Home Brew Forum

Finally got some pics sorted from my seocnd (ever) all grain brew. It was a bit of an ahem adventure so here goes.


Recipe was Graham Wheelers 'Dunkel Weissen' - here's the export from BrewPal


Though with a few adaptations and an experimental bent I'd put it into BrewPal on my iPod and decided to experiment with a temp-stepped infusion mash.

Dunkelweissen stepped
Batch size 23 litres
Boil size 27.06 litres
Boil time 90 minutes
Grain weight 5.46 kilograms
Estimated Efficiency 69%

Original gravity 1.048
Final gravity 1.013
Alcohol (by volume) 4.6%
Bitterness (IBU) 18
Color (SRM) 18.3°L
Yeast
White Labs WLP351 Bavarian Weissen (split a week earlier following HH's technique to the letter, starter made up night before with 40grams wheat DME in milk bottle)

Grains/Extracts/Sugars 5.46 kilograms
Wheat
38ppg, 2°L 2.6 kilograms
Maris Otter
38ppg, 4°L 2.6 kilograms
Chocolate
29ppg, 350°L 0.26 kilograms

Hops
45 grams
Hallertauer hops
3.8%, Pellet 45 grams


Mash
115 minutes, 38.86 litres
Strike
Target 35°C
addition = 8.19 litres 39°C
Rest = 15 minutes (+0)

Infusion 1
Target 67°C
addition = 22 litres 82°C
Rest = 60 minutes (+15)

Infusion 2/Batch Sparge 1
Target 78°C (mash out/batch sparge)
addition = 17.71 litres 100°C
rest = 10 minutes (+105)

Boil
90 minutes, 27.06 litres
Hallertauer hops 3.8%, Pellet 45 grams
90 minutes

OK so here's my setup - all donated to me by my Bro-In-Law who posts here as 'Mr C'


Right that'll do for part one of this post.

Here's the mash - first infusion at 35 for the ferulic acid rest (as discussed on this thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25735&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... 15#p283504 )

Here's the night before setting the yeast starter going with 'the mumbler'


The grains in the tun awaiting sparge water to reach temp


Very thick mash for the ferulic acid rest


Which is VERY thin by the end of the last 'infusion' (aka batch sparge)


Learned to trust sparge pal more as struggled to hit 50 on second infusion by using too little water and not thinking of the effect of having a lot of water (rather than just grain) in th mash tun. Moral is believe the computer next time not my inexperience!

Lautering into the boiler - and trying to avoid aerating the wort pre-boil + increasing syphon effect by using a long rubber tube. You can see my home-made hop strainer in the bottom of the boiler.


The goods left behind waiting for the second batch sparge


All going well - so far! What could possibly go wrong now?

Err - this could go wrong:



Yup, that's beer all over the floor

And this is why:


The thread on the element is err best described as 'iffy' or 'threaded' and it came out. Cue nearly-boiling HOT wort pouring out over an electric socket

I managed to switch off at the mains and get the boiler over a clean(ish) plastic box:


and then drain it into a fermenting bucket - saving most of the wort.



But I only had this boiler - so being foolhardy I re-attached the element, checked the thread was on and not over-tightened and had another go - except failed again as there was still damp and the circuit was tripped. So a third time came good having dried the whole socket on the element and plug and put the wort back in - again (pretty well aerated by now of course) but lessened by using the piping:


And yes I KNOW that was dangerous and stupid - I've bought a new boiler since! http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/M-G-Cater ... mit=Search

Finally got boiling going:


But dropped the thermometer in it -

Meanwhile - got on with bottling the previous (1st) all grain brew - my summer lightening -which had been maturing in a keg in the cellar:


End of the boil and after cooling with immersion chiller I ran it all into the sanitised fermenter trying to get maximum aeration and filtration with a decent drop and seive:


With the loss of wort in the disaster and boil off etc. I only ended up with 15litres of wort - at OG 1053. I didn't water this down ( ) but would in the future!!!

I kept back some of the wort from the bottom of the boiler and squeezed that out from the hops - strained that out through a richies bag and paper towel in a large funnel following guide here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index. ... m_the_trub which I saved in the fridge in a sterilised milk bottle to use as gyle worting after primary fermentation.

A week later with the primary completed and gravity down to 1011 (!!!) it was time to keg. Again wanting to go for maximising tradition and experimenting with 'difficult' techniques (also known as beginner enthusiasm which I'm sure will recede and I'll just go for the easier and less time-consuming options in the future and just prime with sugar or DME).

So time to make up a kreasen starter - I filtered the speisse through a coffee filter to trap the trub:





Then time to boil it for 15 minutes to sanitise:


Cooled in the sink and then left to cool further (coverred) overnight while some of the split yeast slowly warms. Of course as this is the disaster-prone dunkel weissen I tripped on the stairs and spilled some of this speisse on the carpet


Got it going as a starter the next morning and left it sitting by the fermenter:


Took a final gravity reading before moving to the pressure barrel:


Then added the 1/2 pint of kreausen and 50gms of brewing glucose sugar to prime the barrel and drop the fermented wort from the fermenter into the pressure barrel - taking care not to aerate of course!. I calculated this from the information on calculating sugar additions for carbonation here http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... arbonation here and spreadsheet (downloadable here: http://braukaiser.com/documents/carbona ... ulator.xls ). I was aiming for 6.6 g/l carbonation rate based on the style guides at http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... ion_Tables however my addition was calculated for 2 pints/1 litre of kreausen not the 1/2 pint I actully had post boil-and-spill, however if extra priming is needed I'll do that pre-bottling as a sterile sugar syrup.


Going into the pressure barrel:


And out of the fermenter:


The yeast head is *incredibly* sticky! Really different to any I've used before in kits or the Safale 04 in the Summer Lightening.

And now it's maturing before bottling - kraeusening should bring it into condition super-fast so hoping to bottle after a week in the barrel and be able to drink a week after that. A drinking report with semi-independent reviews from Mr C and the mumbler will hopefully follow. The post-fermentation samples I've had from the gravity tests have tasted and smelled amazing - just like Erdinger Dunkel so I'm VERY hopeful and excited

So the calculated resuts are:

16 litres beer
OG 1054
FG 1011
ABV 5.6%
Apparent Attenuation 77%
Efficiency: 73%


There we go - just wanted to share a fairly ambitious and not unproblematic brewday! Can't wait for my next one with new boiler and my brupaks boiler (used as mash tun) now fixed so I have a backup - this sort of problem is NOT going to happen again. Meanwhile i hope to fix the old boiler element screw thread with this stuff:

Fernox Leak Sealer LS-X
http://www.fernox.com/?cccpage=ls_x&sub=4

Heat proof, food-grade and available from screwfix:
http://www.fernox.com/?cccpage=ls_x&sub=4

Which will hopefully enable securing the element in place, and then if used alongside PTFE tape on the screwthread should make it safe. Then will flog it for the cost of the copper pipe for the hop strainer I recon - have a few friends after boilers but no desire to kill any of them so will ensure its safe before passing on!

Cheers all - thanks for reading!

LancsSteve wrote:Which will hopefully enable securing the element in place.

Is that the old style 2750w element with the 2 round pins & one oblong shaped pin? If so, I had the same problem with these slipping myself. If you look at your cone, the end which screws against the boiler wall, you will probably notice that there is about 4mm-5mm of plastic before the screwthread starts. I simply rubbed mine on a sheet of sandpaper using a circular motion until the screwthreads were right on the edge of the cone, removing the "blank space" from the cone. I was able to tighten mine firmly after I did this.

Good effort, must have been a bit trying. I normally leave at least one tap open which results in a pint of sticky wort on the floor (brewing outside has a lot of advantages).

Looking forward to hearing how it tastes

Horden Hillbilly wrote:
Is that the old style 2750w element with the 2 round pins & one oblong shaped pin? If so, I had the same problem with these slipping myself. If you look at your cone, the end which screws against the boiler wall, you will probably notice that there is about 4mm-5mm of plastic before the screwthread starts. I simply rubbed mine on a sheet of sandpaper using a circular motion until the screwthreads were right on the edge of the cone, removing the "blank space" from the cone. I was able to tighten mine firmly after I did this.

That'd be the one - thanks for the tip! Still love my new not-shiny-but-enamelled-and-lovely boiler though and not unhappy at being prompted into buying it as seems like an investment. But making this one safe is important!

You should just hope that it doesn't turn out to be the best tasting beer in the world otherwise you'll have splash it round the floor, poor it into random buckets, drop thermometers in it etc to get it just right again

delboy wrote:You should just hope that it doesn't turn out to be the best tasting beer in the world otherwise you'll have splash it round the floor, poor it into random buckets, drop thermometers in it etc to get it just right again

That thought has been troubling me too

I've made good beer on disastrous brewdays. The following actions seem to have no effect on the final product, in my experience:

1. taking about 5 hours for the mash because of taps falling out, wort rescued into bucket, tap re-fixed, problems keeping the temperature up...

2. Mash temp up and down like a yoyo - I presume that the average was OK and I didn't get it hot enough to kill the enzymes

3. dropping some on the floor (you just get less beer, a sticky floor, and possibly earache if you're brewing indoors on a parquet floor)

4. having a 1-hour rest in the boil because the element cut out, so the wort had to be decanted to a bin while I changed the element. (NB mind out for aeration?)

5. Spraying hot wort around (you just get less beer)

6. Burning my arm on a hot thing

7. Scalding myself

8. Clogging the pipework with grain, and having to dismantle everything and flush it through with the hose

edit1now wrote: 8. Clogging the pipework with grain, and having to dismantle everything and flush it through with the hose

9. While soldering pipework (admittedly 'making' brewing Equipment) getting a large drip of molten solder on the back of your thumb which sticks! Then you jump around waving your hand about not knowing if you were to suck your thumb would you also burn your tongue on the still very hot solder! The solder eventually falls off leaving you with a very painful burn! *Learned not to move the thing you have just soldered until its cooled!*

Tried a bit...



GORGEOUS

Bang on german style dunkel with an amazing flavour profile very much like erdinger dunkel and good head and head retention. Though was very surprised how flat it was after a week in pressure barrel and decent priming/kreausening...

Bloody pressure barrel tap was leaking wasn't it! Pair of scrappy jeans put underneath on floor as a few drips didn't matter are drenched and MOLDY - smell in the room is rancid!!! And can't open the window due to scaffolding being up - eeeeuuuwwww.

Got it bottled without mishap though - just hope I've not made any bottle grenades way my fortunes have fared on this brew! Use coopers drops as could just imagine spannering it with loose sugar! Used 1 1/2 (or sometimes 1 or sometimes 2) per 500ml bottle... Annoying how they;re '1 per 330ml stubbie, 2 per 750ml long neck' hence trying a range. Though didn't mark the bottles - will see if it's possible to figure out..

Just a couple of things you might think about for next time assuming of course that you get you mechanical problems taken care of. First, I would swap out the chocolate malt for Carafa II. Because the stuff has been "de-husked", you don't get the roast flavors you will get using chocolate malt (and you really don't want any roast in a dunkel weizen). You can also swap some Munich malt for the pale malt as well as add other specialty malts to increase the melonoidins and sweetness.

I salute you for trying the krausening but there is an easier way to do that also. What I do on bottling (or kegging day) is to get some wheat DME and make up a "starter" to prime the beer for carbonation. I natually carbonate the keg and if I need bottles for a competition, I just fill them straight out of the keg before the DME has a chance to ferment. That way, I don't have unfermented wort sitting around for a week waiting for the primary fermentation to end.

Just a couple of ideas for you to think about. You mentioned that the beer tasted good to you and after all, that is what is important, right?

Thanks Barley

Barley Water wrote:Just a couple of things you might think about for next time assuming of course that you get you mechanical problems taken care of. First, I would swap out the chocolate malt for Carafa II. Because the stuff has been "de-husked", you don't get the roast flavors you will get using chocolate malt (and you really don't want any roast in a dunkel weizen). You can also swap some Munich malt for the pale malt as well as add other specialty malts to increase the melonoidins and sweetness.

Cheers - this was using up existing pre-mixed malts but def plan to use lager malt and getting some munich malt. Not been able to find Carafa II thought III is available at hop and grape. Interesting note on the roasted edge (which it does have) so nice to know why and how to change in the future - cheers mate!

Barley Water wrote: I salute you for trying the krausening but there is an easier way to do that also...I don't have unfermented wort sitting around for a week waiting for the primary fermentation to end.

Saw that as an option but keeping wort for a week isn't too much of a pain though I won't be transporting in a pan upstairs again - 3rd round of carpet shamoooing tonight

Planning on doing the same again (keeping speisse) for my next rauch weissen (50% rauch malt, 50% wheat malt) but will probably switch to starters for the future rather than reserving wort/speisse. Love how quickly adding a starter before bottling brings it into condition