The Holy Grail (Mk.V)

[charliemartin]

No, not the Monty Python film, but my own personal holy grail to brew a clone of the long gone Devanha XXX. I am sure every homebrewer has a particular beer they would like to clone or perfect and this is mine. I generally brew my own recipes, but this one is one I come back to from time to time. Unfortunately most of my previous attempts have been poor or spectacular fails due to infection or some such, to the point where I was beginning to think this beer is jinxed. So to brew it on the 13th of the month maybe wasn't the best idea.
The brewday went reasonably smoothly and I ended up with 22 litres @ 1.046, so liquored back to 24 litres @ 1.042. There was about a litre or so left in the copper with the hops, but not worth trying to recover.
There was a fly landed and stuck to the inside of my FV just before I ran the wort off into it, but hopefully the extra squirt of Starsan will stop any infection.
I used Graham Wheeler's Porter water profile for maltiness. Yeast was Mangrove Jack's Dark Ale. Fermenting @ 20C.

Devanha XXX Mk V

Date: 13th March 2017

Gyle Number: 61

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 6 lbs. 11.0 oz 3035 grams 77.5%
Torrefied Wheat 4 EBC 0 lbs. 11.7 oz 335 grams 8.6%
Crystal Malt 150 EBC 0 lbs. 10.8 oz 307 grams 7.9%
Roasted Barley 1350 EBC 0 lbs. 3.3 oz 94 grams 2.4%
Demerara Sugar 20 EBC 0 lbs. 5.0 oz 144 grams 3.7%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
EKG Whole 5.5 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 32 grams 68.1%
EKG Whole 5.5 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 15 grams 31.9%


Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 37.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 89 %
Bitterness: 19.70 EBU
Colour: 69 EBC

Homemade Hop Filter


Ready for the yeast


Gravity Reading

[Hanglow]

Bloody flies Hope the beer turns out ok

[chefgage]

Maybe the fly will be the magic ingredient

[charliemartin]

Maybe it will add a bit of "body" to the beer.

[SMASH3R]

Bugger. Flies. I've poured two full batches down the toilet that were only three or four weeks old due to one fruit fly in the first brew, and then thinking it was okay to harvest the healthy, vigorous yeast.

From now on, I always brew with an electronic fly swatter (the executioner pro from Amazon) and a can of fly spray. I would rather the slightest taint from RAID rather than pour 80 pints down the bog again. I also keep a UV electrified bug trap hung up in the brewing area so that if any of the critters do get in, hopefully they will be attracted to the light and get frazzled on the high voltage bars. It's surprising just how much I need to clean it out given that I never notice the insects in the house either now or before.

[wezzel01]

I've had the odd fruit fly in my fermenter but it never affected the brew. I certainly wouldn't chuck it away unless I was sure it was infected.


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[charliemartin]

Had a few infected brews recently, but they were down to my lax yeast handling. Been fine since I switched back to dry yeast. I brew outside so flies and wasps are a hazard. Electronic fly swatter comes in handy for sure.

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[Fuggled Mind]

I always brew outside. A few years ago, just after adding the final batch of hops (2 minutes of the boil to go), I noticed what I thought was a huge grain swirling around. After fishing it out, it turned out to be an enormous blue bottle. I decided to make the 2 minute hop addition a 5 minute hop addition instead. No idea how long the fly had been in there but it had no negative effect and it was a fairly decent beer. I shared a few - but didn't mention the fly.

And as for fruit flies - they really are a pain in summer.

Cheers

Jason

[WalesAles]

I always brew outside. A few years ago, just after adding the final batch of hops (2 minutes of the boil to go), I noticed what I thought was a huge grain swirling around. After fishing it out, it turned out to be an enormous blue bottle. I decided to make the 2 minute hop addition a 5 minute hop addition instead. No idea how long the fly had been in there but it had no negative effect and it was a fairly decent beer. I shared a few - but didn't mention the fly.

And as for fruit flies - they really are a pain in summer.

Cheers

Jason

FM,
You were lucky!
You could be `Fuggle Fly`.

WA

[charliemartin]

Last summer I was brewing outside and a wasp flew straight into my brew. Never did manage to fish it out, but reckon the hops and hop filter filtered it out. [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]. The beer was fine as far as I can recall.

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[chefgage]

Bugger. Flies. I've poured two full batches down the toilet that were only three or four weeks old due to one fruit fly in the first brew, and then thinking it was okay to harvest the healthy, vigorous yeast.

From now on, I always brew with an electronic fly swatter (the executioner pro from Amazon) and a can of fly spray. I would rather the slightest taint from RAID rather than pour 80 pints down the bog again. I also keep a UV electrified bug trap hung up in the brewing area so that if any of the critters do get in, hopefully they will be attracted to the light and get frazzled on the high voltage bars. It's surprising just how much I need to clean it out given that I never notice the insects in the house either now or before.

Seems a bit drastic to throw it all away over a little fly. Didnt some one on here have their cat fall into the fermenter and that brew turned out alright?

[wezzel01]

I think it was a rabbit


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