Brewing today....

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J_P

Brewing today....

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:10 am

Hi all

Given my disaster of a brew last week I thought I best get back in the saddle asap so I currently have the following in the tun.

4.2kg maris otter
0.3kg torrified wheat

12l water @ 68C

I am hoping to get that sweet "wheaty" taste present in Acorn summer pale.

Hopping will be light 20 IBU's of 5.2% Bramling Cross (48g) boiled for 90 mins. I'll also steep around the same weight for 20 mins when I turn off the boiler.

I want plenty of malto-dextrins left in the finished brew so I don't want a yeast that ferments dry so I'm going to use my regular reliable Safale S04

Barring any lightening, flash flooding or brew tent MkII being destroyed I should hopefully end up with 25l of fermenting beer before tea.

Pictures will be courtesy of my phone as I've lent my proper camera to a mate.

Right I'm off to measure out my sparge water then walk the dogs
Last edited by J_P on Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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prodigal2

Post by prodigal2 » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:54 pm

Have a good one JP.

You do know the Met office have issued a weather warning :wink:

I take it that you are experimenting on the recipe with this one?
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:23 pm

Don't tempt fate there Prodigal you know what happened last time :lol:

I have just collected 33l of 1.048 wort and the boiler is on. That's about 2l short of my target but I had to stop sparging at 1.010.

Image

This is Alf he was keeping an eye on the wort, a little too closely for my liking at times!
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Andy
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Post by Andy » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:40 pm

I have just collected 33l of 1.048 wort
did you change the recipe quantities ?

100% efficiency would give 33L at 1043 :wink:
Dan!
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:50 pm

Me thinks my measurements were probably wrong :oops: I was only roughly measuring using an old water container with a line on it marking 5 litres it is also possible I lost count whilst trying to keep the dog off the runnings.

I'll check the finished volume and gravity and compare that to the recipe. For that I'll use my highly accurate wilko 2l plastic jug :lol:
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Andy
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Post by Andy » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:11 pm

J_P wrote:For that I'll use my highly accurate wilko 2l plastic jug :lol:
I'm confused, what will you use that for ? Are you going to measure out the final volume in 2L jugfulls ? :wink:
Dan!
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:13 pm

Either that or mark out 20l in my fermenter and then measure the last few litres. Either way it's going to involve a lot of plastic jug measuring!
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Post by Andy » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:19 pm

Personally I wouldn't bother. Sounds like you'll have enough beer in the fermenter and it will be pretty strong - that should do :lol:

Just do the measurement thang on the next brew 8)
Dan!
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roger the dog

Post by roger the dog » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:24 pm

Sounds like it's going well J_P, enjoy the rest of the day 8)
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:30 pm

Andy wrote:Personally I wouldn't bother. Sounds like you'll have enough beer in the fermenter and it will be pretty strong - that should do :lol:

Just do the measurement thang on the next brew 8)
I've got half a lawn to cut and an hour of the boil left, as long as I can cut the lawn and measure out 20 litres inside half an hour then I'll still have half an hour left for the fermenter and chiller soak in bleach before the boil is over.

I've made myself look like a buffoon here and I'm determined to get myself out of this hole :lol: :lol:

All I need is an accurate measurement of the final volume of wort and the starting grains, I can work out my efficiency from that.
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:31 pm

roger the dog wrote:Sounds like it's going well J_P, enjoy the rest of the day 8)
Cheers RTD it's going class - according to my dodgy measurements I've got over 100% efficiency already :lol:
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roger the dog

Post by roger the dog » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:34 pm

8) :boff:
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Scooby

Post by Scooby » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:39 pm

J_P wrote: I lost count whilst trying to keep the dog off the runnings.
What is it with brew dogs, they lap up any spilt wort, try to get at the runnings and just will not leave spent grain and hops alone :roll:
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:15 pm

Scooby wrote:
J_P wrote: I lost count whilst trying to keep the dog off the runnings.
What is it with brew dogs, they lap up any spilt wort, try to get at the runnings and just will not leave spent grain and hops alone :roll:
They were both sat round like furry wort vultures at one point. Alf is certainly a character, we only took him on last Friday and he's fit right in. They're both sat like a pair of book ends looking out of the window behind me!

Have just measured everything out and the FV markings were way off as expected, the starter has been made and the FV is filled with bleach. I now have 5 minutes to kill before 15 min hop additions which incidentally have all changed.

I have added 50g for the full 90 mins to produce around 25 IBU's I have upped the IBU's and had to recalculate the hopping levels as the hops were 5.6% rather than the 5.2% I calculated the morning! I have 35g left so I figured I'd lob 20g in for the last 15 mins and 15g in when I turn off the boiler.
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J_P

Post by J_P » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:09 pm

Final Volume - Exactly 25l
Final Gravity - 1.046

46/53.95 * 100 = 85% Efficiency

Accurately measured and everything not quite as good as the 100%+ I got before but it's an accurate figure :lol:
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