Well, my brew day is about to start. I got all the grain out of the shed last night (give it a chance to warm up a bit).
One thing I always do is boil a small amount of water with citric acid in - just to give the element a nice clean before I begin. Pulling all my bins apart I noticed something wasn't just right. By the time I got to the Mash Tun, I noticed mould. Damn it, I hadn't let things dry enough last brew.
Oh well, I'll have a small amount of cleaning to do before I begin, but I should have the boiler heating up my strike water very soon...
I have made some very minor adjustments to my 'final' grain bill. Basically, rather than opening a new bag of grain so I can have 500g, I am using an older (well sealed) bag that only has 390g. To balance it out, some of the bags are very slightly heavier than my recipe calls for. Think I am about 150g short of the last recipe so not too bad. Will still hit about 6.5% ABV if I get my usual bad efficiency of 55%
Will update you later in the day.
Brew Day 27th Oct
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bitter_dave
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PieOPah
Well the day has gone off to a flying start.
Water heating up and grain being weighed out.
Once I had weighed and mixed all the grain, I went out to check how the water was doing. STONE COLD....
Damn it, hadn't turned the socket on at the wall.
Oh well, only a small delay, but has reminded me to put in the campden tablet
(dunno why it reminded me though!)
Water heating up and grain being weighed out.
Once I had weighed and mixed all the grain, I went out to check how the water was doing. STONE COLD....
Damn it, hadn't turned the socket on at the wall.
Oh well, only a small delay, but has reminded me to put in the campden tablet
(dunno why it reminded me though!)-
TheBigEasy
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PieOPah
Well, the mash is underway. I only hit 666.8C and have been unable to raise this temp due to the Mashtun being a little on the full side already.
It seemed that I had plenty of room (using bucket in bucket) but never thought about how full the outer bucket was. Anyway, lifting the mashtun caused a slight spillage. Not enough to worry about, but enough to know I can't put anything extra in.
So lesson for today -
Make DAMN sure I get a better efficiency for future brews. I won't need as much grain so won't risk over filling.
Don't make beers as big as this.
It seemed that I had plenty of room (using bucket in bucket) but never thought about how full the outer bucket was. Anyway, lifting the mashtun caused a slight spillage. Not enough to worry about, but enough to know I can't put anything extra in.
So lesson for today -
Make DAMN sure I get a better efficiency for future brews. I won't need as much grain so won't risk over filling.
Don't make beers as big as this.
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Western Brewer
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PieOPah
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PieOPah
Everything is going fine. I've got about another 40 minutes left of the mash. Going to start heating up my Sparge water fairly soon.
Having checked the temp, although not as warm as I wanted (aimed for around 68C got 66.7C) it has still help very well. Dropped to 66.2 so only 1.2 a degree down.
It is far too cold to Mash outside, so since the wife is at work I am doing it inside
What she doesn't know eh!
Having checked the temp, although not as warm as I wanted (aimed for around 68C got 66.7C) it has still help very well. Dropped to 66.2 so only 1.2 a degree down.
It is far too cold to Mash outside, so since the wife is at work I am doing it inside
What she doesn't know eh!-
PieOPah
Well, the Mash is complete.
I have transfered the first runnings to my boiler (OG 1.080) and am on my sparge (batch sparge so second mash - dunno the actual term for it!)
I hit pretty much the exact amount of sweet wort from my first runnings (no accurate measurements on boiler as you all probably well know!)
While transfering, I suddenly remembered the hop strainer and managed to get it in before it was too late. Last time, I had to drain my boiler so I could get it in. Glad I remembered this time!
All is looking great so far.
Boil should be started in about 10 minutes
I have transfered the first runnings to my boiler (OG 1.080) and am on my sparge (batch sparge so second mash - dunno the actual term for it!)
I hit pretty much the exact amount of sweet wort from my first runnings (no accurate measurements on boiler as you all probably well know!)
While transfering, I suddenly remembered the hop strainer and managed to get it in before it was too late. Last time, I had to drain my boiler so I could get it in. Glad I remembered this time!
All is looking great so far.
Boil should be started in about 10 minutes
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PieOPah
I've taken some preliminery readings.
The OG of my collected wort is 1.067. This is the gravity of the 25 litres in my boiler. The extra 5 litres I have spare (slightly overshot my mark) is 1.055
If I ignored the evaporation and spare wort, this gives me an efficiency of 60.36%. Obviously this can only increase as the wort evaporates.
At last something has gone right. Practice does make perfect.
An hour or 2 away from finding out the true OG.
Anyway, back to the boil
The OG of my collected wort is 1.067. This is the gravity of the 25 litres in my boiler. The extra 5 litres I have spare (slightly overshot my mark) is 1.055
If I ignored the evaporation and spare wort, this gives me an efficiency of 60.36%. Obviously this can only increase as the wort evaporates.
At last something has gone right. Practice does make perfect.
An hour or 2 away from finding out the true OG.
Anyway, back to the boil
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mysterio
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oxford brewer
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Scooby
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PieOPah