In my previous post I mentioned that, in the interests of preserving domestic harmony, I had the idea of using my outside loo as a brewhouse. I duly got some wood last week and knocked up this wooden structure based on Scooby's set-up.
The only problem was that in order to get it into position, I had to remove the door and both door jambs. Not only that, but once in place it was immediately obvious that the loo could no longer be used for its intended purpose except by a midget. Since there are no midgets in our household, this called for a design rethink.
The Mk2 version has wooden battens screwed to the walls supporting two 3" x 2" crossbeams on which the shelving rests, both of which are quickly and easily removeable. The extra batten above the lower shelf is to prevent it tipping up in case the mash tun is moved too far forward when it is draining into the boiler.
Here it is in action:
For my second AG brew, I tweaked the recipe I used for Catz Whisker slightly, lowering the crystal malt and upping the flaked maize and hops:
23 litre batch
Malts: (90 min mash)
4150 gm Maris Otter pale malt
250 gm Crystal malt
50 gm Chocolate malt
350 gm Flaked maize
250 gm Demerara sugar (added to boil)
Hops: (90 min boil)
40 gm Fuggles (4.2%) - 90 min
15 gm Challenger (7.1%) - 90 min
25 gm Challenger (5.1%) - 90 min
20 gm Styrian Goldings - 15 min
Irish Moss - 15 min
Yeast - Safale 04
EBU = 35.0
I overdid the sparge volume on my previous brew, ending up with 27.5 litres @ 1047 OG. This time I modified the parameters I entered in the batch sparge calculator, which I reckoned should give me 23 litres. In the event, it seems I went too far the other way, and finished up with only 20 litres @ 1058 OG. I topped the FV up with 3 litres with cold water, which brought the OG for 23 litres down to 1050. I am beginning to realise that these sparge volume calculations obviously need a lot of trial & error fine tuning!
The 4.5 litres extra I had from last week's brew was fermented in a bucket loosely covered by a FV lid, and has since been racked into a demijohn without any extra priming sugar. It is ruby red and crystal clear. It seems to have fermented out completely and there are no bubbles on the surface or any sign of continuing activity. I'm not sure of the finishing gravity, as the level of the liquid is not deep enough to allow a hydrometer to be immersed fully. I racked off the main brew into a King Keg on Saturday to condition. There seems to be some slight activity still there with a few surface bubbles, but the gravity has remained at 1016. Maybe the mash temperature was a little high? Anyway, I've pitched in a little of the yeast starter I prepared for today's brew in the hope that it might give it a bit of a kick-back into action.
