AG#25 Cropper

[Naich]

It's the first brew in our new house and I've now got the luxury of brewing in the garage, rather than the house's side return. There is a hell of a lot more room and a decent power supply out there. Hooray. The brew was named by son #1, the reason he chose the name "Cropper" was "I don't know". So there you have it - I'm just as much in the dark about the name as you are, and he is.

Volume: 23L, Efficiency: 78%
Alcohol (ABV): 6%, Original Gravity: 1.055, Final Gravity: 1.008
Bitterness (IBU): 77, Colour (EBC): 4

Recipe
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Malt/Fermentables:
1. Lager Malt (3 EBC) : 5000 g (100%)

Hops/flavourings:
1. Citra - AA 13.8 - (45 min) : 25 g (20%)
2. Galaxy - AA 15 - (30 min) : 15 g (12%)
3. Galaxy - AA 15 - (15 min) : 25 g (20%)
4. Galaxy - AA 15 - (5 min) : 35 g (28%)
5. Citra - AA 13.8 - (1 min) : 25 g (20%)

Yeast: Safale US-05 (Attenuation 85%)

Obligatory grain shot:



I've got a new PID controller. It's a bit all over the place, so I'll have to tune it for next time. Other than not keeping the liquor at the correct temperature, it works fine.



My new set-up. Can you believe someone was chucking out that frame in the middle? As soon as I saw it next to the skip I knew it would be my new 3 tier system. I'll have to saw some of the legs off for next time, but other than that it's perfect.



I did an overnight mash and then an early morning sparge. I am now officially sick of my mash tun's false bottom because the sparges always stick and it's a complete pain in the arse to put together, take apart and clean. So I'm going back to a manifold filter, which I'm designing at the moment. It's going to be designed according to John Palmer's rules, easy to put together, robust and a doddle to clean, with no right angles you can't get a brush round.

Anyway, here's a picture of the boil, with the IC lobbed in it. The tap is quite a long way away now.



Might as well take advantage of the lovely spring weather to cool the wort down a bit faster:



Might as well use the run-off to write my name in the snow:



The moment I saw a whole hop plop out of the boiler's pipe, I knew the filter had fallen off. It took about 3/4 of an hour to drain the first 15 litres off at this rate:



Before it pretty much stopped completely and I had to blow up the pipe (as in breathe up it, rather than explode it) to unclog it. I managed to get about 21 litres of grubby bitty wort out:



But at the end of the day I've got beer of some sort fermenting away, which is all that matters. 2013 is the year my boiler goes shiny and this time I'm going to make it so the hop filter can't just fall off. It's nice to be brewing again after a 6 month break.

[Hogarth]

Hi Naich! Good to see you back. There just haven't been enough grain bill novelty shots around here recently.

Your new brewery looks great. Are you going to plumb it up properly?

[Lugsy]

Nice one Naich, a great write-up as always!

I should really get a Galaxy brew on soon, still got a bag from last year that needs using up and love the idea of pairing it with Citra. Let us know how it works out

[DrewBrews]

Can't believe such a beautifully crafted false bottom doesn't work!

Can I just make a suggestion? I used to use a slightly similar (but much lower quality) design of false bottom and in the end I figured out that the weight of the grain was forcing the central pipe into the bottom of the mash tun so that it formed a seal and stopped draining. You said there is only 2mm clearance on yours.

I cut come vertical slots in the end of the pipe and it was sorted.

[orlando]

Are you sure it's run off you wrote your name with?

Where did you get the calibration sticker on your HLT? I like the look of that, my hand written one looks very low rent in comparison.

[Naich]

Ayup chaps. Nice to be back. I didn't read Jim's much during my 6 month brewing gap - it didn't seem right somehow. We've had a hell of a time moving house and I only just got the chance for a brew. Handy hint - throw out all the crap you don't need BEFORE you move. It was about 2 months before I could see any of the garage floor.

Hogarth - I'll be sorting out the brewery properly over the next few months. There's a lot of potential here and I'm hoping to end up with something that's not crap. It would be nice to plumb it up properly and the drain runs right past the garage, but I think the money has to be spent on other things first. I'll be posting my new overcomplicated underperforming designs in the equipment section as I create them.

Lugsy - you should get that Galaxy brew on. I'll let you know how they go together. I didn't want the Citra to overwhelm the Galaxy, so I just put a bit in at the end to give it some extra nose.

Drew - I'm a bit gutted about it in a way, because something that pretty (although I say so myself), which took so long to make SHOULD bloody work, dammit But it sticks every time. I don't think it's the pipe bottoming out because the copper sheet is so solid. But if I haven't made the new filter by the next brew I'll definitely make the slots in the pipe a lot bigger, just in case.

Orlando - Isn't there a joke about it being written in someone else's wife's hand writing? The calibration whatsit came with the pot, and it would be really good if it hadn't been stuck on slightly too high.

[orlando]

The calibration whatsit came with the pot, and it would be really good if it hadn't been stuck on slightly too high.

Agh, was that the manufacturer doing that or a retrofit by someone who couldn't be bothered to measure it? In a fit of pure geekdom I weighed my water, 1 litre at a time , before drawing the scale on my pots. I know I know, you will also catch me picking out 1 gram of Maris Otter because it's 1 gram over the recipe I just can't help myself.

I've often wondered what others do when you know it probably doesn't make a blind bit of difference but you do it anyway, maybe another thread.

[Naich]

Oh god, tell me about it. I know doing stuff like getting the alkalinity spot on or measuring hops to 1/10th of a gram won't make any discernible difference, but I do it anyway. Never mind that the measuring equipment I'm using is likely to far less accurate than what I'm measuring to. I was quite pleased when the PID controller and my thermometer agreed to within 0.3 of a degree, but they are both likely to be wrong anyway, just wrong by the same amount.

It's a form of superstition, I think. Like touching wood for brewers. I like to think of myself as a rational man, but at the end of the day I'm genetically virtually identical to the people who used to think they could improve their harvest by throwing children into volcanoes. Ooh, do you think that would help bump up the efficiency a bit?

[Naich]

I would normally do a quick post at this point to say if the beer turned out OK, but I have a snotty cold that has totally ruined my sense of taste and smell, so I have no idea. It seemed pretty nice when it was kegged. I didn't notice the late Citra much because the Galaxy flavours were so strong. If I re-did this one I'd either miss out the late Citra or put more in.

[Monkeybrew]

Great post and brew name!

What kind of flavours are you getting from the galaxy?

Cheers

MB

[Naich]

What kind of flavours are you getting from the galaxy?

I'm getting bogey flavours. I can't taste a bloody thing at the moment because of a snotty head cold. It's very frustrating and I always seem to get a cold just as the beer is ready for drinking. Before I came down with it I had a go at some of the cloudy keg-bound stuff and it was fruity citrus with a sort of fragrant orange / fruit salad theme. If you like Citra you'll like Galaxy because it's got the same sort of beat-you-round-the-head aroma strength but with a different flavour.

[Monkeybrew]

Cheers for the feedback.

Funnily enough, I haven't been a fan of the few commercial citra brews that I've tried, but I am a bit of a hop head so I'm sure the Galaxy will be good.

I have used a small amount of my Galaxy that was paired up with the same amount of Apollo in a strong kit brew, but it will be nice to use up the 70g that I've got left, all late and dry to really taste what it's all about

Cheers

MB