Dutto's Brew Day

Today, I bottled the Robust Porter that I started three weeks ago. The FG was 1.016 so with an OG of 1.059 it produced an attenuation of 72.9%. BrewersFriend predicted an OG of 1.059 and an FG of 1.014 with an attenuation of 76% so I'm reasonably happy that the differences are due to my own errors with a hydrometer.

However, to play it safe I carbonated the brew with only 3g/litre of Brewing Sugar and then only put half of the bottles in the fridge at 19.5*C (the other half being left on the shelves in the garage). I will monitor the bottles in the fridge every two or three days just to ensure that they don't suddenly start over carbonating.

I intended to make a Mild Ale with this brew but the recipe turned out to be a Robust Porter. TBH it tastes like a very strong Mild to me, but that might be because this is the first time I have brewed a Porter and didn't know what to expect!

This Friday is looking good for a Brew Day (wind SW 12mph gusting to 21mph) so Plan "A" for my first overnight mash is a SMASH with Maris Otter & Citra Hops:

INGREDIENTS
4.25kg Maris Otter Malt.
30g Citra Hop Leaf.
Wilco Ale Yeast.
Protafloc Tablet.
Yeast Nutrient.

DAY ONE
Preparation
Put on Wilco Ale Yeast Starter.
Mill 4.25kg of Maris Otter.
Overnight Mash
Strike Water = 3.0 litres per 1kg of grain = 14.0 litres at 80*C for dough in.
After dough in drop Strike Water temperature to 75*C and add sufficient Strike Water to fill Mash Tun.
Mash at 72-74*C overnight. (Note: Wrap Mash Tun in sheets, towels etc to minimise heat loss.)
DAY TWO
Preparation
Prepare Hop Bags:.

• 1 x 15g Citra Hop Leaf.
• 1 x 5g Citra Hop Leaf.

Put out Protafloc Tablet.
Put out Yeast Nutrient.
Boil
Stir Mash then lauter wort until clear.
Run wort into Boiler & start boil.
Heat SPARGE water to 80 degrees.
Sparge Mash as required at one litre per minute direct to Boiler; Stop when Boiler at 30 litres.
Boil with 15g of Citra Bittering Hops for 60 minutes.
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for 10 minutes.
Flameout.
Add 5g of Citra Leaf Aroma Hops and steep for 30 minutes before cooling.
Cool to 19*C, whirlpool, run off into FV, make up to 23 litres, take OG, add Yeast Nutrient and Yeast Starter.

Ferment at 19*C in Brew Fridge 2 increasing to 21*C.
Bottle with 80g of Brewing Sugar and Hop Tea made from 10g of Citra Hop Leaf.

All I have to do now is to hope that the weather forecast doesn't change too much with regard to wind strength!

Looking good! :thumb: What temperature water do you use for the hop tea?

GerritT said:

Looking good! :thumb: What temperature water do you use for the hop tea?

Click to expand...

I use 250ml of boiling water and let it infuse in a cafeteria for about 15 minutes. (While I weigh out, dissolve and boil the water for the Priming Sugar; all of this whilst the FV is being syphoned into a PB or a Bottling Bucket.)

The wind forecast for Friday is still looking good at SW/9mph/gusting to 15mph.:thumb:With an overnight temperature at just above freezing and very moderate winds I may as well set everything up (including the Mash) outside under the lean-to. If the experiment is successful I intend to do it this way in the future so "No time like the present." and it will definitely test the Mash Tun's ability to retain the heat (even wrapped in an old sleeping bag)!

Still looking good for a boil tomorrow so did Day One this afternoon as per the above.

The only difference is that is was so damned cold in the garage (5*C before I started heating the Strike Water) that all I got was 68*C as the starting Mash Temperature, despite pre-heating the Mash Tun and using 13 litres of 80*C Strike Water.

I also didn't set up everything outside. I expect the "Cool-box" to do it's job of keeping the heat in, but with a lower than desired Mash temperature and an outside temperature of 0*C forecast for tonight, I didn't fancy my chances of finishing up with what I wanted!

Ah well, back to the "Here's hoping!" like all new activities.

Hope the weather is kind to you today.
I was interested to see you aiming for such a high mash temp of 72-74. Was this becasue of the temp drop expected with an ovenight mash?

dan125 said:

Hope the weather is kind to you today.
I was interested to see you aiming for such a high mash temp of 72-74. Was this becasue of the temp drop expected with an ovenight mash?

Click to expand...

The weather was superb thanks, unlike the overnight Mash!

I wanted to start it so high to get plenty of non-fermentable sugars, as well as leaving it overnight. However, "The plans of mice and men oft gang awry!" (to misquote Burns) and it was not to be!

It was 8*C in my garage so the start Mash temperature was only 68*C from a Strike Water temperature of 80*C for the full 30 litres. The "good news" is that after 16 hours the Mash Tun was at 48*C this morning and the OG was at 1.045 which is about where I would expect it to be for a 4.25kg grain bill.

For me, the Overnight Mash system is not worth it because:

1. I lost control of the Mash Temperature once the mash had started. i.e. A) The Mash Tun was already full so the addition of hot or cold water to adjust the temperature wasn't possible. B) Even using a "Thermos" cool-box as a Mash Tun the ambient temperature and the time lag both played a huge part in the final temperature and the result.
2. The Mash still has to be sparged with water at a suitable temperature. This means that the water had to be heated and also resulted in "hot" grains having to be removed from the Mash Tun. These activities both added time to Day Two.
3. Any increase in efficiency was marginal when compared to my current system.

I will therefore return to my current "Mash on Day One" and "Boil on Day Two" system.

The SMASH with MO and Citra is currently in Brew Fridge 2, so definitely not a wasted two days!

Dutto said:

The weather was superb thanks, unlike the overnight Mash!

Click to expand...

That does sound like a faff. Maybe it'd work better in the summer, but It'll be interesing to see what the FG is on this beer

Dutto said:

I will therefore return to my current "Mash on Day One" and "Boil on Day Two" system.

Click to expand...

Hi!
I an definitely going to try this soon. The only disadvantage that I can think of is the loss of heat in the wort - it will be slightly more expensive to boil from ambient than boiling immediately after the mash, but probably only a few pence more.
Not recommended for Scottish home brewers :blush2:

However the "efficiency" turns out, the brew is "glubbing" away nicely at 19.5*C at the moment.

The bit that I really didn't like about the "Overnight Mash" was that I still had to empty a hot Mash Tun or (which I actually did) cool the Mash Tun down with cold water, let it drain and then empty it. Apart from splitting the work more evenly between the two days, emptying a cold Mash Tun on Day Two was one of the pleasures of the two day system.

Daft but true!

Everyday is a school day @Dutto.I've had a few overnight mash times but would normally have it in the kitchen well wrapped and at most lost 10° over 16 hour's.
I do brew inside either the garage or the kitchen depending what days I'm off shift and alternate between gas or the burco boiler and if really enthusiastic do both in the garage as I built a brew bench and incorporated a gas hob.
Inspiring I must say as I haven't brewed since before Christmas due to various things,so keep up the good work [emoji106]

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

Bigcol49 said:

Hi!
Let us know whether you get the hop aroma from the flameout hops.

Click to expand...

Bugger! Forgot to really taste the brew for Citra Hop flavour before putting it in the PB a few days ago! However, a taste today (just to check that it was carbonating okay) produced a really nice "hoppy" taste; but this may be due to the Hop Tea made from 15g of Perle Hops that I put in the PB with the priming sugar!

Today, I bottled the English Bitter that I started three weeks ago and has only just finished fermenting with an FG of 1.011! After tasting the Premium Bitter (aka Pale Ale) in the PB I again added a Hop Tea made out of 15g of Perle Hops.

I also used my Mash Tun as a Bottling Bucket. Bottling was a lot easier using the tap on the Mash Tun (with 3cm x 6mm plastic tube attached) instead of the Bottling Wand.

Been a good day all round today as I also managed to harvest enough yeast for a starter and smoke a few kilos of Pork Shoulder. The Pork Shoulder is now ready to go into the freezer as Pulled Pork! No doubt about it, creosoting the pork yourself results in a taste that's a lot better that the shop bought stuff.

BTW, I did a beer inventory today and I am at "Critical Mass" again (after the depredations made by visitors at Christmas).

For drinking now I have:

• 4 bottles of tweaked Coopers Stout from last March.
• 10 bottles of Spiced Pumpkin Ale from las November.
• 15 litres of Oatmeal Stout.

Still carbonating/conditioning I have:

• 20 litres of Robust Porter.
• 20 litres of Vienna Lager.
• 22 litres of English Bitter.
• 22 litres of Premium Bitter.

Fermenting:

• 23 litres of SMASH with Citra.

I can now relax a bit, keep an eye on the weather and brew about once every two weeks until just before we go to France. At that time, I will stick a couple of extra brews on and leave them carbonating/conditioning whilst we are away.

Oh Happy Days!

Dutto said:

Forgot to really taste the brew for Citra Hop flavour before putting it in the PB a few days ago! However, a taste today (just to check that it was carbonating okay) produced a really nice "hoppy" taste; but this may be due to the Hop Tea made from 15g of Perle Hops that I put in the PB with the priming sugar!

Click to expand...

Hi!
I'm still debating (with myself) the idea that fermentation strips out a lot of hop oils. I'm not doing any late additions to the boil, adding dry hops to the FV when fermentation is almost complete and adding a hop tea when kegging.
The Cali Common that's being force carbed at the moment smells fantastic; I've had to burp the keg a couple of times as I seem to be getting it over-pressurised - I wonder whether my regulator's on the blink?
However, I'm releasing precious aroma when I release the gas!
I agree about bottling - I've stopped using a wand.

The Hop Tea definitely puts a better (stronger) hop aroma/taste into the beer. Reading a lot of articles on the volatility of hop aroma oils (and knowing that my own taste-buds are shot) I reckoned that for me boiling aroma hops was a waste of money and effort.

TBH I have only tasted/smelled significant "hoppiness" in one of my beers by steeping after the boil has finished and then adding of a Hop Tea before bottling.

I'm sure that a lot of the lighter hop oils leached out during the steeping process then get lost during the fermentation which is why I add the Hop Tea. Just lately I've been using Perle Hops for this because A) It has a 9% Alpha Acid content and B) The packet was already open! (Not the best of reason but SWMBO demands that we use the freezer for something called "food").:wave:The SMASH with Citra that's currently fermenting has a great citrus aroma and I'm hoping that a Citra Hop Tea just before bottling will make it a great brew. I did it last year without the Hop Tea addition and it won a "Superb! Must do again." comment in my Brewing Diary.

It looks like “The Beast from the East” is moderating.:thumb:

Plan “A” for March is:

• Bottle the SMASH with Citra tomorrow.
• Mash the next brew. (Not sure but maybe a Pale Ale.)
• Boil on Monday when wind drops and weather warms up a bit.

Still loads of snow hanging about and freezing cold gale still blowing! Temp in garage today was +3*C in the Brewing Side so here’s hoping that the Met Office are correct in their forecasts and the SMASH has finished fermenting. :thumb:

SMASH with Citra bottled. Never had an SG as low as this for a beer at 1.006. At an ABV 5.12% it tasted delicious before adding the Cita Hop Tea and bottling with 70g of Brewing Sugar.



Looking forward to tasting it when it’s been fully conditioned.:thumb:

Looks good Dutto. Any idea why you got a lower FG? Different yeast or mash temp?

I did an Overnight Mash.

I just didn’t feel in control of the sparging ‘cos the temperature fell so much during the night and I reckon I must have had almost zero non-fermentable sugars in there.

Tastes nice though! :thumb:

Should really show off the hops with a gravity that low

Here's hoping!