AG#3 Caladonian IPA -Slow to clear-Help?

[Manx Guy]

Hi,
This was my first (really <20EBC) pale ale -using GW's recipe for Deuchars Caladoian IPA, and as it went surprisingly well -(despite an early (5am start) so I thought I'd share

Just managed to get this in the FV before lunch with SWMBO and I guess its true what they say - third time lucky!

I managed to sparge and hit my volume and exceed my estimated OG - so looks like my first stab at fly sparging was a success...

I'll need to calculate my efficency - I got 24 litres at 1041 (after adjustment for temprature !

I think I can do it by back calculating using beer engine (?)

Only minor issue was I struggled to get the strike temprature right as it was cold over night and the grain temp was less than expected... 1 litre of boiling water before adding the grain got me to the desired re-calculated strike temp.

Seems my water is ok for pale ales as I hit a pH of 5.2 with just the addition of (12g) gypsum and 4g Mag sulphate (I thought I'd use the water treatment calc. to emulate Edinburgh water)

Happy enough, just waiting for the SO4 to really get going - I rehydrated it first - I ressisted the urge to repitch some of the yeast slurry from my White Shield, which was notty.

Once this has fermented I plan to keg it for consumption over the festive period...

I'm wondering whether dry hopping in the keg with some Styrians would be a good idea?



Cheers!

Guy

[JontyR]

Great minds think alike Guy - I've just printed off my tick list for this very beer for my AG#2 tomorrow

I'm glad to hear it went well.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

Good choice!

The aromas from the hops were great - got some lovely Fuggles from Rob @the Malt miller - wonderful aroma..

Looking forward to sampling this one in 2-3 weeks time

Guy

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice work.
So did you have a spinning sparge arm or what then??

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

No not a spinning one it was a simple peice of copper pipe with about 22 1mm holes drilled at angles into it. Meaning the sparge water gently sprays out into two rows about 10cm apart...
It doesn't appear to casue any channeling (?) but I keep a good 5-8cm of water on top of (what appears to be) the grain bed.

To be honest I think my sparge pipe is really just an easy way of adding the sparge water rather than anything particularly clever....
The more I think about it the more I think I did a 'hybrid' of batch/fly sparging (who cares it was easy & worked well ! )

Using the sparging 'rod' (its not really an 'arn') it means after toping up the water for the first sparge (to ensure I hit my target volume) and giving it a little stir and a few minutes for the grain bed to settle out.
If it helps this is what I did in a little more detail:

I then started to drain the wort (the first running being pretty clear I ronly returned about half a litre to the MT) at a fairly slow pace.
Then once there was about 2-3 litres in the boiler I started the 'sparge' by running the sparge water from the HLT slowly into the MT.

I was lucky and pretty much balanced the flow rate from the off (the brew gods must have been smiling on me!)
So once I collected 20 litres I added some of the fab smelling fuggles and started the boil.
Collecting the remaining runnings (about 9 Litres) into an FV and adding them to the boil shortly before the 20litres came to the boil.

Once I got a good boil and the foam had died back a bit I added the 90 min hops and carried on as normal...

@15mins I added the IC and some yeast vit and irish moss (in a little hot water)

then 5 mins later in went the last of the hops...

at 0 mins I turned of the boiler & started the pump on the IC

I use a submersable pump to recirculate water from the water butt to the IC and back again. Chilling was quick as the butt water temp was 3C ! It rose to 7C by the time the wort was at 24C

Banged into a sanitised FV thru' a stainless sieve and pitched the SO4
This morning I have a lovely 10cm of krausen
Happy enough so far!

Guy

[Manx Guy]

Another quick update...

Went into the Utility room this morning (where the FV is sited) to be met with a wonderfull smell of fermenting beer!



I checked for leaks but all was ok - nice yeasty hed and the brew isa t a steady temprature.

Normalyy I don't get many smells coming from the FV as I use an airlock... But this time there is a lovely smell - even SWMBO likes the smell

Hopefully this will be ready to keg next Tuesday on my next day off!



Guy

[JontyR]

Normalyy I don't get many smells coming from the FV as I use an airlock... But this time there is a lovely smell - even SWMBO likes the smell

I think mines smelling the same mate, just walked into my office where the FV is and there is a lovely almost faint licorice malty smell.

[Manx Guy]

Yeah that sounds like it - very malty with a certain 'bitterness' _ I couldn't put my finger on but- I guess it does smell a bit like licorice

Incidently what yeast did you use on your version?

I used SO4 - first time I've used this for an AG brew although I've used it on extract brews alot - my previous AG batches were all Notty...



Guy

[JontyR]

I used S-04 too Guy, I'm quite new to non-kit brewing and it's all I've used up to now. It's a shame you're so far away, it would be interesting to do a taste comparison when they're finished.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

It is a bit of a shame... I plan to bottle a few so I could drop one by the next time over visiting the folks (My Dad lives in Stamford bridge Nr. York) otherwise we could do a bottle swap?
I know a few other forum members do the same!
Seems like a good idea to me-what do you think?

Cheers!

Guy

[JontyR]

Great Idea Guy, do they post well??

[haz66]

They will post ok but will need to be fairly well packaged, if i`ve known i`ve been going to post any beers i`ve always bottled
them into 500ml Coke bottles, as it cuts the weight for the postage plus they are more likely to survive the journey.
Just a thought incase you plan on doing bottle swaps in the future.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

I have a small supply of strong 500ml sparkling water bottles whihc I could use to bottle in for items that will be posted.

I guess that on receipt the beer should be left to settle in the fridge for a few days before adjusting to drink ing temprature and sampling...

I'll probably bottle into 6 brown glass bottles(500ml) for sampling an into 2 x PET incase I want to do a bottle swap... The rest will be kegged

[Kevin Worth]

Just for interest there is a UK brew exchange which is just getting started where people are swapping and critiquing each others brews.

Cheers

Kev

[JontyR]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

I have a small supply of strong 500ml sparkling water bottles whihc I could use to bottle in for items that will be posted.

I guess that on receipt the beer should be left to settle in the fridge for a few days before adjusting to drink ing temprature and sampling...

I'll probably bottle into 6 brown glass bottles(500ml) for sampling an into 2 x PET incase I want to do a bottle swap... The rest will be kegged

I'll do the same then!!