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Posts Tagged ‘wort

Blueberry PA / Saison – I’ve never used fruit in a beer so the NCB/Saltaire Competition on the 12th April is as good of an excuse as any… (Don’t forget Entries close on the 31st March so get your entry emails into Shane competitions@northerncraftbrewers.co.uk as there is still plenty of time to brew).
I’m going to stew up the Blueberries in a pan to kill any wild yeasts or nasties and add them during fermentation, I’m splitting the wort into two FVs and using good old us-05 in one and Belle Saison yeast in the other, I’ll enter whichever beer turns out the best.
The malts in the recipe are a bit of a mish-mash but the hopping is straight Mosaic, for its Blueberry notes, and I may pellet Dry-Hop one or both of these.

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 70.3%
Flaked Wheat – 10.6%
Caragold – 7.7%
Wheat Malt – 6.7%
Crystal Rye Malt – 4.6%

Hops:
Mosaic – 11.8 % @ 60 mins – 20g
Mosaic – 11.8 % @ 0 mins – 40g (Flameout steep for 25mins)

Dry Hops & Fruit:
Blueberries – a Punnet or two split between the FVs
Mosaic Pellet – 50g (25g per FV)

Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 5.4% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 21 EBU (I’m keeping the bitterness low to balance any acidity from the fruit and work with the dryness of the Saison yeast)
Colour: 19 EBC
Mash: 90mins @ 66c
Boil: 60mins

The malts all blended together:
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Mosaic Hops smelling good:
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Flameout hops:
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1060.5 going for 1056:
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400g per 12.5 litres Frozen Blueberries:
AG#116 - Blueberry PA / Saison, frozen at the moment.
Microwaved and Mushed up (Added 18th Mar ’14):
AG#116 - Blueberry PA / Saison, microwaved and crushed

*20th Mar ’14 – Gravities: Belle Saison at 1011.5 vs US-05 at 1017.5, the Saison is up at a higher temp to the us-05 just a subtle pink hue to the beer from the Blueberries, think I need more!

*22nd Mar ’14 – Dry Hopped with 25g Mosaic per FV:
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Just pass me a spoon and some whipped cream πŸ™‚

*Bottled 29th Mar ’14 – Primed with 37g sugar in the PA and 55g in the Saison

Non Terrestrial Intelligence – I’m using stuff up and have no Pale or Lager malt so I bought some Oat Husks from TheMaltMiller and added 5% to the recipe to aid sparging with so much Wheat Malt. I’m hoping for a fairly big hit of American hops with a good amount of bitterness.
The name comes from the Abyss movie.

Fermentables:
Wheat Malt – 76%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 8%
Special B – 8%
Oat Husks – 5%
Black Malt – 3%

Hops:
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 60 mins – 25g (First Wort Hop)
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 30 mins – 25g
Summit – 17.2 % @ 0 mins – 70g
Simcoe – 14.2 % @ 0 mins – 40g
Citra – 13 % @ 0 mins – 40g
Topaz – 16 % @ 0 mins – 10g (I just threw in a Sample I was given at work)
Nelson Sauvin – 12.1 % @ 0 mins – 11g (End of a bag)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 70 % – (Reduced from my regular 75%)
Bitterness: 62 EBU
Colour: 125 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05
Mash: 66Β°c for 2 hours, I did an iodine test at about 90mins which had a tiny bit of starch left.

Malts in the bucket, I added some gypsum to the mash and Calcium Chloride & Mag Sulphate to the boil:
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Adding the Mash Liquor to the Mash Tun, added a few degrees higher than my strike temperature and allowed to cool / Pre-heat the tun before mashing in:
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I was originally going to use Magnum for bittering but decided to go with the open packs of hops instead so it was Simcoe all the way:
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The Oat Husks in the mash:
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20min Steep of the Flameout hops:
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Initial Gravity reading was 1061, liquored back 2.5L to 1054:
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The usual go-to yeast, its easy and clean fermenting:
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A good brewday, the Oat Husks / Sparge worked really well and the wort was pretty clear for such a high percentage of Wheat Malt. The wort was smelling great too, put to bed in the fermentation fridge set to 20Β°c.

*7th Dec ’12 – Gravity at 1014 @about 22Β°c think its done but will give it another day before chilling it down. The Hydrometer sample tasted very nice too πŸ™‚

*10th Dec ’12 – Down to 1013.5-ish, put on to chill down before bottling, still tasting good πŸ™‚

*Bottled 16th Dec ’12 – with 100g White Sugar into about 20L of beer, still tastes good, would probably have been epic if I’d dry hopped πŸ™‚

Just a few snaps of an old project, this was built for Hopzine Rob and was recently used by Broadford Dave πŸ™‚

Dual Helix Wort ChillerDual Helix Wort Chiller
Dual Helix Wort ChillerDual Helix Wort Chiller
Dual Helix Wort ChillerDual Helix Wort Chiller

No other info, it was a while ago that I made this πŸ™‚

Pale and Hoppy could be an NPA (New-Zealand Pale Ale)… and a nice NZ film reference for the name :)
After tasting my other recent Nelson Sauvin hopped beer I see there is a good rounded mouth filling full hoppiness to the hops so I’m more than doubling the amount that I put in my last brew and going for a 80c steep for the lates.

Next weekend I may do a mad mix of Nelson+Cascade+Centennial with an almost identical grain bill.

Once Were Warriors

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 2240g – 86%
Wheat Malt 260g – 10%
Crystal Malt 100g – 4%

Hops:
Pacific Gem @ 60 mins – 8g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin @ 15 mins – 26g
Nelson Sauvin @ 0 mins – 26g (Going to let it cool a bit then do a 20 minute steep)
*maybe Dry hop, but probably not, will see…*

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 51 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

Maybe a bit of Burtonisation to the liquor, if I can be arsed, if not just a good helping of Gypsum to the Mash & Boil :)

The Pics…
The grain bill, Golden Promise pale malt, Standard Crystal malt, Wheat malt, 10g of Gypsum 5g of Epsom salt added to my liquor:
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Doughing in:
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Aiming for 67c so not far off:
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pH looks spot on:
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Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem hops weighed out with half a Protafloc tab crushed to the right, if this was a full 23L brew it would have taken a full packet of hops but as I am just doing a 12L I managed to just have enough Nelsons in a part bag from the other week :):
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End of 90 minute Mash:
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Sparge water running into Tun for first batch:
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Collected wort 1022/24 ish @ 55.5c and 17.5 litres collected in boiler makes for up-to 82% Mash efficiency:
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Just coming to the boil:
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Nottingham yeast to rehydrate:
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Big ugly cold break!!:
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Hit the OG right on the nail:
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Aeration:
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Did a 20 min steep @ 80c for those last hops, lovely clear wort running off the boiler which tasted pretty good though not as bitter as hoped.
Pitched rehydrated Notts yeast at about 23c, I’ll expect activity before long πŸ™‚

***Update*** Bottled 22nd Dec ’09 with 50g DSM, the bitterness has come through now should be good πŸ™‚

Munich Blauer Vogel

This is basically a Coniston Bluebird Bitter with 500g of Munich Malt (and about 80g too much Crystal as it seemed a shame to leave such a small bag full!) and a little extra hopping. I’ll be pitching a split Whitelabs Edinburgh Ale yeast.

Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3600g
Munich Malt 500g
Crystal Malt 170g

Hops:
Boadicea 60 mins 27g (FWH)
Challenger 30 mins 30g
Challenger 20 mins 21g
Challenger 0 mins 10g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 48 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

The Grain; Maris Otter, Munich Malt, Crystal Malt:
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Mashing, thanks to my honey for the photo πŸ˜‰ :
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Mashed in a little high:
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pH of Mash looks somewhere near:
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Boiler warming Sparge water and Mash tucked up under a coat:
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Hops and brew Sheet:
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No sparging photos as its stuck like a B’stard again!! Not happy, even with more and larger saw cuts in the copper manifold (Using the Thermos coolbox), it might have to be net curtain time next brew.
I’m finding the grain bed is going really solid, could this be the problem, could it maybe be my stirring technique after adding the batch sparge water etc?

Boadicea and 5g Gypsom FWH:
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Challenger 30 min Hops:
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OG:1040 couple of points out, though it was 27 Deg C so that about right, and I collected a few litres more than I should have:
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Action Shot:
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Cold Break:
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Aeration and hop debris catching:
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Pitched yeast at 26C-ish which had half an hour or so with some Fresh cooled wort added to it after decanting the ‘beer’ off the top of the yeast split bottle.

Fingers crossed for an Úber-Bluebird;)

**This was fermenting within 24 hours, and this morning (Sunday) its going great πŸ™‚

**Bottled Tuesday 6th October 2009 with 100g sugar

Beard Lovers Bitter –Β  W.G.V IPA

Fermentables:
Lager Malt 1040g
Maris Otter 1040g
Wheat Malt 520g
Crystal Malt, Pale 53g

Hops:
Whitbread Golding 90 mins 26g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 30 mins 13g
Whitbread Golding 15 mins 13g
Fuggle 10 mins 10g
Saaz Whole 0 mins 10g (80 C Steep for 20 mins)

Water Treatment:
Treated using Grahams water treatment calculator for the Burton Pale Ale profile.

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.0% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 56 EBU
Colour: 8 EBC

The Goods:
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Grain temp:
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Doughing in:
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The Mash:
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Mash temp:
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Closed lid mash temp:
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Yeast Starter, Nottingham Yeast:
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Hops and Protafloc:
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Finished Mash Temp:
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A bit of extra late hopping:
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First Sparge Wort:
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FWH and first batch of the sparge go on to warm up:
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Second Batch of sparged wort:
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Mmmm, my first Cold Break in the boiler, my new IC doing its job:
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Murky wort in the FV with yeast Pitched at 22 C:
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I started at 7.30am and finished about 3pm! Had lunch and breakfast in amongst.
I ended up with OG:1058 so watered down with 1.9L of ASDA Smart Price water in the boiler before collecting in the FV. The collected wort was pretty murky, try as I might I could not get it to run clear, I’m wondering if my short brew lengths of 12 litres are to blame with half the depth of hop-bed filtration in comparison to a 5 Gallon brew.

**Bottled 22nd July 2009**

Thoughts on cooling wort!
You use a 10-15 meter coil to make either a Counterflow cooler(CFC) or a Immersion cooler(IC)….
In the case of the CFC, could you slow down the flow of Hot Wort and speed up the flow of cooling water and thus reduce the length of your copper coil?
I’m just in the making of something that I think will speed up my Boil-to-Pitching temperature time even if it doesn’t entirely chill things down, mainly as an interim measure to either buying or making an IC, but also as a bit of an experiment…
πŸ™‚


The unequal T’s are 15x15x22mm from B&Q
The Spiral bit it a bendy tap connector also from B&Q
The Pipe is 22mm and there are a couple of 15mm bits in there too
…the other fittings are from Screwfix and just standard 15mm connectors.
I intend to restrict the flow of the 15mm down to 8 or 10 at the out-end.
Soldering it up, added a 15mm compression nut to attach to boiler and a 15-8mm reducer to restrict the flow.

I’ve ordered some bits, garden hose, Tap connector and hose quick releases.
I’m ready to go… Brewday today πŸ™‚ while we’re off work.

Apparently its almost exactly the design of a piece of Chemistry equipment – Allihn condenser – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condenser_(laboratory)
πŸ™‚
***OK then…
****Well its just been tested!
Left the boiler to settle for 20 mins from boiling, hooked up my bits of copper pipe and garden hose and turned on the cold water.

At a sensible flow rate of wort it was able to cool to 55Β°C
At a slow trickle I can get it down to 34Β°C
I ended up with 13 Litres of wort @ 45Β°C in the FV (with lots of flow rate changes and temperature checks)
If I’d let it trickle it would have taken ages to empty the boiler so it had to sit in the bath cooling off some more.

Here’s the pics:


It does prove that if you were to gang 3 or 4 of these up you could probably get a lower temperature and a faster flow, but that goes against my simplistic idea, I’m now going to go buy a coil of 10mm copper pipe… 10,15,20 metres??? and make a proper IC coil! πŸ™‚

Extract#004: Otter Dark Stout
Brewed this yesterday, its happily fermenting away now πŸ™‚


Here’s the ingredients:


FWH, grains & Extract in at 40 deg C:

Some Floaters!:

Hot Break, I’d actually stirred it back down before taking this:

Half time, better have a slurp, which was my first ever Extract brew (Hop back Entire Stout):

Boiler run-off, the wort was cooled in the bath upstairs over a couple of hours:

Our tiny cooker! I let this go into the 25L bucket rather than my 15L as I expect the stout to explode shortly!:

Left overs:

Fermentables:
Bulldog Blend Maris Otter Extract – 1500g
Crystal Malt – 185g
Roasted Barley – 185g
Chocolate Malt, Pale – 185g
Crystal Wheat Malt – 100g

Hops:
Fuggle – 60 mins 17g (FWH)
East Kent Golding – 60 mins 10g (FWH) *cheers for adm for the info here on First Work Hops.
Fuggle – 15 mins 10g
East Kent Golding – 15 mins 10g

Yeast:
s-04, pitched at 22 Deg C from a 2 hour fizzing starter and given a really good aeration.

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048 (Actual reading about 1046 after cooling to 22, also after watering down by 3L after boiler run-off)
Final Gravity: 1.016
Alcohol Content: 4.2%ABV
Total Liquor: 16.9Litres
Bitterness: 37EBU
Colour: 246EBC (Its a dark one!)

… and my first time sanitising with spray bottle and Iodophor, it feels weird not being able to smell bleach… it it really sanitised?!!!! πŸ˜€

**Bottled 4/6/09** sneaky taste, quite interesting, lots of Pale Chocolate malt coming through.


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