Home Brew Forum

Woke up yesterday and thought, 'i think i'll draw my next batch of water and treat for chlorine'. I then went to the pictures with my son to see Jimmy Bond. When i returned home i decided to do a longer mash. Heated my water to 72 degrees, filled my tun to 23Ltr mark, Left it for 2 hours, Drew enough wort into a separate vessel to allow me to refill the Tun for an overnight mash. Finished mash(around 30/32 ltrs) this morning and then went on with the brew. Photos below.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 28.00 L
Brewer: Joe Inglis
Boil Time: 70 min Equipment: Brew Pot (5 Gallon)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00%

Ingredients

3.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
0.60 kg Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 11.43 %
0.25 kg Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.76 %
0.90 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 17.14 %
1.20 oz First Gold [7.50 %] (70 min) Hops 22.7 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (15 min) Hops 3.3 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (1 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.0?? SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol 6.00 %
Bitterness: 27.6 IBU Calories: 568 cal/l


The grain last night


Starting Mash


Mash becomes interesting


Sparge plate to get volume up to required stopped sparging at 1.014


Happy pot


The hops


And in action


Cooler in sterilising


Cooler working and don’t even feel as if I have made a brew!


Transferal to FV(I’ve got to get myself another one of these 5 gallon glass FV’s, think they’re great. PM me if you have one to sell!


Nearly done


Very Small S04 starter


Final check of OG, its at 1.060 which is more than I wanted but I’ll explain that further down.




I am still getting the feel of my kit and hop/grain fluid retention so I’m not always bang on with my fluid volumes. Today I was seeing a cooled wort gravity of 1.040 on grain alone which worked out in beersmith to be a respectable 82% BH efficeny(my personal best to date). I think the slow mash helped. Mt previous best was 78% so I will happily keep playing with my mash & sparge routine. Anyway the estimated ABV off of the grain alone was a bit low for my liking(around 3.8%). I like the high 4.somethings in my beer so I added a couple of tins of Lyles golden syrup to the beersmith recipe and it had an estimated ABV of around 5%. Didn’t quite turn out that way as I ended up with 1.060 and an estimated ABV of 6%. Notice, not complaining, just saying!

Anyway I am happy enough with that and will know next time that that amount of grain and 1 tin will see me around the 5% mark when all fermented out. I really like the Beersmith programme. Fair enough not totally accurate when used with my brewing style but close enough to have fun with and tweak the recipes(as I did with the hops twice during grain stage of this brew). Anyway, learned today that it’s a much more relaxed experience if its taken over a couple of days. I’d happily crack on and brew something else this afternoon but better not as its nice to help SWMBO now and then. Oh aye, not messing about bottling this one. I am away again next week so it will sit in FV till I get back around the 5th Dec then into the KK top tap for a bit of forced carbonation and then served at my garage Temp which by then will be perfect!

Cheers
P.

Nice work P, looks like a tasty one

Loving that FV too although it must be a bit of a rave cleaning it out

Great pictures BTW.

Many thanks Roger. Cleaning is a doddle. I think it was Jim who pointed me in the direction of soda crystals when i first came onto the site. A 1/4 pack of soda crystals and tepid water filled to the top, leave for 2 hours and it cleans itself. I would have as many of these as i could as i am sad enough to get a charge out of watching the fermentation process through the side of the bottle!

Nice FV. I'd definitely break it though!

Cheers,

Its looking good this evening and popping off every second or two, got it on a heat plate i inherited and sitting at 22 degrees.





Hopefully a small video of it doing its thing, very theraputic!

http://img531.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 467dx9.flv

Forgot to mention. During initial 8 to 12 hours of fermentation the garage was honking of old cheese. Assumed it was the reaction tween the yeast and the first gold or styrian hops. Its went away now and i am starting to smell nice sharp hop odours along with alcohol at the FV waterlock. Could even kid myself on i am getting the first whiffs of citrus coming through!

Fantastic. My wife gives me grief when I call the kids to the basement to watch the fermentation.

Looks good. Question; where did you get those temperature strips from? I'm after a couple to stick on my carboys . . . .

Cheers.

Leyland homebrew if i remember correctly. That one is around 6 months old.

where did you get those temperature strips from?

Try a pet shop, that's where I got mine.

Now this ones weird. I had to leave it sitting on the yeast in the FV while i went away for a month. Transferd most of it to a KK today with a bit of the yeast off the bottom and fired in some sugar. Thing is though, i've tried a sample in the hydrometer beaker and i am tasting the citrus of a bitter and twisted but i am getting a cheese type smell off the beer. In my earlier posts on this beer i said i was smelling cheese at the start of the fermentation but it went away and smelled citrusy. Is the cheese smell a S04 thing or a combination of the yeast and the styrian hops? Don't get me wrong its ok but its not as citrus as i expected and the cheese odour is a surprise! Any indicators, please fire away.

pantsmachine wrote:Now this ones weird. I had to leave it sitting on the yeast in the FV while i went away for a month. Transferd most of it to a KK today with a bit of the yeast off the bottom and fired in some sugar. Thing is though, i've tried a sample in the hydrometer beaker and i am tasting the citrus of a bitter and twisted but i am getting a cheese type smell off the beer. In my earlier posts on this beer i said i was smelling cheese at the start of the fermentation but it went away and smelled citrusy. Is the cheese smell a S04 thing or a combination of the yeast and the styrian hops? Don't get me wrong its ok but its not as citrus as i expected and the cheese odour is a surprise! Any indicators, please fire away.

I've heard of SO4 being a "butter bomb" before now, could this be what you're smelling? Is it possible the FV temperatures might have hiked while you were away for whatever reason? Otherwise I'm not sure, but I'd rack it and leave it for a good 2 or 3 weeks then sample it again then.

The cheapest place i found for the LCD temp strips was ebay. Several sellers, i paid 99p each for mine and a nominal postage fee.

I got my LCD strip thermometers from wilko's pet department 95p

Thanks Yashi,

Maybe it was but if it was butter it was turned! I am going to do as you say and leave for a couple of weeks to carbonate, up to a mates house for New year so i reckon i'll take the KK with me if the flavours cleaned up a bit. Temps were pretty much 20deg or lower all the time. Never mind off to tweak my IRS recipe and get that going.