RoomWithABrew
Landlord.
Looks good, no oxidation there and very patient of you.First glass of the NEIPA I brewed back in August. It'll do
The Chaos that is a Buffers Brewery brew day
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Four gallons and 6 pints to go. Let's see if it survives!
Having brewed a couple of Bitter recipes from Greg Hughes book I thought I'd give @Hazelwood Brewery award winning Full English Bitter recipe a go. The first beer looked quite dark .....
...but by the time I'd finished the sparging it had lightened up significantly. Finished the day with 5 gallons at OG 1.052 ...
...... just 2 points off of the recipe target but not worried about that. It's now in the brew fridge and I hope to try out my alternative compressed CO2 system after I've filled my brewloons with fermentation gas.
...but by the time I'd finished the sparging it had lightened up significantly. Finished the day with 5 gallons at OG 1.052 ...
Last brew day of 2022 for me today as I'm off to taste some more Aussie beer in the New Year and won't have time (or space) to fit another one in until late January 2023!
Simcoe/Amarillo pale ale today. Using up some leftover frozen hops and a sachet of M44 yeast on it's use by date.
4.5 kg Maris otter pale malt and 400 grm carapils.
The wort, as usual, was milky at the beginning of the mash...
..but by the end of the one hour mash at 66C was running pretty clear..
Hop additions we're 10 grm each
Simcoe and Amarillo at 30 minutes, then 15 grams at 15 minutes and 25 grm after flameout at 80C for 20 minutes before cooling to 20C.
5 gallons of wort in the fermentation bucket and M44 scattered across the foaming wort ...
All put away in the fridge set at 20C. Gas collection tomorrow.
OG 1.054
Simcoe/Amarillo pale ale today. Using up some leftover frozen hops and a sachet of M44 yeast on it's use by date.
4.5 kg Maris otter pale malt and 400 grm carapils.
The wort, as usual, was milky at the beginning of the mash...
..but by the end of the one hour mash at 66C was running pretty clear..
Hop additions we're 10 grm each
Simcoe and Amarillo at 30 minutes, then 15 grams at 15 minutes and 25 grm after flameout at 80C for 20 minutes before cooling to 20C.
5 gallons of wort in the fermentation bucket and M44 scattered across the foaming wort ...
All put away in the fridge set at 20C. Gas collection tomorrow.
OG 1.054
I brewed this recipe back in March this year. Slightly different process. In March I was stirring my mash every 15 minutes through the hour long (first) mash. A second half hour mash was stirred after 15 minutes. Then a last half hour mash, again stirred halfway. All this stirring was me thinking it would benefit the process. In March I achieved an OG of 1.053 for a 5 gallon batch.
Yesterday....I stopped stirring. I also checked the gravity of the second mash after 15 minutes and 30 minutes
Results: second mash gravity @15 minutes 1.033 and at 30 minutes 1.034.
OG after 1 hour boil 1.054 for a 5 gallon batch.
Conclusions:
1. stirring during the mash makes NO difference.
2. second and third mash can be shortened to 15 minutes without adversely effecting efficiency.
You all probably knew that anyway.
Yesterday....I stopped stirring. I also checked the gravity of the second mash after 15 minutes and 30 minutes
Results: second mash gravity @15 minutes 1.033 and at 30 minutes 1.034.
OG after 1 hour boil 1.054 for a 5 gallon batch.
Conclusions:
1. stirring during the mash makes NO difference.
2. second and third mash can be shortened to 15 minutes without adversely effecting efficiency.
You all probably knew that anyway.
Happy New Brew Year one and all! 
RoomWithABrew
Landlord.
Got over your Jetlag?Happy New Brew Year one and all!
Off to Oz again in a few days. Glutton for punishment
Enjoy, and you won't have to worry about the heating bills 
Got back from Oz Tuesday so what better way to get over jet lag than a brew day. After a couple of weeks of 25C-30C I was faced with a thick frost and 0C this morning
and after doing all my prep last night discovered the water in my pipes had frozen and that inside the pumps as well!
After an hour of faffing around I got started with the mash.
Was going to do a simple cascade pale ale but decided to mix it up and added some crystal (EBC 100)
4 kg Maris otter
130 grm EBC 100 crystal
400 grm carapils
3 gallons of water
Mash 60 minutes at 65C followed by slow sparge with 5 gallons of water at 70C.
During the boil, 30 grm cascade pellets were added at 30 minutes and 15 minutes with 40 grm at flame out.
No problem with cooling today and left it for an hour to settle out before transferring to the fermentation bucket.
Didn't boil off as much water as usual so ended up with 24.5 litres of wort at a slightly lower OG of 1.044.
One sachet of verdant yeast scattered over the froth
and then moved to the fermentation fridge.
Not a bad brew day but still feel jet lagged
and after doing all my prep last night discovered the water in my pipes had frozen and that inside the pumps as well!
After an hour of faffing around I got started with the mash.
Was going to do a simple cascade pale ale but decided to mix it up and added some crystal (EBC 100)
4 kg Maris otter
130 grm EBC 100 crystal
400 grm carapils
3 gallons of water
Mash 60 minutes at 65C followed by slow sparge with 5 gallons of water at 70C.
During the boil, 30 grm cascade pellets were added at 30 minutes and 15 minutes with 40 grm at flame out.
No problem with cooling today and left it for an hour to settle out before transferring to the fermentation bucket.
Didn't boil off as much water as usual so ended up with 24.5 litres of wort at a slightly lower OG of 1.044.
One sachet of verdant yeast scattered over the froth
and then moved to the fermentation fridge.
Not a bad brew day but still feel jet lagged
Wow, brewing outside in this weather 
, that's proper commitment to your craft 
, especially just after a long trip back from Australia.
, that's proper commitment to your craft , especially just after a long trip back from Australia.
The cold crisp air kept me awake! Now I'm indoors in the warm with a glass of @Hazelwood Brewery Full English Bitter.....oops...empty glass...I don't know how long I'll laszzzzzzWow, brewing outside in this weather
Just moved the cascade pale ale I brewed in a jetlagged stupor from the brew fridge to condition in my barrelator, it's time for another brew day. NEIPA today. I've made this three times before and they've all turned out a bit different, not in a bad way but different. So, it'll be interesting to see how this one turns out.
Doing a beta-glucan rest with 1 kg porridge oats and 1 kg of pilsner malt. 20 minutes at 50C-55C. I'm convinced that made a big difference to the wort recirculation performance. Without it kept clogging and got stuck but with recirculation is as normal.
After the one hour boil, hops were added at flame out and the wort cooled to 20C.
As I haven't had much luck with whirlpooling I decided to see if I could filter out the hop debris before transfer. So replaced my whirlpool pipe with just a return pipe to the centre of the pot and hung a net curtain filter under it.
Yes, I could have just put the hops in a net bag (I've done that), but I wanted to use loose pellets. After 30 minutes of circulation I retrieved the "filter".
We'll it kind of worked but not as well as I had hoped as there was still a load of debris at the bottom of the kettle after transfer. Back to the drawing board.
Five and a half gallons of wort at SG 1.054 into the fermentation bucket
followed by a sachet of verdant IPA yeast
250g of hop pellets squeezed into yet another version of my dry hopper design (much fewer magnets)
Everything's now tucked up in the brew fridge. Hoping this will be ready to drink in about 5 weeks time.
Doing a beta-glucan rest with 1 kg porridge oats and 1 kg of pilsner malt. 20 minutes at 50C-55C. I'm convinced that made a big difference to the wort recirculation performance. Without it kept clogging and got stuck but with recirculation is as normal.
After the one hour boil, hops were added at flame out and the wort cooled to 20C.
As I haven't had much luck with whirlpooling I decided to see if I could filter out the hop debris before transfer. So replaced my whirlpool pipe with just a return pipe to the centre of the pot and hung a net curtain filter under it.
Yes, I could have just put the hops in a net bag (I've done that), but I wanted to use loose pellets. After 30 minutes of circulation I retrieved the "filter".
We'll it kind of worked but not as well as I had hoped as there was still a load of debris at the bottom of the kettle after transfer. Back to the drawing board.
Five and a half gallons of wort at SG 1.054 into the fermentation bucket
followed by a sachet of verdant IPA yeast
250g of hop pellets squeezed into yet another version of my dry hopper design (much fewer magnets)
Everything's now tucked up in the brew fridge. Hoping this will be ready to drink in about 5 weeks time.
Fermentation well underway! Noticed an unforced error. Overfilled the fermentation bucket by about half a gallon causing the brew to make early contact with the dry hopper!
The dark areas in the krausen are a hoppy shade of green. Note to self: no more than 5 gallons in the bucket when dry hopping!
The dark areas in the krausen are a hoppy shade of green. Note to self: no more than 5 gallons in the bucket when dry hopping!
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First glass of the cascade pale ale brewed a little over six weeks ago. 4.3%ABV. Works for me
.
Just did a closed transfer of the NEIPA to one of my King Kegs. Time to inspect the first performance of my latest dry hopper. As I suspected, the extra half gallon of wort I squeezed into the bucket resulted in the krausen coming half way up the hopper that bled some of the hop dust out..
..the base was well covered...
It didn't seem to adversely effect the operation of the flaps as the inside of the hopper is relatively hop free...
The smell from the empty bucket was delightful. We'll have a chance to taste it in two or three weeks time.
..the base was well covered...
It didn't seem to adversely effect the operation of the flaps as the inside of the hopper is relatively hop free...
The smell from the empty bucket was delightful. We'll have a chance to taste it in two or three weeks time.
The NEIPA has finished carbonating in the brew fridge so it's time for another brew. Decided on a cascade pale ale with a dash of magnum for slight bittering with a pinch of dark crystal, cos I had some I hadn't used for a while.
Trying out two pieces of new kit today. After reading @The-Engineer-That-Brews brew day account I decided to change my HERMS kit to his design. Also, as I'd run out of calor gas and it was costing £5 a brew, I decided to convert to electric and bought a 60 litre water boiler from Adexa.
Boiler on the right and new HERMS kit back left.
Grain bill
4.5kg Maris otter pale
0.1kg crystal 400 EBC.
0.4kg carapils
All added to the mash tun with 3 gallons of water.
Trying out two pieces of new kit today. After reading @The-Engineer-That-Brews brew day account I decided to change my HERMS kit to his design. Also, as I'd run out of calor gas and it was costing £5 a brew, I decided to convert to electric and bought a 60 litre water boiler from Adexa.
Boiler on the right and new HERMS kit back left.
Grain bill
4.5kg Maris otter pale
0.1kg crystal 400 EBC.
0.4kg carapils
All added to the mash tun with 3 gallons of water.
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Mashed for an hour at 67C then transferred to a storage bucket. Yielded 1.5 gallons SG 1.072.
Two further 30 minute mashes topped the volume up to 6.5 gallons.
On to the boil and the new boiler didn't disappoint. I had modified it slightly replacing the thermostat with a power regulator (like on an electric stove) to maintain a boil.
A bit ferocious to start with but turning the power down a little achieved a steady rolling boil.
After an hour, chilled down to 23C with my old immersion chiller, left for an hour to settle then transferred to the fermentation bucket.
The new kit seems to have made a significant change in yield as I only got 20 litres/4.5 gallons in the bucket instead of the usual 5 - 5.5 gallons.
Pitched MJ M44 yeast and transferred bucket to brew fridge set at 20C.
Edit: SG 1.056
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First glass of the NEIPA I brewed last month. Masses of grapefruit flavours and pithy bitterness. Let's see what the rest of the barrel are like
