St00s Br00 Days

[St00]

Monday 23rd August 2021

07:34 Wake up - Think of everything I could do to get ahead on the brew day. Spend 15 minutes procrastinating and fall asleep.

Five Points Best

09:29 I recirculate 10 litres boiling water through the recirc pipe, whirlpool arm, CFC and measure water additions. I rub the small of my back and think "I'm too old for this ****"

I add the full liquor volume to the kettle and add sodium metabisulfite. I start heating the liquor in the Grainfather and check that the drill is rotating the correct way before I try to mill the grain. Last time I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and asked a mate to borrow his mill as it was an emergency......
Learn about vestigial structures and intergluteal clefts from the SciShow on YouTube.
Spend nearly an hour faffing with the rollers as I convinced myself it wasn't fine enough. Now I worry it's far FAR too fine. Ho hum .....

Whilst walking my Dog, I realize I forgot to take the morning tablets. Convince myself I could die on the walk. Also, hayfever season is definitely not over. There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, suppress thoughts of imminent mortality

I get back to my liquor at strike temperature and pump the sparge volume out into my HLT. Add water additions (Glory be to Strange Steve) feeling very dodgy as I do so, like a Stopfordian Walter White. Hayfever wipes and tablets come to the rescue as they kick in.

I decide to watch She-Ra on my Netflix profile so my daughter doesn't realize I've continued past where were are. It's a joyful cartoon and perks me the **** up. Also, Coffee bags are excellent.

I look lovingly at my big wooden mash paddle as dough in. MASHING IS SMASHING!
Heat sparge water
(Ludicrous idea starts to form at the back of my head)
Use bucket blaster on conical - As I lift off the Conical foam goes everywhere. Old bedsheets to the rescue.

Take a PH reading NOICE! 5.42
The iodine test passes (with merit)
Speaker battery dies as I realize it wasn't plugged in. She-Ra stops, so bit of Slipknot on the phone.
(Ludicrous idea still niggling)
Lovely clear fine smelling wort
Mill Festbier malts under the influence of stupid idea that won't go away
Rage Against the Machine comes on (Weep inwardly for lost youthful fitness)
Coalchamber arrives after - Play whole album as it's been a while. I dance with as much vigour as I can muster when "Sway" comes on. I sparge slowly and meditatively. I try not to rush brew days to get the most out of them.

I make a pirate "Aaar" sound under my breath as I take a refractometre reading; it's under, but not by much, . Weigh boil hops as wort gets to the boil. When the boil's underway I realize I didn't recirc through the hop rocket, so I rinse it under the hot tap and dunk it in no rinse sanitiser. Start watching "Flying Monkeys" on Netflix, it's really REALLY bad. Add late hop additions.

Foolishly balance hop rocket precariously and learn what 80g of Fuggles look like when strewn around my garage floor. Luckily I have other Fuggles to hand as I accidently bought the ingredients for 2 x Five Points Best.

Drop temp to 80℃ and run wort through the resanitised and refilled hop rocket for 20 minutes. Chill using CFC and pitch the yeast with no further drama. Transfer to cleaned and sanitised fermzilla, with my aquarium air stone running. Pitch yeast and seal up tightly.

16:00 DOUBLE BREW DAY! (Really bad idea!)

Meanbrews Festbier
Rinse everything! Run 10 litres boiling water though CFC and Grainfather.
Heat total liquor and treat with sodium metabisulfite.

Start watching "The Pact" it's not great, but it has Caity Lotz in it and Casper Van Dien both of whom are rather easy on the eye.
Add sodium metabisulfite and heat full water amount, split it to HLT and add water additions (All praise to Strange Steve)
Dough in and relax into the 105 minute stepped mash.
El Sparge.
Boil
Chill and wait for an hour for the wort to chill to 10℃
Pitch big yeast starter.
23:00 slink upstairs to finish watching "The House that Dripped Blood" on Shudder.

Brewday Photos

 

[Oneflewover]

Brilliant, I enjoyed reading that!

 

[DocAnna]

Oh that's one of the best brewday reads ever

....suppress thoughts of imminent mortality

A good start to the day it seems, and bonus bonkers brewing points for a double brew day

 

[St00]

Thanks guys I'm glad you enjoyed it

 

[St00]

The Festbier is on course to be stepped up to 14°c for 14 days before lagering. It's my first time trying WLP830 German Lager, it seemed to start ages to get going with little airlock activity and now it's +50% already. As. I've no tilt for the 5 Points Best I've no idea, but as there's been steady airlock activity I'll just leave it the recommended 10 days and take a hydrometre reading. Happy Friday folks.

 

[St00]

Took a gravity reading of the Five Points Best yesterday and it's bang on the numbers. Numbers wise it's without doubt the most "nailed" beer I've ever brewed. I think I may stick with smaller starters on bitters as they've a tendency to overshoot the FG and they're usually a higher ABV than intended.

I added some BrauSol, pressurised the Fermziller and dropped the temp to 10°c. I'll pop it on the Engine on Sunday evening ready for the Monday night thirst.

 

[St00]

The Five Points Best turned out superbly. I can see me brewing this for the Pint365 regularly. The only issue I'm having with it is that it seems to be evaporating much more than a lot of the beers I make. It's there one minute and before I know it I'm looking at an empty glass.....

The left hand photo is my Brohemian Pilsner which is also very very good (even if I do say so myself...)

 

[St00]

Last night's starter made for Tomorrow's Brew day. I love San Diego Super Yeast.

My mate has just finished his pub in his back garden, but has filled his proposed brewing room with new equipment. Do much equipment in fact that he now can't get in to run the water up there, set up an extractor, install a sink etc.

So he's coming to mine to brew a beer so he can get some use out of his new pub, before starting work on his upstairs brewery. Talk about arse over ***

Not that I mind in the slightest as don't we all love brewing?

 

[St00]

Well the Festbier turned out so well I avoided drinking it as much as possible if you catch my meaning. It took so long to make that I want it to last. I'm pictured drinking it here with my mate.

We also enjoyed the remnants of my Bohemian Pilsner.

My Fivepoints Best was the fastest disappearing beer I've ever made as the keg disappeared in just under a month. Considering I don't consider myself a big drinker and I was the only one drinking it this was quite the surprise.

I brewed another batch soon after as it's such a simple recipe and that's due to go on the engine next week.

 

[St00]

Brew prep later on for tomorrow's brew & bottling day: Odell(ish) IPA https://share.brewfather.app/yH4uVHXzfGCcZc

Flush Grainfather through with 90°c water, pump, counterflow, whirlpool arm recirc pipe etc.
Add PBW, flush through and save cleaner solution for further use. Rinse through with clean water.
Add full liquor amount and add sodium metabisulfite, split between Grainfather and Sparge water heater.
Check mill gap and when satisfied mill tomorrow's grain bill. I've had crush issues recently, which has adversely affected my efficiencies.
Measure water salt additions.

I've been bulk conditioning a 9 litre Barley Wine in a carboy for 328 days, so I'm going to siphon it into a minikeg with cask conditioning yeast and priming sugar tomorrow, so I'll clean and sanitise it with the cleaning solution I use for the Grainfather and then use the contents to clean the lines to my beer engine. I'll bottle using my beer gun and add 1.5ml of rum which has had vanilla pods soaking in it for over a year now, to half the bottles. I'll leave it to age for a month or two.

I love Brewday Prep.

 

[St00]

Odellish IPA turned out well and I used Aromazyme for the first time. It definitely made the aroma punchier early days, but didn't make it hand around any longer. In the interim I made a Kölsch style beer that was certainly one of the best received beers I've ever made: Brewfather

The Barleywine is *Chef's Kiss*, although definitely not a summer drink. I've 5 bottles of the Vanilla Rum version squirrelled away for Christmas. I'll mash higher next time for a higher finishing gravity as it's a lot lighter on the finish than I intended.

I brewed a Courage Directors Superior Ale clone this Saturday just gone and brew day was suspiciously straightforward, so it'll probably be an awful beer!

Yeast starter today for this my first ever Märzen, and then this my first ever Vienna Lager. I've got 5 lagers planned to make and lager for the summer in my recently obtained £20 from Gumtree Chest freezer.

Once the Directors is finished I'll probably brew this Tropical IPA in my Fermzilla, using the Verdant yeast for the first time. as by that point I'll have emptied my existing kegs and need something with a quick turnaround!

 

[St00]

Hops and Yeast order

 

[DocAnna]

Hops and Yeast order

Wow that's quite some collection of liquid yeasts! I'm a bit of a convert to the Omega yeasts, you do seem to get a bit more for your money from them and I've been really happy with the beers from them. Do you build starters and keep any of these back for reuse?

 

[St00]

I do massive starters for lagers anyway. I have a Grainfather conical, so I dump the trub after about 4-5 days and then just keep the slurry back for future brews in sanitised jars.

This is my first time using Omega yeast as I needed.a Pilsner Urquell yeast which wasn't available from Wyeast at the Malt Miller because it had sold out. Apparently the Omega yeast is the same strain.

After this weekend's Märzen finishes, I'll probably just pitch the wort for my Festbier straight on top of the yeast cake.

 

[St00]

Hearken to the story of my starter. Mark well the combination of of DME, water and wee yeast beasties.
I've discovered that I can get the starter to about 14°c without using ice if I just swirl it around whilst running the tap and then swirling it around the sink when it's full. I just keep an eye on the temperature of the water in the sink and refill if it gets too warm. I'll top it up with 500ml tonight, again on Friday night and then pop it in the fridge ready for Sunday's Brew day on Saturday night.

 

[DocAnna]

I see that you're boiling the starter wort in a pan - since you have a borosilicate flask have you considered boiling it in the flask instead? I found it a bit disconcerting at first but the flasks are designed to tolerate direct flame heating and are to tolerate far higher temperatures than boiling liquids. I put the foil over while boiling so the whole flask, foil and wort is sterilised with a short boil - a minute or two is all that's required.

 

[St00]

Hi Doc, it's an induction hob so I've no idea whether it'll work or not. I sanitise everything with boiling water from the kettle anyway and that's before squirting with ready made sanitiser. The boiling water I use to sanitise the equipment is still hot enough after to wash the funnel, scissors etc, so it all works out.

 

[St00]

Sunday's brewday was a success, with all of the numbers hit (Barring the volume into the fermenter). The Directors Special Bitter I transferred into a keg and it will stay in the conditioning cupboard for a week in a keg I pressurized (Solely to ensured the seal seated correctly). Th pressure transfer from the Grainfather conical went well and the smell was just "Essence of the quintessential pub" if it tastes a quarter as good as it smells I'll be happy.

I had intended on another lager next weekend, but the kegs are empty in the kegerator so I'll be brewing a simple IPA with kveik for a quick turnaround probably.

 

[St00]

This came in the post today, I will be playing around with it on Sunday when I move the Directors bitter to the fridge for the hand pump!

 

[St00]

Hmmmm. My good lady wife has done finished off all the beer and I won't have anything to drink for myself until the middle of the coming week. All I'll have in the fermenters for the foreseeable is lagers.

Today I shall be brewing with Kviek, which I could conceivably turnaround in two or three days. I'll likely just leave it until next weekend though.

I'm using up a fair few odds and ends hop wise, with everything else being from my recent malt stocks. Vinnie Cilurzo of Pliny the Elder fame stated in a recent video that we were really lucky to have access to Crisp Best Pale malt, so I bought 25kg of it, because who am I to disagree?

Today's recipe for Fancy a Kviekie? IPA can be found Here

Last night I cleaned and dried everything in readiness, measured my water volumes, added my water additions (including campden tablets), and cleaned all my lines/kegerator.