TETB’s Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Planning a cheeky user-upper for tomorrow:

90% RO, 65º mash, 60min boil.
Beersmith says about 1.040 and 25 IBU :-)

Can't quite decide whether to use SO4 or recovered yeast from the Southern Brown Ale (Lallemand 'London')

Comments welcome!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

All going well so far. 1.046 at 20 mins into the mash @65°c

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Strange gravity results today.
Pre-boil measured on-target at 1.033 (25L), but OG was only 1.034 (21.7L) which suggests BHE only 70%.
Not quite sure what happened there.
Pre-boil must have been measuring high (stratification?) but even so the OG is quite a bit lower than the expected 1.040...

Oh well, lawnmower beer it is then!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

On the plus side, the Vienna is already tasting darn good, if I say so myself, and clear as a bell

 

[Buffers brewery]

Strange gravity results today.
Pre-boil measured on-target at 1.033 (25L), but OG was only 1.034 (21.7L) which suggests BHE only 70%.
Not quite sure what happened there.
Pre-boil must have been measuring high (stratification?) but even so the OG is quite a bit lower than the expected 1.040...

Oh well, lawnmower beer it is then!

That doesn’t seem right? 25 litres @ 1.033 will weigh 25.825 Kg. Remove 3.3 litres of water @ 3.3 Kg leaves 22.525 Kg. Resulting gravity 22.525/21.7= 1.038.
Did you measure the 2 samples with the same device?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

That doesn’t seem right? 25 litres @ 1.033 will weigh 25.825 Kg. Remove 3.3 litres of water @ 3.3 Kg leaves 22.525 Kg. Resulting gravity 22.525/21.7= 1.038.
Did you measure the 2 samples with the same device?

yes, quite!
You inferred correctly: I took the pre-boil sample with the beer telescope and the OG with the hydrometer; but even so I’m surprised they are so far apart. Both samples were cooled, and covered up to avoid evaporation. Very odd.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Bet you've thrown the hydrometer sample so you can't check it with your refractometer?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Bet you've thrown the hydrometer sample so you can't check it with your refractometer?

I have - but I can easily draw off another from the bottom tap… I doubt it’s fermented much since 3pm LoL

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

OK here we go (20ºc sample):

... but having said it wouldn't have fermented much it appears to have gone off like a rocket. I guess that comes from pitching with a bit of the slurry from the Brown Ale I racked off this afternoon

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I'd say both readings are pretty close... maybe the refractometer is one point higher?

I do recall now that I was getting some funny 'outlier' readings from the refractometer during the mash... odd, because there aren't really any moving parts in there. Maybe the calibration screw has come loose or something

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Whereas here's the sample I took at the time I pitched (also 20ºc):
Seems quite a bit lower.
Maybe there's a bit of stratification going on in the FV now.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Think that sums it up

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Good grief this yeast really is a monster…

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Saturday’s “cheeky user-upper” quietened down by pretty rapidly and is now sitting at about 1.011 (3.3% abv).

Tastes a bit overly bitter at the moment but fingers crossed it should be OK once it’s properly conditioned and chilled. I really like the aroma from the Progress (whirlpool 15min @70°c) and think I’ll be using it again.
With luck this should be a decent refreshing brew for sitting in the sunshine later in the Summer :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Crikey, that's quite a lot of Kieselsol at 10ml per 5 gallon batch :-)
Really not sure why they put it in an anti-static bag though ... !

 

[soupdragon]

Crikey, that's quite a lot of Kieselsol at 10ml per 5 gallon batch :-)
Really not sure why they put it in an anti-static bag though ... !

View attachment 86511

Did it arrive in time for use on the brown?

Cheers Tom

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Did it arrive in time for use on the brown?

Cheers Tom

No I used the Starbrite on the brown (worked extremely well)

The “Accidental Lawnmower” is pretty much finished though so I’ll stick some in there tomorrow. I wish I knew the concentration of the Starbrite stuff so I could judge the dose (the new stuff is “30%”)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Decided I need to shorten my 3/16” lines in the kegerator: beer isn’t really coming out fast enough to get a head on it

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

These finings really do an amazing job

 

[soupdragon]

No I used the Starbrite on the brown (worked extremely well)

The “Accidental Lawnmower” is pretty much finished though so I’ll stick some in there tomorrow. I wish I knew the concentration of the Starbrite stuff so I could judge the dose (the new stuff is “30%”)

Will stay tuned

Cheers Tom