The Chaos that is a Buffers Brewery brew day

[DocAnna]

OK brewing outdoors at -2.1 ...that certainly counts as extreme brewing. Makes me feel a bit of a wuss for brewing at about 4 deg in the garage. Given the challenges of working in conditions like that it's impressive to have completed the brew at all.

 

[Justin Dean]

Well done. I am in Stockholm at the moment where it is -10 and dropping....

 

[Buffers brewery]

Well done. I am in Stockholm at the moment where it is -10 and dropping....

 

[Buffers brewery]

FG of 1.012 three days running signals start of 3 day cold crash. Transferred to my King Keg with priming sugar solution today. Now in the brew fridge at 20C for a couple of weeks.
The hop combination of Simcoe and Amarillo seems to be working nicely even if I did lose half the final addition!
Next brew due early February. Might be a darker ale this time

 

[Buffers brewery]

So the Simcoe/Amarillo pale ale has finished carbonation in the brew fridge means I can have a brew day

As my beer stocks are quite healthy (for me) I thought I’d have a go at a bit of a hybrid brown ale . But first a quick update on recent equipment tweaks following a couple of problems with my last brew day.
First the reciprocating sparge machine had a major mod. Decided I needed to reduce the crank length…..

….to make it easier for the electric motor to operate. However, this in turn reduces the stroke. That needed a change to the tank, replacing the original tank with two.

Another mod was as a consequence of the tank jacket I used to insulate the HERMS tank, falling apart. So made a box from insulation board.

So, the brew day. Happy to say it was a bit warmer at the start of today’s brew day compared to previous. A balmy 9.8 degrees

Trying out a bit of a hybrid recipe today. Best described as a Brown ale using a vast array of malts…
1.75 kg Maris Otter pale
1.5 kg Vienna malt
400 grm crystal
400 grm Carapils
110 grm chocolate malt
50 grm torrified wheat
28 grm black malt

60 minute mash at 66-68 degrees followed by two 30 minute mashes yielded 7ish gallons of wort of 1.038 gravity. 70 minute boil….

…..with hop additions..
12 grm fuggles 70 minutes
10 grm northdown 70 minutes
12 grm fuggles 10 minutes
5 grm bramling cross 5 minutes
..resulted in 5 gallons of wort at 1.045 SG

All tucked up in the brew fridge. Will start collecting CO2 tomorrow (with a bit of luck )

 

[Buffers brewery]

Not a brew day post but more a result of brew day post. Had relies round for lunch today. Buffers brewery burger, bun and beer on the menu. Homemade brioche burger buns with homemade burger's and homebrew Saison beer. What's not to like?

 

[Buffers brewery]

My hybrid Brown ale has been cold crashing since Wednesday so time to transfer to one of my empty pressure barrels. First thing after sanitising is to fill the pb with the fermentation gas I've collected in my brewloons. To do this I fill the pb with cold tap water and fit the lid. Connect a brewloon to the gas in post and a Syphon tube, previously primed and full of water, to the beer out post. With the pb on the sink drainer and a bucket on the floor, turning on the tap at the bottom of the Syphon tube starts draining the water and sucking the brewloon gas into the pb. This is what my set up looks like ...

Just over half the water emptied using the first brewloon....

Second brewloon attached to finish the job...

 

[private4587]

My hybrid Brown ale has been cold crashing since Wednesday so time to transfer to one of my empty pressure barrels. First thing after sanitising is to fill the pb with the fermentation gas I've collected in my brewloons. To do this I fill the pb with cold tap water and fit the lid. Connect a brewloon to the gas in post and a Syphon tube, previously primed and full of water, to the beer out post. With the pb on the sink drainer and a bucket on the floor, turning on the tap at the bottom of the Syphon tube starts draining the water and sucking the brewloon gas into the pb. This is what my set up looks like ...
Hi
View attachment 63406
Just over half the water emptied using the first brewloon....
View attachment 63407
Second brewloon attached to finish the job...
View attachment 63408

Hi Keith it looks great, but I do have a question surely after the sterilization you spoil the action by using tap water? I am about to put into my pressure keg ( one of the two I got the parts for from you, both working great by the wa y) but before I do just wanted to clear this point with you.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hi Peter. Good to hear the pb caps are working ok

Regarding using tap water after sanitising, I took the view that
1. before non-rinse sanitisers I would’ve rinsed with (mains) cold water from the tap.
2. Tap water has chlorine in to control bugs.
3. Some brewers liquor back with tap water.
4. When the process is finished there’s only a small amount of water left in the barrel.
Edit: 5. Beer contains alcohol that is pretty good at killing bugs.

So I thought it would be safe. I’ve used this process for all my brews over the last year with no adverse effects.

 

[private4587]

Thanks Keith I will give this ago tomorrow I have a TT Boltmaker ready to keg for use with my beer engine

 

[Buffers brewery]

Thanks Keith I will give this ago tomorrow I have a TT Boltmaker ready to keg for use with my beer engine

Let us know how it goes. Just to say keep an eye on it as you get towards the bottom. I tilt the barrel slightly so the float is kept at the lowest point and the water runs towards the float to maximise the amount of water removed. Hope that makes sense? You can watch it through the lid….so exciting

 

[Buffers brewery]

The chaos has started! It's a double dry hopped Pale ale today. First 60 minute mash is done ..

....just doing two 30 minute mashes before the boil.
Grain bill.
3.5 kg Maris otter pale.
1.5 kg wheat malt
300 grm carapils.

Shed load of hops to follow....

 

[Buffers brewery]

Mash done. 7 gallons of wort in the boiler. No hops until flame out.

50 grms of Simcoe leaf and 50 grms of Amarillo leaf added in bags at flame out and left at 80C for 30 minutes before finishing cooling.
Cleaned up the mash tun and bits during the boil using the hot water from my HERMS tank.

I'll remove the hop bags when it's cooled to 20C and give them a squeeze. I'll leave for an hour to allow stuff to settle out before transferring to the fermentation bucket.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Wort is ready to transfer to the fermentation bucket so I'm loading up the dry hop hopper with a shed load of hops (as specified in the recipe). 150 grms of citra and 150 grms galaxy

Transferred 5.5 gallons to the fermentation bucket, sprinkled on a sachet of London ale yeast, closed the dry hop hopper and fitted the lid ready to transfer to the fridge...

A short ride on the Fermicular railway and it's in the fridge connected to the brew gas collection pipe. Brewloons will be connected tomorrow.

OG 1.050, lower than I'd hoped but probably due to the bigger volume.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Dry hop today. 300 grms of hop pellets have been suspended under the lid since brew day, so today is the day to release the hopper by sliding the magnets away..

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Interesting... so no bittering hops at all
Do you expect that to affect the keeping qualities?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Interesting... so no bittering hops at all
Do you expect that to affect the keeping qualities?

I've done a few brews now with no bittering hops just late addition (10 minutes) and/or flame out and have had no problems......so far. The recipe is from GH Homebrew Beer book so should be OK.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Well, this brew is NOT going to plan. Gravity measured on day 10 and 12. 1.019!

..smells lovely….but 1.019!?
Oh well, I’ve started cold crashing and will transfer to a PB and prime with some sugar solution on Sunday and hope it springs back into life .

 

[Spratt]

Well, this brew is NOT going to plan. Gravity measured on day 10 and 12. 1.019!
View attachment 64968
..smells lovely….but 1.019!?
Oh well, I’ve started cold crashing and will transfer to a PB and prime with some sugar solution on Sunday and hope it springs back into life .

How about a swirl of the fv (with the lid still on) and a bit of extra heat?

 

[Buffers brewery]

How about a swirl of the fv (with the lid still on) and a bit of extra heat?

Tried that….no effect
I’m hoping that moving it to a PB with some priming sugar will get it going