Brew Day - 20/08/07

[BarrowBoy]

Following on from this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=6439

I've put together this for brewing Monday:

Bluebird Challenger
23 ltrs

OG 1040 (@85% efficiency)
A,B.V. 3.7% (75% attenuation)

Pale (Otter) 3.300
Crystal 0.170
Torrefied Wheat 0.150

Challenger (6.5%) 40 gms (90 mins)
Challenger (6.5%) 10 gms (15 mins)
Challenger (6.5%) 10 gms (steeping)

IBU - 37 (I've ignored the effect of the last 20 gms)

Yeast US-05

1tsp salt in boil
1 Whirlfloc 10 mins from end

I'll try to post some pics.

Does that look reasonable? Any views and thoughts welcome.

[oblivious]

Hope it goes well to day

[dartgod]

I hate having all my fermenters full......I want to brew too
HAVE A GOOD BREWDAY

[oblivious]

I hate having all my fermenters full......I want to brew too
HAVE A GOOD BREWDAY

Poor you

[roger the dog]

Have a good one BB

[Wez]

Have a good day!

[prodigal2]

Have a great brew day there BarrowBoy, I will hopefully be doing this sometime this week.
I see you are trying out Ross's suggestion of adding salt to improve the hop flavour, I to will be giving that a try on this brew.
This should be a great session beer, I can't wait to brew it myself.

I will be using some yeast I got from my local micro on this one, so it will be interesting to see how the differing yeasts behave

[BarrowBoy]

Thanks for the good wishes one and all.

I see you are trying out Ross's suggestion of adding salt to improve the hop flavour, I to will be giving that a try on this brew.
This should be a great session beer, I can't wait to brew it myself.

I will be using some yeast I got from my local micro on this one, so it will be interesting to see how the differing yeasts behave

I note that Dave Line recommends adding salt to the liquor but mainly for stouts/brown ales. An interesting experiment. And it was Ross who convinced me to try the US-05 which I've never tried before. Got to say the yeast I used from my local MB in my last brew (the Wadsworth 6X clone) really seems to have been a belter.

Anyway, I was going to post some pics - they're in the camera but now the batteries are flat so I'll have to post them later and I can't take any more.

Brew got off to a bad start last night (as always) - I was trying to crack some wholegrain torrefied wheat with the end of a rolling pin in my favourite mixing/measuring bowl and succeeded in cracking the whole of the bowl - it's now useless.

Got started about 9.00 and the mash is now on at a temperature of 66C. For the first time I also checked the mash ph and it was pretty close; perhaps erring on the high side at 5.4. I'd treated 30 litres of liquor with 1tsp Gypsum, half tsp Epsom salts and a good half sodium met tablet overnight.

At least, for once, I know I've not forgotten to fit the strainers in the mash tun and the boiler - that makes a refreshing change.

[BarrowBoy]

Also last night - I was filling my liquor tank in the kitchen by way of a hose from outside and just adding the gypsum. The hose slipped out of the tank, I went to grab it, gypsum flew everywhere and mixed with the water now soaking the carpet.

At this moment SWMBO happened to be passing the kitchen door (why does that always happen) and you could here the 'tuts' down the street.

[BarrowBoy]

Hmm, don't know what went wrong today but I've come out with considerably less than I expected or, rather, a much weaker brew than I planned because I topped the wort before pitching up to the 23 ltr volume and ended up at 1034 - it was supposed to be nearer 1040.

This could be down to:
1) poor sparging - 1st runnings had an OG around 1060 but they quickly dropped. I think early on I let the runnings flow too quickly resulting in more compressed grist. I managed to squeeze 30 ltrs out of it but it was getting close to 1006 by that time.
2) I lost a lot to hops and trub - more than usual I think. I used a Whirlfloc tablet - which was great because it threw out a lot of trub - but the wort ran much more slowly than normal.

Anyway, the yeast (made with a starter bottle as per Jim's technique) is now pitched so I'll see what happens. But a couple of lessons learnt on this one.

[iowalad]

Your not homebrewing if there aren't bumps in the road and people upset with you for water being everywhere!

Look forward to how this one turns out.

[prodigal2]

Bit of back luck on the OG there BarrowBoy.
With my batch sparging for a 1,044 ale I have been working on a factor of 200grms of malt per litre on brew length, so I think about 185grms should about hit target. Well for my systeme that is.

So have you sorted some batteries out for the camera yet?

[BarrowBoy]

A bit down in the dumps yesterday but this morning I came down to the US-05 doing its stuff - a lovely clean yeast cap - so, what the heck, I'll just go with it and see how it turns out. It'll just be a very sessionable beer.

Prodigal2 - the pics would be very boring - one of the grain sat in the (broken) bowl; doughing in; and a load of blankets under which the tun was hiding. Even last year's holiday snaps would be more rivetting.....well, maybe not.

[dartgod]

Hmm, don't know what went wrong today but I've come out with considerably less than I expected or, rather, a much weaker brew than I planned because I topped the wort before pitching up to the 23 ltr volume and ended up at 1034 - it was supposed to be nearer 1040.

This could be down to:
1) poor sparging - 1st runnings had an OG around 1060 but they quickly dropped. I think early on I let the runnings flow too quickly resulting in more compressed grist. I managed to squeeze 30 ltrs out of it but it was getting close to 1006 by that time.
2) I lost a lot to hops and trub - more than usual I think. I used a Whirlfloc tablet - which was great because it threw out a lot of trub - but the wort ran much more slowly than normal.

Anyway, the yeast (made with a starter bottle as per Jim's technique) is now pitched so I'll see what happens. But a couple of lessons learnt on this one.

If you didn't give your wort time to incorporate the top off water your low SG reading could of been from topping off......I've had this happen several times even after a good stirring......now if I top off I stir several times over a twenty or so minute span and then take a new SG reading and it's usually 4-6 points higher.......

[dartgod]

I wanted to add a little bit to my last post.......the reason that happens is that the wort is heavier than the water and the water will tend to float on top of the wort until the mixture equalizes.....you can do an experiment to see this.......take 3 cups of water and add 1/2 cup of sugar and mix it till all the sugar is dissolved and then take a 1/3 of a cup of water and put some food coloring in it and then gently pour it into the sugar water down the side of the container and you will clearly see the water with the food coloring floating on top of the sugar water.......to make it easier on you, you can take a pre-boil SG reading for the amount you are boiling.....say 7 gal for a 5.25 gal batch.....(I'm going off my recipe).....according to BeerSmith (the software I use) my pre-boil gravity should be 1.041 (75% efficiency) at 7 gal I check to make sure I have 7 gal and take a sample and cool it.....check my SG and it reads 1.042.....everything is good so far......after boiling all I have to do is make sure that I have 5.25 gallons in my fermenter and my SG will be 1.055......it read 1.055....so I'm good to go but I didn't need to take the reading because I knew it would be right from my pre-boil SG reading.....I've done this about 10 times now and it's always corresponds with my pre-boil reading.....now my efficiency may vary some but this is a plus also. If your pre-boil gravity reading is off (on the low side) you can always add some DME to bump it up.....hope this helped.....