Home Brew Forum

In between brewing my four recent mini mashes I've been gathering equipment to step up to a 5 gallon batch.

Firstly I got a new element for my freecycle'd boiler which now maintains a constant boil - I tried cleaning up the old one to the point I was exposing copper and it still wouldn't boil so I've ditched it for now.

Picked up a 28L coolbox from Argos, added a tap and my new copper manifold (with the help from my dad and his hacksaw - junior hacksaws don't work too well!)





I also got a trial copy of Beersmith so started to formulate my recipe which is based on a London Pride clone - altered a bit to match my guestimated efficiency (65% for first AG brew).

Mashing was supposed to start at sunrise (hence the name) but I got up a bit late

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 25.56 L
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 23.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 28.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
4.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (4.0 EBC) 80.00 %
0.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (120.0 EBC) 10.00 %
0.40 kg Flaked Maize (5.9 EBC) 9.00 %
0.05 kg Carafa I (663.9 EBC) 1.00 %
14.00 gm Target [10.20 %] (60 min) 14.7 IBU
14.00 gm Challenger [7.00 %] (60 min) 10.1 IBU
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) 3.8 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)

Weighing out my mash ingredients for a 60 minute mash:


Heated up the strike water using the boiler as my HLT to 74deg and doughed in:

It's pretty!!




After a 60 minute mash it was time to start batch sparging...

First runnings, pretty cloudy and looking a bit darker than I expected


It soon cleared after recirculating 2 litres:


Here's my floating sparge disperser - borrowed from my mini mash setup:


All sparged out:


Transferred from temporary bucket back to the boiler and just about coming to a boil... that head looks tasty


First hops are in, and we're off...


45 minutes later and late copper hops go in, along with some irish moss (and a few minutes later the immersion chiller)


60 minute boil complete, boiler dragged over to the sink (I have small arms!) - IC turned on:


IC still running but I started to run off the cooler wort from the bottom of the boiler:




Yuck - really does look unappetizing:


Gravity before diluting down to required OG:


Yeasties are up and ready for action:


Weeeeeee - in they go:


OG was 1 point over at 1.046 but I'm happy I got close and the required volume. I think my efficiency worked out at 68% so not great, but ok for my first AG/batch sparge and better than I estimated.

Just got to clear up the kitchen now before the missus gets back from work Although she did show a tiny amount of interest asking "what's that bit of copper for in the bottom of the boiler?" - that's the first sign of interest she's shown since I started brewing

Jonny

Great work Jonny, lovely pictures & a nice looking recipe. Should be a good 'un

Nice one Jonny, I would say welcome to the dark side but as you've already been doing mini mashes I won't bother

Just wondering why you don't get the full amount of wort from the sparge instead of adding water after the boil? That could have something to do with your efficiency. Or have I read your post wrong. Been out all day and i'm tired

Hope it turns out well, looks like a tidy brewday

... excellent job, you made it look easy there mate

stevezx7r wrote:Just wondering why you don't get the full amount of wort from the sparge instead of adding water after the boil? That could have something to do with your efficiency. Or have I read your post wrong. Been out all day and i'm tired

It's my boiler capacity - the thing is 30l to the brim so I can safely boil 27l, I lose about 10% in evaporation and another 2-3l from the hops/break material so I have to top up after the boil to hit the 23l brewlength I want in the FV.

Unless there's another way round it? I guess I could gather more wort from the sparge and use that to top up the boiler instead? I reckon I could have got another 3l from the sparge, it was at 1.010 (corrected for temp) when I stopped.

Forgot to mention the mishaps today:
1. Knocked over a full trial jar while attempting to move the boiler while it was plugged in
2. Left the boiler tap open when filling it
3. Boiler tap suddenly springing a leak halfway through the boil

Edit: the above mishaps could have something to do with my efficiency too

I see what you mean. Maybe (DaaB could verify this) you could bring your mini mash setup here. I take it you use a large pan when you mini mash? If so, take some runnings from the MT, add it to that and boil it on the stove then add it to the big boiler once there's room - instead of topping up with water.

BTW, I've done # 1 Once fermentation had started, # 2 Not done yet, others have, I will and # 3 My 2ng AG did that, saved it though.

Well done anyway, I bet it's a good drink regardless of your efficiency.

The extra 3L from your batch sparge would've helped in your final volume but not much in your target OG as they would've contained hardly any of the sugars. Great pictures and everyone leaves a tap open at some point. BTW is that tap heat rated?

subsub wrote:BTW is that tap heat rated?

Good point - It's a Waddington & Duval tap - I assumed all the WD ones were?

Well done on your 1st 23 litre brew jonnyv, nice one!

That tap on your boiler is not suitable for boiling though, The W&D tap which can be seen in the 1st photo on Here. is suitable for a boiler tap.

You will note that the top of the tap is a black colour, the back nut is as well. These can withstand boiling wort.

There is another boiler tap available from Hop & Grape, Item no 12 on this page.

Great set of pictures Sounds like you had a good day!

DaaB wrote:You definately want to get yourself a proper boiler tap (not the thorn one as it wont fit the hole) as i've heard stories of back nuts coming off loose or falling off with the heat of the boil.

Horden Hillbilly wrote:That tap on your boiler is not suitable for boiling though

I'll be sure to get me one of those proper boiler taps... I have a red WD tap with a black top - is there any other defining feature of a WD boiler tap before I put one in my shopping basket for next time?

DaaB wrote:I'd ignore your boiler capacity when sparging, just collect either down to 1008 or what ever the calculations work out at for a batch sparge and just keep topping up a little at a time as the wort evaporates. You might sneak an extra few points.

Thanks for the advice DaaB - I'll be sure to keep batch sparging till I either have enough volume or down to 1008 next time. I didn't think to collect the extra to use to top up

Besides the general mishaps and the efficiency problems, it all seemed to go well! It's got a mega yeast head on it already

I kegged this the other day, I got a bit impatient waiting for ten days as the S04 had done the job within about four.



I got 5 bottles out of it too which are conditioning in the warm with 1/4tsp of sugar and a bit of rehydrated yeast.

Then I had a little accident...

That's not wee on the floor, that's my precious beer after squeezing the handle of my WW gas trigger and realising the beer-out disconnect was still attached

There appears to be no end to my beer related mishaps

Jonny