Double Trouble brewday - 15/09/2007

[spearmint-wino]

Really asking for trouble today - first double brewday, first time I'll try treating the water, first time I'll batch-sparge. I don't like making it too easy

So far, so good: halfway through the first mash, sitting pretty at 66.5, mash pH is somewhere under 6 (but not 5.3 , better than normal, my tap water is 7.8 )

Firstly I'm going to try out a Brewer's Gold recipe I've put together, apparently Crouch Vale add all the hops in one late addition to get that lovely smooth bitterness, I've bottled that a bit and so have gone for a small bittering addition and big flavour and aroma. Will be interesting to see if it comes close, or more to the point, how it turns out :

Spearmint Wino's Brewer's Gold v0.2b
8-B Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Size: 23 L
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 201.22 per 1 pt

Original Gravity: 1.045
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 10.7
Alcohol: 4.46%
Bitterness: 32.74

Ingredients:
5000 g Golden Promise
15.0 g Brewers Gold (7.1%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
50 g Brewers Gold (7.1%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
35 g Brewers Gold (7.1%) - steeped after boil
11.0 g Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

For the second brew I haven't decided yet... its going to be a strong ale to set aside to mature in time for christmas.

[spearmint-wino]

Ok, just about to add the first sparge water to the mash to get the first run-off. What liquor temp should I be looking at for this addition, and how long do I leave it after stirring in before I do the first sparge run-off?

[Garth]

looks tasty indeed there sw, have a good doubler

[spearmint-wino]

thanks, that's what my liquor temp is right now

[prodigal2]

Good luck SW.
Enjoy your day

[Jimberbob]

Enjoy your brew day SW. I tried water treatment for the first time last weekend. I ended up with a mash PH of 5.7. Everything seems to be fine with the brew, it has now finished fermenting. In fact, it was the clearest run off I have ever had after boiling and cooling. I have high hopes with this one. What treatment did you use? I'm sure you will have great results.

[spearmint-wino]

I worked out I needed 36ml of CRS for all the water and 6.25g DLS in the mash. Forgot to put the remaining 8.5g DLS in at the beginning of the boil

I had enough to get my head around with doing a batch sparge for the first time. Its gone, although not entirely smoothly...

I basically didn't account for (so far):

A) a portion of the mash liqour so the HLT ran out half way through the second sparge (I think I only calculated my required boil volume, not the entire amount I'd need including dead space and absorption)

B) the size of my mash tun. A ~21l coolbox with 5kgs of grain gets very full when you add 15 litres of liquor to it.

Doh! Pretty obvious in hindsight really, should've thought of that one.

Anyway I got 30.5litres at 1.053 in the boiler so we'll see what happens...

[J_P]

Have a good one SW - Double brewday sir I salute you.

[spearmint-wino]

one beer is cooling while the mash liquor for the next has just reached temperature . Tiring but fun!

The next brew is going to be an Old Peculier clone, mainly because I have all the ingredients and some need using up. Oh, and I like it. Recipe in a mo.

[spearmint-wino]

The brewer's gold is all done, got 19.5l at 1052, topped up with water to give 23l at 1046.

Had trouble with the mash liquor temp for the OP, nearly sorted so 2nd mash about to start. Think I'll be finishing a little later than planned... 2 brews to show for it though, gotta be worth it

[spearmint-wino]

Mash now well underway with this one from BYOBRA, nudged up a bit for christmas and see off some malt that needs using up:

Theakston's Old Peculier

Size: 23 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 290.06 per 1 pt

Original Gravity: 1.065
Terminal Gravity: 1.016
Color: 40.2
Alcohol: 6.43%
Bitterness: 30.16

Ingredients:
4700g Maris Otter Pale
650g Crystal 60
130g Black Malt
330g Torrified Wheat
570g White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
15.0 g Challenger (8.6%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
25.0 g Fuggle (5%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
10 g Goldings (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
11 g Danstar Nottingham

[spearmint-wino]

Its BeerToolsPro getting all 'nanny-state' on me

[DRB]

Gone well sw.

[DRB]

Gone well sw?

[spearmint-wino]

Going well thanks - OP on its way up to boil.
The batch sparge was an interesting exercise, but I reckon my set-up is more geared towards fly-sparging. It will be interesting to see the results, you never know, I might soon be on the lookout for a bigger picnic cooler