The Dudes Brewday

[HisDudeness]

Beats supermarket eggs hands down! The bantams have given up laying over the winter though so hopefully some malty treats might coax them back into production :smile:

 

[Notlaw]

My hens couldn't get enough of my first lot of spent malt. It was only a kilo and they demolished it in a couple of hours...... There's only 3 of them.!

 

[HisDudeness]

Yeah they love it and when you offset the cost of chicken feed it makes the beer even cheaper! Hurrah :lol:

 

[Dutto]

Beats supermarket eggs hands down! The bantams have given up laying over the winter though so hopefully some malty treats might coax them back into production :smile:

They lay in accordance with the amount of daylight available so you can expect them to start anytime soon ...

... or, as they have had a rest over the winter, you can stick a lamp in their shed and put it on a timer to come on at 5am and switch off at about 8am to give them a bit of a "jump start".

I loved my bantams up in Scotland. I had about twenty of them and they originally lived in a couple of sheds at the bottom of the garden.

However, after I kept forgetting to shut them up ... :whistle: :whistle:

... and after a couple of massacres by foxes ...

... the remaining ten or twelve learned to roost up in the trees and wouldn't go into those sheds for love or money! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[VW911]

My spent grain gets split - half to the chickens, the other half made into dog treats.
I think it's just Mrs. VW that moans about brew days!!!

 

[HisDudeness]

Getting on a bitter today based loosely on TT Boltmaker, its a bit different to the GW version of the recipe but I found this video on another forum that mentions amber malt and Styrian Savinjski so thats what I'm using! Bit heavier hopped at the end mainly so I can finish off the Savinjski I won in the Hop Comp. Anyway not fussed if it is close to the original just aiming for a nice quaffable beer to go in one of my PBs and also wanted to try out the west yorks yeast on a TT style recipe.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAisKctMY74[/ame]

 

[Herb]

Getting on a bitter today based loosely on TT Boltmaker, its a bit different to the GW version of the recipe but I found this video on another forum that mentions amber malt and Styrian Savinjski so thats what I'm using! Bit heavier hopped at the end mainly so I can finish off the Savinjski I won in the Hop Comp. Anyway not fussed if it is close to the original just aiming for a nice quaffable beer to go in one of my PBs and also wanted to try out the west yorks yeast on a TT style recipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAisKctMY74

That looks interesting, I do love a Boltmaker.

Another one for the list.....

 

[HisDudeness]

Oops how did I manage that, started the brew without realising I dont actually have an FV free at the moment to put it in. Time to transfer some beer me thinks.....

 

[HisDudeness]

Safely in the FV with a blow off tube set up ready for the explosive krausen I have been warned about with this yeast (wyeast west yorkshire). I got 24L and the OG was higher than expected at 1.044 so efficiency was up again to 77%, I stirred the mash at 15m intervals this time which seems to be making a big difference for me. Colour looks good and smells lovely lots of toffee notes from the dark crystal.

 

[MyQul]

Nice!

Re:1469. My starter had a massive krausen but the actual ferment only has about 2". Might be because I'm fermenting it at about 17C. Was aiming for 18C but the ambient temp in my flat is colder than my target ferment temp at the mo.

 

[HisDudeness]

Better safe than sorry I suppose, how did you find the yeast otherwise?

 

[MyQul]

Definately better to have the blow off.

Very flocctuant, I can up end a bottle without getting any im my beer. Lovely fruity esters; I mostly get a soft apple flavour. Others have said they get stone fruits and figs but I don't get any of that. It leaves the beer malty but curiously has a dry finish. Nice yeast overall, It they first bought liquid yeast I've used

 

[HisDudeness]

Well that all sounds good to me looking forward to seeing how it compares to the beer I have done with the fullers yeast as well

 

[HisDudeness]

It's nearly burst out! Interestingly the yeast has done a sort of double rise the initial krausen was pretty standard at about 1.5 inches (where the krausen ring is) but it has now foamed up again and is nearly touching the lid.

 

[MyQul]

Another thing you'll find is the krausen doesn't drop. Mine hit it's target gravity by at least last Friday when I took a gravity reading and the krausen is still there. If fact I swirled the FV to get it back into the wort but the bugger just grew back again

 

[HisDudeness]

Yeah this stuff seems pretty relentless, it's chucking yeast out through the blow off tube now and doesn't seem to be slowing down. It's definitely the most active strain I have used so far!

 

[Dutto]

Just noticed the "field dressing" addition of duct tape and pad to your FV. (Maybe you ripped it off your helmet like they do in the old Vietnam War films and shouted "Medic!" as you stuck it on.):lol::lol:

It's a system I use myself (and don't particularly like) so we must be able to think of a more reliable system to keep the sensor in contact with the FV without using yards of duct tape and a lump of foam!

Alternatively, is it absolutely necessary that the sensor is in contact with the FV? How about hanging it in the air-space alongside the FV? Surely, if the air is at a given temperature and the cabinet is sealed then the FV temperature must follow suit. :thumb:

Thoughts please.

 

[HisDudeness]

Thoughts please.

I agree the current solution is a bit of a bodge but its the best I can come up with at the moment!

As far as the sensor placement is concerned my thinking is this:

>If the probe is measuring air temp when the heater comes on (at least with my setup) the temp tends to overshoot the target and the fridge/heater cycle on and off quite regularly. This is probably not good in the long run for the fridge compressor. Measuring liquid/FV temp creates a sort of buffer that reduces the number of on/off cycles

>The temperature of the wort is what is important and during active fermentation this will be generating its own heat and therefore hotter than ambient air temp. Even a couple of degrees higher than intended temp can make quite a difference to ester production so this is the key point for me.

>I have placed the sensor in a separate bottle of water before which gives a buffering effect as above but does not account for heat from the wort itself which is why I changed to putting it on the FV itself.

>Ideally the sensor would be in the wort itself but at the moment I can't be arsed with the extra faff, contamination issues and the probe cable isnt really long enough. Fingers crossed I might win one of the new Inkbird jobbies with the longer probe thing.

 

[Dutto]

I was hoping that sticking the sensor in a bottle of water would work as an alternative!

At the moment I am hanging it in the air-space because I have a load of bottles carbonating.

It seems to be behaving well in terms of not switching On/Off too quickly (set at 19 degrees with a 0.5 degree lag) and the FV seems to be just the one degree cooler at 18 degrees.

Still thinking! :thumb:

 

[HisDudeness]

Just had a cheeky sample of the Wakatu Pale and its very nice, there is a nice lime character to it but not in the smash your face off way you might expect from some citrus hops in that quantity!*Zesty and refreshing which is very promising after just 10 days in the bucket....