TETB’s Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Lovely clear second beer!

Thank you, kind sir

Hopefully after the requisite seven weeks at the back of the garage it’ll be even clearer. Also hopefully a bit mellower: right now it tastes a bit like malty rocket fuel

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Here we go… I sanitised and sterilised the bejezzus out of the FV, tap, hoses etc afterwards so hopefully there’s no lingering diastaticus.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Must be a record for me: not yet 9am and I’m up to strike temp and ready to mash in…

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Well that was an ...interesting... ten minutes

End of the protein rest I noticed the kettle temperature was going up but the reading on the wortometer wasn't... Uh Oh.
Quick check in the mash tun and there was no recirculation flow, but the pump seemed to be running Airlock? disconnected the spray head and sucked on the tube but couldn't get anything: blockage!

Quickly disconnected the heat exchanger gave it a blast of CO2 at 3 bar... Took the hose off, and got a faceful of what looks like tea leaves... WHAT?!
Blasted it through with water and got it flowing, but by in my previous attempt I must have blown some of it back into the pump. Disassembled the pump (thank goodness the head unscrews fast) and unblocked that, then reconnect and back in business

End of the day it was only ten mins lost - although I'd prefer NOT to have given my bitter a 20min protein rest. No idea where this crud has come from: I swear I gave the counterflow a proper blast during clean down. Going to have to make some checks after the brew...

Lucky this is all "hot side", and I'll be able to give the counterflow a proper clean and sterilise before I need it after the boil.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Ooer, that looks a bit nasty TETB! For what it's worth, I give my heat exchange (your design) a good flush through with hot water at the end of brew day. Then flush with cold tap water and seal it full of water until next brew day.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Ooer, that looks a bit nasty TETB! For what it's worth, I give my heat exchange (your design) a good flush through with hot water at the end of brew day. Then flush with cold tap water and seal it full of water until next brew day.

Yes that's pretty much what I do too, BB; and I'm pretty sure this wasn't stuff that was in the counterflow - frankly I'm stretching my head a bit... just hoping it's not a hole in the bottom of the mash tun filter (but I think I'd know if were that). More likely a plug of hop matter that was left in one of the pipes - I'm guessing ATM. My own fault, either way *blush*

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Insane amount of cold break going on - possibly because of the longer than intended protein rest?

Oh well, it’ll be beer

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Did a bit of an impromptu whirlpool and surprised myself by actually getting a decent trub cone!
All I did was give the kettle a stir with the paddle, after leaving it to cool for a few mins before I started the run-off

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Still absolutely in the dark about where that crud came from.

The only thing I did differently at the end of last brew a couple of weeks ago was to attempt a 'clean in place', and I think I probably had the counterflow in the cleaning circuit. Perhaps the pump doesn't give it as much of a blast as it normally gets from full mains water pressure? BUT even if that was the culprit, there shouldn't ever be hop debris anywhere near the counterflow... I always use the spider during the boil, and it's got a good fine mesh on it

Maybe I'll get a flash of insight later, after a beer :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Oh... and when I said "an insane amount of cold break", here's what the trial jar looked like after it'd been standing for a bit
To be fair that sample was taken from the bottom tap.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Still absolutely in the dark about where that crud came from.

The only thing I did differently at the end of last brew a couple of weeks ago was to attempt a 'clean in place', and I think I probably had the counterflow in the cleaning circuit. Perhaps the pump doesn't give it as much of a blast as it normally gets from full mains water pressure? BUT even if that was the culprit, there shouldn't ever be hop debris anywhere near the counterflow... I always use the spider during the boil, and it's got a good fine mesh on it

Maybe I'll get a flash of insight later, after a beer :-)

I wonder if it could have been small amounts of debris that built up over time and got stuck in a nook. Small bits can easily get through a spider, or it could even be cold break build-up.
It could have gradually built up and discoloured until it clogged the system, then got ejected out when you upped the pressure once it was clogged

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I wonder if it could have been small amounts of debris that built up over time and got stuck in a nook. Small bits can easily get through a spider, or it could even be cold break build-up.
It could have gradually built up and discoloured until it clogged the system, then got ejected out when you upped the pressure once it was clogged

Think I’ve got it. Comes down to stupidly cutting a corner.

I was using a bit less mash water than normal, so instead of pumping it across as usual I decided on the spur of the moment to just lift up the Burco and tip it in. Obviously it was hot though, so I just grabbed a pair of heavy gloves from nearby. But it was more awkward than I expected (duh) and I remember being glad of the gloves because one of them got wet as the water went in.
In retrospect, the gloves I’d grabbed were my gardening gloves, last used for scraping up bits of leaves and lime-flowers off the drive… when one of them got wet it could well have carried a wodge of fine leaf debris in.
That would explain why the debris looked like tea leaves.

Well, at the end of the day there wasn’t much of it, and thank goodness it was all hot side! Just goes to show: last minute "little" changes can have big unexpected consequences.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Think I’ve got it. Comes down to stupidly cutting a corner.

I was using a bit less mash water than normal, so instead of pumping it across as usual I decided on the spur of the moment to just lift up the Burco and tip it in. Obviously it was hot though, so I just grabbed a pair of heavy gloves from nearby. But it was more awkward than I expected (duh) and I remember being glad of the gloves because one of them got wet as the water went in.
In retrospect, the gloves I’d grabbed were my gardening gloves, last used for scraping up bits of leaves and lime-flowers off the drive… when one of them got wet it could well have carried a wodge of fine leaf debris in.
That would explain why the debris looked like tea leaves.

Well, at the end of the day there wasn’t much of it, and thank goodness it was all hot side! Just goes to show: last minute "little" changes can have big unexpected consequences.

Hmmm just checked the gloves and they look clean. Back to the drawing board...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hmmm just checked the gloves and they look clean. Back to the drawing board...

OK mystery solved I think.

Pretty sure the crud was actually hiding in the groove top of the handle of the Burco.

It would have got in there when I stood it upside down on the drive to clean it; and then when I tipped the water in it lapped a bit over the handle (that's when I felt the glove get a bit wet).
Normally I pull a corner of the cloth through there while I'm cleaning, but I must have missed it.

D'Oh! OK, lesson learned.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Mash in on the witbier

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Apologies this is a bit geeky, but just as a future reference for myself here's a detailed view of the response to a mash step from 55 to 63 degrees.

The 'kettle' trace shows the temperature of the water in the outer circuit of the heat exchanger, and the 'wortometer' trace shows the temperature of the recirculating liquor immediately before it goes into the spray arm.

Depth of the grain bed is about 14cm. It's interesting to see how much of a temperature difference there is between the top and bottom of the mash for about 5mins during the step; but the lower parts of the grain bed should get the same overall exposure to different temperatures by the end of the mash.

I set the recirculation temp a little high initially to accelerate the rate of temperature change:

And here's the corresponding step from 63 to 68 degrees:

Possibly of interest @Buffers brewery, @DocAnna

 

[Buffers brewery]

Yes, interesting. I don't have a phosisticated graph but have similar experience. My mash temperature probe is in wall of my coolbox mash tun just below the halfway mark of the grain bed. I've taken to giving the mash regular stirs during the heating step to get a better idea of overall mash temperature. I have found in the past that if I just leave it until the mash probe indicates the target temperature after a stir it's overshot by a couple of degrees.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

There’s a good old head on it

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Nice looking wort, 1.078 for the first runnings

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Last runnings 1.013: this’ll go in as a top-up mid boil