Home Brew Forum

Got my act together today and brewed a batch for the Glasgow art festival(you know it feels good even typing that). At least 1/2 this batch will make its way onto the unwary public at said event.The rest being made up from current stocks Today i tested my modified overback which now has 2 elements fitted, a sight level gauge and a 87mm temp gauge. The overback is great and worked just as i wanted it to. I am still struggling to hit any sort of efficency above 60%. Pisses me off a bit but i'll get there in the end. It was a great brewday which started yesterday with the making of a 2ltr starter for the 3 packs of US05 used in this batch. The starter had a 1.050 solution of spraymalt and sucrose to get through and it shredded it overnight as you can see in the pic below which was taken this morning.



Final batch size 12 gallon at 1.048. Off the mark from what i planned but hey ho, can't win every time.

7.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
2.00 kg Munich Malt2.00 kg Wheat Malt,
1.00 kg Vienna Malt
0.75 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -
0.50 kg Wheat, Torrified
0.20 kg Chocolate Malt
2.50 oz Pilot (90 min) Hops
3.50 oz Cascade (40 min)
1.00 oz Glacier ] (20 min)
1.00 oz Cascade (10 min)
1.00 oz Cascade (1 min)
1.00 oz Williamette (1 min)
0.50 kg Honey

On with the show.

The grain

Damn cold in the garage today

New gauge on overback at strike temp.

General brewery shot

Recirc of 1st runnings

Sparge wand reduced made no difference to efficiency

Runoff into kettle

Todays hops. The plastic tubs have cascade hops that i used the other month to dry hop another IPA. Since then they have been in the freezer. I am taking a leaf out of Ainswicks book and reusing my hops for their remaining bittering compounds. First time i've tried this.

Yeast starter calmed down

Running into fermenter

While watching the run off into the fermenter i liked the look of my piping so i took a shot.(Leave normal to others).

Runoff almost complete

Sideview of wort through fermenter

SG

I like the colour

The crystalised heather honey and a packet of tabs

General brewery shot, looks a right mess but honest there's order in their somewhere!


There are some hops in this brew from Boris Charlton over in Articles for sale section. The Willamette and fresh cascade are from him. Both smell great but the Willamette in particular is stunning. If this gets a bit of dry hopping it will be with the Willamette. Who am i kidding with the word 'if'!

Great looking stuff.

Can't wait to try it.

Great stuff - should be delicious!

Might order some of those Willamette...

mysterio wrote:Great stuff - should be delicious!

Might order some of those Willamette...

I think we spoke a few months back about the guy on ebay doing glacier, pilot etc hops cheap? The hops i recieved from said ebay guy are fine and have been used in a couple of beers here but after seeing the hops from Boris the ebay ones will be used for bittering only while the ones from boris will step up to finishing hops i think. The willamette are as good as i have seen.

I got zero character from the Glacier, so I just used the rest for bittering too. Never used willamette, I'm keen to try them out. Top marks to Borischarlton for supplying good quality hops at a very good price.

wow, i've not been on here in ages!!!!

but anyway, i brewed for the first time in about a year this week when i was off due to "industrial strike action" (read, unpaid leave since i didnt agree with it... ), but i brew a red ale with all Willamette to try them out since it was the first time i'd used them, but they smell fantastic so far!!! think i'll be throwing a load in to dry hop as well, just for research purposes obviously...

hows tricks mysterio, are you still in Glasgow?

Good to see you back brewing, Bod!

I live in Strathaven at the moment, still go to uni in Glasgow... graduate this Summer.

yeah its good to be back brewing! i've really missed it actually, and amazingly i hit every target for the brew which was a pleasant surprise! Its just like riding a bike, you never forget how to fall off....

2 days since yeast pitched, seeing 6 to 8 degrees in the garage so thought i'd have a check on progress.



I'll dump some more waste out the bottom tomorrow and dry hop to the end of fermentation with an oz of willamette.

nice brew there. if i'm invited i'll be attending the show and will make it a priority to sample some of your brew.

No need for an invite bevvy_merchant, it's open to everyone.

Is it safe up there now?
The last time I was in Glasgow, only about 38 years ago, I was scared back down south by noisy characters wiedling stone axes and covered in woad.
Since then I have read all of Rankin and believe every word


If so, when is it? - a very quite look on t'interweb seems unclear.

That's one hell of an ingredient list Pants, I am only just starting to get that daring!

I'm with you on the hops, I did the "Glasgow-APA" which should have been a hop bomb - it's nice enough and quite flowery but not wonderful.
On the other hand, when Rob was round here on Thursday with the WGV - I could have happily died with my head in the bag!

The night itself is 30th April. Come on up you know you want to! Glasgow is a blast for a night out. My 2nd favourite city in the UK after Newcastle followed in 3rd place by Edinburgh. Right i'm off to do a bit of dry hopping camera in hand.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=30356

Dumped 1 1/2 pints total out of bottom of fermenter. Lots of dross in there as you can see from the pictures. Never know how much yeast i'm dumping along with dead yeast, trub etc. That's why i tend to stop at a pint and a half.

Various shots of each 1/2 pint as it settled out.






Went for 1 1/2 oz of willamette in the bag. Sterilised all in a water thin bleach solution for an hour before filling and placing in the FV.





Opened the fermenter to a nice head formed, nose crinkling co2 levels, beat the head back in with the hop bag and left it to absorb and sink. Guess it'll be in there for around 3 to 5 days until fermentation is complete.A bit on the short side but these are the limits we work with when we bottle i suppose.



Drew a sample off the side. Smells great, its got that sweet toffee thing going on. Had a taste and its shaping up nicely. Fermentation temp is around 12 degrees so should be clean.

You never know, I might risk it!

Hops in the bag - "sterilised all" - did you steralise the hops as well?