bung for the erlenmeyer flask to fit an airlock, but I had plenty of jointed glassware kicking about

 

[Horners]

I love your starter setup!

Good retort.

 

[ppsmith]

'twas a couple of days before Christmas, and all through the house came a wail as Paul realised he had three empty kegs and nothing on tap

Too late for Christmas itself, but hopefully I can have something ready by New Years eve.

A lager in fermenter (which I was too lazy to document here), cold crashing nicely might be drinkable by then, but let's see if today might yield something else.

A quick recce of my store cupboard and I've got most of the things to brew an American Pale Ale, adapted from this recipe, with a few tweaks - brewday log & recipe here.

Hopefully the CML Voss Kveik I bought with my last order with the intention of experimenting should speed things up a bit - if I ferment at 35°C I might get this into keg at the weekend.

It's a race against time, will there be drinkable homebrew in time or am I going to have to buy some beer (or stick to spirits)?

 

[ppsmith]

New toys for this brewday: An Inkbird ITC-100VH to replace the crappy "PID" controller I got off eBay.

Also, made myself this useful little adapter - Hozelock to Camlock. Connected to the HLT valve it allowed me to fill from the bottom with no danger of the water spraying everywhere. Also when cleaning up, just hook my hot mains water to the counterflow chiller and kettle ports to flush them through.



Is this an original idea? Haven't seen anything like it online but I can thoroughly recommend one to make the brew day easier if you've got a similar setup.

Other than that, the brew day went like a charm. Managed to keg and fine the lager, so that's now on gas to age a little before I cave in and drink it before it's at its best.

For the pale, I managed to hit pretty much all my numbers - one point over on gravity but everything else was exactly as Brewfather predicted. Seems like I'm finally getting everything dialled in correctly.

That's now in the fermentation fridge with the heat on. Can't hear too much activity yet - first time brewing with kveik so not entirely sure what to expect there. Will take a reading at the end of today and see how far it's progressed.