AG #?? 08/03/09: alt.beer (with loadsa piccys)

[BarryNL]

It's brewday again, and time for a Dusseldorf style Alt beer. Here's today's recipe:

Code: Select all

Grain/Extract/Sugar
  %      Amount     Name
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 72.7     3.63 kg.  Pilsener
 16.0     0.80 kg.  Munich Malt
 5.0      0.25 kg.  Aromatic Malt
 4.5      0.23 kg.  CaraMunich 60
 1.7      0.09 kg.  Chocolate Malt

Hops

Code: Select all

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 23.00 g.     Magnum                            Whole   12.10  37.8  60 min.
 14.00 g.     Tettnanger Tettnang               Whole    3.80   1.9  15 min.

Yeast: WYeast 1007 German Ale

Mash of 90 mins at 65 deg (well, actually hit 64).

Target OG 1.050, IBU 40

Piccys to follow...

[BarryNL]

Exactly 5kg of grain ready to go...


The strike water being brought up to temperature:


Bittering hops are ready, while ProMash looks on:


Mashing in...


... and all wrapped up for the next 90 mins.

[BarryNL]

Here's one I made earlier - the yeast starter is also ready for action:


The cooker might be OK for strike water, but for that really big boil only a sodding great gas burner will do (yes, I have a CO detector nearby):

[BarryNL]

Getting the heat into the wort:


... and we're boiling:


Pre-boil gravity - about 1.042 - nice!

[BarryNL]

Nothing to do for the next 90 mins but to enjoy this milk stout brewed back in December (well, that and lots of cleaning, obviously):


Depending on how the next few weeks go, the beer will end up in one of these:

[BarryNL]

15 mins to go and everything else gets chucked in there:


Chill, dude:


The worst part of this hobby is all the homebrew you have to drink while brewing. Here is a rather nice Pale Ale...

[Bru4u]

[jubby]

Nicely done Barry

Some good looking beer there also.

[BarryNL]

And now, the final report for today...

The simplest aeration technique known to man; for a 1.050ish beer this is plenty:


Collected around 18L of wort...


... and it's 1.052 - pretty close to target - I don't really mind if it's a bit strong


The yeast is pitched at 22 deg.C so now to get it down to the 16 deg.C fermenting temp pretty sharpish. The one on top is a Dunkelweizen about ready for kegging or bottling:


And, our quality control department; a small sample of wort taken from the fermenter prior to pitching. Hopefully this wil not spontaneously ferment or go nasty for a few days indicating that the wort is not infected with anything:


Well, that's brewday over, bar the cleaning. Maybe some more piccys in a couple of weeks when it's time to play with it some more.

[Redbloke]

... nice one

[BarryNL]

Well, this one seems to be fermenting slowly - I took a reading on Saturday (pitch +6 days) and it was still 1.028 but a reading today is 1.024 so it's still doing its thing, albeit without any real signs of fermentation. Still, I suppose the cooler fermentation (16-17 deg.C) would cause that. Hopefully another week will see it hitting about 1.010.

The quality control wort had some great looking jelly like gloop and fur this morning, but it took nearly a week to show any sign of infection which probably means the wort was good - anything over 3 days is enough for me to be happy.

[tatlock]

well played Barry!

where did you get the SS boiler from - looks nice!

[BarryNL]

where did you get the SS boiler from - looks nice!

It is a great piece of kit from Brouwland - bloody expensive though - it was a bit of an emergency purchase - I was halfway through a brew when the heating element in my old plastic boiler decided to start tripping the circuit breaker every few seconds so I had to rush out and buy something to save the day - very pleased with it anyway. Would have preferred to find a cheaper solution with more time to spend though.

[BarryNL]

... and, for the alt.furry fans, here is the quality control sample after a week:

[tatlock]

nout wrong with a bit of fur!
do you have web address - i have been looking for something like that for a while!