Anna's Brewdays

[DocAnna]

I think I’m being a bit boring and bossy with my technical research posts elsewhere here and aware this risks winding a few people up. I’m aware sometimes that I can come across as all too clever for my own good and remind myself this is all from a theoretical perspective and as this thread demonstrates, my own personal brewing log includes numerous ‘learning experiences’!

So I’m trying another one of those things tomorrow - I’ve the day off and I’m going to try ....a Double Brew Day. Yes a DBD which despite my planning is quite likely to contain more of those learning experiences and teach myself a bit of humility again. Mind you if it all goes swimmingly then I’ll be unbearable ... and probably a wee bit weary.

The plan is for a Bohemian pilsner and a Festbeir both of which I plan to ferment at outside temperatures in an outside shed - I’ve checked the weather for the next couple of weeks and it should maintain the temp nicely at 9-11 deg for at least the week then slowly ramp up.

What could go wrong ....

Anna

 

[Clint]

Slugs!

 

[Clint]

You need...salt! Like a spell...two rings of salt around the buckets...

 

[Buffers brewery]

I envy you youngsters! I've just had a brewday, started at 9 finished at 6! I'm cream crackered! Couldn't even think about how I could do two brews in one day. Does doing 2 brews in one day double the chances of something going wrong? Theoretically speaking

 

[Clint]

I envy you youngsters! I've just had a brewday, started at 9 finished at 6! I'm cream crackered! Couldn't even think about how I could do two brews in one day. Does doing 2 brews in one day double the chances of something going wrong? Theoretically speaking

What did you get up to?

 

[Brewnaldo]

I think I’m being a bit boring and bossy with my technical research posts elsewhere here and aware this risks winding a few people up. I’m aware sometimes that I can come across as all too clever for my own good and remind myself this is all from a theoretical perspective and as this thread demonstrates, my own personal brewing log includes numerous ‘learning experiences’!

So I’m trying another one of those things tomorrow - I’ve the day off and I’m going to try ....a Double Brew Day. Yes a DBD which despite my planning is quite likely to contain more of those learning experiences and teach myself a bit of humility again. Mind you if it all goes swimmingly then I’ll be unbearable ... and probably a wee bit weary.

The plan is for a Bohemian pilsner and a Festbeir both of which I plan to ferment at outside temperatures in an outside shed - I’ve checked the weather for the next couple of weeks and it should maintain the temp nicely at 9-11 deg for at least the week then slowly ramp up.

What could go wrong ....

Anna

I done a double brew day once. IIRC a 60 shilling followed by a Roggenbier.

I learned that say that Rye is likely to burn the **** off your boiler, and that rye induced burning is not what one needs at the end of a double brewday.

I think I was actually contemplating lobbing it in the bin. Thankfully a couple of dishwasher tablets and some time dealt with the issue whilst I calmed down.

I assumed it would be a breeze. It's not. Although I'd probably enjoy it based on the assumption that if I am getting to do it it means I am getting peace and quiet TO do it.

 

[Scrattajack]

For someone who can do a Sunday roast at the same time as getting an ale on the go, a double brew day should be a breeze...

 

[Wynne]

@DocAnna, for a university project, I looked at increasing the brews/day for a traditional 40BBL, 3 vessel brewery from 2 to 3. I mapped out the process, broke it broke down into steps and examined each step in detail then the dependencies between steps, looking for time savings whilst maintaining product quality. Key factors I found were: 1. Step optimisation: define what are you trying to achieve in each step and stop when you have achieved it. Inevitably, there are trade-offs e.g. mash duration v brewhouse efficiency, boil duration v colour change and hop utilisation. 2. Availability of hot liquor for mashing in the second brew; 3. Transfer and vessel emptying times so that the mash tun or kettle is ready for the following batch (This is so much easier at homebrew scale); 4. Time taken to heat sweet wort to boil temperature. Long story, short - it is a lot easier to plan in advance than make it up on brewday. Good luck!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I envy you youngsters! I've just had a brewday, started at 9 finished at 6! I'm cream crackered! Couldn't even think about how I could do two brews in one day. Does doing 2 brews in one day double the chances of something going wrong? Theoretically speaking

I did two in a weekend once. One on Saturday and another on Sunday. Couldn’t move on the Monday!
(I Just found myself repeating that back out loud to the tune of a Craig David song)!!

 

[DocAnna]

For someone who can do a Sunday roast at the same time as getting an ale on the go, a double brew day should be a breeze...

Oh Sunday roast is my happy time, music on maybe a bit louder than I should, kitchen door closed and a bit of dancing while parboiling potatoes and marinading the onions .

Though come to think of it - that day the brewing ran into cooking time was just that wee bit stressed .

it’s going OK at the moment. I used the automation on the brewzilla for the first time for a stepped mash. Had the water up to temperature by the time I was down for breakfast. Grain and salts had been weighed out when I got home from work at midnight last night. Mash completed by the time I got back from dropping my daughter off at school.

So an hour into a 90 minute boil, just added the second lot of Saaz.

Anna

 

[DocAnna]

Hmm .. some of that didn't go to plan.
I'll write up properly later but for now:

• I hate whole leaf hops
• Fitting the fine filter to the base on the robobrew wasn't quite the good idea I'd hoped
• Insoluble denatured friggin hot side break proteins form well below boiling and block everything..grr
• Well that's going to be an interesting Festbier
• Did I mention I hate whole leaf hops ( ok I give in I did swear just a bit )

Right now it's a pint of Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale time.. well just the one before Tesco arrives with the shopping and I need to be respectable.

Anna

 

[chillipickle]

Used the fine filter once= very bad idea.
Only ever used pellets, in the brewzilla.Touch wood good so far.

Swearing is perfectly acceptable anna, if you brew you swear

 

[Buffers brewery]

Right now it's a pint of Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale time..

Liking your style

 

[Scrattajack]

pint of Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale time

Is that the stuff that's supposed to taste like sauvignon blanc grapes?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

• Insoluble denatured friggin hot side break proteins form well below boiling and block everything..gr

I’d have loved to have watched you while you wrote that bullet. I can almost see the tight lipped stern expression and the frenzied keyboard bashing.

Sorry, I am sympathetic

 

[buddsy]

The plan is for a Bohemian pilsner

Hi Anna. I have a Bohemian Pilsner planned in for tomorrow. If you remember I brewed the GEB Bohemian Pilnsner shortly after you did. I seem to be following you again!

I had in fact bought ingredients for a Belgium Dubbel but the idea of spring sunshine made me rethink about using the pilsner malt in something more suitable for drinking in the sunshine. Not that a dubbel cant be drunk in the sun.

Hope yours turn out well.

buddsy

 

[Tim Wilkes]

@DocAnna please, never change. I love your posts!

 

[DocAnna]

A bit of a lazy morning and I've just checked on my baby beers in the shed, which is at a very lagery 9 deg C. The B Pilsner is already bubbling nicely , the Festbier not so but the yeast for that one was only added 12 hours ago so I shouldn't be so impatient.

Swearing is perfectly acceptable anna, if you brew you swear

I try not to but sadly yesterday was a bit of an exception... I'll come to why in a mo'

Is that the stuff that's supposed to taste like sauvignon blanc grapes?

Yes and it's proper scrummy, tastes a bit disconcertingly like drinking a pint of wine flavoured beer, there is a lovely light gooseberry flavour to it.

I’d have loved to have watched you while you wrote that bullet. I can almost see the tight lipped stern expression and the frenzied keyboard bashing.

You are too right that wort had a distinctly firm telling off, and yes it was being given a stern report card, not so much frenzied, more pointed firm deliberate screen taps!

Ok about that festbier...

 

[DocAnna]

So yesterday went really well in the morning, the Bohemian pilsner generally went well though the whole leaf hops were a pain in the rear end. I'd not checked the AA of the hops till that morning and realised I was going to need to up the quantities, and even then to get the desired bitterness was going to have to move some of the hop addition to earlier in the boil. With 200g of Saaz but only 2.2% AA I was adjusting the recipe mid mash which wasn't ideal. By the end of the boil it looked less like wort and more like hop soup:

Volumes were spot on which was a surprise given the pile of hop mush, which probably means I was a bit under on the boil loss, and I undershot on the OG reached at 1.044 rather than 1.048 which is fine by me as I wasn't aiming for a strong beer and I reckon I've been over estimating the efficiency of my setup. It was a little disappointing that the fancy step mash didn't extract more but I guess we'll see what it tastes like. A couple of notable things about this brew for water chemistry. After a fair bit of reading I'm opting to focus on the calcium, chloride and sulphate and not add Magnesium or carbonate ions, which simplifies the additions, and only added to the mash since that's where they seem most required.

5.1% / 11.9 °P
BrewZilla / RoboBrew 35L
75% efficiency Batch Volume: 23 L Boil Time: 90 min

IBU (Tinseth): 34
Color: 10.8 EBC

Mash In — 50 °C — 20 min
Temperature — 63 °C — 40 min
Temperature — 68 °C — 5 min
Temperature — 72 °C — 20 min
Mash out — 76 °C — 5 min

Malts (5 kg)
4.8 kg (96%) — Crafty Maltsters Lucky's Lager Malt — Grain — 3.7 EBC
100 g (2%) — Weyermann Acidulated — Grain — 3.5 EBC
100 g (2%) — Weyermann Carabohemian — Grain — 200 EBC

Hops (200 g)
60 g (15 IBU) — Saaz 2.2% — Boil — 60 min
60 g (12 IBU) — Saaz 2.2% — Boil — 30 min
40 g (5 IBU) — Saaz 2.2% — Boil — 15 min
40 g (2 IBU) — Saaz 2.2% — Boil — 5 min

Miscs
2.5 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
1.5 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
0.125 tsp — Sodium Metabisulfite (Na2S2O5) — Mash
1 items — Protafloc — Boil — 15 min

Yeast
2.4 pkg — CML Hell 82%

Water Profile
Ca2+ 53, Mg2+ 1, Na+ 8, Cl- 68, SO42- 41, HCO3- 22

Including clean up was done by just after midday, which was pretty good, and I was feeling fair chuffed with myself. On to the next one, the Festbier, and pride comes before the fall...

 

[DocAnna]

I thought I'd cleaned up from the first beer, but kept finding hop leaves in nooks and crannies, I was reminded of sand getting into your underwear on a beach, and just as irritating. The mash was a simpler 60 min affair but I had realised the timings didn't work for the boil, as I needed to drive to pick up my daughter from school (The bus is only on certain days due to COVID space limitations) which there and back would be about 70 mins. That's Ok I thought, I've done this before and held the wort after sparging at 80 deg, this time to save a bit of time I thought I'd hold the wort at 93 deg... Ok this is important.. don't do this .
I came back home to find the top of the wort encased in a creamy grey granular material, oh I've seen this before with poached meats I thought, it's the hot break denatured protein. Sure enough, bringing it up to the boil there was no hot break foam at all... oooh feeling chuffed I've found a way to eliminate the risk of boil over, having stirred the grey stuff back into the wort... hmm it's sticking to everything it touches, that's odd...

The boil then got weird fast... whole brewzilla shaking and violent boiling, that would completely go away if stirred then recur in a few minutes... slow dawning realisation that the false bottom with the fine filter attached was probably clogged with that gross protein mush and the wort underneath was being superheated and then bubbling up through the rest of the liquid. I should have taken photos but I was thinking on my feet.. went on with the hop additions, though was about 10 min late on the 60 min addition, so added on 10 min but then added the 5 min hop at 15 min ...doh! So compromised and stopped the boil 6 min early.

Then it got really really annoying... the pump spluttered tried then finally yielded a tiny trickle.. and stopped. So my cooling really wasn't going well.. and my cool was beginning to slip just a little. Gave up at 46 deg as it simply wasn't cooling well.

I tried emptying the wort into the FV, the ball lock spout, spluttered tried then like the pump yielded a tiny trickle and stopped .. this is the point the happened... fished out the false base with a sanitised malt paddle - caked in a nightmare mush of hop leaves and protein, still not draining. How the frig was I going to get the wort out of this thing. Now I'm not that slight but not exactly strong either, but needs must. Gritting my teeth, managed to lift the whole boiler with wort and tip it into the FV through a sanitised fine colander - how I managed I really don't know but I'm sore today. Left the FV to cool passively in the shed till bedtime and added the yeast (dry CML Hell which seemed very appropriate)

Cleaning everything of that caked on protein mush was not fun at all. Pump finally unclogged by adding an alkaline cleaner and heating to near boiling that would dissolve just about anything.

Whether the beer tastes remotely like a festbier is anyone's guess, I don't care if it tastes like the best beer in the world, I'm not repeating that process.. oh and I really need to get a pully that thing is really heavy.

Anna