DaaB wrote:Nice one Phil, did you have a lot of old hops you needed to use up or something
No, I've been buying up the stocks of fuggles and EKG whenever I've been to the shop in Farnborough for a while now. To tell the truth, I'd have used more hops if I'd had them but all I had in stock was what's in the recipe plus some northdown, target and a pack of cascade that I don't particularly like but thought I'd give them a go sometime.
Andy, you are welcome to come over and brew any time.
The brewday went well. Used my plate chiller for the first time. Cooled 11 gallons down to 28C in about 50 minutes. Not bad but I'd have liked it to go lower. I'll probably use it in cooperation with an IC and recirculate it next time.
Hit my numbers pretty well. CRS and DLS ensured mash pH of 5.2 through mash and sparge. 11 gallons at 1.070 in the fermenters. It makes the efficiency look good but actually I stuck a little more malt in than the recipe called for and stopped sparging at 1.025
I don't worry about efficiency these days, malt is cheap
The HERMS worked very well indeed. In fact better than I've seen it work since I made the single tier stand
The grain bed remained floating and didn't even begin to sink as can happen when you start recirculating.
I let the mash sit at 66C for an hour and a half then used the HERMS to raise the mash bed temperature to 72 for mash out. Worked like a charm
I've found that the HERMS is superfluous when you're mashing 16kg of grain. The thermal mass is so big you don't lose a single degree over the 90 minute mash time even without insulation. Best leave it be then use the HERMS for mash out and clarification
So there you have it, 11 gallons of IPA now cooling further in the chest freezer. When the wort gets down to 22C I'll pitch the yeast and aerate. Then all I have to do is wait until Christmas before drinking it
/Phil.
