Back to Basics Challenge!

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What do we do with the finished results (whos judging who wins the challenge)

I've designed a label already, with the brew happening tomorrow or thursday!

Heres the label:
backtobasics.jpg
 
That's friggin awesome!!! My fav film of all time :D

We need an independant judge :hmm:

Edit: Brew update

This has fermented down to 1018 now so i've chucked it into the secondary Fv. Good old S-04 has pulled all the trub and break down to the bottom, very clear beer already. and smells like no other beer at all, it's a very sweet smell like toffee or honey. I had a drink out of the left over out of the jug. I'm considering doing this larger scale! with no scales of course!
 
Cheers MD!! The Back to the future label had to be done!!

Here was the plan:

Used 1 bag 1kg of Pale Malt
200g of Munich Malt (what I had left so aprox 200g)
Hand full or so of Roasted Barley
Hand full or so of Choc Malt
Pinch of Black Malt

about 5g of EKG and about 5g of Progress at 60min
same again at 15min to go!

My cunning plan of using the slow cooker/rice cooker to mash the grains didn't work as the tests I did in it yesterday did not hold the tempature :roll: so reverted to sticking a pan full of hot water and grains into the oven

Brew Done!! Heres the proof!


DSC_1783.jpg

Heating the water

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Dough in!

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Into the oven

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The oven is suited to brewing temps :party:

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Run off

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Spent Grains

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Boil

DSC_1791.jpg

Cold break!

and its still cooling now before th S-04 treatment!! :thumb:

And the spent grain is now becoming bread!
 
Some great posts!

I have to get mine done soon.

As for the judge, i'll have a think but how about we all post one bottle to one independant judge, as mentioned by MD?
 
bones said:
Bones Crimbo Brew :cheers:

600g pale malt
10g chocolate malt

Hops:
10g first gold 90 mins
5g 15 min
irish moss

Nott yeast

Target: 5 pints@ 1042
P1010264.jpg

Load Mash Tun
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Mash Tun To Bed
P1010268.jpg

Mash Strainer
P1010269.jpg

Gravity System
P1010267.jpg

First Gold
P1010270.jpg

Spent Grain
P1010271.jpg

Boil
P1010272.jpg

Cold Break
P1010273.jpg

Hop Stainer
P1010274.jpg

Bit Cloudy

I must say at mo don't taste great....

But we'll leave that to the judge
 
Love the heat exchange MD, is it one of Charlie Dimmocks water features, you had "Ground Force" in??
 
Well the boil for the Effin Back to Basics brew is underway, and around an hour to go.

I chose one of the Durden park recipes (No 93. Ushers Stout), and went back to the original brewing ledgers which gave the recipe in Quarters of malt and hops in lb per barrel (Converting to metric measurements (A Quarter is 8 Bushels and a Bushel is 8 Gallons) and reducing down for a 1 gallon brew length gave me the recipe as.

1.1L Pale malt
325ml Pale Amber Malt (Which I home roasted last night)
250ml Black Patent Malt
125ml of Amber, Brown and Crystal (Each)

And a damn big handful (~40g) of 2008 Home Grown Fuggles

This is going to be an interesting one for me, Utilised the steamer for a mash tun, then the basket of the steamer as a lauter tun, and the pressure cooker as the copper . . . no I'm not pressure cooking the wort . . . although that would give me a higher hop extraction, and a much better hot break :hmm: . . . . . :nono: :nono: :nono:

Pictures will follow of the whole process
 
OK as promised the picies.

First off the recipe calls for Pale Amber malt . . . This is nothing like amber malt of today . . . even diastatic amber does not come close. So the only way to make it is to roast your own. Malt in a baking tray into an oven at 110C for 30 minutes to drive out any moisture . . . then raise to 150C for 30 minutes . . . . Then start checking the doneness . . . crack open a few corns and if the colour of the majority is just slightly darker than those of pale malt its done.

PaleAmberMalt.jpg


The mash . . . The stock pot of the steamer is just a bit small for this at 4L, I should add I also used the famous elbow thermometer . . . and if you can just keep your elbow in the water its about at mash temp 65C

Mash.jpg


And into the oven to keep it warm for 90 minutes

MaintainTemp.jpg


I then transferred the mash to one of the steamer baskets and allowed it to drain into the copper. I then did a single batch sparge with 2.5L of water, and again allowed it to drain.

Sparging.jpg


The lovely hops from the garden - grown in 2008, and having been stored in vacuum and in the freezer smelling really great.

Hops.jpg


And a good rolling boil

RollingBoil.jpg


and Finally crash cooling . . . When cool I'll transfer it to a demijohn and pitch yeast . . . probably Nottingham

Cooling.jpg


I ended up with 4L of wort at 1.??? and ??? IBU . . . Its dark and bitter :lol:

I guess by taking part I've excluded myself from being the impartial judge :evil: Oh and I apologise for the use of Shiny . . . you can make perfectly good beer with plastic :lol:
 
Love it :thumb:

My brew is going to happen in the few days between Christmas and New Year :cool:
 
Wez said:
My brew is going to happen in the few days between Christmas and New Year :cool:
:P Yeah, Yeah, Yeah . . . Heard it all before . . . . I'll believe it when I've tasted it :lol:

For what its worth Mine appears to have finished after only 36 hours fermenting . . . but then if you pitch enough yeast it will do that and 11.5g of SO4 in 4L of wort is about enough :lol: . . . I'm off next week and might just do a 50L batch of Oatmeal stout, to repitch the yeast slurry

Finished.jpg


And I'll be honest with everyone, this has been the most fun I've had brewing for ages :shock:, absolutely fun with no worries about temperature, flow rates, pH or any of the other myriad factors I put into a normal 18 Gallon session

Thanks for the idea Wez . . . Back to Basics it may be, but it did remind me that brewing is supposed to be fun . . . :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Right come on then We need an answer on who's going to be the impartial judge I know tubby said that he was will to do it, and aleman has brewed himself out of it. I'm looking at posting out alot of beer fist week of jan, forum brew has to go out as well as some stout , and this caveman brew!
I want answers!
 
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