My first brew with brand new equipment.

Following from this thread...
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54297

My recipe...
First Try Bitter

Batch size: 22 Litres

Grain bill:
Maris Otter pale malt: 3.5 Kg
Torrified wheat: 500g
Colour 100 crystal malt (Warminster) 250g

Originally intended to start with 10 litres of water but I didn't think there would have been enough depth of water with the mashing bag above the heating element. I used 15 litres, in the end I could have used less, maybe 12 litres.
Treated the water with 7g Gypsum.
Grain was 18c so calculated strike temp as 73c, temperature after doughing-in was 68c, so not bad. The mash was, perhaps, a little thinner than I would have liked.
Checked the acidity with a piece of pH paper after 20mins. Was more than 5 and less than 6, so probably close enough.
Mashed for 1hour with temp set at 57c. Stirred pretty frequently.

I forgot to raise the mash temperature to stop the mash. Not sure if that will have hurt me but I definitely need to put more thought into the sparging process. I fly sparged.
Firstly, the tap on the mash bucket is either open or closed. It isn't possible to open the tap to control the outflow to balance the inflow of sparging water so the mash water ran out faster than I could put the sparge water in. I did return the first part of the mash water to the top of the grains but a considerable amount of debris flowed through, which I was unable to prevent. I did catch the larger pieces with a strainer, though. I sparged with ten litres of water at 75c and collected 22 litres of sweet wort. Possibly, I over did the sparging, I think the sweet wort
I checked the gravity with my (new & cheap) hydrometer and got a reading of 1.050, which is (by my calculation) 83% efficiency and unlikely? I tried it in tap water and it seemed ok, but it doesn't float perpendicular. Well, it's all I have.

Hops (added at start of boil):
East Kent Goldings 30g
Cascade 15g
I was going to leave it at that but, since my OG appears to much more than expected, I added 5g of Goldings with 10 mins to go.
Added Irish Moss with 15 mins to go.
Salts (Boil)
1.5 Epsom salts
3g Gypsum
2g common salt

As I say, a lot more debris than I would have liked at the start of the boil. I suspect this is likely to end with too much tannin in the brew. We'll see I guess.

I have a copper cooler but no suitable hoses to connect it up so I'm left with natural cooling. I did put a couple of frozen PET bottles of water in to help with cooling. I have 23l of wort, hoping for approx 22 litres in the fermentation vessel.
Currently, the wort is standing. I'm hoping that, if I leave it for a few hours, some of the debris will sink to the bottom of the boiler before I transfer it to the Fermentation vessel.

My choices of yeast are between Safale s-04, or Mangrove Jack M10. I pitched the latter because of higher attenuation.

Any thoughts from anyone?

Contents of my sample jar, poured into a whisky glass and left overnight. not crystal clear yet, but looks hopeful.

Sounds like you've covered all the bases there Rob. When I saw the words, 'My first brew with new equipment,' I thought you were a beginner. When I read the precautions and water preparations you took, I realised you are an old hand at the game. :)

I've drunk 'finished' beer cloudier than that sample jar.

Tony1951 said:

Sounds like you've covered all the bases there Rob. When I saw the words, 'My first brew with new equipment,' I thought you were a beginner. When I read the precautions and water preparations you took, I realised you are an old hand at the game. :)

I've drunk 'finished' beer cloudier than that sample jar.

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Finally managed to get the upload to work. Was a bit rushed earlier.
It's all explained in my introduction, First time I've done any brewing since around 2000, I think. Decided to get back to it because there is a dearth of decent beer where I live. I needed to buy new stuff because I have non left (other than a crown corker & a thermometer, for some reason).
Still think my sparging technique was a bit rubbish though.

HebridesRob said:

Finally managed to get the upload to work. Was a bit rushed earlier.
It's all explained in my introduction, First time I've done any brewing since around 2000, I think. Decided to get back to it because there is a dearth of decent beer where I live. I needed to buy new stuff because I have non left (other than a crown corker & a thermometer, for some reason).
Still think my sparging technique was a bit rubbish though.

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You seemed to do a lot of water treatment. Are you on well water? I'm jumping to conclusions from your screen name and imagining you on a croft and off mains water. :)

Tony1951 said:

You seemed to do a lot of water treatment. Are you on well water? I'm jumping to conclusions from your screen name and imagining you on a croft and off mains water. :)

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I'm on mains water but the water collection area is pretty small because the population it's serving in South Harris is relatively tiny.
Our water is very soft. I looked up the latest data for our supply on the Scottish water site...
mg Ca/l = 1.73,
mg Mg/l = 3.23.
Hardness (as mg/l CaCo3) 37.71
and punched those figures into some calculators. The one on this forum suggests...
Mash:
Gypsum: 6.63g, Chalk: 0.11g
Boiler:
Gypsum: 3.09g, Table Salt: 2.24g, Epsom Salts: 1.51g, Calcium Chloride: 3.42g (I don't have Calcium Chloride - I might order some)

I don't entirely trust the Scottish water figures and I'm not certain the figures I used were the correct ones for our supply but I went with them since they were all I had. The mash pH, tested with some not that useful pH paper, seemed ok, so I have to be satisfied.
I'm considering getting one of those kits that aquarium owners use for testing water acidity and using that to determine water treatment. I'm also wondering if it's worth getting a pH meter to test the mash pH as it's actually happening and calculate the water treatment at that point. Much more research required before I fork out cash for that.

I actually still brew with bottled water as I'm in London and hate the tape water here.

I'm not sure at what point it becomes very necessary to add salts. I'm aware that you want harder water for darker drinks like stouts, but I'm also aware that water which is saturated with solids has more difficulty dissolving flavour compounds, so I'm not sure what my best compromise is. I guess I'll have to experiment.

rodabod said:

I actually still brew with bottled water as I'm in London and hate the tape water here.

I'm not sure at what point it becomes very necessary to add salts. I'm aware that you want harder water for darker drinks like stouts, but I'm also aware that water which is saturated with solids has more difficulty dissolving flavour compounds, so I'm not sure what my best compromise is. I guess I'll have to experiment.

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Actually, you want softer water for darker beers. It's all to do with the salts buffering the acidity of the mash in order to achieve the optimal acidity required for the Amylase enzymes to work properly. Dark malts are more acidic, so need fewer salts. Dublin water works because there's a lot of bicarbonate in it, which is alkaline and works well with dark malt. The enzymes, Alpha Amylase and Beta Amylase work best at slightly different pH so controlling the pH of the mash is one way to affect the balance of sugars in the wort, between (without looking it up) pH 5.2 - 5.8.
It's explained here better than I ever could...
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water_treatment.htm

HebridesRob said:

Actually, you want softer water for darker beers. It's all to do with the salts buffering the acidity of the mash in order to achieve the optimal acidity required for the Amylase enzymes to work properly. Dark malts are more acidic, so need fewer salts. Dublin water works because there's a lot of bicarbonate in it, which is alkaline and works well with dark malt.

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Hi Rob.

Is that definitely the right way round? My understanding was that dark malts = acidic, and therefore suit hard water as hard water = high in calcium = alkaline, which balances out the PH.

I'll have a look at that link you posted. The text which I read was
from John Palmer's How Top Brew which mentions that the softest waters are suitable for light ales like Pilseners, hence the Czech Republic having very soft water.

I'm definitely right. It isn't about how acidic the water is, it's to do with how salts in the water buffer or complement the compounds in the mash.
https://byo.com/hops/item/1493-the-power-of-ph
"...dark malts are naturally acidic and will lower the mash pH. Even crystal malts will have some acidic effects, and the simplest solution to poor brewing water is to use a proportion of dark malts. Many great brewing centers of the world, particularly London, Dublin, and Munich, have water low in calcium and high in carbonates. The alkalinity of the water makes brewing pale ales or lagers difficult without acidification of the mash. But because they traditionally brew darker beers, such as porters, the acidity of the malt is able to overcome the buffering of the carbonate water."

And here is the finished product, still a tiny bit hazy. Better than I expected but good not great :)

From grain to glass in 19 days? Wow, nice going and it looks great :-D

Looks good. Why not great? What would you change?

clibit said:

Looks good. Why not great? What would you change?

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Too strong. I know it seems basic, but I've a suspicion the markings for volume on the fermenting bucket are significantly wrong. When my current batch is out of it I'm going to check properly. If I do that and my next brew comes out stronger than expected, I'm going to change my brewhouse efficiency to 80%

I think I'll change the yeast, I Used the Workhorse yeast and think it may have thinned the beer out a bit more than I'd have liked.

A little less bitterness & a little more hop aroma.

I was looking for a beer that is a bit easier to drink than the one I have. It's not far away though.

That looks great mate. You must have mild OCD, like me :lol:

HebridesRob said:

Too strong. I know it seems basic, but I've a suspicion the markings for volume on the fermenting bucket are significantly wrong. When my current batch is out of it I'm going to check properly. If I do that and my next brew comes out stronger than expected, I'm going to change my brewhouse efficiency to 80%

I think I'll change the yeast, I Used the Workhorse yeast and think it may have thinned the beer out a bit more than I'd have liked.

A little less bitterness & a little more hop aroma.

I was looking for a beer that is a bit easier to drink than the one I have. It's not far away though.

Click to expand...

I think the beer looks fine. Certainly given its age.

Yeast - yes a lower attenuating will give more body, you could try Danstar Windsor which I've used in a mild, gives about 60% attenuation.

To change the bitterness/hop aroma you are probably looking at messing about with water. What water are you using, bottled or tap ? If you post the composition I will have a look at it.

I would change your hopping. 45g bittering hops and 5g aroma hops. I'm guessing high IBUs and very little hop flavour or aroma. For easy drinking ain for 25-35 IBUs. You definitely want more aroma hops. US05 yeast always serves me well.

Twostage said:

I think the beer looks fine. Certainly given its age.

Yeast - yes a lower attenuating will give more body, you could try Danstar Windsor which I've used in a mild, gives about 60% attenuation.

To change the bitterness/hop aroma you are probably looking at messing about with water. What water are you using, bottled or tap ? If you post the composition I will have a look at it.

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It's all in the thread isn't it?

HebridesRob said:

It's all in the thread isn't it?

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Most of it, do you have the rest ? for the full profile you need calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, sulphate, bicarbonate and ph.

(or did I miss the rest ?)

I think the hop schedule needs addressing before messing with water composition.