Forum Bitter take 2

Vossy1 · Oct 1, 2008

It can mean only one thing :party:

Mash on

PID sensor left, roving probe in mash right..pretty good

Nice clear re-circ
More to follow :thumb:

I almost got the strike right this time. 73.3 deg c gave me 65.7 in the mash, target 66, but the HERMS soon rectified that

The mash is slightly acidic this time, about Ph 5... I reckon, I have no idea why :hmm: , I used the same salt additions as previous bitters...anyway it's close enough for me

Wez · Oct 1, 2008

Nice one V :thumb:

Have a great brewday :party:

BrewStew · Oct 1, 2008

looks good mate :thumb:

MEB · Oct 1, 2008

Your super dooper shiny set-up makes my nipples hard.

DRB · Oct 1, 2008

:thumb:

Vossy1 · Oct 1, 2008

The runnings

The boil

Recircing a saniclean solution though the cfc (white hoses) whilst rinsing the HERSMS (green hoses)

After the cfc has been cleaned and sanitised with saniclean, I flush it through with boiling water before recircing wort through it for the last 10 minutes of the boil

Pumping to FV

60ltr target plus 1/2 ltr yeast/starter

Good cold break

I've made a major cock up on this batch somewhere, resulting in a full 12 gravity points under target :evil: ...1st really big cock up

I'm trying to decide how to rectify it :hmm: possibly Golden Syrup
On another note, I think there may be a printing error on the new saniclean labels. On my old bottle it says 1/2 to 1oz per 3 gallons of water, on the new bottle it says 1/2 to 1 oz per gallon :hmm: :wha:

I reckon adding 2.4kg of syrup will change the recipe taste....we'll see, but I reckon I've just counted myself out of the forum brewday :cry:

Ian · Oct 1, 2008

Sorry to hear you were 12 points off - did you work out how it happened?

Vossy1 · Oct 1, 2008

No idea at all, I'm working on it.
I added 2.4kg of Golden Syrup so the brew should still be a good'un

Morebeer have just got back to me and it is a mis-print on the new Saniclean labels.
The correct ratio is 1/2 to 1 oz per 3 US gallons :thumb:

A T · Oct 2, 2008

Great pics Vossy, sorry to hear about the efficiency

steve_flack · Oct 2, 2008

Vossy1 said:
I've made a major cock up on this batch somewhere, resulting in a full 12 gravity points under target :evil: ...1st really big cock up
I'm trying to decide how to rectify it :hmm: possibly Golden Syrup
On another note, I think there may be a printing error on the new

Got any DME?

Edit: I see you've done the Golden Syrup already....

Did you misweigh the pale malt. It's pretty easy to underweigh by a kilo - especially when doing it in multiple jugs/buckets etc.

Oblivious · Oct 2, 2008

Great setup you have their Vossy1

Vossy1 · Oct 3, 2008

Cheers chaps

Got any DME?

Edit: I see you've done the Golden Syrup already....

I did have DME, but TBH, I prefer the taste imparted by golden syrup :roll:

Did you misweigh the pale malt. It's pretty easy to underweigh by a kilo - especially when doing it in multiple jugs/buckets etc.

I weighed the malts, and swimbo came in from work as I was weighing the last batch out. I think I've definately made an error weighing somewhere.
The brew was meant to be 1.047 and I got 1.035...which is just plain silly. I originally formulated the recipe to 75% efficiency, but due to a very high previous batch efficiency I scaled it to 82%.
I then removed the excess grain from the bucket from the previously weighed 75% jobby
I'm wondering if I wrote the 82% figures down, inputted them to beersmith with my default efficiency at 75% and then rescaled to 82% :hmm:

The brews also been very slow to kick off fermenting. I pitched 500ml of WLP023 washed slurry and 24 hours later nothing :cry:
I then pitched a 500ml starter of WLP023 (I just bunged excess wort into the bottle that had the slurry in it to see if it took.....it did).
Today the temp of the wort has steadily risen from 19.5 deg c to 19.8 deg c, room ambient 16 deg c
I watched the fv for a bit and yeasty particles are flying about, but no airlock activity as yet.

I know there can be a lag phase in yeast activity from pitched slurries of up to 20 hours, but when should you expect to see airlock activity (assuming the fv is air tight sealed)?

steve_flack · Oct 3, 2008

Vossy1 said:
when should you expect to see airlock activity (assuming the fv is air tight sealed)?

The last thing is the big assumption.

There will be a bit of a lag in CO2 appearing as the CO2 only comes out when the wort is saturated with it. If you're seeing yeast zip around then chances are there's a leak somewhere.

Vossy1 · Oct 3, 2008

The last thing is the big assumption.

Yep it was

At 3am this morning I had 3 bubbles a second and some yeast had escaped from the side of a bung used to fill a hole in the lid :roll:

I reckon the yeast reached the bung which sealed it and now I have activity :party:
I relly need to stop worrying about my beer :lol:

delboy · Oct 3, 2008

Vossy1 said:
I did have DME, but TBH, I prefer the taste imparted by golden syrup

I like it too vossy, but the crippling headache the next day isn't much fun. Does anyone else notice this with golden syrup??

A T · Oct 3, 2008

I never used it but as one of the chosen ones who doesn't suffer from hang overs (unless red bull is force fed) i might just try a bit

Vossy1 · Oct 7, 2008

I like it too vossy, but the crippling headache the next day isn't much fun. Does anyone else notice this with golden syrup??

I'm not sure :hmm: ...let me re-phrase that. I only ever used to get really bad hangovers when I was a twenty something and drinked Pedigree by the bucketload. I don't know if it contains it, but to me now...it tastes like it might.
Having said that my homebrew stuff with it doesn't give me a bad head :wha:

Vossy1 · Oct 7, 2008

Well, I've calmed down enough to post a little bit more about this 'brew from hell' :evil:

I pitched an entire 023 washed yeast cake into this brew. It was at the same temp as the wort when pitched. I had a initial fermentation after 48 hours, the yeast head hitting the top of the fv and then it sub sided.
5 days later I took a hydro reading expecting lowish figures and got 1.035 :shock: :wha: :cry: :evil:
I put some leftover wort on brew day, into the bottle that contained the yeast cake and it kicked off straight away :hmm:

So, 36g of S04 to the rescue on Monday morning, Monday night 1.030.
I'm about to take another reading now...if you hear a scream followed by a lot of swearing ....you'll know what it is :lol:

Aleman · Oct 7, 2008

Sounds like the 023 decided to sit on top of the wort and laugh at you

Give it a good beating with a whisk (the yeast head not the wort) and it sinks back and does the job . . . Funniest thing I saw was Phil doing it with one of his 2.5BBL FV's for beer . . . and a F*cking big whisk

Vossy1 · Oct 7, 2008

Sounds like the 023 decided to sit on top of the wort and laugh at you

:lol: :lol:

I had wondered if the cold break when settling, might have dragged the yeast to the bottom of the fv, and whether this could affect the yeasts activity :hmm:

FWIW, it's dropped to 1.023, so another 7 points since last night. There's a slight toffee aroma to the trial sample. I hope this has come from me boiling the Golden Syrup prior to adding it to the fv, as opposed to infection.
There's a really harsh taste to the wort and a very soapy one (I use no detergents in my brew day).

I am really tempted to bin this brew and start again :cry:

Forum Bitter take 2

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

Landlord.

Landlord.

Regular.

Landlord.

New Member

Landlord.

Active Member

Landlord.

Regular.

Regular.

Regular.

Landlord.

Regular.

Landlord.

Active Member

Regular.

Landlord.

Landlord.

Regular.

Landlord.

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!