1/12/06 Old Speckled Hen

[crow_flies]

Brewing the OSH today using my newly built 24l tun. All is well so far with little temp attenuation.

Won't be using the new *shiny* this time, still need to get the tap fixed onto it, so will be back to the trusty old plastic jobby.

Recipe per Daab's post, though did up the malt to 5kg rather than waste 1/2 kilo. I'm sure my efficiency isnt high enough to worry....


For 23 ltrs
In the mash tun
4350g Pale malt
540g Crystal malt

In the copper
540g invert cane sugar (Lyles golden syrup if you are not familiar)
65g challenger hops
15g Goldings
1 tsp. Irish moss
Dry hop with 5g Goldings

Mash at 66 degC for 2 hrs

Boil for 2 hrs. Although personally I reckon 90mins is ample

OG 1050 Final gravity 1009 Alcohol 5.6

It's mashing currently, will post piccies of the tun in action later.....

/CF

[crow_flies]

Thanks Daab,

off thread (for Daab) here it is being put to good use housing the TTL




The OSH started normally, struck (73.5c) slightly hotter than Beersmith told me to cos' the temps outside are a lot cooler than I'd input in the software, but I measured it 20 mins in and it was just over the target 66c
Here is the 24l tun wrapped up for its 2 hr mash


and here is the first runnings and sparging with the non-spinny spargy thing I built into the lid.

post mash


first runnings


Sparge arrangement - with my larger tun, I'd normally just drain down and then refill, leave 1/2hr and drain down again - think I prefer that to this dribbling business.....


non-spinning spargy thingy in the lid - seems to be pretty effective!


finally! managed to get just over 20l before the gravity dropped too low. I think I need to adjust the manifold as I definitely got a bit of a stuck sparge this time round, it was trickling out soooooo slowly, took me 1 1/2 hours to get to this stage..... ah well that's the fun of it all I guess and this was the first time I'd used this new tun. At least I had no problems getting nearly 6kg of dry matter and 13l water in!

more pics later - just going to set it off boiling now.

/CF

[crow_flies]

OK Daab, will try that next time. Its not something I've ever had to worry about with the old setup as it was such a large Tun and lots of pipe, but then the runnings werent that clear due to the lack of grain bed. Now this ran clear almost immediately, but of course I guess there is always more risk of blocking... I did look at the piping afterwards, all looked fine, one question I have used 22mm pipe instead of larger bore pipe in this smaller tun - is that relevent do you think?

I think the caps are fine on the barrel by the way, I managed to split one last night by overtightening it, but I had an old boots cap which seem to fit these barrel types better for some reason. All is fine, I barrelled it last night - it went in almost clear - I've placed it on a 20w heated pad overnight and its gassing up beautifully, almost bright already - that Gervin yeasat really drops out well. I've scopped some up last night and will pitch the slurry into the OSH later this evening. The yeast smelt and looked very clean.


/CF

[crow_flies]

yes 15 was what I meant.... I used it cos I had some sitting around... hmm I'll see what happens next time, maybe cut a few more slots into it as well. Otherwise I might take the one from the old setup and adapt that.

anyhow beer is in the fermenter now, OG is around 1058, which I think is pretty good and reflects the slightly higher amount of grain i used i guess. Also the trub levels were way down, the boiler emptied clear almost from the start and with a good fast flow.

I'm happy.... time for a takeaway.

cheers

/CF

[Bigster]

As many cuts as you can get in your 15mm pipe - below was my first attempt which just caused stuck mashes. Below is afterwards - 4 cuts per inch or as many as you can get and half way through if not more. Hammers out now and have to turn tap off sometimes

[crow_flies]

Thanks Bigster, that's way more cuts than I have - I'll definitely put more in.

Checked the OSH today and huge great Krausen already - mind you I pitched half a coke bottle of slurry (Gervin english ale) from the last brew, which probably explains why its taken off like a rocket......

/CF

[crow_flies]

Bigster, happy to report with mods to the 15mm pipework, first runnings today were clear and full on - thanks for the advice!

/CF

[crow_flies]

....and here is the finished article. Colour, smell are perfect. The beer needs to condition a bit longer, its still a little sweet, but then I think OSH is normally quite a sweet beer....



/CF