Burton Fields Best Bitter (With Pictures)

[des]

From the Burton Fields Brewery (I live on Burton Fields Road) - A low efficiency, high quality beer with a bit of luck.

Thought I would have a go at deliberately stopping sparging early to get a high quality beer.

I was so excited after my day with Bandit yesterday that I filled the HLT up and got some brewing liquor ready for today

Mashed 7 KG Marris Otter, 0.7 Kg Crystal Malt and 0.3 Kg Wheat Malt with 22 Liters of Liquor at 66 degrees C for 90 minutes, sparged till I had 27 liters and topped up with boiling liquor so I had 50 Liters in the boiler.

I use CRS in the liquor and DLS in the grist

Boiled for just over an hour

Brew length is 36 Liters

30g Fuggles (4%) wort hops (added at sparge time)
50g Northdown (8.4%) 60 minutes
40g Fuggles (4%) and a whirlfloc 15 mins
30g Fuggles after end of boil at 80 degrees C

Reckon this gives about 42 IBU's (anyone care to check this because I'm not confident with hop calculations - ie what utilizations to use)

Cooled to 23 degrees C and pitched 30g S04 which was warming up in some boiled up (and cooled) wort I had in the freezer.

Ended up with 36 Liters at 1.043 SG which is a brewhouse efficiency of 65% at the time of stopping sparging the wort was leaving the mash tun at gravity 1.029

I can't wait to see what it turns out like, thinking about the cost of sacrificing efficiency for better quality beer I would say that 75% of the grain bill would give the same gravity wort with a full sparge and an efficiency of 80% so it has cost 2Kg grain which is about £1.50 or an extra 2 pence per pint!

Started at 8 in the morning and all tidied away by 1pm - 5 hours total, thats a record for me.

Anyway - some pictures

My wort cooling setup - Boiler is just above and the hot wort coming down that white pipe to the CFC



Homemade CFC in action



Temperature monitoring of cooled wort



Running wort from Fermenter into a bucket which is then poured back in to aerate the wort, I like to do it this way because it means I dont have to dip the bucket in the wort and risk dirt.



A well aerated wort, theres 36 Liters under those bubbles




And into the temperature controlled cupboard for a few days, along with some I bottled up yesterday from the last effort.



Toby the Assistant Brewdog.



Cheers all

[The Mighty Badger]

Looks great. I like your setup - it seems very neat and compact. Your fermenting cupboard looks like it has sheets of ply attached either side of the frame - is there insulation between the walls?

Don't forget to post how your 'high quality wort' brew tastes. Would be interested in a comaprision to your own 'standard' beer.

[des]

Will certainly keep you all posted how this one turns out.

The cupboard is built as you describe, 2" polystyrene insulation panels from B&Q in a 2 x 2 frame clad with hardboard, the base and top being worktop. The heater is a small 100W convector heater controlled by a plug in thermostat from B&Q - works well, especially useful during frosty times.

yeast head forming now...

[anomalous_result]

I also like your setup - dare i say it's nice to see someone produce award winning ales without the shiny?

[des]

Thanks AR, can't help this overwhelming feeling of shiny envy of late though, and now I have had experience of some of Bandit's gadgets I feel my brew may becoming costly before too long. must exercise restraint.

[sllimeel]

Des

How do you keep the brew cupboard cool enough in the summer

[des]

Thanks DAAB - it is your calculator that I use, just wasn't sure about how many IBU's I would get from late additions. - Thanks anyway

[des]

Sllimeel - I built this cupboard at the beginning of winter so you have me there

I suppose that if I keep the door shut the insulation will keep the cupboard at an average of daytime and nighttime temperatures to some extent. this should be enough to cope with days at 27 and nights at 13. any hotter than this and I will not brew, that doesn't happen very often in Yorkshire, brewed ok last few days and we had one day when it was up to 28.

I don't think I can justify cooling equipment for the one or two weeks per year when it might be useful.

Des

[roger the dog]

Nice work Des, good pictures

It looks like you could run a line from the beer engine & drop it straight in the FV at the end of fermentation

[Vossy1]

Good to see all went well on the brew day des

[bandit]

Nice work Des, good pictures

It looks like you could run a line from the beer engine & drop it straight in the FV at the end of fermentation

He drinks it out of the fermenter anyway

[des]

Just dropped the previous brew (Honey Gold) into polypins this afternoon, tastes fantastic and clear enough to read small print through. I should be locked up though, it's only eight days old (since brewday)!!!

[Vossy1]

A man after my own heart

Sometimes they taste better the younger they are

[Martin the fish]

Some of mine have done

[des]

Some new piccies...

This one is the fermenter lifted out of the fermenting cupboard onto a tilted shelf, settling for a few days before draining off yeast, I find at this angle I can drain the fermenter dry except for about a quarter of a pint without moving and disturbing it.



I took a sample out to see what it looks like, it looks nice



And to say its only seven days since brewday it tastes darned good



cheers guys