ssashton
Regular.
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- Apr 17, 2019
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This is a detailed description of my brewing method and I would appreciate any tip on what I might be able to improve!
Mash grain in nylon bag. Electric kettle with digital temp controller, plate on the bottom to keep bag off the heater. Usually 60 mins at ~65C.
Water from the tap, no treatment. 15L to mash. I did try bottled water from Tesco \ Asda but did not notice a significant difference. Maybe very slight. I'm in Gillingham, Kent, South East. Water report - https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/default/pdfs/ZK505.pdf
Sparge with 5L boiled tap water directly from kettle near boiling temperature, poured slowly and leave to drain through every 2L.
Yes, I do squeeze the bag, having very wet grains to throw away. How do you dispose of grains?
Boil usually 60mins. I use a relay to 'blip' the electric kettle on and off to maintain a rolling boil. (stout in photo)
Hops are pellets added in nylon hop socks.
Cooling is done with a copper immersion chiller fed from tap water. I'll usually clean the coil with starsan and the rough side of a kitchen sponge.
Hop stand where a recipe calls for 'flame out' hops I will usually do this as a 20 minute hop stand at 80C after a couple minutes cooling.
Transfer to fermenter I usually pull the coil and hop socks then give it a brisk stir and let it settle for 20 minutes. I syphon via the washed grain bag to a bucket to catch hops particles but of course some always gets in. Then I syphon from bucket to plastic pressure barrel where I do the fermentation.
Fermentation is usually done in the cellar which on average is around 15c. In summer it can be 20C and in winter 10C. It's only half underground. I try not to worry too much about a slightly higher fermentation temp as I have read that pressure fermentation reduces off flavours from higher temps.
Dry hopping I think might be a weakness. I need to open the pressure barrel to add the hop socks. This can of course let oxygen in. I usually let the pressure out, open it and fast as possible chuck in the sock and close it again. As the beer is already somewhat carbonated at about 8psi my hope is dissolved Co2 will quickly blanket the beer and re-pressurise the head space to keep oxygen away.
Cold crashing is something I do not always do. I often just transfer from the FG beer to a keg. However sometimes I do put the fermenter in the fridge for a couple days before transfer.
Keg prep I wash the corny kegs with dish soap then rinse with starsan. I purge with co2 by simply feeding from gas from cylinder via tube with the top open. When a flame will not stay lit inside the opening of the keg I consider it purged and close the top.
I'm aware most people fill with water then push out the water with c02. I do not like wasting so much water, but I'm not sure how much oxygen a butane flame needs?
Transfer is done closed, but using gravity not a pump nor c02. I simply place the fermenter at a higher level than the keg so it drains to the keg. I also conenct a gas line between the two vessels so the gas in the keg can go back to the fermenter while the beer transfers.
This does mean I draw beer from the bottom mounted tap on the fermenter barrel and I do get a little trub going over at the very start and then again at the end. I usually put the last dregs of the fermenter in to glass bottles rather than the corny keg. I find bottle clear quicker than kegs.
Conditioning I gas the kegs from the beer gas (60% CO2 \ 40% N) cylinder to 30psi then roll them on the floor to dissolve the gas. I then leave them upright in the cellar (average 15C but can be 20C) for 3 weeks then move to the fridge at 3C for one more week.
Tap and drink. I use top floating pick up tubes in the kegs so I get the clear beer sooner. I also just purchased a new tap from Malt Miller as the eBay ones that look identical had chrome plated components in the beer path and the plating got dissolved!
I do tend to tweak things here and there, for example I used to do conditioning purely in the fridge thinking clarity equals conditioning, but I think the flavours develop faster at warmer temps. Clarifying the beer I've found happens anyway over the course of 3-4 weeks. I tried filtering once, but ended up with heavily oxidised beer so gave up quickly (also don't trust my non 'food safe' pump). Had a peltier based cooler for my fermenter last year to keep it cooler during summer, but dismantled it for parts during winter.
Mash grain in nylon bag. Electric kettle with digital temp controller, plate on the bottom to keep bag off the heater. Usually 60 mins at ~65C.
Water from the tap, no treatment. 15L to mash. I did try bottled water from Tesco \ Asda but did not notice a significant difference. Maybe very slight. I'm in Gillingham, Kent, South East. Water report - https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/default/pdfs/ZK505.pdf
Sparge with 5L boiled tap water directly from kettle near boiling temperature, poured slowly and leave to drain through every 2L.
Yes, I do squeeze the bag, having very wet grains to throw away. How do you dispose of grains?
Boil usually 60mins. I use a relay to 'blip' the electric kettle on and off to maintain a rolling boil. (stout in photo)
Hops are pellets added in nylon hop socks.
Cooling is done with a copper immersion chiller fed from tap water. I'll usually clean the coil with starsan and the rough side of a kitchen sponge.
Hop stand where a recipe calls for 'flame out' hops I will usually do this as a 20 minute hop stand at 80C after a couple minutes cooling.
Transfer to fermenter I usually pull the coil and hop socks then give it a brisk stir and let it settle for 20 minutes. I syphon via the washed grain bag to a bucket to catch hops particles but of course some always gets in. Then I syphon from bucket to plastic pressure barrel where I do the fermentation.
Fermentation is usually done in the cellar which on average is around 15c. In summer it can be 20C and in winter 10C. It's only half underground. I try not to worry too much about a slightly higher fermentation temp as I have read that pressure fermentation reduces off flavours from higher temps.
Dry hopping I think might be a weakness. I need to open the pressure barrel to add the hop socks. This can of course let oxygen in. I usually let the pressure out, open it and fast as possible chuck in the sock and close it again. As the beer is already somewhat carbonated at about 8psi my hope is dissolved Co2 will quickly blanket the beer and re-pressurise the head space to keep oxygen away.
Cold crashing is something I do not always do. I often just transfer from the FG beer to a keg. However sometimes I do put the fermenter in the fridge for a couple days before transfer.
Keg prep I wash the corny kegs with dish soap then rinse with starsan. I purge with co2 by simply feeding from gas from cylinder via tube with the top open. When a flame will not stay lit inside the opening of the keg I consider it purged and close the top.
I'm aware most people fill with water then push out the water with c02. I do not like wasting so much water, but I'm not sure how much oxygen a butane flame needs?
Transfer is done closed, but using gravity not a pump nor c02. I simply place the fermenter at a higher level than the keg so it drains to the keg. I also conenct a gas line between the two vessels so the gas in the keg can go back to the fermenter while the beer transfers.
This does mean I draw beer from the bottom mounted tap on the fermenter barrel and I do get a little trub going over at the very start and then again at the end. I usually put the last dregs of the fermenter in to glass bottles rather than the corny keg. I find bottle clear quicker than kegs.
Conditioning I gas the kegs from the beer gas (60% CO2 \ 40% N) cylinder to 30psi then roll them on the floor to dissolve the gas. I then leave them upright in the cellar (average 15C but can be 20C) for 3 weeks then move to the fridge at 3C for one more week.
Tap and drink. I use top floating pick up tubes in the kegs so I get the clear beer sooner. I also just purchased a new tap from Malt Miller as the eBay ones that look identical had chrome plated components in the beer path and the plating got dissolved!
I do tend to tweak things here and there, for example I used to do conditioning purely in the fridge thinking clarity equals conditioning, but I think the flavours develop faster at warmer temps. Clarifying the beer I've found happens anyway over the course of 3-4 weeks. I tried filtering once, but ended up with heavily oxidised beer so gave up quickly (also don't trust my non 'food safe' pump). Had a peltier based cooler for my fermenter last year to keep it cooler during summer, but dismantled it for parts during winter.
Tesco Ashbeck is the standard because of it’s low mineral content.
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