Fuggles

[Hogarth]

AG No. 11 is an all-Fuggles bitter, with an OG of around 1040.

4.2kg Maris Otter
200g Xstal
50g Torrified Wheat
Fuggles, 4.4%AA. I haven't worked out a hop schedule yet.
Safeale 04. It's an impromptu brew.

Following a recent discussion on these boards I've made a sloppier mash, with 14L of water.

HLT on:





Water into mash tun:



I'd heated it to precisely 80.5°C, forgetting that a change in the water-to-grain ratio requires a change in strike temperature. After doughing in I got a mash of 69°C. So a litre of cold water to reduce it to 67°C, and 20ml of CRS, rather than my usual 15, to give a PH of 5.2.

Here's an 'internal' lid for my mash-tun. It's a piece of board and a piece of camping-mat bolted together. The camping mat is just a bit larger than the board.



I cover it with tinfoil (which will be re-used for the recirculation.)



And then it gets rammed down inside the mash tun, so it sits just above the surface of the mash.



And the second, unnecessarily large, lid goes on top:



If I were starting from scratch I'd not bother with a cool box, to be honest, given all the modifications I've had to make. A plastic bucket and camping-mats makes more sense.

Now it's time to calculate the hops, while trying to ignore the forty pints of London Pride sitting in the barrel under the shelf. I know from experience that boozing and brewing don't go together. Some can, some can't.

[Danny]

Have fun ... my house best is pretty much the same now ... just Fuggles ... really enjoying doing single variety beers just to get to know the hop ...
Like the board leccy board too ... must plan something like that this year ...

[Hogarth]

Thanks Danny.

After 90 minutes the mash PH had dropped to 4.4 ... which can't be good.

Batch sparging:





Caramelizing some of the first runnings. I thought a wide, shallow saucepan might do it best:



This is what it looks like after twenty minutes:



Meanwhile back in the main boiler...



Things are heating up:



These days my method of dealing with a boil-over ...



... is to stand back and watch helplessly as it happens...



... and then fetch the mop and bucket. It works for me.

I'm going with 50g fuggles (4.4%) for 60 mins, and 20g for 15 minutes. But the hops look very brown ... I wonder if they're okay???

[Hogarth]

... the runoff:





Fermenter soon to be bubbling away I hope:



And a bacon butty at midnight.

[Parva]

4 hours or so is damned good going (though I know you'll have had the water pre-heated prior to that). Certainly looks like you had fun. A boil-over like that would scare me witless with two elements on the go though I have come fairly close on a couple of 10G brews.

[Hogarth]

It's funny, last night I was getting frustrated because it all seemed to be taking so damned long. (From switching on the HLT to the celebratory bacon butty was about five and a half hours, in fact.) Since each of my first few AG brewdays was shorter than the previous one, I was expecting this process to continue until I could do it all in about twenty minutes. But it's not going to happen, I'm beginning to realise.

It's stupid of me to let the hot break spill over the electrics, to be honest. I need to do something about it. These kettle plugs are well-designed, but even so.

[flytact]

Great job! Bacon buddy looks great too.
My way of dealing with boilovers is to wait until my alarm (daughter) tells me that my beer is exploding and then hose off the deck.

[Chemo]

Put your hops in before it boils- that prevents the boil over every time

[Trough Lolly]

I dunno Chemo - my instincts are telling me that all those hops provide excellent nucleation points in the hot wort...

[Garth]

when I add my hops it seems to knock the head down quite a bit, also stirring and folding the foam back into the wort with my big spoon usually stops any boil over.

[Hogarth]

I've been wondering about this -- is it better to remove the foam if possible (eg by letting it slop all over the floor) rather than ploughing it back in? Or does it make no difference?

[boingy]

Hard to avoid a boilover with the bucket that full. It helps to use a spoon to pull the foam away from the area above the element so that the steam can escape without pushing more foam. The boil will start from that point and, if you are lucky, it will gradually pull the foam under the surface again.

[Hogarth]

Removing it is supposed to effect head retention but that's not something that has ever concerned me.

Sorry -- being stupid here -- do you mean removing the boilover foam increases head retention, or lessens it?

[oblivious]

Nice set up there Hogarth

[Hogarth]

Thanks!