Home Brew Forum

It's a brewday for me.

I have set up in the garage now...after spending two days clearing it out.

Kit still looks a bit Heath-Robinson but nine goes into using this kit I am starting to know what I can do without. I have put away quite a few things I bought theat I really believed I couldn't do without. Each new use shows me how to shorten the process.

Today is an Oat Stout-alike called Oat 66 - target OG is, obviously, 1.066 into the FV.

Pale ale malt 4.3kg
Mild ale malt 3.5kg
Dark crystal malt 0.569kg
Flaked oats 0.951kg
Chocolate malt 0.094kg
Black malt 0.094kg

Am using Golden Promise for a change...just to see what it's like.

Hops will be Goldings and Styrians. Target IBUs are 34.

Target mash temp is 67C.
Mash time 90 mins
Boil time 90 mins

I have used the strike water to pre-heat the mash tun (I lost too much temperature when under-letting into a cold mash tun) and am now just waiting for liquor temperature to fall down to 74C.

Mashed in.

Hit 66C instead of 67C but that's a big improvement on last time. I lost nearly 10C last time.

Haven't I read that the mash will actually heat up by a small amount after strike?

Grainy picture...


Heath-Robinson has visited yet again...


Pump is working well...just so long as I remember to prime it properly...


So, it's doing it's stuff now. Time to measure out the hops.

Mash pH is somewhere between 5.2 and 5.5 - looks close to 5.2 so that'll do for me.

Water treatment was: no CRS as alkalinity test came out at 25mg/l CACO3 - Salifert test registered 0.91 so 0.50meq/l x 50 = 25mg/l CACO3. Decided no CRS treatment was necessary - I didn't need to remove any more CACO3. However, I put 6g of gypsum, 6g of epsom salts and 7g of calcium chloride in the mash liquor. 5g of gypsum will go in the kettle.

Hops...

Bittering hops - WGV


Flavour hops - Styrian Golding


Aroma hops - EK Golding (too many Golding varieties, do you think?)


Onward...

Looking good so far

Right...that one's been put away.

Ended up with 24 litres at 1.060. Lost an amazing 11 litres to trub and hops.

Where was I? Oh yes, mashing...well that went well. Mash temperature after 90 minutes was 66.7C.

Recirculated for fifteen minutes...




Getting clearer by the minute (just took that out to show you...usually submered deep in the mash)


I really like mashing with the help of a pump.

I mashed in with twelve litres of water to bring the first batch up to 26 litres and then added 24 litres for the second batch sparge.

Ended up with 45 litres at 1.050 (12 Brix).

Lovely and dark into the kettle...


Hops went in as per the schedule. These are the 20 minute Styrians...


Comedy IC in at fifteen minutes...


...along with the protofloc


Five minute hops finished the boil and I began chilling within twenty minutes of flame-out.


Lots of lovely aeration (no olive oil for me for the last two brews)...


The finished article. Only 1.060 so more than a few points short but that is an improvement over last time.


So, onwards and upwards.

Of course, I have now done a foolish thing. At 4pm I was on a roll and feeling really good this beer and about about brewing in general...so I decided to get the next brew on. So, instead of tucking this one up, cracking open a pint of Kings Cross (AG8), and putting my feet up, I am now one hour and twenty five minutes into AG10 - my take on the Cascadian Dark Ale. Thanks to Bellebouche for the inspiration.

So, AG10 - Cascadian Dark Ale (but that's another thread entirely).

Moved this across to a secondary today - under an airlock.

It has dropped from 1.060 down to 1.016.

The sample tasted unfinished (obviously) but pretty well balanced between the sweet malt and roasted malt flavours. Still very harsh hop flavours.

Needs ten days in the secondary and a month in a barrel.