The Idiot's Post Chaos era brew days

I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to perfect a brew day process that makes life simpler and more enjoyable. For the past year, despite having a converted stable serving as a dedicated brewery, brew days have not been the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Far from it, actually.

It’s been a litany of spills, trips, struggles and constantly shifting things from one place to another. This has resulted in strains, burns and much cursing of all that is good in the world. This is due to the fact that the brew space has been not only in flux, but also had become a bit of a dumping ground for things I ‘might’ want at a later date.

Fed up with the constant chaos, I have nicked a bit of time from rebuilding the house to stamp some order onto the brewery. A first attempt at fitting it out proved that what I thought I needed wasn’t actually working for me. As a result I have decided to let my brew days dictate what is needed.

So, this is the first brew day in what I shall be calling the PC era. That’s Post Chaos of course. I shall no doubt discover what needs to be done to create the perfect brewing space for my set-up (and pigs might fly).



To start things off I’ve decided to put together a Bavarian style Weissbier, and why not? In the past I’ve played with various decoction mashes and never really noticed too much difference, maybe a tad more maltiness but that simply wasn’t worth the time and agro of the process. Instead with this brew I’ve gone with a simple single infusion and boosted the maltiness with a small addition of Melanoidin malt.

The grain bill is:
German Wheat Malt: 50.4%
Munich Malt: 33.6%
Crystal Malt: 3.4%
Melanoidin Malt: 4.2%
Rice Hulls: 8.4%

The hop used is Hallertauer Hersbrucker with the following schedule:
6.2 IBUs @ 60 minutes
4.8 IBUs @ 30 minutes
2.3 IBUs @ 10 minutes

Yeast is Fermentis WB-06.

Mash time is 60 minutes at 67.5 degrees C.

The brew day started the night before, as I’d been plumbing in the new sinks in the brewery. Before I locked up I filled the various boilers with water and weighed out the grain. I also removed the hops and dried yeast from the freezer. I’m currently using up my last dried yeast supplies as I intend to move to liquid yeasts going forward to allow blending experiments.

Luckily I have blagged a role as a Beta tester for a home automation system, so the brew day started at 6am. I picked up my phone and hit a button. Simultaneously the alarm in the brewery was switched off, the boiler for the strike water was switched on, as was the fly zapper. The process also switched on the kettle in the house kitchen. I then scratched myself for a few minutes, went downstairs, made coffee and returned to bed to read the news!

As I sipped my coffee I congratulated myself that the brew day PC era had started well.

By the time I’d showered and dressed and wondered down to the brewery, the strike water was up to temperature. I added it to the mash tun, stirred in the grain, adjusted temperature and the mash was on. After refilling the boiler for sparge water from the high tap, I strolled back to the house to make a bacon butty.



So, the high tap is something that did come about based upon my brew day chaos from the past. Having built a brew stand, I found that filling things was a pain in the rear. I either had to take them off the stand, fill them then wrestle them back up, of use a procession of jugs. When I planned the new sinks the high tap was an obvious decision. It also makes using an immersion chiller so much easier.



With bacon consumed, another tap on the phone started the heating of the sparge water. Then it was then a bit of doos time until I headed back to the brewery to start lautering and the sparge process, and it wasn’t even 8am!

Once the mash tun has been drained I always fire up the induction hob. This means that by the time the sparge run-off is added the first runnings are boiling. The sparge run-off takes the temperature below boiling but it does mean that the time to boil is dramatically reduced. Once the wort volume is all in the kettle and boiling, I added the 60 minute hop addition.

I have a cooker extractor fan which was rescued from the old kitchen when I ripped it out. I haven’t fitted it yet, so I tend to switch on an oscillating fan and open the door during a boil. If I do I switch all the lights off and leave the fly zapper on.

I attacked the mash tun clean-up straight away. I used to wait for the grain bed to cool, but as it goes into a compost bin now I just chuck it in hot, so it’s one task down at the end of the day. I also filled the fermenter with Star San and filled the yeast rehydration cup with boiled water and covered it with Star San sprayed foil. That was set aside to cool.

With everything under control I had enough time for a coffee before the 30 minute hop addition. I spent the next 20 minutes tasting the Mandarina Saison. I know; it was only 10 o’clockish, but tasting is a test, not a drink problem! The Saison tastes great with a hint of orange in the background, and currently sits at 1.009. I used WLP565 and WLP566 (the two Dupont strains) in a blend, so with the former’s propensity to lag it might drop a bit more. Even if it doesn’t, it’s a breakfast favourite already!

The final hop addition went in at 10 minutes, along with the immersion chiller to sterilise. Then it was simply a case of having a bit of a tidy-up and at flame out chilling began. I ran the hot water into one of the 100 litre sinks to reuse for cleaning down.

The current chiller connection is made via a couple of bits of hosepipe, and does drip a bit. In the near future I’ll be making a one-piece link for this to simplify the process.

As chilling was underway I rehydrated the yeast. I always do 15 minutes on the surface of water at 20-22 degrees C, followed by a quick stir and another 15 minutes rest before pitching. The wort is usually chilled by then!

And so to figures. I anticipated a final volume of 20.5 litres with an OG of 1.056. I ended up with 22 litres at 1.052. I’m guessing the boil-off was under the expected level as the fan used to dissipate the steam also resulted in a less vigorous boil: another reason to sort the extractor soonest.

The brew day was over at 11.45. Okay, I started at 06.00, but that involved hitting a button on my phone and dossing for another 40 minutes! At under 6 hours for an all grain brew, it might sound average, but the reality was that I also got a fair few other jobs done plus cleaning up, and fitted in breakfast and some time dealing with the mundane work stuff. I’m calling that a success! I also found time to hang a big clock!



Was it the most stress-free brew day of the month? Yes. Was it the most stress-free brew day of the Year? Yes. Was it the most stress-free brew day ever? Yes. Well, no. In my youth you chucked a Tom Caxton kit in a bucket with water, a bag of sugar and yeast sachet, and then sodded off to the park to play football. The beer was bilge but we still drank it. However, if you consider proper beer production, then yes, I’ve never had a more care-free brew day.

Could it have been better? Yes, definitely. Transferring strike water and sparge water with a jug is a pain, but does allow accurate measurements. Maybe I might see if I can rig up a pump with a calibrated meter than reads to decimals of a litre. Once the extractor fan is fitted it’ll be less faff during the boil, and the chiller water feed loop needs improving.

Next up brewing: A Melange-based lambic
Next up tinkering: Fit the extractor fan and extend the electrics

After constructing the "three tier" system in the photograph I decided to look at where the time went.

Obviously there are a number of elements that cannot be rushed. e.g.:

o Thirty minutes to weigh out the grain and set up the brewing equipment.

o One hour for the Mash.

o One hour for the Boil.

o Fifteen minutes for the Protafloc and Aroma Hops.

This accounts for two hours and forty-five minutes of a Brew Day so where does the rest of the time go?

The time required to heat the Strike Water and Grind the Malt can be combined so assume 30 minutes for those two activities.

We are now up to three hours and fifteen minutes.

Heating the Sparge Water runs alongside the Mashing time so that has no time impact.

Bringing the wort to the boil. Ha! On a cold day (and despite the thermal jacket fitted to the boiler) that can take sixty minutes. In which case we are now up to four hours and fifteen minutes.

We now have to cool the wort and this again is season dependent. Yesterday it took me almost 45 minutes to bring the 23 litres of wort down to where I could transfer it to the FV and pitch the yeast. (I intend to add another two coils to my cooler!) So, another hour before the FV is installed in the brew fridge and ready to rock & roll.

That takes me up to five hours for a Brew Day and I still had to wash and clean everything that was used after flame-out!

I ordered one of these today ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0049OYQ3K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

... to replace the 2.5kw burner I am currently using.

With the new set-up, improved cooler and new burner I hope to trim my Brew Day down to less than five hours!

Wish me luck! :thumb:

PS

Dead jealous of your automated system. I tried training SWMBO but gave up! :whistle"

One of the problems I've found is that if you turn your back, the worse will happen, so it kind of kills off multi-tasking. A lot of the time is just waiting around watching that the worse does not happen. My thinking is that if you remove the points of failure, you're free!

One day...

The Idiot said:

One of the problems I've found is that if you turn your back, the worse will happen, so it kind of kills off multi-tasking. .............

One day...

Click to expand...

True!!

Ever the optimist I have taken my Kindle out with me to the last three brews ... :thumb:

... and didn't open it for even one second!

One day ... :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

I am incredibly jealous of both of your AG setups. Can't wait until I have space for my own!

Thumper said:

I am incredibly jealous of both of your AG setups. Can't wait until I have space for my own!

Click to expand...

Don't be jealous because, apart from the space, everything else has been knocked up from bits and pieces.

o The two trestles were inherited from my brother about ten years ago when he moved to sheltered housing.

o Ditto every screw used in the construction.

o The sterling board came from screening off one end of the garage early this year.

o The bits of wood used as supports came from an old pasting table that I "threw out" (i.e. sawed it up and stuck in the shed) about a year ago.

o There's even a bit of steel plate underneath the burner to protect the flagstone. I can't remember where it came from but I humped that bit of steel plate around for over 20 years before finding a use for it! :thumb:

When you finally get the space, be careful that it doesn't coincide with having just thrown out exactly what you need! :lol:

Dutto said:

After constructing the "three tier" system in the photograph I decided to look at where the time went.

Obviously there are a number of elements that cannot be rushed. e.g.:

o Thirty minutes to weigh out the grain and set up the brewing equipment.

o One hour for the Mash.

o One hour for the Boil.

o Fifteen minutes for the Protafloc and Aroma Hops.

This accounts for two hours and forty-five minutes of a Brew Day so where does the rest of the time go?

The time required to heat the Strike Water and Grind the Malt can be combined so assume 30 minutes for those two activities.

We are now up to three hours and fifteen minutes.

Heating the Sparge Water runs alongside the Mashing time so that has no time impact.

Bringing the wort to the boil. Ha! On a cold day (and despite the thermal jacket fitted to the boiler) that can take sixty minutes. In which case we are now up to four hours and fifteen minutes.

We now have to cool the wort and this again is season dependent. Yesterday it took me almost 45 minutes to bring the 23 litres of wort down to where I could transfer it to the FV and pitch the yeast. (I intend to add another two coils to my cooler!) So, another hour before the FV is installed in the brew fridge and ready to rock & roll.

That takes me up to five hours for a Brew Day and I still had to wash and clean everything that was used after flame-out!

I ordered one of these today ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0049OYQ3K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

... to replace the 2.5kw burner I am currently using.

With the new set-up, improved cooler and new burner I hope to trim my Brew Day down to less than five hours!

Wish me luck! :thumb:

PS

Dead jealous of your automated system. I tried training SWMBO but gave up! :whistle"

Click to expand...

Hi Dutto I noticed your boil kettle has a thermal jacket around it. I also use a gas burner as heat source but was scared of fitting a jacket due to fire risk. What is your jacket mad off and was there any problems with fire risk?

Like most of my stuff, it started life as something entirely different!

In this case it was an Exercise Mat bought from Lidl. :lol:

As well as the Boiler, the mat also provided insulation for the FV that stands on top of the Heating Pad and the top half of the FV that stands in the heated water in the trug. :thumb:

The insulation has melted a bit on the boiler due to it being misaligned but otherwise it's going great guns after about ten uses.

I will probably strip it off when I get my new 7Kw burner next Thursday because of the increased diameter of the burner ring. This is the replacement ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0049OYQ3K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I must get round to telling SWMBO that it's due to arrive! :whistle:

Dutto said:

When you finally get the space, be careful that it doesn't coincide with having just thrown out exactly what you need! :lol:

Click to expand...

No fear of that, anything potentially useful goes in our shed. Drives my girlfriend mental, but since she's got two wardrobes full of clothes she can't really complain :lol:

I tend to allow 6 hours for a brew day from getting kit out and adding water to drying and putting the last item away, as all my kit like most people is stored and not a permenent set up I find there is plenty of dicking about at each end of the day.

This is one of the reasons I am thinking about doing double brew days and putting one in a no chill cube for storage as the second batch can be mashed\sparged whilst the first is boiling etc, there maybe some overlap but nothing more than wort being temporarily placed into a FV before going into the boiler.

But this is still just in the idea phase.

I toyed with the idea of doubling up but I tend to bounce from one style to another and have grain bills that vary wildly. I am going to start carrying out yeast blending experiments once I've built a redneck yeast lab, so that'll probably see double batches become a reality!

My answer to Double Batches is that I leave everything out ready to rock & roll the next day.

Two reasons:

1. After a Brew Day I'm knackered.

2. After the wort is cooled, I have a beer or two to celebrate the event and .... well, please refer to 1. above!

I can't see me doing two batches in the one day even with my improved heating and cooling set-up!

Cooling? Yep! Just been to Screwfix to buy enough tubing and elbows to double the area on the wort cooler! :thumb:

Really enjoyed this post, looks like a great setup you've got there and should be a really nice beer!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

WLP072 on the stir plate, working through the night like a tuppenny whore, getting ready for tomorrow's brew day. Grain weighed out, and HLT filled ready to be switched on via the app as I lie in bed tomorrow morning!

The goal is a malty wort mashed at 67.5 degrees C fermented warm with French ale yeast, then add a vial of Yeast Bay Melange in secondary and let it work until next spring!

A good sign was that as I locked up the brewery I spotted a big old Buck rabbit in range, so that's marinating in the fridge now in some cider. Roll on the morning...

photek1000 said:

I tend to allow 6 hours for a brew day from getting kit out and adding water to drying and putting the last item away, as all my kit like most people is stored and not a permenent set up I find there is plenty of dicking about at each end of the day.

This is one of the reasons I am thinking about doing double brew days and putting one in a no chill cube for storage as the second batch can be mashed\sparged whilst the first is boiling etc, there maybe some overlap but nothing more than wort being temporarily placed into a FV before going into the boiler.

But this is still just in the idea phase.

Click to expand...

Very interesting idea. 6 hours is my Brew day time, including, of course, the tidying up of the mess in the kitchen before and the tidying up of my brewing mess afterwards. As the start and finish make up much of this time, I would guess that 9 hours should be good for 2 full length brews out of a Grainfather.

If I double up I tend to brew one very high gravity wort, then split it and add steeped grains, hops and other adjuncts. The two batches are diluted to bring them to a reasonable OG as a part of this process.

This doesn't add to the brew day and has minimal impact on time.

The weekend came and the weekend went, and with it was a brew day. The Melange Lambic has been done, and has emerged more with a limping gait than a full throttle charge towards funky sour goodness. There has also been an additional experiment (some might say cock-up but I'm not too fussed by the possible outcome).

I opted for a malty wort, mashed at 68 degrees C in order to get some unfermentables in there. The plan is to hit it with WLP072 French Ale for primary to get the simple sugars sorted, save the yeast for another brew, transfer to secondary and then let the bugs and bacteria work over the unfermentables until next Spring.


Now, on to WLP072. The French Ale strain is a clean fermenter used for Bierre de Garde and the like. I have read that if fermented warm, it develops some fruity esters. Whilst these are not right for a Bierre de Garde, I'm not making one so I decided to go a bit warm with the yeast.

But whoah there! Let's not get ahead of ourselves. On Friday afternoon I made up a starter with the WLP072 and left the stirplate running over night. The yeast had that nice bready smell, and when the sheep farmer popped in as I was preparing the grain bill even he mentioned that the brewery smelled more like a bakery!

On Saturday morning I noted that the starter looked dead. There was no froth, no foam, no signs of life at all. I cranked up the speed of the stirplate and carried on with the brew day as planned.

Okay, I'm going to digress here. I have noticed that my last few brews have come up short on OG but over on volume. The issues started when I swapped out my kettle for a new shiny SS BrewTech one. I made a few tweaks to my equipment profile in Beersmith, but the issue remained. On Friday night I realised that unless you reapply the equipment profile to every recipe individually, it won't change the amounts. Of course, I'd done a few tweaks so they all applied at once. The Lambic came up over on gravity but short a few litres. Still, at least I now know that Beersmith isn't as smooth as I'd like to think...

Now, back to the WLP072. When it came to pitching time the starter still looked a little dead. Like my Uncle Stanley's manhood, no amount of agitation was going to get it working. I chucked it in the Chronical and let it do it's thing, which turned out to be nothing when I checked it on the Sunday. The wort temperature was around 17 degrees C which was a little low. I've read that temperature for WLP072 is a bit like a ladies knickers: once up, don't let it drop. I wanted to go warm so I put a heat belt on it and moved on.

This morning I looked in on it to see what the state of play was, and it's finally taken off, and I mean taken off. However, I've also found out that I've started an experiment with the WLP072: I'm going to find out what happens when you ferment it hot, because the wort is currently sitting at 28 degrees C! The upper optimum temperature is 23 degrees C so I think I've gone beyond the fruity ester point. Remembering the advice to not drop temperature on the yeast, I'm going to let it have its head and if there are issues I'll be relying on the Melange to clean it up.

Once the French Ale yeast has done its thing I'll be adding the bugs. Melange is made up of a couple of Sacc cerevisiae strains, Sacc fermentati, five Brettanomyces strains plus Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus delbreuckii and Pediococcus damnosus. The options are to ferment hot for increased sourness or cool to boost the funk. I'm going with the latter option, but might change my mind depending upon the French Ale's behaviour when hot!

I haven't as yet rerigged the electrics in the brewery or sorted the cooling system, nor have I fitted the extractor fan. This is not due to laziness, but the fact that Mrs Idiot insists I finish off the new bathroom!

Next up: Gooseberry IPA

I finally ventured into the brewery last night. The Lambic wort using WLP072 in primary had slowed down. Also, the wort temperature had dropped back to 25 degrees C. I decided to tap off a sample and see what was happening.

In 9 days the wort has gone from 1.056 to 1.010. Then came the taste test.

Well, the French Ale yeast is famed for its clean taste, but this isn't clean! It's a bit like a Bierre de Garde went to live in Belgium, and while there got molested by a Saison! The taste wavers towards a Weissbier thing at times, but only very marginally. I'll definitely save the yeast when it goes into secondary, before the bugs are added, and probably use it for a hop-forwards saison, maybe adding some of my Dupont blend for good measure.

On other fronts, the Challenger IPA is ready for kegging and it reminds me that I don't really care for Challenger. I ordered 200 grams in error and this was an exerciise in getting rid of it. Also, the Bavarian Weissbier needs kegging too, and reminds me that I must not use WB-06 again because it really lacks any yeast-created flavours.

So, today chaos came acalling. It had to; I'd tempted it with my declarations of a better more organised brewery experience. I'd goaded chaos, sneered at it, cocked a snook and so forth. It waited, patiently, and today it had its day.

Today wasn't so much a brewday but a 'do-day'. I had a number of tasks that needing completing, and so I figured rather than brew I'd cross a few 'i's and dot a few 't's. On the list was revamp the stir plate, keg the Bavarian Weissbier and the Challenger IPA, stick the Lambic into secondary with the bugs, rinse the French Ale yeast and if - and it was a big if - time permitted, fit the extractor fan.

My local Screwfix is roughly an hour round-trip - remember that because it will come up at times - so first thing I dashed off to buy a 117mm core drill to cut through the brick wall to fit the extractor fan. I figured with that done, the rest of the day would be brewery-based. I shunned the usual Sunday bacon, sausage and black pudding for a banana and got on my way.

I was back an hour later, tossed the core drill bit to one side and headed off to start sanitising kegs. I went for the usual Oxi/boiling water and steam/Star San sequence, and soon had the Bavarian Weissbier and the Challenger IPA kegged and sitting at 30psi on the carbonation rig. Interestingly, today I sneaked a few samples and found the Weissbier had got duller (I swear I will NEVER use WB-06 ever again) but the Challenger IPA had picked itself up a bit.

I then decided to upgrade the stir plate. I'm going double-barrelled because I've started playing with yeast blends, so after a bit of rewiring and a few false starts later I was done on that front.





The next item on the agenda was racking the Lambic from primary to secondary to add the bugs. Having used the SS BrewTech Chronical for primary, this was simple. The Melange bugs smelled great: sour and funky and promising good things. With that done and the WLP072 from the primary harvested, there was only one task left.

Fitting the extractor fan. That's when chaos decided to play its hand!

I fetched my drill and the 117mm core drill bit, and then found an arbor, but it didn't fit the core bit. I found another, which was seized onto the old bit. After use of heat, Wurth releasant and violence I got it free, but it didn't fit either. I checked a few others, but none fitted. I raced back to Screwfix and got an appropriate arbor. Unfortunately I got served by the same acne-afflicted lad who commented on how nice it was to see me again so soon. So, that was another hour out of my day.

On returning back I fitted the core drill bit to the arbor and found a masonry bit to use as the guide. However, the arbor didn't have a retaining screw for the bit. WTF? A quick investigation revealed it needed a special guide bit with a tapered end. If I'd had a dog, this is the point I would have planted my boot up its hole. It was 3.30pm and Screwfix closed at 4.00pm. Another mad dash and I arrived just as Spot was locking the door. I think he only let me in to mock me.

"So you need the guide bit that went with the arbor you originally forgot to buy?"

I'm not a cruel man, but I could make an exception for Spot. Back home I set about drilling a 117mm hole though an old stable wall. That's a solid 10 inch wall, none of that modern lightweight cavity nonsense. It took around 95 minutes. When I say around, I mean exactly. That's 95 minutes of arm ache, sweat and cursing. My eyes, nose and mouth were filled with brick dust, and my ears were filled with the screaming of the core bit against brick. It was, in a word, ****.

Once I finally got through the wall I discovered that the external brickwork was so badly spalled the cover of the fan outlet wouldn't screw on. The back of the brewery faces the woods so I chucked a whole tube of heavy duty adhesive around it, stuck the cover on and walked away. I'll worry about finishing it off another day.

I thought from some of your earlier posts that you were in danger of having to change your name, but I see you are good for a little while yet!:thumb:

I'm impressed with your experimentation on yeasts etc. I have decided to take the route that I want to be able to recreate a brew, almost with my eyes closed, and ideally do it in record time. So, I am sticking with really boring brews until I can perfect them. Still trying!