TETB’s Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Update on the beers in the pipeline

1. Bohemian Pilsner
After a couple of weeks at 10ºC this hit 1020 on Wednesday, and a cheeky mouthful from the trial jar is tasting promising - nice and clean with a decent hop character.
I'm now ramping at 1ºC per day until I hit the D-rest.

2. GH Ruby Mild
This has gone like a train... I went well over the recipe OG (1054 versus 1049). If I'd been on the ball I should have diluted it a bit, but that brew-day was a bit of a comedy of errors so I was just glad to get it in the FV

Anyhow after just a week with the Ringwood Ale yeast it's down to 1012. I'd noticed that the yeast did flocculate really strongly in the starter; so I guess I might just give this another week or so and then keg it.

A taste from the sample jar is a little intimidating: punchy malt, a big creamy mouth-feel, quite sweet, and a bit of raw alcohol. This probably reflects the slight nightmare I had with the mash going over-temperature (see above): likely TOO much alpha amylase here... or maybe milds are just meant to taste like this?? LoL

Well, given the strength of it, I dare say it will need longer to condition - so let's see how it tastes in August

3. Yorkshire Bitter
OMG it's going like a train... it's on the West Yorkshire Ale yeast, and doing a very lively fermentation (I've heard others comment on this too). TBH it's about a degree hotter than it should be, but there's not a lot I can do about that, with the chiller occupied by the Pilsner. Ho hum - what will be will be, and if it tastes like a banana-pineapple milkshake then I'll just dump a kilo of hops in it and call it a NEIPA LoL

 

[user 18729]

Update on the beers in the pipeline

1. Bohemian Pilsner
After a couple of weeks at 10ºC this hit 1020 on Wednesday, and a cheeky mouthful from the trial jar is tasting promising - nice and clean with a decent hop character.
I'm now ramping at 1ºC per day until I hit the D-rest.

2. GH Ruby Mild
This has gone like a train... I went well over the recipe OG (1054 versus 1049). If I'd been on the ball I should have diluted it a bit, but that brew-day was a bit of a comedy of errors so I was just glad to get it in the FV

Anyhow after just a week with the Ringwood Ale yeast it's down to 1012. I'd noticed that the yeast did flocculate really strongly in the starter; so I guess I might just give this another week or so and then keg it.

A taste from the sample jar is a little intimidating: punchy malt, a big creamy mouth-feel, quite sweet, and a bit of raw alcohol. This probably reflects the slight nightmare I had with the mash going over-temperature (see above): likely TOO much alpha amylase here... or maybe milds are just meant to taste like this?? LoL

Well, given the strength of it, I dare say it will need longer to condition - so let's see how it tastes in August

View attachment 48545

3. Yorkshire Bitter
OMG it's going like a train... it's on the West Yorkshire Ale yeast, and doing a very lively fermentation (I've heard others comment on this too). TBH it's about a degree hotter than it should be, but there's not a lot I can do about that, with the chiller occupied by the Pilsner. Ho hum - what will be will be, and if it tastes like a banana-pineapple milkshake then I'll just dump a kilo of hops in it and call it a NEIPA LoL

I love Ringwood- my favourite English strain, so much character! It does have a tendency to give up early though so a gradual ramp up is usually necessary

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Was it really only 5th June when I reported that the GH Ruby Mild had just finished fermenting and the Yorkshire Bitter was 'going like a train' ?
Well as of today the Yorkshire is all gone - although to be fair two mini-kegs and a few bottles of it were shared with friends - and the Ruby is drinking nicely

I've promised best bitter for a party in August, so on Thursday 15th I brewed a batch of London Bitter (brew sheet to follow).

This time I trusted the sparge water calculator and remembered to add a bit extra for the dead space under the mash screen. Single infusion mash this time (65º) calling for strike water at 70º or so; but that caused a lot of dough balls in the mash meaning I had to over-stir it at the beginning and it was running a bit slow for the first 20mins. Note to self: next time start off below the gelatinisation temperature and work upwards from there.

Overshot my OG significantly again: 1051 vs. 1044 - so I really need to start scaling my recipes to my measured brewhouse efficiency (which seems to be about 82%)

Annoying incident right at the end: transferred to FV and was just lifting it into the cabinet, when I noticed a slow drip from the bottom tap... AAAaaaargh: I'd overtightened it and distorted the washer. Time to rapidly sterilise another bucket... and clear up small sticky mess

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

 

[user 18729]

That looks really nice

 

[user 18729]

Are you going with a traditional English water profile?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

That looks really nice

Thank you, kind sir :hat:

Are you going with a traditional English water profile?

Yes indeed, based on the Murphy and Son “Bitter” profile: 400 sulphate, 200 chloride. I have to push the calcium to achieve that, even with diluting at 50% but it seems to have worked ok with the Yorkshire

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Quick update on the GH London Bitter :-)

As of today it's had a week in the FV at 18-19ºc with the Wyeast 1318 London Ale III and it looks to have cleared down pretty well

SG is down to about 1012 but it's hard to be accurate because of the bubbles forming on the hydrometer, even after giving it a quick spin. Maybe the answer is to de-gass the sample. Do others find it necessary to do that?

OG was 1051, having overshot the recipe by 8 points (oops!) due to unexpectedly high efficiency - so the abv. is probably around 5.1% at the moment...

Sneaky taste from the trial jar is very promising: really smooth with a well-rounded sweetness and a good balanced hop character - it had Challenger then Fuggles for 10mins and EKG at flame out.

I'm guessing it might still have a couple of points left to go so I'll leave it in the FV for another week - would it be advisable to do a D-rest do you think?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Today's brew is Gladfield Malt's Summer Gold (Contemporary British Golden Ale – NZ Hops) that caught my eye in @An Ankoù 's brewery thread :hat:

I've scaled the recipe for a 23L batch and adjusted for my brewhouse efficiency, so it'll be interesting to see how it works out. What will also be 'interesting' is how my setup works with pelleted hops... I'm a little concerned about the kettle filter clogging up... @Hopsteep suggests I should whirlpool instead.

I'm using more or less the water profile in the recipe, which has 3:1 SO4/Cl ratio - that's quite high for me so we are heading into uncharted waters here ;-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Mash setup is running smoothly, no slow running issues today despite the wheat content - I'm putting that down to giving it a precautionary initial 20 mins at 40ºc.

Currently halfway through the alpha amylase rest:

 

[An Ankoù]

It's looking good. All very technical, TETB, mine get's chucked into the cauldron and stirred with an oaken bough now and again under a full moon while mumbling the lyrics to "Drip-Fed Fred". When it splashes on a flip-flop shod tootsie and elicits a foo@@@@ bejesus, then I deem it hot enough both at top, bottom and in the purlieus of the spunding valve (wherever that may be).

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

All very technical, TETB

Overcomplicate things… Moi…?! Surely not

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Fabulous aroma from the Southern Cross, although more muted than I’m used to from say Progress or Challenger in leaf form

 

[An Ankoù]

Fabulous aroma from the Southern Cross, although more muted than I’m used to from say Progress or Challenger in leaf form

Yep. I immediately ordered another 100g on the strength of that aroma. Going to do a SMaSH just out of a sense of sheer badness.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

AAAAAaaargh - my hand slipped with the Taihiki and 50g went in with 10 mins remaining on the boil... carry on boiling, or drain immediately? If it was leaf hops I could have just fished them out

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

To cover off the question of the hops pellets: oh my goodness did they leave a lot of debris or what… quite a lot came through the kettle filter and were caught by the CML bag I’d tied over the outlet from the counterflow:

However that was nothing compared to what met my eyes when I looked in the kettle…

… a carpet of hop debris about an inch thick lying over the filter. Yuk.

If I ever use pellets again (and that is not looking likely to be any time soon) then I shall have to try the ‘tights’ trick.

What a flippin mess…

 

[moto748]

I always just tie all hops, whether leaf or pellets, in bags,

 

[foxbat]

Big, corded nylon bags for hops get them well exposed to the wort. BJ filters on ebay are the place to go.

 

[An Ankoù]

Big, corded nylon bags for hops get them well exposed to the wort. BJ filters on ebay are the place to go.

They seem a bit expensive for what they are, and not especially fine-meshed. Maybe it's just the photo. BJ FILTERS = BEST HOME BREW & WINE FILTER BAG = WITH DRAW CORD 58CM X 38CM F/P | eBay
Have you tried using the produce bags from Sainsbury?

 

[An Ankoù]

To cover off the question of the hops pellets: oh my goodness did they leave a lot of debris or what… quite a lot came through the kettle filter and were caught by the CML bag I’d tied over the outlet from the counterflow:

View attachment 51437

However that was nothing compared to what met my eyes when I looked in the kettle…

View attachment 51438

… a carpet of hop debris about an inch thick lying over the filter. Yuk.

If I ever use pellets again (and that is not looking likely to be any time soon) then I shall have to try the ‘tights’ trick.

What a flippin mess…

Is this the gunk that escaped from the bags or did you just chuck them in to rock and roll? I think we're pretty much stuck with pellets for some varieties. My preferred combination is to use leaf for bittering - if the bittering hop comes as leaf, like EKG, then all well and good- if not I use Magnum, and then put the late hops in an oversized bag or tights-leg. The leaf provides a filter bed. I'm thinking while writing that I should really look for a neutral bittering hop with a lower alpha acid content so that I could use more and get a better filter bed.