Grolsch Clone (Grolsch vi)

[Cheshire-cheese]

OG 1.060, not quite what I was aiming for.

[Cheshire-cheese]

I think my recipe may be a little wide of the mark. Even with my lower than expected (by the recipe) OG of 1.060, it's going to be stronger than Grolsch.
I think 1.060 still give me a mash efficiency of 75% unless I've misunderstood the beer engine software.

[Cheshire-cheese]

Here is my Severin (I think Brupaks take these and rebadge them). Mine has been insulated:
...
I used mine several times without an issue afterwards although I admit to only using it as a HLT these days. the 1.8kw element drove me nuts in how long it took, and the fact that it struggled to hit a rolling boil without lots of insulation. I now use a converted FV with 2 Asda Kettle elements - much quicker.

Yup it looks identical, thanks for that

[Cheshire-cheese]

Forgot to add: I did suffer a stuck mash, for the first time, or at least I assume it's what people refer to as a stuck mash. Once I had transferred the mash to a lauter tun, the wort was just not running off with any urgency. Having read through other posts on stuck mashes, since, I gather that a grain bag or similar is a handy stand-by. In the absence of this bit of kit I gently stirred the top layer of grain in a hope to gee things up a bit. Nothing. A bit more forcefully stirring most of the way down the grain yielded little more. Totally disrupting the grain-bed with a constant, frantic stirring was the only thing that got things moving with any pace. Then all of a sudden: WOOSH. The wort was flying out through the tap into the boiler as if I'd found the brewing equivalent of an enema. More frantic work to jug the wort back to the top to get some kind of filtering action, all the while praying that it won't stick again. No such trouble
I wonder whether the cause of the stuck mash was anything to do with the fannying-around when the boiler wouldn't play ball or, heaven forbid, because of the stepped mash.

[WishboneBrewery]

How's it looking, any good yeast action?

[Cheshire-cheese]

There you have me. It's fermenting in my parent's cellar and I haven't been over since pitching the yeast. It's killing me, not being able to peek and fuss around it but it is probably for the best.

[WishboneBrewery]

You need a webcam!! 'BeerCam'

[Cheshire-cheese]

Like it I recall a cheese webcam a little while back where you could see the, real-time, progress of a round of cheese maturing. I can see that footage of a fermentation vessel, perhaps including a periodically bubbling bubble-trap, would be gripping by comparison.

[WishboneBrewery]

You could always cut a little hole in the FV lid for the cam to look through 'KrausenCam'

[Cheshire-cheese]

A clear viewing panel or waterproof housing for the camera to see the flocs of yeast rising and falling?

[WishboneBrewery]

The options are endless, could be a new David Attenborough series!

[Cheshire-cheese]

I can imagine the breathy narrative getting progressively slurred throughout the programme

[WishboneBrewery]

Series named "The Symbiotic relationship of simple plant life and home brewers"

[Cheshire-cheese]

Or during a lagering process it could be Life in the Freezer or has he already done that one?

[WishboneBrewery]

think its been done