Brewday planned 2morra! Sat 07 Nov - Deuchars

[GeordieBrewer]

So I'm already to give a Deuchars IPA a go starting in the morn... really in the mood for a brewday
The boilers filled up and i've preheated it, but not boiled yet to give me a headstart (and a bit of a lie in) Mashtun (coolerbox was smelt slightly musty to gave it a good clean, dismantled the piping and boiled it a bit - first time in a year.

Notes and photos to follow

[WishboneBrewery]

I did the recipe from http://www.hopandgrain.com are you doing the Graham Wheeler book recipe?
Hope it goes well Its a nice drink when its served right.

[Toby]

I did one of these recently from GW book, turned out very nice

[GeordieBrewer]

I'm doing the Graham Wheeler recipe, but just had a look at the hopandgrain one - looks good also. Well, Hot liquors boiled up, and the grain's sitting quite happily in the mash tun - An hour and a half to kill tidying the garage!

[GeordieBrewer]

Hmm... I don't think I'm going to finish off with what I intended, but should be nice anyway, more of a winter warmer IPA than Deuchars (Is that a contradiction in terms)

Water Treatment - According to Northumbrian Water's website there's 117.5mgs per litre Calcium Carbonate in my water, so started off with a vigorous boil for 35 minutes with along with 10g of Gypsum for my Hot Liquor.

Grain bill
2961g Pale Malt
200g Crystal Malt
100g Wheat Malt

Added to mash tun and brought down to 72C then added grain - mashed at 64C for 90 mins - mashed out at 63C, then sparged down to and OG of 1010. Only managed to collect 18 litres of wort, with and OG or 1030 pre boil - was aiming for 1038 post boil, so only added an extra 2 litres of liquor.

Hops and adjuncts
Fuggles - 60g for 90 mins (based on 4.0 alpha acid) in musliin
Styrian Goldings - 24g for 10 mins (based on 4.1 alpha acid) in muslin
3g Irish Moss
Then I got a bit inventive and added 80g heather honey.

Finished off with 16 litres (3 short on the 19 I was aiming for) and a OG of 1055! Not to worry, I'm sure it'll be very nice!

Pitched with 11g Muntons Gervin and fermenting quite happily at 15.5C this morning (might notch the thermostat gently up to 18-19)

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice setup you've got there, very organised
I like the coolbox sparge cover grill thingy, is that something you knocked up yourself?

[GeordieBrewer]

Hi there pdtnc, thanks!

The sparge tray is a perforated, galvanized sheet I picked up from RS Components - the steel fabricators at work shaped it to slot into the mash tun - I still need to jug water over it, as the holes aren't fine enough, but it certainly does the trick, and beats the roasting tray I was using

[farmhousekeg]

Having a sneaky brewday while working in the home office. Got the boiler on earlier during a conference call and I'm doing the GW Deuchars right now - the mash has just gone on. I wanted quite a high mash temperature of 68C to hopefully get some body in the beer. When I checked the temperature of the grain which is stored in my workshop this morning, it was only 10C so I struck at 78C and have achieved 68C at the start of the mash so fingers crossed .

Please keep us updated with your photos - nice setup by the way, is that a dedicated computer in the "brewhouse" or is it Sky Sports?!! Either way, excellent idea!

[GeordieBrewer]

Having a sneaky brewday while working in the home office. Got the boiler on earlier during a conference call and I'm doing the GW Deuchars right now - the mash has just gone on. I wanted quite a high mash temperature of 68C to hopefully get some body in the beer. When I checked the temperature of the grain which is stored in my workshop this morning, it was only 10C so I struck at 78C and have achieved 68C at the start of the mash so fingers crossed .

Please keep us updated with your photos - nice setup by the way, is that a dedicated computer in the "brewhouse" or is it Sky Sports?!! Either way, excellent idea!

Cool! Let me know how it goes! Didn't think about grain temperature, but I guess it's an important consideration in the strike temperature - mine had been in the garage for a while, so could have brought it down a bit.

The computer is sort of dual purpose! I've a USB temperature probe attached, which emails me when the ferementer goes out of range, and means I can check the temperature profile through the fermentation. I also can VNC into it remotely to check. Longer term, I'd like to fully control the temperature remotely, but haven't thought about a PC interface yet - guess I'll get round to it at some point! The heater tray sits at the bottom of the insulated wooden box.

[farmhousekeg]

Cool! Let me know how it goes! Didn't think about grain temperature, but I guess it's an important consideration in the strike temperature - mine had been in the garage for a while, so could have brought it down a bit.

The computer is sort of dual purpose! I've a USB temperature probe attached, which emails me when the ferementer goes out of range, and means I can check the temperature profile through the fermentation. I also can VNC into it remotely to check. Longer term, I'd like to fully control the temperature remotely, but haven't thought about a PC interface yet - guess I'll get round to it at some point! The heater tray sits at the bottom of the insulated wooden box.

Wow...........that's wicked! Getting an E-mail from the FV! How cool is that! I'm afraid I am not technical enough to figure out anything like that so mine just sits in the kitchen which luckily is at around the right temperature for most of the year.

I'm pleased with the start of my GW Deuchars - I got 23.5 litres at 1.038 - pretty much bang on the recipe. I used Bobek hops from Paul at Barley Bottom as I don't have Styrian Goldings but apparently Bobek is a "Styrian" type, so we will see. I was inspired to brew this beer after one of our local pubs had a change of landlord last week and the first move he made was to get Deuchars in as a guest beer and it was lovely. Added to that I lived in Edinburgh for a couple of years many moons ago and my flat was within a "whiff" of the brewery across the road AND I'm a big fan of Ian Rankin's Rebus books and Deuchars IPA was John Rebus's pint of choice - how sad am I !