TETB’s Brewdays

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

'The' fermenter ??? I assume you mean the one that has temp control ?

My cobbled together heat only, loft insulation fermentation chamber is working really well in these coldish conditions. Fortunately when we get Wednesday's one day, 14c heat wave my Helles will be set to 16c so all OK. Must say I'm impressed with the 34/70 yeast.

Today's brew (NZ Pale) will be split across 4 Demis. Every now and then I like the comforting sound of a blipping air lock .

Yes me new posh one that I'm obsessed with

 

[Twostage]

Took a reading earlier - 1.015, so its about 67% apparent attenuation already. Put the FV up to 14, going to increase it by a degree every day until its 18 then transfer it to the brewfridge (which will be empty by then) and cold crash it ready for kegging. The sample tasted really nice.

Taking the sample lead to a minor disaster. I'd fitted a tap to the FV and I mustn't have tightened it enough because as I twisted the tap so I could get the sample jar in place it started to leak. So I had to lift out the FV, sanitise my arm and stick it in so I could tighten it. Felt like it wasn't tight at all , easily gave it nearly a full turn. I should have checked the tightness before I filled it, it must have expanded or contracted or something since I fitted it.

Every day is a school day.

Down to 1.011 yesterday and the sample tasted really nice, bit of sweetness I wasn't expecting and no trace of arm flavour . Bumped the chamber to 16 and it seems to have kicked it into life as the wort has climbed to 17c.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Down to 1.011 yesterday and the sample tasted really nice, bit of sweetness I wasn't expecting and no trace of arm flavour . Bumped the chamber to 16 and it seems to have kicked it into life as the wort has climbed to 17c.

Nice - I’m enjoying the updates :-)
Think I’ve given mine as long as I can for the D rest so it’s time for finings and chill-down. The sample I took last week is still pretty hazy despite hitting it with a fairly hefty dose of Kieselsol, so for the brew itself I’m going to try Kieselsol followed by gelatine which apparently is the right charge combination. Need to work out the dosages though…

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

According to this page Garffen Kieselsol+Gelatine the appropriate dosage for 23L of beer is approx:

• 15g Kieselsol (30% strength)
• 5-6g Gelatine

Leaving an hour in between

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

For the record, FG on the Helles looks like 1.012
So 74% apparent attenuation from the W-34/70 and 4.6% abv according to the online calc

 

[Twostage]

Nice - I’m enjoying the updates :-)
Think I’ve given mine as long as I can for the D rest so it’s time for finings and chill-down. The sample I took last week is still pretty hazy despite hitting it with a fairly hefty dose of Kieselsol, so for the brew itself I’m going to try Kieselsol followed by gelatine which apparently is the right charge combination. Need to work out the dosages though…
View attachment 92210

Glad you like the updates . Still at 1.012, temperature actually climbed another half degree but was falling again. Moved it into the brewfridge to chill.

Neck and neck on the back straight

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Glad you like the updates . Still at 1.012, temperature actually climbed another half degree but was falling again. Moved it into the brewfridge to chill.

Neck and neck on the back straight

I racked it into a clean bin and fined it this afternoon, and set the target temp to 2°c.
I’ll give it a few of days to settle out then keg it and forget about it for a while…

 

[Twostage]

I racked it into a clean bin and fined it this afternoon, and set the target temp to 2°c.
I’ll give it a few of days to settle out then keg it and forget about it for a while…

Mines down to 4 which is the temp I normally crash to. Any advantage of the last 2 degrees ?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Mines down to 4 which is the temp I normally crash to. Any advantage of the last 2 degrees ?

No idea... It's just that it's looking exceptionally cloudy so I want to give it as much chance as I can to be ready for the December Comp ;-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Checked the progress of clearing the Helles this afternoon (about 48hrs after fining).
Sample from the top looks nice and clear, but from the tap it’s still pretty cloudy.
Feeling reassured that it’s just a waiting game now.

 

[Twostage]

No idea... It's just that it's looking exceptionally cloudy so I want to give it as much chance as I can to be ready for the December Comp ;-)

Took it down to 2c for a couple of days and kegged/bottled it. Never split it like that before - 6 ltrs bottled the rest in the corny. Think I'll do that again.

A bit of trub got into the corny , serves me right for trying to get every last drop, looked away for a second and when I looked back trub was in the siphon.

Looking forward to testing it.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Very busy day doing other stuff but managed to squeeze in kegging the Helles to make room for the next brew.
I am very happy with the taste, but slightly frustrated at how slowly it is clearing down: still, patience!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I promised a good friend a while back that he could come over for a brew-day and we’d do him a run of London Bitter.
Today was pretty much the only chance before Christmas so we made an early start and cracked on through it.

Nice to do a fairly standard bitter for a change: 3.2 kg MO, 400g each of Munich I and crystal 175, and 250g wheat malt; bittered with Progress then Fuggles and Goldings for aroma.

Mashed at 67.4 for an hour. Forgot the protofloc (hey Ho) but other than that all went smoothly and we hit the intended 1.047 on the nose. He was kind enough to stick around for the cleanup which was much appreciated

 

[Twostage]

Very busy day doing other stuff but managed to squeeze in kegging the Helles to make room for the next brew.
I am very happy with the taste, but slightly frustrated at how slowly it is clearing down: still, patience!
View attachment 92781

Yes, mine is still hazy in the keg but I blame that on me allowing some trub to get in. I love the smell and taste, the missus only likes the smell, she reckons it has an aftertaste that I can't detect. The bottled version looks nice and clear but not fizzed up yet.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Helles (OG 1.047, abv 4.6%) is drinking nicely - not as crystal clear as I'd pictured in my mind; but reading the Wikipedia entry for Helles, it says:

Helles-style beers typically are full-bodied, mildly sweet and light-coloured, with low bitterness. The beer is clear due to filtration before bottling,[1] although some restaurants and breweries do offer an unfiltered version.[2][3]

So I'm just going to claim mine is the trendy unfiltered variety

I'd say "full bodied, mildly sweet and light-coloured, with low bitterness" pretty much nails it so I'm happy with that.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I see one of the German breweries offering Helles puts Mandarina Bavaria in it - I can see that working well...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Kegged off the London Bitter that I brewed on the 5th Dec (OG 1.047, 4.6%)
Tastes pretty decent, quite malty and no off flavours.

After fermentation apparently 'finished' at 1.014 I was a bit concerned that 67.5ºc might have been a touch high for the mash; but after another week in the fridge the gravity has come down to 1.012 and it's noticeably drier. Apparently it pays to be patient... well who knew, eh?

As you can see, I even managed to squeeze a couple of bottles out of the tail end of the FV - presumably a tiny bit of sediment doesn't really matter if you're going to prime the bottle with sugar anyway?
I was pretty sparing with the priming sugar: 0.5g of light brown sugar (500ml): the similar PET bottle of stout I sent to a mate apparently came out WAY too frothy with a 'half teaspoon' that was recommended by someone on 't interweb.

Cheers

 

[Twostage]

Kegged off the London Bitter that I brewed on the 5th Dec (OG 1.047, 4.6%)
Tastes pretty decent, quite malty and no off flavours.

After fermentation apparently 'finished' at 1.014 I was a bit concerned that 67.5ºc might have been a touch high for the mash; but after another week in the fridge the gravity has come down to 1.012 and it's noticeably drier. Apparently it pays to be patient... well who knew, eh?

View attachment 93670 View attachment 93671 View attachment 93672
As you can see, I even managed to squeeze a couple of bottles out of the tail end of the FV - presumably a tiny bit of sediment doesn't really matter if you're going to prime the bottle with sugar anyway?
I was pretty sparing with the priming sugar: 0.5g of light brown sugar (500ml): the similar PET bottle of stout I sent to a mate apparently came out WAY too frothy with a 'half teaspoon' that was recommended by someone on 't interweb.

Cheers

I like to do a split keg/bottle now if I'm kegging, 4 - 6 in bottles, the rest in the keg. I think they taste different and I like to have the option of storing some of it/giving some away.I do a bottle first as there is always a bit of trub when you turn the tap and then bottles when it gets close to the end. That way what goes into the keg should be clear beer.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

DPD man has just come staggering down the drive with a BIG box of goodies from TMM (13kg)

I feel as excited as a kid at Christmas... I'm preparing to enter unknown territory, with an ambitious (for me) brewing schedule over the next few weeks

Stay tuned...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

This weekend’s plan is to brew on two consecutive days… I’m hoping that by doing that I can avoid doing a full clean-down, and save time…