Home Brew Forum

Ok, time for my third AG brew, and I've attempted to replicate (or get something like!) Oakham Citra, one of my favourites, with an increase in ABV . This was my first attempt at a larger brew - I was aiming for 46 litres.

Recipe:
9kg Maris Otter
0.5kg Carapils
0.5kg Crystal

OG 1.059 target

Mash @ 66 for 90 minutes
Boil for 90 minutes
Citra 33g Start
Citra 33g 15 mins
Citra 34g when wort hits 80 degrees

Fermented with MJ California Ale yeast

Untitled by Ben Southall, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Southall, on Flickr

Untitled by Ben Southall, on Flickr

Issues:
- Ended up with 40 litres (after liquoring back)
- Had 6 litres of wort in mashtun that wouldn't fit into the boiler
- OG 1.057
- Hop filter got blocked (AGAIN!!!!) - will have to fabricate a replacement

One question - if I add wort during the boil from the MT to the boiler, how long (minimum) would it have to boil for ? 15 minutes ok?

Been busy building this badboy in the background:

Untitled by Ben Southall, on Flickr

Split between two carboys for fermenting - one carboy was crash cooled in new keezer, one had finings added. The crash cooled carboy has been racked to a corny already, and is currently carbing at 5 degrees 20 psi - sound about right?

Cheers

I like your gas ring shield/stand, where did your get it or did you make it ?

And yeh, I had wort that don't/won't fit into the kettle, what I've done is just stuck it in a normal pan and got it to boiling point, and as the boiling wort evaporates from the kettle I top up from the smaller pan.
But if you only have the one ring. Then I guess you could just add it later when you have a bit more room, and then get it to a good boil for the hot break. But I prefer the former as it does not realy add time to the boiling or the brewday

Wonkydonkey wrote:I like your gas ring shield/stand, where did your get it or did you make it ?

cheers Wonkydonkey, yeah I made the burner shield, was attempting a cheap copy of the Blichmann burner. Works quite well, I think. I was a bit worried about putting a pot full of 50 litres of boiling wort onto a stand I made but it held up ok!

with the extra wort on the last brew, I did a quick AG#04 with some Challenger and got 4.5 litres of 1.035.

Untitled by Ben Southall, on Flickr

this is the final product, I'm still getting used to my new corny keg, keezer and fire extinguisher setup - the slight haze/cloudiness is irritating me! Any ideas/suggestions of where I'm going wrong?

I've not used one myself but looking into it. From seeing stuff on line people suggest making the tube in the keg a bit shorter so it's not taking direct from sediment layer all the time and sits slightly above it. Might help??

No need to trim the dip tube. Try using gelatin once you have crash cooled. Otherwise cold conditioning will clear it after a while anyway. I used gelatin recently in a secondary (pressure barrel) because I wanted to use the yeast. Pictures below:





Doesn't look bright because of condensation on the glass

This is the gunk left behind

so, for next time:
ferment in primary
rack to a secondary
crash cool secondary
add gelatin
rack to corny keg
carbonate!

I crash cool for 48 hours in primary before transfer to secondary. You want the beer as cold as possible before adding gelatin.

cheers Goulders, great tips.

I've still got the other half of this batch still in the primary (with finings added) so I'll rack to a secondary tonight and try this gelatin out.

Could I also add gelatin to the corny keg I have already racked to, in an attempt to clear it?

I've found the effort or waiting time needed to get clear beer isn't worth it unless you are showing. It's nice when do one but the taste is more important for the wife and I and its not had a correlation to how cloudy it is. Love the Oakhams by the way and citra is usually in my brews

I used 200g of citra in an 18l batch which is pretty close to Oakham Citra
I used gelatine and chilled for a couple of days when racking and it is probably the brightest beer I have made.

I used gelatine for my last beer which was a kit. Cold crashed for 24 hrs added the gelatine then left in the fridge for another 3 days. Kegged and left for 2 weeks. Cleared amazingly and this was the finished product.

AnthonyUK wrote:I used 200g of citra in an 18l batch which is pretty close to Oakham Citra
I used gelatine and chilled for a couple of days when racking and it is probably the brightest beer I have made.

I think I definitely used too few hops, but the beer is crystal clear and has a citra edge!