AG#4: Mongrel Brown Ale [now with pics!]

[monkeyboy]

first brew day for a little while. Fancied something maltier than my recent brews, so started off thinking 'mild' but that morphed into some kind of mongrel American Brown Ale. So with the kids dispatched to school and nursery, the boiler goes onto get the mash water up to strike temp.
First, the recipe. Nothing too fancy.

Grain Bill (g)
Pale Malt 5300
Crystal malt 400
Chocolate malt 50
Torrified Wheat 100

Hops
Cascade 10g 75min
Willamette 10g 75min
Cas 10g/Will 10g /Fugg 10g 20min
Cas 10g/Will 10g /Fugg 10g 10min

IBU ~27
EBC ~43
ABV ~5.6
Expected OG: 1057

So the mash start off well. Water in, cools to strike temp, in goes the grain. Smells fabulous as always. Then, just at about the time i'd be starting to heat the sparge water, there's a knock on the door. 'Scottish Power, Sir. We've come to change your meters. You'll have had a notice about it.' Ah, yes, that will be the notice i saw this morning. Oh good. No power for an indefinite period. Great. No big deal - the mash will be fine. Powe back on about 40 minutes later, so i'm not that far behind schedule. Sparge completed, it's time to get the boiler on. Just coming to the boil and there's a funny click. 10 minutes later i realise the temperature is dropping, not rising... that's not good. Fuse? Replace fuse. Still no boil. Hmm. Bugger. Quick phonecall to shop and the guy advises me that it's probably that the element isn't spotlessly clean. Clean? You mean i have to clean it?! Oh bollocks. Now i've got 26l of 90 degree sticky brown liquid between me and that element. This could be a trip to ER if i screw it up. And that's ignoring the problem of oxidation by splashing hot wort around. What other options do i have? Hmm. I suppose i could clean out that old metal bin and then try to stick that on top of my old camping stove... Fortunately sanity prevails, and i pour it all out into a FV. Half an hour later, having scrubbed the element with a toothbrush til i can see my face in it, the boil is back on.
Ok, i'm starting to relax now. Got my checklist. Hops in, protafloc in, IC in, more hops. Only about 2 hours delayed. Not bad. Into FV. Great. Pitch rehydrated yeast. Stir it up with my sanitised spoon. Job Done. Notice temp on FV. 34 degrees. Oh ********! Note to self: check temp *before* pitching yeast. sigh. So i've probably killed the yeast, and will have to do that bit again.

[Edit]In my frazzled state i forgot to mention that the hose came off my IC. Seems i didn't kill the yeast - definitely fermenting away. Got massive break material with this one.

And now, the pics.

Obligatory Grain shot


Mash underway


Wrapped up warm.


First runnings from the mash tun


Some kind of industrial sludge in my beer!


Boiling, finally


Into FV. Was lovely and clear.


Fermenting. Woo hoo!

[floydmeddler]

Very nice. How long did it take altogether?

[Naich]

Lovely piccies. Shame it was so stressful, but at least it turned out OK in the end. What sort of yeast was it? Something like S04 or US05 is pretty bulletproof and as long as it's not fermenting for too long at that temperature you should be OK.

[monkeyboy]

US05. And it seems to have survived. It was a chilly day up here, so the temp dropped reasonably quickly. Phew!
I started heating the mash water at 8:30 and got it into the FV at 4:30. Probably not that long compared to some others, was just conscious of getting close to school pickup time... All a learning experience - now i'll be cleaning my heating element after every brew!