Frivolous Frog brewery - first attempt!

[Kev888]

Its finally started - the first ever run of the FF brewery - I feel like a kid at christmas!

I've yet to get a hose so spent about an hour carrying water out to the garage, treating it and pumping it into the HLT. The excellent news is that the pump-in-pit works a treat. So far:

(coffee - in me not in the brewing process)

80L of water in the HLT (I shouldn't need it all for a 40L brew)
added 2x crushed campden tablets
added 45ml of CRS - based on an initial total alkalinity of 125 CaCO3, reduced by 105 to reach 20. i.e. (105x80)/180 = 45ml CRS
ATC controlling the HLT set to 77c and switched on at 8.30am - I expect it to take about two hrs

(more coffee).

Begin weighing out leftover ingredients for 'the FF Unanticipated Ale' (meaning I'm unprepared with any kind of recipe or ingredients):
5kg Maris Otter
5Kg Optic
1kg crystal malt
0.5kg in total of torrefied wheat + wheat malt mixed
1tsp gypum in the strike water
1tsp gypsum in the boiler (some day I should measure something to see if I need to do the gypsum thing)
75g Goldings (AA 5.1%) at 90mins
25g Goldings (AA 5.1%) at 10 mins
50g Hallertau (AA 2.6%) at 0 mins
2 packs of S04

(tea)

Begin cleaning and sanitising post boil components:
40L water in boiler + 2L of thin unsented bleach (50ml per L)
recirculate through pump and tubing for 10mins+
redirect into FV
40L water in boiler + pump through tubing to rinse
repeat but with a campden tablet in rinse water to neutrilise bleach.
empty bleach solution from FV (save for cleaning empty corny) & rinse twice

(more tea)

thats all for now!

Cheers
Kev

[JontyR]

That's great news Kev - it's been a long time coming but your kit certainly looks more than up to the task.

Have a good 'un!!

[Kev888]

Thanks! Fingers crossed anyway.

HLT up to temperature now - 140mins for 80L so not too bad. Once I've confidence in it all working I'll be able to do the water preparation the night before and set the timer to start a couple of hours before I get up.

Time to get a mash on!

Cheers
Kev

[Kev888]

... or maybe not quite yet. The liquor immediately lost 11c as it hit the bottom of the MT and continued to drop as it warmed the rest of the MT. I was expecting it to be more than my old MT, being larger and metal, but hadn't expected it to be 'quite' this much.

Oh well, I'll know for next time. For now: commence much fannying about with kettles!

[boingy]

... or maybe not quite yet. The liquor immediately lost 11c as it hit the bottom of the MT and continued to drop as it warmed the rest of the MT. I was expecting it to be more than my old MT, being larger and metal, but hadn't expected it to be 'quite' this much.

Oh well, I'll know for next time. For now: commence much fannying about with kettles!

And that's what makes it a pilot run! You'll get there (assuming your kettle can boil water quicker that the MT consumes it...)
We are rootin' for ya!

[GrowlingDogBeer]

How about utilising your splended pump and sending it all back up to the HLT and make it a bit warmer this time.

[Kev888]

Yes indeed Boingy - its more a spur of the moment decision to put the grain in instead of testing with water so I'm not expecting perfection, but it should be a more realistic test and hopefully there'll be beer of some description afterwards too. It makes me realise how much I've come to rely on familiarity with my old kit though, it'll take a while to become aquainted with this one.

I thought of that initially steve but my hose isn't long enough - must get some more! Yet another finding from the pilot I guess. So I've been taking it out of the MT, boiling it in a kettle and putting it back in again. Its working, if slowly, but it does mean I can't make myself a cuppa whilst the kettle is occupied.. Speaking of which there's another kettle full ready..

[boingy]

I know what you are saying about hoses. We moved house about 18 months ago and although I had a proven set of brewing kit it seemed that pretty much every single pipe, attachment, hose, pipe and fitting just didn't quite reach where I needed it. My improvisation skills were well tested on that first brew day.

[Kev888]

Well the mash is on so I've had time to post a few pictures. First the obligatory grain shot:


and the hops; 75g Goldings 90 mins, 25g Goldings 10 mins, 50g Hallertau 0mins. For some reason the last two packets look similarly full, but by weight they are different:


Transferring liquor for the mash:


After mashing/doughing in:


And the temperatures; the unexpectedly large drop to 67c after transferring to the MT (6c lower than expected), the strike temperature after remedial work with the kettle 73c, and the final mash grain bed temperature (the grain was quite a bit warmer than I thought, but its okay):


Now off to sanitise the FV and pump tubing.

Cheers
kev

[Kev888]

Well the sparge has started, the valentine arm is working well with about 20mm or so of liquor being maintained over the grain, and the false bottom seems quite happy; no sticking so far (phew!). I'm finding it difficult to gauge the rate though; there's a steady trickle coming out but I've no idea how long it will take to complete.

After the surprising temperature drop of mash liquor I've started the sparge water off a fair bit higher than I do normally, at 90c, and the grain bed is very slowly climbing in temperature. I'm not entirely sure this is a good idea, as the sparge water striking the top may be a little too hot in spite of having a 20mm blanket of water - but hey its the first test and so I'll just have to keep an eye on what happens to the grain bed; maybe if it gets up to temperature next time I'll dare to heat the liquor to a lesser degree.

(time for coffee)

EDIT: yes it was too hot, the grain bed reached 77c so I paused things and let the hlt cool down a bit and all is well again. I guess a more normal 80c sparging liquor temperature will suffice in the future - clearly this MT is all about heating up initially but once there it retains the heat amazingly well.

Cheers,
Kev

[polymoog]

Well done Kev reminds me of my first brewday last week. Hassle!
Remember your supposed to enjoy it
Keep up the good work and don't forget to post more pics.
and as a foot note i bet you'll sleep tonight!!

[Kev888]

Well its going quite well thankfully, though its taking a lot longer than normal as I get to grips with all the new perameters. Here's the sparging in action - not that you can see very much with the lids on. It took just under an hour:


This is how I had the valentine arm set, with just over 20mm of water over the grains during the sparge:


I stopped sparging after the calculated quantity of sparge liquor and gradually lowered the valentine arm to the horizontal, draining the MT. This pic was taken from the very last dregs - 'just' about in range, though its at 22c so not completely cooled to the right temp for a direct reading:


So, after a while the boil started, nice and vigorous (not a great photo though - was a bit dark in there):


During the boil I emptied the MT - I'd been a bit concerned about this with the tank already being quite heavy even without the grain, so have ended up positioning it lower than I initially envisaged. Its only a half batch at 11kg or so (when dry), but was reassuringly easy to tip on its side to dig out so hopefully full batches will be okay too. Any residue was easy to rinse out the 3/4" tap. At least it will be when I buy my hose - it was less easy carrying all the rinse water out there!


and before very long a sauna developed. then water started dripping off the ceiling and running down the walls - will have to get an extraction pipe on the boiler before next time!


So thats it really, the hops and irish moss were all added at the appointed times and after a rest for the late hops the IC is now running, I found a modest speed seems most water-efficient as the outcoming water is nearly as hot as that in the boiler then. The IC is working quite well at that, though its tight coils have acted as a bit of a trap for some of the hops though. When its a bit cooler I'll pump to the FV in the fridge, measure the OG and pitch the yeast (I'm not bothering to rehydrate in advance this time). I'll also probably fill the boiler with water so that I can leave it until daylight to clean outside. I have forgotten to make a calibrated stick though so don't know quite what the final volume is!!

So its been a fairly slow day - I'm sure I can save many hours now i know what the temperature losses and so on are, as well as being able to prepare and set the HLT going on timer the night before, to save another couple of hrs on brew day.

Time for a drink now..

Cheers
Kev

[Kev888]

Well I decided to clean up today after all - it may be dark but its not raining in the yard at the mo. All was fine except the boiler - with its small opening it needs to be up-ended and sprayed internally to wash out the hops, which works well but is awkward and not doing much for the squidgy insulation and bubblewrap/tape covering - so it works okay but I need to find a better answer for the longer term.

Have pitched 2 packets of S04 and closed the 'fridge' - tomorrow awaits results!

The verdict so far:
collected 45L (or so) instead of the expected 40L - I think my MT and boiler have even less dead space than I allowed for. The final gravity was about 1056, although thats at 18c - a bit strong perhaps but for a pilot run I thought it best to err on the side of more rather than less - 10kg of pale malt in an expected 40l final brew length. Given that the final runnings still dropped to near as damn 1006 that suggests to me that i'm getting a decent sparge. In any case here's the money shot:

Tates nice at the mo too, but obviously its 'a tad early' to tell - I'm just being the proud new father

So, I DEFINATELY need to sort out a hose pipe supply and a return drain - my back is aching, and lugging barrels about added hours! I also need to add an extraction system for the boiler unless I want to shower in the condensation from a dirty asbestos ceiling (and for some reason I don't!). I need to allow for a much bigger cooling effect when transferring to the MT, but once warm it stays that way (I lost 0.2c in 90 mins). Consequently the sparge doesn't need to be much above desired grain bed temperature, as I'd wrongly expected. But on the positive side all the control electronics worked faultlessly, as did the spiral shaped sparge arm, valentine arm, false bottom, braid filters and 'in-the-pit' pump. The MT heat retention was impressive, the boiler took only marginally over theoretical heating time to boil, and my unusually narrow ICstill cooled to 25c within half an hour at modest flow rate/water use. So far I' happy, in fact relieved!

I guess knowng the temperature characteristics of the new rigg will save hours next time. I need to make a new callibrated measuring stick to see whats colected in the boiler (doh!). I have confidence to set the HLT going on timer without me there, so it can start 2hrs before i get up. I guess whilst this seems (so far) to have been successful its taken 14hs to make 40L (hopefully anyway). Next time I hpe that it should be more like 8, or even 6 if I get a hose for filling and cleaning etc.

Apologies if thats a bit long winded - I'm partly writing this for myself to refer back to.

Cheers
Kev

[leedsbrew]

Awesome matey! Glad it's getting there! I must say I'm a bit jealous as I'm still a few weeks of a first brew on my new kit!

[WishboneBrewery]

Cracking stuff