Brewday 04/06/2007: Wherry clone

[wooyay]

Got the day off work, so I thought I'd try my hand at one of crow_flies's Wherry clones (Wherry Clone III to be exact). It's also a good excuse to test drive my new set up.

Sorry, no pictures as I was on my own, and being my first non-mini mash attempt, I wanted full concentration.

Started the mash at 8:40 which allowed me plenty of time to nip down the shops to get some hose pipe for the immersion chiller - nothing like leaving some things to the last minute. Did a batch sparge since I've not sorted the tubing to my spinny sparger yet and ended up with 23.7L @ 1.044 so pretty much bang on.

Annoyingly, I lost far more than I'd expected with evaporation so I ended up with only 16L @ 1.048 in the fermenter (4L off the recipe). Since the OG was bang on, I decided not to top up the lost 4L with water but instead have a smaller batch and up the grain next time to compensate.

Pitched some S-04 around 3pm and it's now sitting in the cool understairs cupboard.

All in all, a good day. Aside from the volume at pitching, all the other targets were hit almost perfectly. Hit just over 80% effeciency before the boil but the amount lost makes this just under 60% overall. Does anybody have any ideas how I can reduce this loss since 7L from 23 is quite a large amount (about 30%)?

Only other slight hiccups was a slight drip from the HLT tap and from the kettle tap which oddly stopped just as the wort hit boiling temperature.

[tubby_shaw]

Got the day off work, so I thought I'd try my hand at one of crow_flies's Wherry clones (Wherry Clone III to be exact). It's also a good excuse to test drive my new set up.
Good idea

Sorry, no pictures as I was on my own, and being my first non-mini mash attempt, I wanted full concentration.
Better idea

Started the mash at 8:40 which allowed me plenty of time to nip down the shops to get some hose pipe for the immersion chiller - nothing like leaving some things to the last minute. Did a batch sparge since I've not sorted the tubing to my spinny sparger yet and ended up with 23.7L @ 1.044 so pretty much bang on.
Great so far

Annoyingly, I lost far more than I'd expected with evaporation so I ended up with only 16L @ 1.048 in the fermenter (4L off the recipe). Since the OG was bang on, I decided not to top up the lost 4L with water but instead have a smaller batch and up the grain next time to compensate.
Impeccable logic

Pitched some S-04 around 3pm and it's now sitting in the cool understairs cupboard.

All in all, a good day. Aside from the volume at pitching, all the other targets were hit almost perfectly. Hit just over 80% effeciency before the boil but the amount lost makes this just under 60% overall. Does anybody have any ideas how I can reduce this loss since 7L from 23 is quite a large amount (about 30%)?
Did you check the SG of the sparge runnings ? My initial guess would be that you could have sparged a little more.
I also sparge my hops with a little boiling water to release the extract in there.

Only other slight hiccups was a slight drip from the HLT tap and from the kettle tap which oddly stopped just as the wort hit boiling temperature.

All in all a good result for your first full size mash
It gets easier with practice

[wooyay]

Did you check the SG of the sparge runnings ? My initial guess would be that you could have sparged a little more.
I also sparge my hops with a little boiling water to release the extract in there.

During the second sparge I took a reading of about 1.020, so I'm fairly sure there was more scope in there, but since I'd hit my target volume at just over the target SG I decided to leave it. Since I wasn't expecting to do a thrid run off I hadn't got anything prepared in my HLT but next time I'll make sure I've got an extra 10L or so just in case.

[tubby_shaw]

Did you check the SG of the sparge runnings ? My initial guess would be that you could have sparged a little more.
I also sparge my hops with a little boiling water to release the extract in there.

During the second sparge I took a reading of about 1.020, so I'm fairly sure there was more scope in there, but since I'd hit my target volume at just over the target SG I decided to leave it. Since I wasn't expecting to do a thrid run off I hadn't got anything prepared in my HLT but next time I'll make sure I've got an extra 10L or so just in case.

With final runnings of 1.020 it'll be good quality stuff
As you said, next time save a little extra to one side to top up during the boil if necessary

[Vossy1]

Well done W Welcome to the dark side

Regards loss to evapouration, are you using a gas burner, electric element

The simple soln is to top up. I know my copper set up at 53ltr volume will give me roughly 46ltr in the FV, so during the boil I simply add boiling de-chlorinated water to keep it at 53 ltr

I takes time to get to know your equipment and there's plenty of practice required to be comfortable with it

[wooyay]

Regards loss to evapouration, are you using a gas burner, electric element

I'm using gas (currently the hob in my kitchen), but I'll upgrade to a dedicated burner out in the garage once I've cleared it out.

You're absolutely right about getting to know how my equipment works (so to speak ). I'm already making notes so next time should be better...

[Bigster]

Blimey tubs that font colour you used has corrected my short sightedness

[tubby_shaw]

Blimey tubs that font colour you used has corrected my short sightedness

Changed just for you Bigster

[Frothy]

I've been having problems with my 8.5kw burner being a tad too powerful. Ideally aim for 7-12% boil loss due to evaporation. Boil as hard as you like for the hot break but then turn it right down to a simmer for the hops.... you can lose hop bitterness and aroma if it's too fierce.

Frothy

[wooyay]

I was using the largest burner on my hob, but it's not a particularly powerful one (probably around 3kW) so it still took quite a while to get up to a rolling boil from sparging temperatures. I didn't really turn it down following the hot break mainly because it wasn't showing any signs of wanting to boil over. Thinking about it, the hot break certainly wasn't as exciting as it has been on previous mini-mash attempts, so maybe the burner's not up to the job.

One thing I'd forgotten to factor in is the amount of water absorption from the hops, so my actual evaporation from the boil may not be as bad as originally expected. Does anyone have any rough calculations of how much water is absorbed per, say, gram of hop? The recipe I used had 75g of vacuum packed hops and 30g of Chinook pellets (which I assume won't absorb in the same way).

[wooyay]

Okay, please forgive me if I'm asking obvious and/or stupid questions - I'm still on the learning curve...

After problems sourcing CO2, then connecting my regulator to a Corney, I was finally ready to keg this batch last night. I'd already cleaned the keg I'd got from Norm earlier this year and replaced all the O-rings so last night was just a case of swirling some Soda Crystal solution around followed by some Betadine and a couple of 20psi bursts to get a layer of CO2.

I used some 5/8" tube which fitted directly onto my FV tap which went into the Corney through the (removed) lid instead of doing it via the out dip tube since I didn't have the necessary tube to hand. Halfway through the transfer, it stopped filling (almost like there wasn't enough pressure to force the beer out of the FV) and I had to lift out the tube from the Corney (keeping it just below the beer level) to complete the transfer. Is this fairly common? The FV was higher than the Corney, but not by much. Perhaps it needs to be higher?

With the beer transferred, I gave it a burst of CO2 to 20psi, released the pressure and repeated. I then pressured the keg to 20psi (it's currently at room temperature) and turned off the CO2 cylinder. By this morning, the pressure had dropped to about 4psi so I topped it up to 10psi, turned the CO2 off again and went to work. Now, the pressure was showing 0psi, so I've topped it back up to 10psi and left the CO2 on. Are these drops likely to be caused by the CO2 being absorbed by the beer or does it show a leak? I have tried putting soapy water around the posts/lid and there was nothing obvious and I can't hear any gas escaping from the cylinder down to the keg. If the pressure drop is expected as the CO2 is absorbed, roughly how long does it take to stabilise (i.e. when can I remove the CO2 and know the keg will hold its pressure)?

As I said at the start, sorry if the questions are obvious.

Cheers!

[Vossy1]

Regards the gas W, I pressurise my corny's to 40 psi when first filled and the next day they are always at zero, so don't worry too much about that.

Even at o psi there is a lovely blanket of co2 over your beer anyway

My own personal preference is to keep my beer at 40 psi, then drop it to 10 just before tapping.

I keep it at 10 psi throughout it's brief tapped life

[wooyay]

Thanks guys. I'll have a look at the poppets to see if that helps, but if there is a layer of CO2 (possibly completely filling the space between the beer and the top), is there any cause for concern if the pressure's at 0psi for storage?

[wooyay]

I disconnected it from the gas so I could put it outside to keep cool overnight and when I looked this morning I noticed that the pressure in the gas hose had dropped from 10psi to 0. Reattached the keg, and it shot back up to just under 10psi. Looks like the keg's leak proof, but it's something along my gas line.

How good are the barbed fittings on Corney disconnects? The 3/8 tube fits on it nicely but I'm not convinced it's the best connection.

[Vossy1]

How good are the barbed fittings on Corney disconnects? The 3/8 tube fits on it nicely but I'm not convinced it's the best connection.

Get some of the JG quick disconnects W, that'll solve your problem
You just unscrew the barb attachment and replace with the JG one