Home Brew Forum

Been nearly a month since I last brewed so I thought it about time I fired up the boiler. Started this morning and tried to make something similar to a Fiddlers Elbow;

4kg Pale malt
1kg Wheat Malt
250g Crystal Malt

Mashed for 2 hrs (only because I has some work to get done) @ 66deg &
90 min Boil

40g Styrians (first wort)
40g Styrians 90 mins
20g Styrians 15 mins
whirlifloc 10 mins

1pkt S-04

Collected 21L @ 1046 with no dramas.

Boiler doubles as my mash tun under towels and old jacket


Wort into collection vessel


Then back into boiler with first wort hops


Once chilled, left for 1hr and then into FV


Trub lovers rejoice


21L of this lovely stuff at 1046og


Observations on this brew;

I decided not to mess about with gypsum or 5.2 or any other junk this time. Just filtered water and a campden tab. Mash PH was 5.5 so, not ideal but not a million miles away either.

I normally start my brews at about 10.00am once the house is empty but, today, I doughed in at 8.00am and it made the day far less hectic. Think I'll continue with this in future.

Lovely pictures.

Ps if thats your old jacket let me know when you are chucking stuff to charity

DaaB wrote:It should be nice and Styriany

Can't get enough of them myself. Literally As a result, these weren't foil packed, I could only get hold of some Youngs loose packed with no AA content so I didn't hold back.

Looks like you had a good day

I will be very interested in your final beer after my own FWH stunner experiment.

You may find that you may need to condition a tad longer unless you like sucking on grapefruit......BUT at the 3 month mark you will have a amazing rounded styrian beer.

Looks like a fab brew Buzz...can't wait to see what you think when it's ready

You may find that you may need to condition a tad longer unless you like sucking on grapefruit......BUT at the 3 month mark you will have a amazing rounded styrian beer.

I found the same. I guess that's why IPA's mellow so beautifully

Ooh, one thing I forgot to mention was the boiler. The plug felt very warm when I unplugged from the socket after the 90min boil. I don't remember it being hot before - should I be worried??

You can fry an egg on mine afterwards so wouldnt be too concerned

Ideally the cores in a boiler lead should be 2.5mm each. A printer/normal IEC lead will have either 0.5/1mm cores.
Sounds like either one of your terminals is loose, you have used a printer lead by mistake, or perhaps your cable need changing.
With a continual load for 2hrs you will expect there will be heat in the plug.

Well it seems as if I'm not alone so I'll assume it's pretty normal. Out of interest, presumably it is safe to plug in both kettle elements into a domestic circuit (if i had a twin element boiler)? Long term I'm thinking of keeping my current plastic boiler as a HLT and making up a shiny boiler for the boiling. Probably a project for next winter but, as several people on here appear to have twin elements, I'm assuming it's safe to have them both fired up to get the wort to the boil quicker?

DaaB wrote:Yep as long as you use separate outlets. Each element draws 10a and a double outlet is only rated to 13a. (but don't run the dishwasher, washing machine, electric fire and angle grinder off the same circuit at the same time )

Ah, I have some double sockets in the kitchen - from what you say, these are not classed as seperate outlets then? It would be a case of plugging one element in there and maybe running an extension cable to a socket on another wall?

Buzz wrote:

DaaB wrote:Yep as long as you use separate outlets. Each element draws 10a and a double outlet is only rated to 13a. (but don't run the dishwasher, washing machine, electric fire and angle grinder off the same circuit at the same time )

Ah, I have some double sockets in the kitchen - from what you say, these are not classed as seperate outlets then? It would be a case of plugging one element in there and maybe running an extension cable to a socket on another wall?

In a word yes

Cheers DaaB, hopefully this time next year I'll have my twin turbo shiny up and running and Mrs Buzz can rest assured that house will still be standing too

Yep. Always uncoil any extension leads also when using with high draw devices as this can cause them to over heat too.

Very good advice....the cable gets very hot when not uncoiled.