Once I'd sussed it out, I tweaked my favourite Dark Mild recipe, thus:
2.9Kg Optic Malt
0.9Kg Organic Medium Crystal Malt
0.2Kg Pale Chocolate Malt
90 minute infusion mash @ 66 degC
Boil for 60 minutes
30g Challenger (6.1% A.A.) for full boil
3 tbspn Cocoa powder @ 30 minutes
1 tspn Protofloc @ 45 minutes
Danstar Nottingham Yeast.
HLT turned on at about 11:15 Doughed in at 12:00
Lets start with the piccies.
So this is the brewery in its present incarnation.
At the top of the picture, almost out of shot is the HLT - a modified Lincat catering boiler.
Next is the cool Box mash tun.
The boiler is a modified Swan catering boiler with a copper manifold and a mesh false bottom
as hop strainer.
Also visible is the encapsulated PHE. The recirculating pipe goes back into the boiler, the
white pipe entering at the bottom is from the pump, the long looping white pipe is the water
supply in from the chiller.
a bad photo of the mash tun after doughing in. The black wire is a thermistor temperature
sensor which allows me to monitor the mash temp. Today we were at 66.5 degC.
Well, whilst we're waiting for the mash to complete, we might as well weigh out the hops.
Here's 30g of Challenger lovelies.
Mash tun temperature at the end of a 90 minute mash. Hmmmmm. 2.3 degrees loss. The next
brewery will have HERMS or be so big the thermal mass is so huge it'll make no difference
So after returning a few litres of runnings back to the Tun, we start filling the boiler
Let sparging commence. It's a bit difficult to get a picture of this, but the shower pattern
is pretty good. Honestly!
Wort up to boil, in go the hops.
A rolling boil is achieved.
For the last fifteen minutes of the boil, I run the recirc pump to sterilise it. Once the
boil is over, I turn on the chiller pump. Ten minutes later the Wort is below 30 degrees,
and 100ml or so is pulled into a sterilised jug to re-hydrate the yeast.
Oooops. No Nottingham in stock. Ah well, Safale S04 it is then!!!
An extension tube is added to the PHE outlet and clamped to the fermenter. The pump is then
used to empty the boiler.
A bit of aeration going on - is it enough??? answers on a postcard please. Temperature is now
23 degC - perfect for pitching.
And there we have it. 25 litres of wort at 1039. Bang on Target. All the calculations by
Promash were spot on - water quantities, SG etc. I'm impressed and am going to buy a copy.
The wort is cloudy, but I think the reason for this are the addition of the cocoa and the
small quantity of hops not forming a filter bed.
25 litres of beer, in the fermenter at 23 deg C, with yeast pitched at.....wait for it....
15:45. 3 and 3/4 hours from doughing in
20:00 and it's vigourously fermenting, although the craggy head is being held down by a
large trub blanket. To skim or not to skim, that is the question. I decide not, but will
I regret it?
I'm aiming to get this into a corny on wednesday / thursday and be drinking it at the
weekend. I'm not that bothered about the clarity as it's good and dark anyway, as long
as it tastes ok.
Hey ho. Hope you've enjoyed the pictures.
but on a £12 cool box!?!?!?
