Odds and Ends Bitter

[Hogarth]

Nothing in the freezer except Fuggles and nothing in the fridge except for an old vial of WLP002, so tonight is leftovers night. I've no idea what it's going to taste like. The recipe (so far) is:

4.2kg Maris Otter
60g Crystal
60g Patent
Lots of Fuggles.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure:

Filling the HLT:


A lovely bit of verdigris on my pipework:


Filling the Mash Tun (after removal of verdigris, naturally.)


The grains:


Getting the strike temp right:


Mashed in and lids on. Mash temp was 65.5°C which was a bit lower than I was aiming for. Not disastrous though.


Usual brew-day mess on table, including dodgy chemicals and notes from a previous all-fuggles brew:


Mash still has another hour to run, so I'm off to watch some telly.

[WishboneBrewery]

Fuggles are good... should be a nice beer
Can I ask a Mash tun manifold question...?
How wide are your saw cuts in the bottom, Junior hacksaw or Regular hacksaw?
I Just had a really slow to stuck mash today and wonder if I should widen my initial Junior hacksaw cuts.

[chris_reboot]

I used the blade in my jigsaw set for mine and it works fine.
get the odd bit of small crap in there, but no stickiness when sparging.

figured the small grain bits will be left in the boiler anyway, or at worst left behind in the FV.

[WishboneBrewery]

I would presume a Jigsaw blade is about the same as a normal hacksaw blade

[chris_reboot]

guess so really, so maybe is the depth of cut and distance between cuts a factor then?

[WishboneBrewery]

I'll probably widen my Junior hacksaw cuts to regular, that might just sort the problem.

[chris_reboot]

worst case you'll get smaller bits of crud coming out too.

[Hogarth]

Hi pdtnc. I used a regular hacksaw for the manifold, and the slots are approx 5mm apart. It's important that the cuts go at least halfway through the pipe. I kept getting stuck mashes until I cut them deeper.

More pics:

Recirculating. Nice dark wort:


The run-off:


First Wort Hops (went in a bit late)


The Boil:


Sanitizing CFC and fermenter:


The run-off:


Yeast starter. I discarded most of it, and used just the bottom bit. Hope that works.


Aerated and put to bed:

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks like your brew went well
I actually had sawn to about 1/3 the diameter of the pipe, I'll have a bit of a saw today Cheers.

[Hogarth]

This morning I remembered that WLP002 generally has to be roused. Instead of the paddle I thought I'd try the stir-plate:





This seems to work pretty well. When you switch it on you can see most of the sediment go into suspension, and the airlock starts singing away. Has anyone else tried it?

The fermenter's running high at 23°C and I should probably stick it in the fridge. On the other hand I'm enjoying the fruity smells coming from the airlock, and I'm feeling lazy, so maybe I'll go for an interesting beer rather than a clean-tasting one.

[Hogarth]

I actually had sawn to about 1/3 the diameter of the pipe, I'll have a bit of a saw today Cheers.

Yeah, it really makes a difference. Happy sawing!