The Chaos that is a Buffers Brewery brew day

[Buffers brewery]

As the old saying goes "make beer while the sun shines". I took advantage of today's fine weather and an empty fermentation bucket to do a repeat brew of the APA I brewed back in February. No change to the recipe or the equipment so no pics today (you've seen them all before ). Wort is currently chilling on the patio. I'll transfer to the fermentation bucket and pitch the yeast tomorrow.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Well, a busy brewing day today! It's been a week fermenting in the brew fridge so it's time to dry hop the APA.

Well, that's me done for today

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

time to dry hop the APA.
Well, that's me done for today

Bombs away, Ginger! Time to head home for tea and medals

 

[Buffers brewery]

Just moved the NEIPA I brewed at the end of March in to the barrelator. Couldn't resist a quick pour to check for the dreaded oxydation

Looks good and tastes

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Can't be too careful

 

[Buffers brewery]

The APA I brewed earlier this month has finished fermentation. FG 1.012 so time to cold crash ready to transfer to a barrel in a couple of days time. As I'm busy tomorrow, wifies birthday, I decided to prepare the barrel today. After cleaning and sanitising time to prime with CO2. Fortunately another barrel had just finished so I used the remaining pressure to start displacing the water...

Managed to get half the water out. Just needed my cylinder for the remaining water. N.B. the barrel in the sink is the empty one and the barrel on the drainer is full of water.

 

[Buffers brewery]

My eldest son was visiting from New York and asked if we could have a brew day while he was over. Of course I said “yes”. His flight was cancelled so he flew the following day, arriving here on brew day. He and his brother got to me after everything was set up and strike water was up to temperature. Given the choice between mashing in or drinking my beer and having some lunch, you can guess which they opted for. They did “watch” me mash out and lauter then returned to my beer. I managed to persuade one of them to turn the boiler tap on to drain the wort into the fermentation bucket and the other one to pitch the yeast.
A fun brew day even if they did do some damage to my beer stock.
Five gallons of Cascade pale ale OG 1.052, now fermenting in the brew fridge.

 

[Buffers brewery]

It seems like a long time since I last had a brew day! After my annual pilgrimage to Australia to visit my daughter and grandkids I'm now back and battling jetlag. What better thing to do?
Brewery set up and cleaned yesterday so started straight away this morning. Nothing like the sound of brewing....

So today it's a Tribute clone.
3.5kg Maris Otter pale malt
1kg Munich malt.
Mashed at 66C for an hour.
1 hour boil.
Hops:
16g Fuggles 60 minutes
19g Willamette 60 minutes
15g Fuggles 15 minutes
12g Willamette 15 minutes
25g Celeia 0 minutes
25g Willamette 0 minutes

Chilled down to 25C and left for 2 hours to settle.
Now for the exciting bit. Having developed an aversion of transferring trub with the wort to the FB I made a syphon to transfer the cooled wort to the FB "sans trub".

Drawing the wort from the top resulted in no trub transfer. Gradually dropping the syphon tube until it hit trub resulted in nice clear wort in the FB

but a loss of 2-3 litres of wort. Only 4.5 gallons/21 litres in the bucket!

OG 1.047. Sachet of Nottingham yeast pitched and fermentation fridge set at 20C.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Before I cleaned my boiler I tipped the trub into a bucket and put it in my empty brew fridge set at 3C. Had a look this morning....

Still a fair depth of trub so I poured off the clear wort...

Just short of 2 litres that accounts for the loss in the F bucket. I might consider returning to whole hops and hop bags for the boil in future to see if it reduces losses.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I have an empty barrel in the shed and an almost empty barrel in my barrelator so it's time for another brew day. NEIPA today. However, due to a slip up in my record keeping I was out of Simcoe hops. Looked up suitable substitutions and decided to use some leftover Cascade and Magum pellets.
Brew day progressed without incident (doing a B-G rest at 50C for 30 minutes really sorts out the oats and avoids a gummy mash). 30 litres in the boiler, currently simmering nicely while I have a bite of lunch. Hops will be added after the boil at 80C for 30 minutes then chill.
Dry hoppers will be filled with Citra and Galaxy to be dropped with three days to go .

 

[Buffers brewery]

Used my syphon method to transfer to "cooled" wort (27C) to my fermentation bucket. Just shy of 5 gallons with very little trub. OG 1.056.

Colour looks good. It's in the fridge now to chill it down to 20C ISH and I'll pitch the yeast tomorrow, Verdant IPA.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Wort has cooled nicely overnight in the brew fridge. Now to pitch the yeast and load up the dry hoppers..

..with 100g Galaxy and 150g Citra before fitting the fermentation bucket lid...

Returned to the brew fridge set at 20C. Plan to dry hop in 9 days time.

 

[Buffers brewery]

First outing of my new (complicated) fermenter today. Did a simple SMASH cascade pale ale for it's maiden voyage. I'm continuing to syphon the boiled wort into the fermenter ...

Nice clear wort after it had settled for an hour...

Pitched the yeast (Verdant IPA)....

Lid fitted.....

and off to the fermicular railway to the fridge where I connect the fermentation gas line....

And squeeze it into the fridge and quickly shut the door .

Will return tomorrow to check the bubbler (outside the fridge).

 

[RoomWithABrew]

First outing of my new (complicated) fermenter today. Did a simple SMASH cascade pale ale for it's maiden voyage. I'm continuing to syphon the boiled wort into the fermenter ...
View attachment 104317
Nice clear wort after it had settled for an hour...
View attachment 104318
Pitched the yeast (Verdant IPA)....
View attachment 104319
Lid fitted.....
View attachment 104320
and off to the fermicular railway to the fridge where I connect the fermentation gas line....
View attachment 104321
And squeeze it into the fridge and quickly shut the door .
View attachment 104322
Will return tomorrow to check the bubbler (outside the fridge).

Looks good, assume you siphon to avoid any infection risks from the tap? or is it to reduce trub pickup?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Got fed up with dragging loads of trub into the fermenter through the tap. Good point about infection though. I used to circulate the wort for the last 15 mins of the boil (through the tap) and during cooling. Purely coincidentally I stopped circulating when I started syphoning. I've noticed cooling (immersion chiller) does take longer without circulation so I stir instead.