The Biochemist’s Brewdays

[The Biochemist]

Hi All!

First HBF brewday!


Brewdog Elvis Juice Clone(ish) v1
28 L — 1.066 — IBU: 43 — SRM: 7.7

7.6 kg Maris Otter
0.4 kg Caramalt

Mashed at 67C, 2.5 L/Kg, pH 5.2, 1 hr
10 g pH 5.2 phosphate buffer
2.5 g CaSO4
Fly sparged at 0.5 L/ minute
34 L collected

60 minutes
30 g Magnum (first wort)

10 minutes
15 g Amarillo
15 g Simcoe
10 g DAP
1 x Protofloc


Flameout
Cooled to 80C by recirculating through CF chiller.

15 g Amarillo
15 g Simcoe
30 g Mosaic
30 g Citra
20 minutes

(Dry hops
70 g Amarillo
70 g Simcoe
70 g Citra
Zest of three grapefruit and three oranges rinsed in abs. EtOH)

Chilled to 15C, transferred to Fermzilla (conical)

Surplus wort (1 L) split into 2 x 500 ml and pressure cooked for 20 minutes for future starters.

Sedimented yeast (Mangrove Jack M44) from 1 L starter resuspended in wort and pitched.

Will ferment at ambient (sadly no space for a fermentation chamber) at 2 ba with captured CO2 used to purge cornys and fill a 50 L crusader keg for closed loop racking.

Tracking data via Tilt hydrometer, will post progress in due course!

 

[RichardM]

What is DAP?

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Diammonium Phosphate. Used as nutrient.
Regards
Patch

 

[AJA]

OK, two questions from me about two processes that are 'non-standard'

1. How did you get a phosphate buffer to work at pH 5.2? This could be of great interest to brewers!

2. Where can one buy absolute ethanol from? I assume we would have to pay duty?

 

[The Biochemist]

1. How did you get a phosphate buffer to work at pH 5.2? This could be of great interest to brewers!

I make my own from food grade mono- and di- basic sodium phosphate tweaked slightly to my local water, but if you can’t be bothered with the pKa calculations you can just buy in a pre made mix:

https://www.brewuk.co.uk/5.2-ph-stabilizer-113g.html

 

[The Biochemist]

2. Where can one buy absolute ethanol from? I assume we would have to pay duty?

Generally one can’t! Vodka will work in a pinch though.

 

[The Biochemist]

I make my own from food grade mono- and di- basic sodium phosphate tweaked slightly to my local water, but if you can’t be bothered with the pKa calculations you can just buy in a pre made mix:

https://www.brewuk.co.uk/5.2-ph-stabilizer-113g.html

Good article here on the chemistry of phosphate buffers if anyone’s interested:

https://byo.com/article/advanced-brewing/

 

[DocAnna]

Surplus wort (1 L) split into 2 x 500 ml and pressure cooked for 20 minutes for future starters.

Just catching up here and ooh gosh delicious precision, that is just brilliant .
A question on the pressure cooking the surplus wort. Was this in lieu of autoclaving the wort for sterility, and if so would the value of that over simple boiling not be lost unless transferring to an equally pressure cooked storage container in a clean flow environment? Are you planning to store the residual wort frozen to minimise the risk of it acting as an environmental sampling culture medium?

A

 

[Rodcx500z]

At this stage i think i need a lie down

 

[The Biochemist]

Just catching up here and ooh gosh delicious precision, that is just brilliant .
A question on the pressure cooking the surplus wort. Was this in lieu of autoclaving the wort for sterility, and if so would the value of that over simple boiling not be lost unless transferring to an equally pressure cooked storage container in a clean flow environment? Are you planning to store the residual wort frozen to minimise the risk of it acting as an environmental sampling culture medium?

A

Hi Anna, thanks!

This is indeed in lieu of autoclaving; I pressure cook in 500 ml Schott bottles, so just tighten the lids while still hot and job done - stable as standard autoclaved media, that is to say indefinitely!

When needed i just transfer to similarly treated erlenmeyers. No lamina flow hood at home unfortunately, but I’m then inoculating from 50 ml lab grown monocultures so the chances of anything else getting in and causing trouble is minimal.

From the name I assume you’re also scientific? What’s your background?

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@The Biochemist
Really No laminar flow, you had been doing so well on the presentation up till then!
Have to admit I just bottle the spare wort and freeze it, defrost and reboil cool and add the yeast nutrient and yeast.
We can get spray absolute ( or near as damm as ) alcohol from the local diy stores, its very hydrophillic pure ethanol. Kegland do sell it as well though I haven't tried to buy or import any so don't know about duty.
I have considered the pressure cook method but not sure the wife would be keen on me using her preserving jars in the pressure cooker for this, she says I'm taking over the place with brewstuff.
It's easier to find a cool place and warm the beer than it is to have a hot space and cool it, but you're heading into warmer weather up there.
The pressure should compensate for fine temp control. Brewdog do suggest dry hopping at 14celsius for their beers.

 

[Paul7189]

Generally one can’t! Vodka will work in a pinch though.

Generally one can’t is working in industry speak that roughly translates to “I stole it from work”

 

[DocAnna]

Hi Anna, thanks!

This is indeed in lieu of autoclaving; I pressure cook in 500 ml Schott bottles, so just tighten the lids while still hot and job done - stable as standard autoclaved media, that is to say indefinitely!

When needed i just transfer to similarly treated erlenmeyers. No lamina flow hood at home unfortunately, but I’m then inoculating from 50 ml lab grown monocultures so the chances of anything else getting in and causing trouble is minimal.

From the name I assume you’re also scientific? What’s your background?

Ah the Schott bottles makes sense and yes I can see how you are creating standard culture medium. Much as though I do appreciate the technical prowess and process, I do still wonder at the merit over a straight forward freeze then reboil when required. From my own perspective, I'm typically working with a 2.5 or 3 litre starter so the benefit of storing excess wort has to be balanced against the storage space in the freezer!

My background is mostly medical but I've pm'd rather than get too detailed here.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

so the benefit of storing excess wort has to be balanced against the storage space in the freezer!

Quite right I'm trying to clear some space in the freezer by chipping away at the 9kg of hop pellets and 30 odd varieties, in my defence I did get 7kg when a craft brewery closed down for a song. He was forced to close by his hepatologist! Lucky the 25 plus malts I got don't need freezer space! It's all a balance between cost of time and cost of ingredients. Ideal if I could just roll the next starter off the spare wort but I'm in the too much beer phase as it is and planning a couple of Saisons this weekend. LFTs are okay though and I'm not bruising!

 

[DocAnna]

He was forced to close by his hepatologist!

Oh that's a brilliant new euphemism

 

[RoomWithABrew]

As they say " it's liver or let's die "!

 

[The Biochemist]

Oh that's a brilliant new euphemism

 

[The Biochemist]

To be honest I prep my starter culture growth medium more out of habit than anything else, but freezer space is also at a premium!

 

[The Biochemist]

I did get 7kg when a craft brewery closed down for a song.

That’s amazing! Very jealous!

 

[The Biochemist]

So I’ve not seen this before with this yeast, but looks like my fermentation is stalling…

I’ll push the temperature up to 23 C and drop the pressure down to .5 ba which should get it going again, but has anyone else see this with M44?