Posts Tagged ‘water treatment’
AG#10 – Yorkshire Trappist Red
Posted on: October 17, 2009
Fermentables:
Lager Malt 3300g
Munich Malt 800g
Vienna Malt 800g
Golden Syrup 680g (to be added at least half way through-ish)
Belgian Aromatic Malt 400g
Caramalt 400g
Wheat Malt 300g
German Cara Red 200g
Total 6.2kg Grain
Hops:
Boadicea @ 60 mins – 31g (FWH)
Saaz Whole @ 10 mins – 23g
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 10 mins – 23g
Protafloc Tablet Pellet @ 20 mins
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 7.7% ABV
Total Liquor: 34.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 26 EBU
Colour: 23 EBC
Whitelabs WLP500 Trappist yeast, 2 Litre starter.
90 Minute Mash @ 66 C (2 Tsp Gysum to grist)
Maybe 3 sparge batches as the Mash tun looks pretty full, but I’ll see as I go.
Water from the hot tap treated with Sodium Met, I made sure i treated lots in preparation this time:
The Grain bill, all mixed up, weighed out last night:
Mash on at 66 C for 90 mins:
Mash pH looks spot on, 2 heaped Tsp of Gypsum were added to the grist before mashing, though otherwise no other water treatment:
First Run-off:
FWH Boadicea, and Northdown as I ran out of Boadicea:
Saaz and Hersbrucker, Golden Syrup, Protafloc and Yeast Nutrient:
Lovely fat Northdown hop:
Spent Grains:
Spent Grain Recycling:
Coming to the Boil:
Saaz & Hersbrucker 10 minute hops:
Experiment with 3L and safale s-04 to see what I’m missing using the WLP500, and I saved a bit of my 2.5L starter to culture up a little more Trappist yeast, I let down my wort a little with bottled water:
This was shot with a white light LED torch behind to get some idea of the colour, I was aiming for something red, it looked better in the sunlight near the window:
OG:1066ish, just a few points lower than anticipated, won’t be worrying about that:)
A little Video Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS3u1hUr5xU
Less than 24 hours later: Fermenting away with a good yeast head @ 18 Deg C this morning, I admit I was a little scared in leaving the FV on the cold cellar floor and not all tucked up and warm in my brewing cupboard. I’m going for the “earthy” character of the yeast…
After 4 days: Trial Jar and hydro says gravity 1026, so thats from pitched yeast on Saturday afternoon until now, is this normal for an 18 Deg C ferment????
The taste test btw,…. very different! Though there’s a fair amount of un-fermented sugars in there yet, has a very malty profile so far.
6 Days later: warmed it up to about 22 C.
The Smell is pears, taste is getting to a mild chalkiness with the pear coming through too.
Still tastes malty but it has gone a little now I’ve got the FV temperature up and Its dropped about 10 points though still quite actively fermenting with plenty of bubbles rising to the surface.
You also get a bit of warming in your throat from the alcohol.
Loads of yeast still in suspension.
*Bottled 29rd Oct ‘09 with 85g sugar to about 19-20 litres.
The yeast is surprisingly subtle, loads of malt flavour, still some pear flavour and aroma.
OG @ 1010 so its got to target.
Bottling about 19-20L with 85g sugar and bottling my s-04 3L with 25g sugar.
Tasted the s-04 batch, its like Wine, the alcohol comes straight through.
AG#6 – Otter Dark Stout mkII
Posted on: September 19, 2009
- In: Brewing
- 3 Comments
Otter Dark Stout MKII – This is basically my first Extract own recipe which I’m now going to do as an All Grain 
It tasted bloody fantastic as an extract brewed with Safale s-04, but this time I’m thinking of using Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast WLP004 http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp004.html
This is mkII because I’m rationalising my hops a bit instead of using a combination of EKG’s / Fuggles as my bittering additions I’m going to use Admiral and save a few grams on the Flavour/Aroma additions.
For Water Treatment I’m thinking I’ll follow the Stout profile in the GW Calc, though will add a Tsp of Gypsum anyway.
I wonder if a stout mash be naturally more or less acidic??? (90min mash)
Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3800g
Roasted Barley 355g
Chocolate Malt, Pale 355g (Thanks to Paul @ http://www.barleybottom.com for the excellent service, You’ll be getting some of this when its ready)
Crystal Malt 355g
Crystal Wheat Malt 190g
Hops:
Admiral 20g (FWH) 60mins
Fuggle 20g @ 15mins
East Kent Golding 20g @ 15mins
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.016
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.6 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 232 EBC
Here’s the pictures so far…..
The Grain bill, Maris otter, roasted barley, pale chocolate malt, crystal wheat malt, crystal malt:
Mash Temp, near as damn it 66 C, finished at 64 C Hmm!:
Mash pH, think this looks about right:
First run off, tastes pretty damn good:
Mash Tun and first batch sparge, it proceeded to stick after a good start, had to re-suspend and blow up the pipe, I wonder if it is the Crystal Wheat malt thats causing this? My last 23L batch in this tun worked perfectly with no sticking:
I managed to not prepare quite enough water this time too, nice! So I’m generally arsing about boiling kettles full of bottled water to top up my second batch sparge, I’m not far short but enough to be annoying 
The Mash is doing a slow trickle! How can it work perfectly one time and then be a b’stard the next?! *Bigger saw cuts maybe, they are all Junior Hacksaw cuts at present*
More to follow… S L O W L Y ! 
Admiral FWH going in with first batch spargings to warm up, the second batch sparge is running off better than the first, thankfully!!!:
Cooler in and 15 minute hops (Fuggles and EKGs):
I had 10g of Fuggles scraps left in the bag so these have gone in as a Zero minutes 10 min steep:
Cold Break and (Floaters) Hop seeds:
Hit my Target OG of 1048, happy happy joy joy:
I’ve decided I’m going to split this batch and use the Whitelabs Irish & s-04 yeasts.
Hop seed catcher and aeration:
Much needed refreshment, ‘Fuggles Bitter’:
Pitched Vial @ 22 C Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast WLP004 in FV1:
Dry Sprinkled @ 22 C Safale s-04 in FV3:
All done, Just a bit of tiding up to do Net curtain material, to act as a Mashing bag, ordered on ebay! And I’ll be making my Mash Tun Manifold’s slots wider with a regular Hacksaw rather than their present Junior hacksaw cuts.
As of about now 18.00 20/09/09, we have fermentation with both batches
Whitelabs WLP004 Irish Ale:
Safale s-04:
**Bottled 28/09/09 with 48g white sugar, both yeast batches tasting about the same.
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Today, I shall mostly be making a Timothy Taylors Landlord 🙂 www.timothytaylor.co.uk
The recipe will be coming from the Graham Wheeler book.
12 litre brew length in my 15L mash tun with just a couple of additions to the recipe:
2% Crystal
10g Bobek @ Zero Minutes
Caramelise the first 2L runnings.
Apparently the Taylors spring water comes from Limestone country in the Yorkshire dales so I’ve added some Calcium Carbonate to the mash along with Gypsum
The Grain, Chalk and Gypsum:
Mashed in @ 66.8 C:
pH is around about right, maybe a little low:
Hops prepared and Stacked in order of use, water treatment and a little yeast nutrient and Protafloc tablets:
These are looking good:
Clive the Brewers assistant, happily sun bathing while I was taking pictures of the hops:
Mash finished at 65 C, ran over 15mins to 105 minute mash:
Recirculating the first couple of litres:
First Batch Sparge, the big jug in the back ground has the 2 litres for caramelisation, second batch sparge stuck and took some prodding to get it to run off, I might sack the False bottom and make a copper manifold:
First Wort Hops (FWH) and water treatments:
Boiling the heck out of the 2L:
Bandit, Brewers Second assistant:
Anyone for Toffee?? This stuff tastes yummy! This was added back to the boiler:
The Cooler doing its stuff:
Pitching Whitelabs Edinburgh Ale yeast, 1 litre starter from a tube I’m splitting:
Round about right, give or take the odd point or two, which means my volumes were pretty much on target:
Not a bad one, breakfast and lunch had amongst it, the caramelisation took about 90 mins so that has slowed me down a touch, wort tastes pretty good with a good kick of Styrians (Bobek).
**Update** 19/09/09 – Had a sneaky sample from the trial jar, its down to its FG nicely and it taste, well… rather Landlordy 😉 Maybe lacking a bit of Crystal Malt or Dark Crystal, maybe worth adding a bit more next time. Time will tell when its fully matured.
**Update** Bottled 22/09/09 with 50g household sugar, bottled in Timothy Taylors bottles and I’ll be printing some labels like this:
… Subtle changes 😉
AG#3 – Fuggles Bitter
Posted on: August 1, 2009
AG#3 – Fuggles Bitter, H.Hillbilly’s House Bitter Grain bill
Thanks to Horden Hillbilly for answering my questions, I’ve used his grain bill for this recipe and just replaced the Goldings Hops with Fuggles.
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Maris Otter 4.25 EBC 4 lbs. 9.2 oz 2080 grams 90%
Crystal Malt 120 EBC 0 lbs. 4.9 oz 135 grams 6%
Torrefied Wheat 4 EBC 0 lbs. 3.3 oz 93 grams 4%
Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Fuggle Whole 4.9 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 1.0 oz 28 grams 65.9% ((FWH))
Fuggle Whole 4.9 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 24.4%
Fuggle Whole 4.9 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.1 oz 4 grams 9.8%
Protafloc Tablet Pellet 0 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.0 oz 0 grams 0%
Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 5.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 33 EBU
Colour: 16 EBC
Water Treated to the ‘Bitter’ profile on the GW calc.
Mash on!
Water Treatment for Keighley Area to the ‘Bitter’ profile.
The Grains. (I Just sneaked in a little oddment of Crystal Wheat malt)
Mash temp at start.
Mash pH. (Is this a little on the low side? I think its about pH5.7, shouldn’t it be more like pH5.2????)
Hops Weighed out, Half a Protafloc Tab in with the 15minute addition.
Sparge!
Mash finished.
FWH in with first batch or wort warming up.
Recycling at second batch sparge, trying not to disturb the grain bed. Had some sticking issues which I think are down to the flexibility of the plastic false bottom something I need to address before the next brewday.
Mash fun! I poked it with the paddle handle which seemed to keep it going.
Boiling.
Boil and Cool!
Last 15 mins and the Cooler going in to Sanitize.
Cold break.
I scooped up a little from the boiler, looks pretty clear once the cold break settles.
Sanitised sieve to catch the occasional hop seed and give the wort a good aerate.
Boiler to FV setup, the long restricted (down to 8mm bore) copper pipe makes for an excellent syphon effect.
Trub left overs.
I was a few points short of my OG, seems I hit about 1036/38 ish @ 22 Deg C, Pitched Safale s-04 dry sprinkled.
I’m pretty sure my excess volume was me overestimating a little while sparging as the last was boiled with the cooler in for the full 90 mins, this time I only had a 60 min boil and put the cooler in for the last 15 mins. I think leaving the IC in for the full boil actually makes for more boil off, hence the overcompensation!
All in all not a bad day, started at 7.40am and finished about 2pm with just a little clearing up left to do.
**The morning after:
Good Yeast head this was getting going well last night less than 8 hours after dry pitching the yeast.
**Bottled 12/08/2009
Bottled about 15L with 70g sugar and re-pitched approx 5g of rehydrated s-04 yeast (see if I can solve my carbonation problems with the AG brews) First bottling using Starsan to sanitise. A tiny taste and it was pretty smooth.
Probably Due To Network Congestion 