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Brewday 09 Aug 2008 - Ushers 1883 Stout

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:07 pm
by Aleman
A bunch of us got together at Beer blokes brewery last weekend and brewed this - I've only just recovered enough to put up a brewday thread :D (Apologies for the quality of the piccies I only had my camera phone)

Usher's Stout (OG 51) For 400l

50kg Pale
20kg Munich
10kg Roast
6.25kg Amber
6.25kg Brown
6.25kg Crystal

3.25Kg Fuggles

First off we discovered that only the pale was crushed and everything else was whole, so we broke out the Valley mill
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Its thirsty work all this grinding (all 47 Kilos of it :shock:)
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Still here we have the second sack of pale going into the tun
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After a minor hiccup, where we broke the valley mill, leaving 10Kg of roast barley still to be crushed, we finally got it all in the tun
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While we were waiting for the mash to finish, we bottles 18 gallons of Apprentice Ale . . . Nice 5 head bottle filler there, and note that bottling is also thirsty work ;)
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Spiny sparger in action . . . just a bit bigger than ours ;)
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And running off into the underback . . . Yeah it is a 5 gallon brew bin
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Digging out the mash tun (4 Wheelbarrow loads - cows were happy :) )
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And finally the first batch of the 3.250Kg of hops going into the copper
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There was a lot more activity after this, but I was unable to take pictures, but suffice to say 2 and a bit barrels of Stout was pitched with a kilo of yeast . . . I'm hoping Phil can take a picture of it in action, as even the ordinary beer was climbing out of the fermenter and stouts can be so much more explosive.

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:22 pm
by Bongo
That looks a good day,nice pics too,i would hope taking pics is also thirsty work.

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:59 pm
by spearmint-wino
Nice report! Great brewery and that Ushers Stout is an amazing brew 8)

Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:10 pm
by Jim
Nice pics, and some great brewing gear on show there! 8)

Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:03 pm
by Bru4u
Sweet Jesus :shock: :shock: :shock:

Is that a hobbie or commercial setup, or else ye lads like beer in a big big way, thats a lot of bottle cleaning and filling. suppose there is an automated botteling plant in the next shed

My God that is some setup, thanks for sharing it with us Aleman, would love to know more about the equipment and how it's used

me want me want

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:53 pm
by Piscator
Brilliant - thanks for sharing this with us Aleman.

Important question - hows the beer doing :?:

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 9:24 pm
by Dennis King
great stuff, don`t think that equipment would fit in my gararge

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:12 pm
by maxashton
Wicked!

Which one are you, Aleman?

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:25 pm
by ADDLED
Fantastic! Is that a micro brewery near you? Makes my "tin opener, kettle and plastic FV" setup look a little amateur.
And such a valiant gesture of you to make a bottle of beer for every forum member! :D

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:50 am
by steve_flack
Bru4u wrote:Sweet Jesus :shock: :shock: :shock:

Is that a hobbie or commercial setup, or else ye lads like beer in a big big way, thats a lot of bottle cleaning and filling. suppose there is an automated botteling plant in the next shed
Nah, there's no automated bottling plant in the next shed....that's the crapper!

Anyway, the brewery in question is a small commercial brewery in darkest Essex. It's BeerBloke's (he's a member here) brewery. Amazingly I believe his home brewery is bigger than his commercial plant :shock:

Aleman's not in the pictures (he's behind the camera)....and neither am I. I got there late and had to put my tent up in a gale/downpour.

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:32 am
by Buzz
Nice work indeed. Great to see a Micro set-up like that. Thanks for the pics - be great to see the yeast in action if you get the pics.

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:19 pm
by oblivious
Oh very very nice 8)

What yeast did you use?

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 1:18 pm
by Garth
missed this thread, looks like a cracking day was had,

I also wondered at one point whether this was a home or commercial set-up

the Health and saftey poster settled it for me though.....!

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:25 pm
by steve_flack
oblivious wrote:Oh very very nice 8)

What yeast did you use?
Crouch Vale I believe.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:09 am
by oblivious
steve_flack wrote:
oblivious wrote:Oh very very nice 8)

What yeast did you use?
Crouch Vale I believe.
Did you get that directly off the brewery or did you grow up a starter?