Brewing in a drought!!

[bitter_dave]

I just leave mine in the kettle overnight after boil. Next day, temp adjust as required then rack off & pitch.

Do you find doing this increases the bitterness of the beer? Presumably the hot wort would be exposed to hops for longer (although I guess below 80c that would not be an issue).

[MashBag]

No. All my hops are out.

[bitter_dave]

I had a go at brewing without using my immersion chiller. The idea was to do a partial mash that could be watered down with very cold bottled water, reducing natural chilling time.

Made a 4%-ish mild - mashed pale, munich and dark crystal in the stove, boiled on the stove and ended up with 17 litres of wort. 40 minute mash, 20 min boil with all hops (first gold) added in hops in a bag at 15 mins to reach 20 IBUs. Yes, I know, many brewing crimes there and very inauthentic mild!

Tipped wort into my fermenter, added 1kg pale DME to hot wort to complete ingredients. Added 5 litres of ashbeck water that had been kept in the freezer to bring it to about 22 litres. At this point it was about 60c, and 55c when I put it in my brew fridge. Cooled to 18C in the fridge. Took from late afternoon to the following morning to get there. Lallemand London ale yeast. OG 1.044-ish, but expecting quite high FG due to yeast and mash temp.

I quite enjoyed brewing this way and the clean up was easier because I did not use my burco. However, it still took ages to cool (which I guess is to be expected). No idea how much cooling time was saved by adding the 5 litres of cooled water (I was expecting to have to add more, which would have helped).

[MashBag]

Depending on space. You could do a full mash, after boil, whip the hops out, lid on & and run away until the next day.

[bitter_dave]

Depending on space. You could do a full mash, after boil, whip the hops out, lid on & and run away until the next day.

Hi Mashbag, how long does it take to cool 23 odd litres from boiling?

[MashBag]

I mash typically overnight Friday, boil first thing Saturday (and run away) and pitch first thing Sunday & normally it's down to 20c. During this hot spell it had been 26c so a couple of ice packs for 10 mins sorts it.

I have completely given up on brew "DAYS"... just toooo much.
Currently working on a mod to reduce boil day by another 30 mins (simultaneous flame out hopping. Bonkers but drinks REALLY well)

[bitter_dave]

I mash typically overnight Friday, boil first thing Saturday (and run away) and pitch first thing Sunday & normally it's down to 20c. During this hot spell it had been 26c so a couple of ice packs for 10 mins sorts it.

Ok, thanks. So, 24 hours-ish for it cool right down then. I might try that next time. Maybe get a hop spider to make life easier when it comes to removing hops (compared with faffing about with hop bags).

[MashBag]

You might like it.

I spent a while testing and trailing various hoppery contraptions with hop spiders / seives / 3 bolts etc

This came up trumps. Mangrove Jack's Hop Spider and mesh in courser and imo be better for it

https://do-it-at-home.co.uk/en/accessor ... 13862.html

Hop Teabags (use once) also work, but... Dunno if that's the right way. And you can buy reusable hop bags (linen bags) online

https://brew2bottle.co.uk/products/hop- ... 20Shopping

If I started again it would probably be reusable hop bags. Nearly £40 is a lot of grain

[bitter_dave]

I had a go at brewing without using my immersion chiller. The idea was to do a partial mash that could be watered down with very cold bottled water, reducing natural chilling time.

Made a 4%-ish mild - mashed pale, munich and dark crystal in the stove, boiled on the stove and ended up with 17 litres of wort. 40 minute mash, 20 min boil with all hops (first gold) added in hops in a bag at 15 mins to reach 20 IBUs. Yes, I know, many brewing crimes there and very inauthentic mild!

Tipped wort into my fermenter, added 1kg pale DME to hot wort to complete ingredients. Added 5 litres of ashbeck water that had been kept in the freezer to bring it to about 22 litres.

Really happy with how this turned out. Certainly extended period of cooling has not harmed it. May get a hop spider and brew like this again as it was dead easy and beer seems decent (to me at least)

[MashBag]

Spooky was having a very similar conversation last night, over a beer with a mate.

Are you chilling the ashbeck water or freezing it solid?

He has been trialling freezing litres of water, to add back in the fv. I am not sure he is going get from 90 to 20c tho.

.. And no I am not doing the maths. But I did notice lakeland do a giant ice cube tray

[bitter_dave]

Are you chilling the ashbeck water or freezing it solid?

Well, in as much as I had a plan, I was aiming to chill it but it ended up partially freezing! I poured what hadn't frozen in first (which was fair amount) and then ended up cutting open the bottle and dumping the ice I could not get out into the wort. If I froze the entire bottle I'm thinking it might split and/or be difficult to get out. You would need a hell of a lot if ice cubes and I think it would be a lot of faff.

It's never going to do all the cooling, but got it on the way (to a temp where I felt it was safe, rightly or wrongly, to finish off the cooling in the fridge overnight).

I fermented for five days, cold crashed and fined and bottled on about day 8. The pint I had yesterday was perfectly clear (difficult to compare with previous brews because I forgot to use protofloc, but probably was a bit murkier prior to fining than the last beer I made using this yeast which was rapidly cooled with a chiller).

One thing occurs to me is that if you cool the wort a bit with cold water you could exploit the extended cooling period for a bit by doing an extended hop soak in the fermenter. You could use the hop spider, by removing the spent bittering hops and adding new hops. The hop spider would be sanitised by the boil.

[MashBag]

It has left me wondering if you could leave a brew chill to say 80C (15 - 20 mind) and then use ice lumps, which were formed in ice-cream tubs.

I have had success with 4 pint milk cartons.

Ps. Don't get hung up on sanitisation, "kitchen clean" serves well. And if it's just come out of brew (hop spider) and is going back in, it was OK... Its still OK (10 second rule with a slight extension to refresh the hops)

[MashBag]

I fermented for five days, cold crashed and fined and bottled on about day 8. The pint I had yesterday was perfectly clear (difficult to compare with previous brews because I forgot to use protofloc, but probably was a bit murkier prior to fining than the last beer I made using this yeast which was rapidly cooled with a chiller).

In the same conversation my mate had given up protofloc, forgot it, didn't see the difference (beer cleared, just the same) so doesn't bother with it now.

[MashBag]

One thing occurs to me is that if you cool the wort a bit with cold water you could exploit the extended cooling period for a bit by doing an extended hop soak in the fermenter. You could use the hop spider, by removing the spent bittering hops and adding new hops. The hop spider would be sanitised by the boil.

Very interesting. I have gone completely rogue. My flame out hops / dry hops all gone. I am macerating those in vodka for 30 mins, straining and adding that in day 2, once the fermentation is underway.

Randy Mosher has a lot to answer for!

[drjim]

Adding the vodka or the hops?