Back to Basics Challenge!

I have gotten an answer out of Wez now, but I'm posting as he can't type at the moment :rofl:

All beers are to be posted to Tubby shaw before the end of Feb, if you want feedback on the brews.
Pm him for the address

And any beer that reaches him early will be drank early so I am told

My back to basics brew is underway mashing at the moment, full post and pics to follow :thumb:

FIRE & ICE

Back to Basics Brew

Since the idea was conceived in chat i'd been looking forward to doing this.

I decided to brew an Oatmeal Stout using my chimanea for heat and the snow to cool, hence Fire & Ice Oatmeal Stout.

I thank Muddydisco for the inspiration for the use of a chimanea and also for the huge bag of wood he brought to my house this morning to burn. :thumb:

The plan was to toast the Oats for an hour at 180c however much to our suprise when I tipped what I thought was oats into the scales dish....there were raisins in there.....ah! Thats Museli then! After a quick think about it, MD encouraged me to press on, fruit an all.

So here we go...

The grains ready to go:



Todays Brewery:



Grains mixed and in a muslin bag:



Hair Bobble helper:



Brewers Assistant:



Heating the mash liquor:



Mash Liquor Ready:



Grains in:



And mixed:



All doughed in :



Covered up :



Nice and snug :



Drain & Sparge :



Try as I might this would not go above 95c - it was -1c outside



So, it was brought inside and put on the stove, here are the hops going in :



Nice Rolling Boil:



Why waste the snow?......good wort cooler eh?


An attempt to filter out the 'break'


Into the demi:


Jasper was mostly a nob head all day today, here he is post brew sleeping on a sack of malt:


That was a 100% enoyable brewday, it served to remind me why we do certain things during a brew, and I hope it shows anyone who thinks all grain is complicated that......it isn't I mean come on, Me & Jasper can do it!

Fantastic :clap: :clap: :clap:
Love everything about this brew :thumb:

Hey hey hey, don't put it all down on me! Your mrs had mixed the oats and Museli, and it was more oats than museli, I only agreed with Mrs Wez that you should try it!! :lol:

Talking of the brew, Mines been bottled for a while now so I thought I'd sample one before Tubby has one :thumb:
It's no where near a old english ale more like a RIS, it's blacker than a Black hole it's full of body so much you can chew it. And It never conditioned in the bottle so it's flatter than a witches tit. The taste is ......... Undescribable................. I hope Tubby can make sense of it :rofl:
It may get better with some time to age it ..................say around 12 months it is a 7% Ris after all!

Somehow I missed your pics in this thread md, equally impressive brew day :clap:

I fancy having a pop at this :hmm:

Brilliant Wez, great photos. :thumb:

"Jasper was mostly a nob head all day today, here he is post brew sleeping on a sack of malt"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Excellent post Wez, very good :thumb:

Nice pics Wez, did you get any strange looks from the neighbours when you lit the wood burner....ie.. "Has Mr.Wez finally cracked up"??

John

Cheers guys, yeah I think the neighbours wondered what the hell I was up to.

Beer is fermenting well this morning

Great pics wez, they do the running chat commentry justice!

In fact its enough to make a humble kit brewer have a go.....

Count me in :party:...will update as I go along :thumb:

The grist, mash water and doughed in


In the oven for an hour...dodgy oven cuts out below 130 deg f (but nowhere near 130) so having to regulate by keeping the door slightly open Heating up sparge liquor, and topping up mash for batch sparge 1



Stirring batch 1 after liquor top up, Straining batch 1 through cheese cloth into runnings collecting bucket. Cheese cloth rapidly got blocked so for batch 2 I had to filter through a sieve to get the runnings



The hops, the boil, cooling in the sink



The hot and cold breaks...looks like casserole :lol: funnel sieve and trying to use hops to filter break...unsuccessfully sparging the hops...I've never done this before and was surpised how much sugary goodness they held :shock:



The demi got a full packet of US-05....one of my packets...all 20g of it :shock:
It was fermenting within 15 minutes and you can see in the picture below the break didn't even get time to settle, before the yeast was dragging it upwards :lol:

Good lad :thumb:

Go V go !

Hope you have as much fun as I did

Ere! Someones cheating and using a thermometer thingy . . . . :twisted:

Wez said:

A reminder of the rules:

All Grain only
Any Beer Style you like
1 to 6 Litres final volume
Any Malts allowed
Any Hops allowed
Any Sugars allowed
Any Yeast allowed
Copper & Keg Finings allowed
No Homebrewing equipment (or commercial JamesB) to be used with the exception of your thermometer, scales and fermenting vessel (demijohn).No Brewing Software to be used.
Pictures must be taken of each stage of the brew.
Campden Allowed.

Click to expand...

V's thermometer is just uber posh

Cmon V is this beer born yet?

Do you think he's ok? The basic brew hasn't confused him has it, Like when the Stig had to ride a push bike :rofl:

The basic brew hasn't confused him has it, Like when the Stig had to ride a push bike

Click to expand...

:rofl:

Sorry for the delay guys, I forgot the darts were on, on the brew day