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Unexpected Brew Day (Updated)

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:13 pm
by Western Brewer
Hi All,
Well having been off work for a couple of days with a strained shoulder due to a muppet agency worker I was teamed up with dropping a sofabed we were delivering without letting me know it was slipping and my 3 YO son Adam at nursery all day, I decided to do a mini brew of 10 ltrs to try out my new mini mash tun of which are a couple of pictures below.
Also it's my first attempt at creating my own reciepe so be kind to me. It's supposed to be a session bitter with an OG of 1036 and around 30 EBUs

Byfleet Bitter

1500 gms Pale Malt
50 gms Crystal Malt
40 gms Chocolate Malt
24 gms Fuggle @ 4.6 Alpha 90 minutes
10 gms Fuggles 15 minutes.

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The box hold 8 litres of water, so with the grain and 4 litres of water it was just right.
I wrapped the box with a blankett but it did lose about 3.5 degrees C over the 90 minute mash time. I threw the old duvet I used to use away as one of the cats started sleeping on it and it looked disgusting. So more insulation needed next time.
I also batch sparged for the first time.

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Grains after sparging.

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Getting near the boil.

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Just about there.

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Rolling boil.

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Bittering hops.

That's it for pics I'm afraid. Sorry about the quality, took them on my iPhone.

Wort is now sitting outside cooling.
I have Danstar Nottingham and Windsor yeasts handy. Which do you think I should use?
Right off to check the wort temp now.
I had forgotten how I love the smell of boiling wort in the afternoon.
Remember no laughing and be gentle with me, it's my first AG in over 3 years.
Regards, Mark

Re: Unexpected Brew Day

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:48 pm
by WishboneBrewery
Nice, so your mini-Mash tun worked well for the run-off then?
3.5c isn't bad really, the real action will be over in the first 60mins (so less temp loss) you could maybe just mash a degree or two hotter next time :)

Re: Unexpected Brew Day (Updated)

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:56 pm
by Western Brewer
OK I decided to go with the Windsor yeast which has been pitched.
I have measured the OG which is 1044 @ 21.5 C. Not sure how I got that considered I was aiming for 1036. At the end of the 90 minute boil I had lost a bit more that I anticipated. At the start of the boil I had approx 12.5 litres and guess I had 9 litres post boil. I topped it back up to 10 litres but still missed the target. So much for my session bitter.
Any ideas where I went wrong?
Cheers, Mark

Re: Unexpected Brew Day

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:00 pm
by Western Brewer
pdtnc wrote:Nice, so your mini-Mash tun worked well for the run-off then?
In testing to see how much would liquid would be left, I filled the tun about half way then opened the tap and let it drain
till it stopped, closed the tap and tipped the remainder into a measuring jug to find there was only 300 ml left, so was pleased
with that.
So, yes pleased with it.
Cheers, Mark

Re: Unexpected Brew Day (Updated)

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:14 pm
by WishboneBrewery
I actually meant, your Mash / Sparge ran freely without sticking etc...
Though 300ml is pretty good :)

Re: Unexpected Brew Day (Updated)

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:19 pm
by Western Brewer
Yes, no problems at all.
Cheers!

Re: Unexpected Brew Day (Updated)

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:11 am
by Eadweard
the recipe looks fine to me, if you come in too strong you can always dilute it more...