Sorry there aren't more pictures and this is retrospective but I'm not that organised...
Recipe is new but is based closely on a successful brew from about 9 years ago. Should be a nice "Winter Warmer".
OG 1050 / ~40 IBU / 40L (36L)
Pale Malt 7650g (85%)
Amber Malt 270g (3%)
Crystal Malt 270g (3%)
Wheat Malt 270g (3%)
Black Malt 90g (1%)
Invert Sugar 450g (5%)
Challenger 60g (90 min)
Cobb Golding 60g (90 min)
Cobb Golding 30g (Late Hops)
Wyeast 1275 - Thames Valley
Mash (90 min) and sparging went well, and approximately 46L of run off went into the boiler. I'm very pleased with my new mash tun which uses one of these stainless steel false bottoms. I'd also used CRS for the first time to treat 60L (rather than <50L by boiling) of my water which is high in carbonates. I'm sure this helped in reaching my target of 75% efficiency. Anyway, I was pleased to see no chalky residue left in my HLT.
For the last 15 minutes of the boil in went my new homemade wort chiller. Then to cooling. My first problem was getting Zebedee to stand up straight, and then I burnt my hand on the copper tubing!
Here it is running:
I used some string to hold it upright and in the centre of my boiler. The outflow temperature stayed just a few degrees lower than the wort. I estimate that it took ~50L to cool down to ~20oC in 90 minutes. The waste water was used for cleaning the equipment.
Here's the IC after it was cleaned:
I got a lot of cold break which I had trouble filtering out through the hops, so plenty went into the FV as you can see:
In future I think I might my get a separate 50L container to hold Zebedee and the hot wort so that I can empty my boiler ASAP. I also need a proper brewstand. I've got some shelving to store my equipment on but I only use that for my HLT and mash tun during a brewing session. Something in wood perhaps, with a top tier for the HLT and a lower tier (still above the ground for emptying) for my mash tun and boiler? It needs to pack away for storage too...
