Brewing Again

[Scooby]

My summer stocks of homebrew are long gone and I have been enjoyed trying a variety of bottled beer through the latter part of the summer, but the time has come to get brewing again.

I have collected 25kg of MO from West Berks Brewery so ready to go. I prefer fairly simple grist and hop schedules so tomorrow the first brew of the season will be Townes IPA from Mark Olloson book. I’ve altered the grist to my efficiency and played with the hop schedule a bit.

5015g MO
205g Wheat malt

40g Cascade 5.9AA All of boil
25g Cascade 5.9AA 60min
25g Cascade 5.9AA 35min
20g Cascade 5.9AA 15min
30g Cascade 5.9AA In Hop back

OG: 1.045 IBU: 40 Colour: 8.3EBC

I’ll use my usual extended mash of 3hrs or so and batch sparge.

Over the last week I have been nurturing a yeast starter lifted from a couple of bottles of Summer Lightening, I drank all but 150ml from each and added 500ml of wort at 1.047 I had in the freezer to get it off to a nice steady start, then added another 1l a couple of days latter when it was going.

I did think about replacing my CFC with a plate chiller to make my set-up more compact, but all the negative comments on the forum put me off, it would have been change for change sake really.

I have replaced my hop back for a larger one though as I'd like to try larger amounts in it, the new one is a 1.3l rectangular lock and lock as the large cylindrical one I tried first leaked, the rectangular one has much larger locking points.

[Vossy1]

Good luck with the brew Scooby

[oblivious]

Looks good, I would change the Cascade’s at 35min and 15min to 26g at 15, 5 and 1 min additions to really lets the cascade come through


Also very nice to dry hop

hope it goes well

[prodigal2]

Great to see you back brewing Scooby

[Scooby]

Wehey, Scooby's back

Hope you have a good one, the rectangular box you describe sounds similar to the one I am contemplating using although I was a little concerned it might have been a little too big.

Does the hop back generally replace all the additions after switch off (including dry hopping ?)

I don't think it will be to big DaaB, the hops swell up and I felt the other hop back at 430ml was a bit constricting, they should swirl around in the wort more now plus I can make larger additions. IIRC it is about the same size as Rabs proportionately taking in to account his batch size.

I did stop making additions at switch off, my reasoning being that they suffer from evaporation but the hop back does the same thing without that problem. You do of course have to use a CFC and I know you like to IC and filter out the break, I just dump it from the bottom valve of the conical.

I did occasionally dry hop but never have with the hop back, I find it adds flavour and aroma maybe not as much aroma as dry hopping but with the increased size and the capability of larger additions I'm sure I will see improvements there.

Looks good, I would change the Cascade’s at 35min and 15min to 26g at 15, 5 and 1 min additions to really lets the cascade come through

I'm new to multiple late additions and just experimenting at the moment so I may just try that oblivious .

Thanks all for the welcome, it feels good to be brewing again and just as good to be back posting with you all

[Scooby]

Cheers Scoob', i'm contemplating a hop back to serve as a filter for my plate chiller. Good point on the hops swelling...it's off to Morrisons to buy their clip and lock copy (I wouldn't know where to buy the real think locally or in town either).

Good thinking regarding the filter, you should be able to stop all but the smallest particles with a decently designed filter in there. (No doubting that with you DaaB)

The copies I've seen look identical but much cheaper

[Scooby]

Hop backs seem to be the simplest most hygienic method of fine particulate filtration.

So are we adding FPFHB to our acronym list

[brewsters millionths]

'clip and lock'

[Scooby]

'clip and lock'

Food storage containers in various shapes and sizes.

[oblivious]

very nice Scooby

[Scooby]

very nice Scooby

That's the old one oblivious, I'll have a pic of the new one when I brew tomorrow. (Same fitting just different shape and bigger).

BTW hop schedule now;

50g all boil
35g 60 min
25g 10min
20g 5min
30g hop back

[J_P]

Good to have you back Scooby

[Scooby]

Good to have you back Scooby

Cheers J_P, just sanitising, er blowing the cobwebs off the equipment ready for the morning

[J_P]

I'll keep an eye out for your update tomorrow

[Scooby]

I'm looking forward to seeing the hop back and how it compares to my idea

Jez, I better burn the midnight oil getting it up to standard then