Sort of Tanglefoot copy, sort of.

[Martin the fish]

I have exactly 7172g of MO left. Sack's of grain seem to only last a week or so nowadays-i'm sure the sacks get smaller the more you buy I am going for another Brewday tomorrow(think this may be my best week so far ) and am going to use all my remaining MO. I hunted through my meagure recipe collection and discovered that, apart from the sugar content, Tanglefoot's recipe is about half of the MO that i have. So i've kinda doubled it and it's near enough my MO weight remaining. Recipe i have states 3510g Pale Malt and 770g sugar for 5 gallon(what sugar would that be anyway???) I'm not overly keen on adding sugar to my AG brews so i have replaced sugar with some grain. Utilised the same hop schedule but doubled it. This is a bit of a stab in the dark but i love experimenting.


My recipe: 45 ltr based on 80% efficiency.

7172g MO
390g Crystal(although none in original recipe)
350g Malted Wheat(none in original)
Mash for 2hr @ 68C. Sparge with 90C for 90 mins. My sparge device loses a bundle of heat so i need to sparge at 90C to get grain bed to above 77C.

Hops boil 90 mins.

Challenger 36g
Northdown 20g
Add 40g Northdown last 15 mins

2 tsp Irish Moss last 10 mins

I'm using my last two sachets of dried on this brew. S04 & Muntons Gold.

I think this will be pushing my system to it's absolute limits. But it's the first time i can devote a full day so i'm happy enough for a 12 hr brewday. I will need to collect the wort in my 75 ltr FV. Then i will need to empty FV and sterilise it whilst wort is boiling. I have enough containers to collect all wort from big FV. This should mean that collecting in one vessel then spliting means the OG should be roughly the same. I can only boil 27ltr's a time in my boiler max. I reckon that should be enough to split the wort in two and do two boils. I'll cool and then pour off the first batch into sterilised FV then boil and cool second batch. Second will be added to first and then yeast pitched.

Anyone see any glaring mistakes that i've missed? Or any improvements on the recipe or my technique? Any comments glady recieved.

Wish me luck if not

[baldyjason]

Good luck with the brew matey

hope you have a good one

[baldyjason]

forgot to add im just on with the boil for my version of OLD BUSHYTAIL 50 ltr of it
its takeing efin ages to boil this one

[Martin the fish]

forgot to add im just on with the boil for my version of OLD BUSHYTAIL 50 ltr of it
its takeing efin ages to boil this one

Good on ya!

Nothing like a decent amount of beer.

[erebus]

Have a good one Mr Fish.

I have to admit I'm with you on the worry about using sugar in a brew rather than grain, it does seem like nothing more than a cheaper way to add a bit of alcohol to a brew. That's said I've brew a Tanglefoot clone twist now with sugar and have been happy with the results, but they did have a hint of sweetness about them.

Anyway hope your going to post pics, I'm interested to see a double brew day. I assume you are either fly sparging or have a big burther of mash tuns? Oh and have you considered using two different hops schedules for both boils, end up with 1 batch of Tanglefoot and 1 batch of other!

[Martin the fish]

E-just wanna do a big batch. I have done two batches off one brew length and used different yeasts with each. Both were v good.
This time i want to see a decent amount of beer in my big 75 ltr FV instead of the normal 25-30 ltr hit.
Proper looking forward to my brew tomorrow. So much so that i'm staying up late and drinking too much and am just about to sit down to watch the superbikes at Assen. And drink some more beer.

[oblivious]

Have a good one

[Martin the fish]

I've now been at it since 10am and it's 7.10pm. Cooling my first batch of wort.
Haven't got my notes to hand but i accidently put 20 ltr of too hot water in MT and consequently after mashing in the temp was 78C So i added some cold water but filled my MT. So i then removed 2 ltr and refilled with cold. This bought temp down to 68C. Sparging took 2 hrs as i sparged v v slowly. Collected 48ltr's @ 1036. Which is a point under beersmith's pre boil prediction but 6 ltr's shy I took some pic's and will 'add' them in later.
It's definately time for a bigger brewery. 25ltr's is just too small. Doing two boils is too much hassle as well. Plus it add's 4 hr's onto my brewday. I also forgot that i was boiling two batches and weighed out my hops and put the 90 min hop pellets all in one bag. So i then had to halve them. Shouldn't be too much of an issue as it's all going in same FV. Which was supposed to be a 75ltr FV but 48ltr almost filled it right up.

Again, i have learnt a lot today and although tiring it's been fun. Supping on a nice brew now to help pass the time.

More info later...

[Martin the fish]

Got half hour of 2nd batch boil to go. Yippee
I think i'm happier brewing 30ltr batches with my system. Managed to brew a whole sack of MO in 10 days this time. Was lucky that i had a few days where i could squeeze a brew in though. Definately need a bigger system and a few conicals

But trying to brew a 45ltr batch was a tad optomistic in hindsight. Especially as i'm gonna end up with nearer 40. My MT was bulging at the sides and i don't think it's as efficient when it's rammed full. Bit annoyed that the 75ltr FV i bought is only 50ltr though. Thats going straight back tomorrow morning.

Wort tastes great though Looks a lovely colour too. Off to finish up now.

[Aleman]

It's definately time for a bigger brewery. 25ltr's is just too small.

And yet that is exactly the way I'm going, I'm going to stick with brewing the House beers on the picoplant but trial brews and BIG beers will be done on the femtoplant

I'm with you on the worry about using sugar in a brew rather than grain, it does seem like nothing more than a cheaper way to add a bit of alcohol to a brew.

There are times when using sugar has its place, if making a low gravity mild for example, the combination of crystal and a high mash temp makes for a really chewy malty beer, which is unbalanced for the gravity, so a small amount of sugar in the fermentables thins the body making it very quaffable, without being cloying . . . can you get the same effect mashing cooler? Not really as the crystal tends to be overpowering

[Martin the fish]

2nd batch now cooling. I have my notes so i'll let you know the important bits.
My boiler boils too fiercely with both elements going. I lose 12 ltr's of a 27 ltr batch in 90 mins with both going. Not good really. So i use both to get to boiling then switch one of. My notes seemed to contain the sentence- '2 boils is a pain in the arse'. Or '2 boils takes bloody ages'. Etc. So i think i don't like waiting around doing nowt while i boil two 24 ltr batches.
I also noticed that MG sachet has only 6g of yeast in? Whilst Safale S04 contains 11.5g? Hope the two combined will be enough to ferment out this brew.
I also noted that connecting the water in to my IC so it flows to the bottom first is lots more effective than the other way round.
I also found that i do things now because i remember to. Rather than having to read of a list of things. Seems things are finally sinking into my beer fuddled brain.

I haven't come up with a 'lord of the rings' inspired title for this brew yet, but i will.

My plastic FV's that i have converted to my HLT and Boiler are already showing signs of stress-there are some ominous looking white lines in various places. One of them is at a particular height that kinda matches my 'meat and two veg' area Don't think my boiler will cope with another 10 brews or so. Don't think i'd cope with boiling wort squirted over my nads.

Overall it was a good day though. Any day spent avoiding work and indulging in a hobby is bound to be good.
Gonna sort the pic's out and start uploading them after i've carried the FV and it's contents into my fermenting room.

[Martin the fish]

It's definately time for a bigger brewery. 25ltr's is just too small.

And yet that is exactly the way I'm going, I'm going to stick with brewing the House beers on the picoplant but trial brews and BIG beers will be done on the femtoplant

I'm with you on the worry about using sugar in a brew rather than grain, it does seem like nothing more than a cheaper way to add a bit of alcohol to a brew.

There are times when using sugar has its place, if making a low gravity mild for example, the combination of crystal and a high mash temp makes for a really chewy malty beer, which is unbalanced for the gravity, so a small amount of sugar in the fermentables thins the body making it very quaffable, without being cloying . . . can you get the same effect mashing cooler? Not really as the crystal tends to be overpowering

I hadn't thought about that Aleman, makes sense too. I'm not against using sugar in a brew but the recipe's i have simply state sugar. Any old sugar? Brown sugar? Caster sugar? Icing sugar(yuk) but do you see my point? I'm still very much a noobie to all this and am learning by trial and error. All my beers are highly drinkable though. Well, they are to me.
Alarm just bleeped so off to sort out 2nd batch and then struggle with 40ltr's of wort and carry the FV into the house and pitch the yeast. Hardest part of my day.