Brewday 13th June 2010 - Effin North German Pilsner - Part 2

[Aleman]

Well carrying on from the original brew day on the 8th . . . here is the big batch . . . Everything was going swimmingly until I discovered that I had only ordered 90g of Pacific Hallertau from Ross not 180 as I originally thought . . . but a bit of creative thinking meant the recipe was modified to.. . . . Substituting Some Nelson Sauvin for the missing Hallertau.

70l at 1.046 and 39 IBU

13120g Lager Malt
880g Carapils

28g NZ Pacific Hallertau (Pellets) 10.8% AA FWH
47g NZ Nelson Sauvin (pellets) 4.4% AA FWH
40g Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.1% AA 90 Minutes
100g Hallertau Mittelfruh 4.1% AA 15 Minutes
70g Hallertau Hersbrucker 2.8% 70C Steep.

It raises the IBU by a bit to a theoretical 41 (from 39) hardly worth worrying about.

Anyway Piccy fest The first is underletting 30L of Liquor into the mash tun



Which made for an interesting time as the 14Kg of grain decided to try and make a bid for freedom. It was a struggle initially to really stir the grain in, but with 3 minutes it was a nice thick porridge . . .even if it did nearly overflow the mash tun


But I was pretty close on mash pH and the strike heat although low was easily sorted with the HERMS . . . Happy with it being so low as I want a Crisp beer anyway.



Here is the HERMS Configuration, with a close up of the Initial Recirc and the HERMS return. . . . I must invest in a better manifold some time



After 90 minutes the wort has cleared well, and is transferred to the copper (s) with the First Wort Hops. . .



Here is the sparge Manifold



The wort 'Coppering Up', the wort is allowed to boil with 'no' hops for 10 minutes until the foam subsides, then the bittering addition is added. The FWH helps to control foam production and also makes boil overs less likely . . . Never look away though . . . with 19KW under each kettle it's all too easy



75 minutes later its time to add a big handful of flavour hops (which also add a chunk of Bittering ~ 30%)



It was about this time I discovered that I had not turned off my lighter for the Bullfinch . . . Can you guess how??

"F*CK! Thats Hot!"



Just as the Boil Finished It started raining . . . Here is Toni rigging the all important Wort Protector



Wort was quickly chilled to 70C and the steep hops added and left for 20 Minutes



Then Chilling was restarted until the wort was under 25C . . . . The Chilling coils were removed for cleaning . . . and the wort tucked up ready to transfer to the FV. . . . once the rain has stopped



I'm going to watch the Grand Prix, Do some washing up and tidying up in the Kitchen where Hopefully I will warm up . . . and dry off.

[196osh]

Looks great! That is a shed load of grain.

How come the NS aa% is so low?

[Aleman]

Thanks for the spot . . . I had cut and pasted that line from the Hallertau . . . it was 10.8%

I really have to commission the bigger 80L thermobox tun before doing any more of these big brews, as it is pushing the limits of the 50L one

[196osh]

Man I still mash in an insulated fementer with a false bottom some of your guys kit is superb. Why do you brew such big batches?

[Aleman]

Cause I'm giving a couple of cornies of it away. The benefit of brewing a big batch is that a lot of the variables introduced with small batches of ingredients do not exist. . .Mash temp is a lot more stable for example

[196osh]

Good stuff. You are a better man than me. Giving away 30 odd pints would not sit well with me.

[Parva]

And it was a British one two in the Grand Prix to boot, a perfect brewday! Ironically I too brewed Sunday for the first time in months and mine appears to have gone well, tempered by the Grand Prix win which was the point at which my IC was doing its work. Now I just need a lotto win to get some of the gear you have there Toni, lucky bas$£*%!

[Aleman]

Final set of pictures from the actual brew day itself, Here is the wort settling as I was running it off in the FV



Close up of the filth.



It's steadily fermenting at 12C and is sat at 1.041 from 1.054 after 3 days

[bosium]

Looks great, love your setup. Where did you get the march pump from?

[Aleman]

Looks great, love your setup. Where did you get the march pump from?

I got it from March May UK its the HS809 model, which they price at just below the cost of buying one from the US (Or did before the dollar rate fell ). Only deal with Cheques though, but I am sure they shipped before mine cleared.

[bosium]

Hmm, seems like there are a fair few - do you know which exact one you have or does it not matter too much?
It's something that's been missing from my brewing setup for some time now - I could really use it to complete my chilling setup, plus it would give me a way of recirculating my mash easily (even if I don't go the HERMS route just yet).

Fab bit of kit.

EDIT: Link to datasheet

[Aleman]

Sorry, All I know is the was the MM09HS with Polysulphone head with 1/2" NPT fittings. . . . I have the packaging somewhere I'll try and get a model number from it.

Quick update . . . Steady fermentation has seen it now reach 1.028 after 7 Days. . . . From a 1.053) beer I am expecting the primary fermentation take (53/4) around 13 Days, and as it has fallen 25 points in the 7 days it should have no problems going to 1.010 (18 point drop) in the remaining 6 days.