Recipe was a tweaked version of the SNPA from Northern Brewer - a recipe I used to brew a lot, so I thought it would help in dialling in the new system.
Mash went OK using my hermit-based HERMS - right up until the point my thermometer sensor broke. Not sure what the issue is yet, but I stopped getting readings at about 40 minutes into the mash, which wasn't really a total disaster as I mash in a cooler anyway, and most of the conversion was likely done already.
Interestingly I got full 3L more out of the tun than Beersmith said I would. Obviously more work required on my equipment profile there (made a new one from scratch, having lost the old one), or else I cocked up my water volume measurements.
The real test today was going to be the new kettle and induction hob, a 10 gallon Brewtech SS and Buffalo 3KW burner. I was fairly confident having trialled with water earlier, but nonetheless I was really pleased with the results. Induction brewing is amazing! Clean, quiet, cheap and totally and immediately controllable. I flogged my 70L kettle, mongolian burner and stand before heading back to the UK, as I couldn't transport the gas bottles and the cost of a brew day was getting silly (maybe 1/4 the total cost in bottled gas alone). Brewing on the induction cost maybe 50p today, and just in case anyone needs convincing this is 31 litres on the rolling boil, lid off with 13C ambient temps:
Having said that, my predicted boil off was totally wrong - I went for 4L per hour (being a little less than the 6L I used to get), but got about 2. So its a very decent boil, but not absolutely raging - and I guess the pot also has quite a lot less surface area than my old one.
Also had to try out my new ebay immersion chiller, which worked very well - got me down to 20C in about 25 minutes. It's only a 27 footer but I think its enough, at least at this time of the year with 13C tap water (I had 30C tap water in Aus - nightmare for chilling). Pic is of chiller sanitising in the boil:
Got a pretty decent cold break, but I wonder if I should have put a whole protofloc in 30 litres instead of just a half - any thoughts?
Ended up missing my numbers by quite a lot - aiming for 1053 I got 1045, which is down to the higher vol pre-boil and less boil off. I knew this would be a calibration brew, but I guess this will attenuate a little lower so it should still be a drinkable 4.7% or so. All in all, pretty happy and very, very happy with the hob and kettle.
Recipe:
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 31.04 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.04 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 l
Bottling Volume: 22.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 12.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 33.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.98 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 83.6 %
0.72 kg Caramel Malt - 10L (Briess) (19.7 EBC) Grain 2 12.1 %
0.22 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 3.6 %
0.04 kg Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118 Grain 4 0.7 %
10.91 g Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 15.6 IBUs
14.88 g Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 9.4 IBUs
0.93 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
34.72 g Cascade [6.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 8.7 IBUs
53.33 g Cascade [6.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
Any brewers in the Chichester area??
(and I've been back 3 years..)