Lager plan - with pics

[Goulders]

Or stocks for the summer?

[greenxpaddy]

I worked out I get through 60 litres a month just me before anyone else gets a look in....and I feel fine. Lots of B vitamins!

So 120 bottles a month at a saving of £1.20 per bottle, thats £144 per month over 9 months . I think I am actually up on this now!

[greenxpaddy]

Minor hop change - made a mistake with my Saaz stock levels!

Snowflake Pilsner (EDITED - As brewed)
Date: Sun 22/1/12


Water treatment for 139L
Gypsum 4.5g
CaCl 13g
Epsom 0.8g
NaCl 0.5g
Chalk 2.1g
1 and 1/2tsp

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Bohemian Pils Malt 4 EBC 44 lbs. 1.5 oz 20000 grams 100%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Saaz Whole 3.8 % 30 mins b4 100 mins 0 lbs. 5.3 oz 150 grams 37.5%
Hallertauer Hersbrucker Whole 2.9 % 30 mins b4 100 mins 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 50%
Saaz Whole 3.8 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 12.5%
Protafloc 10 mins 2 tablets


Final Volume: 102 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.0% ABV
Total Liquor: 139 Litres
Mash Liquor: 50 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 85 %
Bitterness: 29 EBU
Colour: 7 EBC

Mash schedule

Thick initial dough in (1.4L/kg) acid rest 35C . Grain at 8C. Liquor at 43C x 28L. 20 mins

Then mash infusion calc add 18L at 80C to get to 50C, 2.3L/kg, protein rest 20 mins,

Pull out 21L of mash and bring to boil slowly. Stop at 72C and rest for 10 mins. As soon as boiling will return to mash (don’t want too much colour or evaporation)

Add 16L of 100c = 67C Saccharification rest for 90 mins

Add 19L at 100C = 74c. Sparge liquor at 75C.

100 minute boil to reduce DME

Try to post some pics tomorrow night

[greenxpaddy]

Mash on

Mash at ph 5.6 for acid and protein rest. Is there any way to bring this down? Could you squeeze lemon juice in (an off the wall thought )

Next time I don't think I'll add any chalk for a lager even though my water is downright the softest you can get.

[greenxpaddy]

A while ago I posted up whether it was possible to do a decoction in a Buffalo 40L. No one answered. I guess no one was stupid enough to try.

The definitive answer for everyone is.

YOU CANNOT BOIL A DECOCTION IN A BUFFALO 40l

The element overheats and burns the mash pretty much immediately

Hopefully I have not damaged the element.

Anyhow this now means I need to get the mash temp up another way. I only have a 13L stockpot so will do a mini decoction and now need to work out how I will get to 65C in my size MT, may not have enough room even with 100C addition....... I may need to do a succession of decoction in the 13L pan to get there. Off to the brewzor calcs!

[greenxpaddy]

Revised calcs

I have three pots ( totalling 21l) on the stove ( good job SWMBO is out!) currently resting at the 72 degree mark for 10 mins.

While thats standing here are the new calcs

21L decoction rises temp from 47 to 57c. then add straight away mixing quickly and thoroughly 13L at 100 degrees C to get to 65C

To get to mash out need to add 25L at 100C to get to 74c

Probably wont get that all in somehow but 74C is not essential anyway

[greenxpaddy]

Another 12 hr session comes to an end.....

I have 100 litres of lager pitched at 15C, cooling overnight to 12c. I meant to wait til 12C but lost patience with the immersion chiller, and the missus was running a bath so the flow had been tampered with....still 100c to 15c in 1hr is not too bad. Pitched onto the split yeast cake from the bohemian pilsener which I racked to secondary and reinsulated and thrown back outside. I gave a good solid addition of CO2 into secondary before dropping via a long tube. Hopefully there will be enough yeast there. Amazingly there seemed to be quite a bit of yeast in suspension still.

Forgot to add the Irish moss and realised at 0 mins so extended the boil another 10. So the Saaz late addition effectively at 15 mins and overall a 100 min boil. I added the hops as first wort hops, well they weren't exactly they were about 30 mins before boil was reached.

I got to the saccharifiaction rest but managed to overshoot the hot liquor addition and it popped to 69C so I had to add 2L of cold water to get to 67.5C. Couldn't be bothered faffing any more so it wont be as dry as I had hoped.

I did ph strip test at all stages, 35c, 50c and 66c both cooled on a saucer and directly in mashtun. The first two were identical. there was a very marginal difference at 66c but not worth worrying about. I will just stick it in the mashtun again next time and maybe factor in that it might be marginally lower due to temp. All were ph5.6.

Managed to get the grain bed up to 74C with very hot lautering liquor

I've lost the usb lead for my phone so can't post the pics up tonight.

Space in the FV cupboard has been freed up - the Belgian Single is down to 1.009 ( thats nice ) and is deffo finished. That one is sitting on the landing with a sleeping bag over it. Mainly to stop the kids from being inquisitive! I hope it will be ok for two more weeks on the yeast cake while the lager ferments. I may drop it back down to the garage in a week to get the yeast settling out fully ready for the Dubbel and Trippel brew in a couple of weeks..............................

[barney]

Sound like you are having great fun up in them there hills Paddy.

A bit inconsiderate running the bath on you though half way through chilling.

[greenxpaddy]

Very interesting. 20 kilos of Bohemian floor malted pilsener malt....with the water treatment already mixed through......


Acid rest - very thick like quick sand.



ph test, one on cold plate other in mash



protein rest ph test at 50c



Decocotion to buffalo led to this



then to this.. .



Infused to get to 67ish



ph test at 67ish. Left one as you look at it was hot test



Mash tun to brim, got to 72ish after after top up, stir and rest for 10 mins



With all the stirring of these decoctions first runnings are always dead milky, recirculated 6litres until started to run better.



Wort being pumped into boiler with first wort hops.



Lost the will to live after all that lot. Trust me its inthe FV's - Eggy smell this morning. Down to 13c.

[greenxpaddy]

The sooner I get refrigeration sorted on the fv cupboard the better. Looking at the forecast we are set for some really cold days, for long enough to have me worried about freezing of the secondary.

I don't think it would freeze solid like, but I reckon even insulated it could freeze significantly. So in she comes again. It's a bit of a pain lugging 35kg of liquid without handles (all wrapped up)

So it's into the garage at 4c

I can't remember how long this has been going....not really that long.

In a week or so it's going to be 2x 50 l, so reckon I should sort something out soon

[barney]

I read about Acid malt 1-2% will bring the ph down. Its got Lactic acid in it or something. German Technique, Reinheitsgebot .

[greenxpaddy]

Ay, I'll try reducing carbonate and adjusting the additions across mash steps first, then turn to acidulated malt as last resort

[Manx Guy]

I read about Acid malt 1-2% will bring the ph down. Its got Lactic acid in it or something. German Technique, Reinheitsgebot .

Hi
I tried this acid malt (100g) in a recent kolsch brew (as pale as a pilsner) and I hit a pH of 5.3 dead on...

Too early to say if it has any effect of beer flavour although I did read that less than 200g in a 5gal brew won't impart any tart flavour to the beer.

Hope that helps

[greenxpaddy]

Snowflake got to about 1.020 last week. I upped the temp for a DR on Thursday and moved into the house on Saturday - needed the space in the FV cupboard. Checked gravity tonight having been at around 16C for a few days more and its 1.010. I'll leave it a day now and then drop it back in the garage to lager.

Its very cloudy at the mo. Even though its supposedly bottom fermenting it still had a light kreusen residue at FG. So attempted to stir it in.

Smells really good. Who says lagers smell of rotten eggs? Maybe Carling does but not my Bohemian lager......

[greenxpaddy]

Bottled the Bohemian lager last night. Primed to around 2.5 vols. Will rely on John Palmers belief that there will still be enough yeast to prime after 2 months. We'll see. Otherwise will have to uncap and inject yeast into each bottle . That would be a right faff. Think the tap must have been weeping. Seem to have lost a few litres somewhere during lagering?

Taste was very satisfying. Smooth, no off flavours, delicate. Not a lot of flavour.....as one might expect. Should be good.