Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

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Meatymc
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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Meatymc » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:50 pm

Hi Wolf

Just wanted to chip-in on your comment about BIAB and added time. At the end of the mash I lift the grain (probably no more than 8KG normally) onto a large IKEA sieve (that sits on top of the pan) to drain whilst at the same time firing up the burner to heat up the wort. After 10 minutes draining into the pan I drop the whole bag into my top-up water to rinse the grain - again whilst the wort is being heated. Then after another 10/15 minutes, lift the bag out of the water onto the sieve to drain then the sieve/bag into a bucket out of the way. Top up the pan with the rinse water and that's it.

As the wort is being heated from the moment you 1st lift out the grain bag, there is no added time as far as I can see - I'd have thought the opposite.

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:31 pm

I've had to modify my process in order to minimise disruption on the use of the kitchen, so unfortunately I can't do that any more. I've still managed to reduce the time a bit though, basically by draining the bag into a bucket rather than into the boiler.

How I've started doing things now, I mas at one end of the room, as not much steam is given off during the mash. I then drain the wort away from the grain rather than lifting the bag, into a clean FV bucket. One bonus I've found with this, it seems to leave quite a lot of flour in the bottom of the boiler, that I can then get rid of rather than boiling it. I then lift the bag (another bonus, because I've drained the boiler the grain is lighter and I can lift it on my own...) and put it on a rack over my sparging bucket. I then move my boiler to the other end of the room, by the big cooker extractor hood, put the wort back in and set it to bring it to the boil. I then sparge the grain (I found dunk sparging alone less effective than this method), or my wife does, by slowly pouring (talking a trickle here) the sparge water over the grain in the bag (note I didn't say onto the bag, the bag is open whilst doing this, the water poured onto the top of the actual grain), letting it drain through until a trickle, then giving it a dunk and swish in the bucket, then lift back onto the cooling rack over the bucket to drain. Once it's reduced to a drip, we give it a small squeeze with a lid, then pour the top up liquid into the boiler.

Despite the whole draining the boiler to move it bit, it still shaved a good hour off my brew day... lol Mostly because nobody was wanting me to move so they could get at food etc. As I mentioned before, my brew day was slowed a lot by the need to brew AROUND normal family life and use of the kitchen. With this method only the boil is in that area. I also didn't have my wife coming in and meddling constantly with "try doing it like this instead".... lol

All I need to do now is tweak my start time so the boil occurs just after lunch time, and speed up the cooling of the wort after the boil (could be as simple as turning up the flow of the cold water from the outside tap that feeds my immersion cooler), and I'll be quite happy.

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Meatymc » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:01 pm

You're obviously having to work around a number of factors like many of us - whatever works best for you!

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:58 pm

Yup, so long as there is beer at the end of it eh? lol

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Meatymc » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:42 pm

Absolutely!!! :D

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Manngold » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:08 pm

Wolfen, temp control is very desired. It is probably the best thing I have done to improve my brews and was relatively inexpensive. I did it on the cheap. Picked up a free under the counter fridge from Gumtree/Freecycle. Purchased a inkbird temp control, a tube heater and asked the IT department at work for some computer fans. Cost me under £40 all in.

I managed to produce an excellent Cream Ale that was drunk in a single afternoon (40 pints!).

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Meatymc » Thu Jan 25, 2018 2:57 pm

Christ Manngold - must have been one hell of a hangover :wink:

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by Manngold » Thu Jan 25, 2018 6:19 pm

Meatymc wrote:
Thu Jan 25, 2018 2:57 pm
Christ Manngold - must have been one hell of a hangover :wink:
Haha. Disappointingly I only had a couple of pints of it. We do a shindig twice a year and normally get through about 90 - 120 pints for each one. There are a lot of us though (30 on average).

I will definitely do it again.

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:19 pm

It's top of our "Things to sort out once we've gotten rid of all the vivs and have room) list bud, even my wife agrees that we need a fermentation fridge (she wants a beer storing fridge too..lol). I suspect it's because some of her fave beers are German ones (Bitburger Pils been probably her main fave German beer) and Mexican ones, all of the ones she likes need lagering... Makes temp control an easy sell.

She really hates my wheat beer, so there's another win. lmao

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by orlando » Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:05 pm

What are vivs?
I am "The Little Red Brooster"

Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,

Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:28 pm

Sorry, short for vivaria. Glass ones in this case that used to house poison dart frogs. As you can imagine, they take up a LOT of space.

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by KevH » Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:19 am

A great thread, very useful with ideas to help tidy up my biab process. Is it wrong though, that from the last post i wondered whether wolf is actually Uncle Harvey?
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BIAB, working through Greg Hughes (GH) recipes to begin with.

Planning: Patersbier (extract version), Russian Imperial Stout. Turbo cider, IPA, Limoncello.
Fermenting: nothing.
Conditioning: GH American ipa (6.3%), GH Summer ale (3.8%), GH Oktoberfest (6.8%), Japanese Lager AG (4.9%)
Drinking: nowt.
Drunk: GH Czech Pilsner (6.4%); GH Winter Warmer (4.9%); GH Christmas Ale (5.25%), Coopers Wheat beer kit (4.7%)

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:58 am

It's probably more wrong that I don't know who Uncle Harvey is? lol I still keep tarantulas though, if this helps you to decide. lol

Since I started mixing about 21 litres reverse osmosis water with 4 litres of tap water (treated with campden, our tap water has a really high KH/CaCO3), and got my dough in and stirring right (I can't emphasise enough the need to really get the grain off the bottom of the bag whilst stirring), my efficiency has been really excellent. High efficiency means less grain needed, which means more wort into my FV.

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by KevH » Sat Feb 03, 2018 10:18 pm

Not too surprised that you're not sure who uncle Harvey is; i 'miss-remembered' him slightly from my youth; a great character from bbc2's the league of gentlemen. "In this house we do not use the 'F' word... This is a Toad!". Whenever i hear of frogs/toads i think of him, just like whenever i hear of the/a local shop, i think of tubs and edward. A misspent youth, some would say.
BIAB, working through Greg Hughes (GH) recipes to begin with.

Planning: Patersbier (extract version), Russian Imperial Stout. Turbo cider, IPA, Limoncello.
Fermenting: nothing.
Conditioning: GH American ipa (6.3%), GH Summer ale (3.8%), GH Oktoberfest (6.8%), Japanese Lager AG (4.9%)
Drinking: nowt.
Drunk: GH Czech Pilsner (6.4%); GH Winter Warmer (4.9%); GH Christmas Ale (5.25%), Coopers Wheat beer kit (4.7%)

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Re: Detectives Ale - A bit of a mystery (AG #5)

Post by wolfenrook » Mon Feb 05, 2018 10:59 am

Ahhh I see. I couldn't stand the league of gentlemen, so that'd be why it was unfamiliar. Closest I got was old episodes of Big Bang Theory where a character named a canister of liquid nitrogen Uncle Harvey... lol But yeah, we had fire bellied toads too. ;) We most definitely use the 'F' word though, just not around our kids, or my mother in law.... :D

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