Hello,
Having posted the photos to keep you going, it's time for a more detailed post, now that the kids are a-bed, and my dinner is a-tum. Curry, just in case you were wondering.
So, Greg Hughes' Honey Ale recipe, details as follows.
4.5kg Pale Malt
0.35kg Biscuit Malt
0.25kg Caramel / Crystal Malt 80L
Hops.
Challenger - 50g at 60 mins (leaf)
Amarillo - 25g at 10 mins (pellet). (recipe calls for 7g Target, but I changed it).
Additions
1kg Honey @ end of boil. At least that was the plan.
I have put this together on Beer Smith 2, from the recipe in the book, knowing that my set up is not quite able to cope with the full boil length and that I had no Target hops. I simply used the App to scale it down a bit, and hoped that it would be able to cope with the changes. I'm pretty happy that it has, but ask me again in a month or two!
I've just finished building a mash tun out of an old coolbox, and got a Burco Cygnet 30l tea Urn fro Christmas from the in-laws. I've put a ball-valve tap on this, too. I also built a wort chiller using more Christmas gifts.
This was the first time I'd used the new set-up, having just done 10-pint AG stove-toppers, 10l extract brews and tweaked kits up until now. Sorry for mixing metric and imperial, but I'm proudly British. I had been planning to do a test run without any grain, however in the end I thought 'sod it' or words to that effect, and just went for it. What was the worst that could happen....?
As it happens, not much! It all went very smoothly and my pre-brew concerns came to nothing. I did learn a few things, though, and have now got a new shopping list of things for my Birthday next month.
So, started heating 22l of cold water at 4.20pm, set the knob on the boiler - not euphemistically, I should stress - to 3, and monitored the increase in temp in the boiler over the next half an hour. I was brewing in the garage, where the ambient temperature was pretty cold, and I had a fan heater trying to take the edge off, which made it a bit more comfortable. I didn't measure this, but it must have been about brrrrrr deg c. It did mean that the grain and all the equipment which had been stored in there for a few winter weeks were a lot colder than perhaps the method in the book anticipated.
By 5 o'clock the boiler took the heat up to 70c at 3 on the knob (it goes "off", 1-5, "high"). Then switched off. Excellent. I was aiming for 75c, and it took it from cold to there in about 40 minutes. I was impressed, but would it hold a rolling boil......? I upped the knob to 3.5, and in another 8 mins the temperature was 75c. Perfect.
I emptied it into the mash tun, and at this point I should say that I have not yet created either a measuring stick or marks on the boiler / mash tun to work out volumes of water, so I had to guesstimate. I emptied the boiler into the mash tun, which I guesstimated to be about 12l. I then measured the temp, and it had dropped to an alarmingly low 67c. It was a cold evening! I added 2l of boiling water from the kitchen kettle which took it up to 72c. I stood looking at it for a moment or two, realised it was not going to do it itself, took a deep breath, and added the grain. A quick temperature check once I'd given it a good stir to remove any lumps, and it was 65c. Lid on tightly and leave well alone. Oh, the temptation.....
The boiler was filled again with another 14 l, and turned up to 4, hoping for sparge water at 80c in an hour or so. Just enough time to help with and eat dinner with SWMBO and kids. Lovely.
After 55 minutes the temperature in the centre of the mash was still 65c. Excellent! I didn't measure the temp at the edges due to my natural aversion to being disappointed, however the outside of the coolbox was cold. I took that as a good sign, much like a thumbs-up, and not like a middle finger salute, which is a bad sign.
It was time for the first runnings. I was nervous about a stuck mash, but again it went perfectly. A great, dark, steaming, sticky stream of wort poured into the 15l FV which I had on the floor. See what I did there? Small containers! I was already thinking ahead to when I would have to lift it up and pour it into the boiler later on. Check me! I wasn't going to be trying to balance on top of a wobbly mini-stepladder with 22l of scalding stickiness balanced in my hands, whilst in my twisted head listening to the opening bars of the theme-tune to 'Casualty'.
I then batch sparged using a plastic measuring jug to add 7l @ 80c, then drained, then repeated, then drained again. I didn't leave each batch to sit for long at all, and would appreciate comments as to whether this would improve the result. The final runnings were very pale, but certainly not clear.
So, I now had an empty boiler and two small FV buckets full of delicious, sweet nectar. I know that because I tasted it.
Mmmmm..... After me - 1,2,3, Mmmmmmm.
I carefully lifted it up and tipped it into the boiler, only being slightly perturbed when I knocked a gardening trug with my head which was hanging from the ceiling of the garage, (the trug, not my head. I'm on the wrong forum for that sort of thing) and dislodged it on to the top of the boiler. This probably depositied a small amount of soil and other garden detritus into the boiler, but hey ho, it would be sterilised.
Switched the boiler on to 4, and went to put the kids to bed. Checked on the boiler a few times, and it went up to to 86c before cutting out, which was great, as I could spend time being dad, and then whack it up to the legendary 'full' setting once silence had descended upon the upstairs. I could then watch the start of the boil with no distractions. I took a gravity reading beforehand, which was an adjusted 1048. I was happy with that, and had 22l of it. I knew there was honey going into it later which would give it a boost. I will have to start thinking about efficiency. In the App I have assumed 60% efficiency, which seems to tally with the readings I've been getting.
The boiler was turned up to full, and within about 10 minutes it was at a rolling boil, and it held this for the full hour, smelling wonderful. I have to say I was delighted with the performance, and hope the boiler lasts for a while.
I managed to get stuff sterilised for the fermentation, get the yeast (Nottingham) rehydrated and set up the chiller. This was fed from an outside tap, round the back of the house, into the garage, through the chiller, out of the garage, down the passage, over the drive and into the gutter in the lane to drain away. I popped the coil into the boiler with 10 mins to go to sterilise it, and then at 1 hr, I turned off the boiler, ran round the back of the house, tripped over a kids toy in the dark, opened the tap to the chiller, and ran back into the garage - avoiding the toy - to check for the cold break, and burn my hand on the chiller outlet pipe. It gets quite hot when removing heat from the wort! 20 minutes later, the wort was down to 20c, and there was a big warm puddle outside in the lane.
After that it was simply open the tap from a height to drain the wort into the big FV to get oxygen into it, and remember that I'd not added the honey. "Oh, bother", I said. I quickly sterilised another jug, boiled the kettle, and dissolved a kilo of honey into it. Added this to the FV and stirred in well. Turkey baster was whipped out of it's holster (no, not really) and a sample taken for the hydrometer reading. The OG was a very respectable 1067 in 18l, so I added 4l of cold water to bring it down to 1054 then pitched the yeast.
I was a very, very happy bunny. It was 9.30pm. 5 hours from boiler turn-on to yeast pitching and lid on. An hour of clearing up and cleaning down later, and it was all done.
The last pic is the eldest being fascinated by the regular bubbling of the airlock and the 2" krausen on the top of the FV. He's eating the strawberry fool, by the way, and is not about to add it as an additional adjunct, although I wouldn't put it past him.
So, thanks for reading this far through my ramblings, and I hope it is of value. In particular, if you are thinking of getting a Burco Cygnet, then it is a fabulous piece of kit. I would go for another size up, though, if I was getting one again, as the headspace needed in case the hot break takes off a bit would be very useful for the recipe sizes in Greg's book.
Finally, it has taken me six months of collecting bits, getting things as gifts, and reading posts here and elsewhere (mainly here) to get this small, but to me perfect, AG brewery up and running. If you are considering it, then just do it. It was fantastic fun, and I cannot wait to do the next brew with my little brother (aged 46) in three weeks.
Dog.
Having posted the photos to keep you going, it's time for a more detailed post, now that the kids are a-bed, and my dinner is a-tum. Curry, just in case you were wondering.
So, Greg Hughes' Honey Ale recipe, details as follows.
4.5kg Pale Malt
0.35kg Biscuit Malt
0.25kg Caramel / Crystal Malt 80L
Hops.
Challenger - 50g at 60 mins (leaf)
Amarillo - 25g at 10 mins (pellet). (recipe calls for 7g Target, but I changed it).
Additions
1kg Honey @ end of boil. At least that was the plan.
I have put this together on Beer Smith 2, from the recipe in the book, knowing that my set up is not quite able to cope with the full boil length and that I had no Target hops. I simply used the App to scale it down a bit, and hoped that it would be able to cope with the changes. I'm pretty happy that it has, but ask me again in a month or two!
I've just finished building a mash tun out of an old coolbox, and got a Burco Cygnet 30l tea Urn fro Christmas from the in-laws. I've put a ball-valve tap on this, too. I also built a wort chiller using more Christmas gifts.
This was the first time I'd used the new set-up, having just done 10-pint AG stove-toppers, 10l extract brews and tweaked kits up until now. Sorry for mixing metric and imperial, but I'm proudly British. I had been planning to do a test run without any grain, however in the end I thought 'sod it' or words to that effect, and just went for it. What was the worst that could happen....?
As it happens, not much! It all went very smoothly and my pre-brew concerns came to nothing. I did learn a few things, though, and have now got a new shopping list of things for my Birthday next month.
So, started heating 22l of cold water at 4.20pm, set the knob on the boiler - not euphemistically, I should stress - to 3, and monitored the increase in temp in the boiler over the next half an hour. I was brewing in the garage, where the ambient temperature was pretty cold, and I had a fan heater trying to take the edge off, which made it a bit more comfortable. I didn't measure this, but it must have been about brrrrrr deg c. It did mean that the grain and all the equipment which had been stored in there for a few winter weeks were a lot colder than perhaps the method in the book anticipated.
By 5 o'clock the boiler took the heat up to 70c at 3 on the knob (it goes "off", 1-5, "high"). Then switched off. Excellent. I was aiming for 75c, and it took it from cold to there in about 40 minutes. I was impressed, but would it hold a rolling boil......? I upped the knob to 3.5, and in another 8 mins the temperature was 75c. Perfect.
I emptied it into the mash tun, and at this point I should say that I have not yet created either a measuring stick or marks on the boiler / mash tun to work out volumes of water, so I had to guesstimate. I emptied the boiler into the mash tun, which I guesstimated to be about 12l. I then measured the temp, and it had dropped to an alarmingly low 67c. It was a cold evening! I added 2l of boiling water from the kitchen kettle which took it up to 72c. I stood looking at it for a moment or two, realised it was not going to do it itself, took a deep breath, and added the grain. A quick temperature check once I'd given it a good stir to remove any lumps, and it was 65c. Lid on tightly and leave well alone. Oh, the temptation.....
The boiler was filled again with another 14 l, and turned up to 4, hoping for sparge water at 80c in an hour or so. Just enough time to help with and eat dinner with SWMBO and kids. Lovely.
After 55 minutes the temperature in the centre of the mash was still 65c. Excellent! I didn't measure the temp at the edges due to my natural aversion to being disappointed, however the outside of the coolbox was cold. I took that as a good sign, much like a thumbs-up, and not like a middle finger salute, which is a bad sign.
It was time for the first runnings. I was nervous about a stuck mash, but again it went perfectly. A great, dark, steaming, sticky stream of wort poured into the 15l FV which I had on the floor. See what I did there? Small containers! I was already thinking ahead to when I would have to lift it up and pour it into the boiler later on. Check me! I wasn't going to be trying to balance on top of a wobbly mini-stepladder with 22l of scalding stickiness balanced in my hands, whilst in my twisted head listening to the opening bars of the theme-tune to 'Casualty'.
I then batch sparged using a plastic measuring jug to add 7l @ 80c, then drained, then repeated, then drained again. I didn't leave each batch to sit for long at all, and would appreciate comments as to whether this would improve the result. The final runnings were very pale, but certainly not clear.
So, I now had an empty boiler and two small FV buckets full of delicious, sweet nectar. I know that because I tasted it.
Mmmmm..... After me - 1,2,3, Mmmmmmm.
I carefully lifted it up and tipped it into the boiler, only being slightly perturbed when I knocked a gardening trug with my head which was hanging from the ceiling of the garage, (the trug, not my head. I'm on the wrong forum for that sort of thing) and dislodged it on to the top of the boiler. This probably depositied a small amount of soil and other garden detritus into the boiler, but hey ho, it would be sterilised.
Switched the boiler on to 4, and went to put the kids to bed. Checked on the boiler a few times, and it went up to to 86c before cutting out, which was great, as I could spend time being dad, and then whack it up to the legendary 'full' setting once silence had descended upon the upstairs. I could then watch the start of the boil with no distractions. I took a gravity reading beforehand, which was an adjusted 1048. I was happy with that, and had 22l of it. I knew there was honey going into it later which would give it a boost. I will have to start thinking about efficiency. In the App I have assumed 60% efficiency, which seems to tally with the readings I've been getting.
The boiler was turned up to full, and within about 10 minutes it was at a rolling boil, and it held this for the full hour, smelling wonderful. I have to say I was delighted with the performance, and hope the boiler lasts for a while.
I managed to get stuff sterilised for the fermentation, get the yeast (Nottingham) rehydrated and set up the chiller. This was fed from an outside tap, round the back of the house, into the garage, through the chiller, out of the garage, down the passage, over the drive and into the gutter in the lane to drain away. I popped the coil into the boiler with 10 mins to go to sterilise it, and then at 1 hr, I turned off the boiler, ran round the back of the house, tripped over a kids toy in the dark, opened the tap to the chiller, and ran back into the garage - avoiding the toy - to check for the cold break, and burn my hand on the chiller outlet pipe. It gets quite hot when removing heat from the wort! 20 minutes later, the wort was down to 20c, and there was a big warm puddle outside in the lane.
After that it was simply open the tap from a height to drain the wort into the big FV to get oxygen into it, and remember that I'd not added the honey. "Oh, bother", I said. I quickly sterilised another jug, boiled the kettle, and dissolved a kilo of honey into it. Added this to the FV and stirred in well. Turkey baster was whipped out of it's holster (no, not really) and a sample taken for the hydrometer reading. The OG was a very respectable 1067 in 18l, so I added 4l of cold water to bring it down to 1054 then pitched the yeast.
I was a very, very happy bunny. It was 9.30pm. 5 hours from boiler turn-on to yeast pitching and lid on. An hour of clearing up and cleaning down later, and it was all done.
The last pic is the eldest being fascinated by the regular bubbling of the airlock and the 2" krausen on the top of the FV. He's eating the strawberry fool, by the way, and is not about to add it as an additional adjunct, although I wouldn't put it past him.
So, thanks for reading this far through my ramblings, and I hope it is of value. In particular, if you are thinking of getting a Burco Cygnet, then it is a fabulous piece of kit. I would go for another size up, though, if I was getting one again, as the headspace needed in case the hot break takes off a bit would be very useful for the recipe sizes in Greg's book.
Finally, it has taken me six months of collecting bits, getting things as gifts, and reading posts here and elsewhere (mainly here) to get this small, but to me perfect, AG brewery up and running. If you are considering it, then just do it. It was fantastic fun, and I cannot wait to do the next brew with my little brother (aged 46) in three weeks.
Dog.
