AG#3 Caladonian IPA -Slow to clear-Help?

[Manx Guy]

@Jonty - cool why not? Assuming my brew doesn't turn out to be undrinkable filth we should arrange a bottle swap in the New Year (to avoid the Christams post...)


@Kevin looks interesting... Would be nice to get other brewers views on my beer.. I have several friends who are only too happy to drink my homebrew - they loved the kits I made so not sure they are really that qualified in the 'feedback' sense.. the best feedback I get/can expect is 'can I have another?'

I'm probably not at the stage yet where I'd consider my brews worthy of national scrutiny but if the next few brews go ok (Inc. this Deuchars clone) I'd certainly consider it
Cheers!



Guy

[JontyR]

@Jonty - cool why not? Assuming my brew doesn't turn out to be undrinkable filth we should arrange a bottle swap in the New Year (to avoid the Christams post...)

Guy

You're on!!

[Manx Guy]

Quick update:

This beer shows some promise... I tasted the trail jar last night when I took a SG sample (SG1014 - so 4-5 points to go) although still quite 'yeasty' there is a good pale amber colour and nice tasty hop presense with that lemony zing from the styrians!

I plan to keg (plus bottle this 3l into 500ml bottles) on Tuesday evening - as its my only window of opportunity before I go away fro 10 days on Friday...

Then when I get back it should be time to sample...

Cheers!

Guy

[bosium]

Nice work, I did my first 10-gallon batch this weekend so I fly-sparged for the first time too.
I also used Styrians to finish with actually..

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
Thanks!
Fly sparging seems to be the way to go for higher gravity brews as MT size is less critical... Did you do a 10Gal brew with your existing MT?

I've still got a few tweeks to make the set up jsut right, but found it easy and not in any way stressful - so I might well use this method again in future...
I have a AG break for about 3-4 weeks as my FV's are tied up doing some kit lagers.. then it'll be AG4 (Exmoor Gold 'clone') & 5 ( My own Centennial PAle Ale recipe) in quick sucession


Guy

[bosium]

Hi,
Fly sparging seems to be the way to go for higher gravity brews as MT size is less critical... Did you do a 10Gal brew with your existing MT?

Yep, I bought a 70L boiler from Rob the MM, but I'm still using my little brupaks 30 litre coolbox MLT. Fitting 10Kg of grain in it was a bit of a challenge, struggled not to get grain slopping over the edge but eventually managed it. I was a bit low on the temperature too, and no space to add boiling water but I drew off 2L of wort straight into my cordless (tea) kettle, boiled it in like a minute and chucked that back into the mash and that fixed it.

I would like to buy a 50L or 70L thermopot MLT at some stage but apart from cost, my kitchen is so tiny I don't really have space for it. I found that once it was all in and mashed, the sparge was actually a piece of cake and was less stress than batch sparging even - no stirring, waiting for it to settle, second vorlauf, possibility of stuck mash.. Cracking high efficiency too.

[JontyR]

Guy,

mine's down to 1.009 now - tried a cheeky taste from the sample jar, very nice!! I'll leave it in the FV a few more days then I'll keg most and bottle a few, including 500ml coke bottle with your name on it.

[Manx Guy]

Cheers! I've just finished kegging mine...
Mine hit 1009 too- happy days! I had to keg today due to time constraints...

I only bottled 4 500ml bottles in the end... But I'll hang to one and we can do a swap in the new year!

Guy

[Manx Guy]

Had a sneaky 'sample' of this last night... All in th e interst of Quality assurance you understand....


Well I've been away from home for a week or so...

Anyway tasting great, but not too good on the eyes - quite cloudy still and a little yeasty...

I'll give it another 8-9 days before trying it again & report back

I was hoping this would be ready to sup by the festive period!



Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi, an update on this...

Both the bottles and the keg of this are still hazy/cloudy (but tasting good)

I've not had to use finings before as my beers generally drop bright...

However while I'm (trying) to be patient I'm concerned that I have doen something wrong when I mashed/boiled this...
I'm a newbie AG'er but my two previous brews were starbright by 3-4 weeks - from what I know about the process there are several point during the process that help ensure clear beer.

I recirculated the first runnings until they were clear
I used irish moss (in the same way I did before)
I got a good rolling boil where foam was created before adding the first batch of hops
I used a IC (using recirculated water from a water but- temp of cooling water was cold 5-9c) to chill the wort beofre transfering thru a sanitised seive.

There are 2 things I may have not done correctly:
I noticed some 'scum' on the mash before sparging - i tired to remove it from the side of the MT to prevent it from going into the boiler
I didnt allow the trub/hops to settle long enough before running off into the FV - although the wort was fairly clear

I'm a little concerend as my next planned brew is exmoor gold - quite pale and I'd like it clear!

As a side issue it seems the rubber on my kegs pressure relief valve is damaged....

Your comments/advise please lads & lasses!



Guy

[bosium]

Hi Guy,

Personally, I'd suspect a high mash pH here which has caused tannins to be extracted from the grain husks. I've had this problem before with pale beers and alkaline water when I first switched to all-grain.

Did you take a mash pH reading, and did you add any salts to the mash?
It's also possible, although unlikely, that you didn't achieve full conversion and ended up with some starch in the wort.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply - I thought my Mash pH was ok...
I hit a pH of 5.2 with just the addition of (12g) gypsum and 4g Mag sulphate.

The second is a possiblity - I did a idoine test at 90mins and observed no colour change (which is the right result - or so I thought...)

I'm not sure now whether to just leave it be or if I should consider using finings & then re gas the keg with CO2?

Guy

[bosium]

Did you batch or fly sparge? It's possible that your mash pH could have risen during the sparge, causing the tannin extraction. An excessively high sparge temperature can also do this.

If you did the iodine test and no colour change was detected then I think you're OK for starch - it's pretty unlikely unless you had lots of adjuncts and low diastatic power, or you killed your enzymes off somehow (or had doughballls).

[Manx Guy]

Hi

I did a hybrid batch/fly sparge ( Iknow nothing like creating problems for myself ) and I think that may be a likely issue...

I topped up the mash as you would with a batch sparge and set the MT tap to drain it slowly - I then set up my sparge arm (single fixed copper tub with small holes in to distribute the sparge water)and started a fly sparge once I had collected about 5-6 litres into the (after recirculating about a litre).

It all went surpisingly well... OR so I thought

My sparge water was in the 76-78C range at the start of the sparge.

It was alos the first time for my new MT - which uses the following braided hose 'manifold' a food grade plastic bottom and a mashing/sparge bag.
So there could be a few more variables right there...

I think I might make a copper/amber ale next and see how that goes before trying the exmoor gold

and see if I can negate the possible cause before trying another pale ale
My water is pretty soft total alkalinity as CaCO3 is 22mg/l

So about as soft as it can get I suppose...(?)

Any other comments greatly appreciated


Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
just a quick updat eon this brew:

I checked it last night an it looked a lot clearer, so decided to try a full pint.... Mmm I'll have a another - the second was just about star bright...
I checked the bottles I did too - all but one clear (looking through the glass)
As I dont use any finings (apart from Irish moss as copper finings) I was probably a bit hasty...

I recently bought some protofloc so will try that next time ( I assume I just pop the tab in at 15-10 mins to go when the IC ususally goes in?)

We're pretty much snowed in tonight so I'll have a few more of this tonight


Guy