The Baron's Brewdays

I have decided to start and document my brewdays as of now with my first brew of 2020. Using my Ace brew system, this is brew number 65 with it
Yorkshire Bitter 1.036 OG predicted FG 1.008, IBU's 25.35, EBC colour 17.31, ABV 3.92
3200g of Irish pale malt
350g of Porridge Oats
80g of Crystal 225 EBC
80g of Crystal 30 EBC
40g of Chocolate malt 900 EBC
20g of Target Leaf Hops @ 30 mins
20g of First Gold Pellet Hops @ 15 mins
10g of First Gold Pellet Hops @ 5 mins
45 min mash @ 67c + 10 min mash out @ 75c
Boil for 45 mins
Wilko Ale Yeast - Re-Used for last brew
Started at 7.00am with 15ltrs of tap water plus 4 ltrs of Aldi bottled water plus half a campden tablet. Mashed in with the grainbill which I have used more Porridge Oats than usual which did not cause a stuck mash but the runnings were a little slower than normal when sparged with a simple bucket and jug @ 75c with approx 10 ltrs to take me to my pre-boil volume of 25.5 ltrs. Did not do a Ph mash test (getting lazy but would resume if things do not go well)as I have stopped doing them at the moment as all seems to be ok with my brews the same goes for pre-boil readings as I always hit my volume more or less and tend to overshoot with higher efficiency, my normal Brewhouse Eff is nothing less than 70 and usually slightly higher. I stirred the hops in the spider a few times during the boil to help with the release of flavour and Alpha Acid as I know that some people have problems with hop spiders but it seems ok for me maybe because I do not do many largely hoppy brews which can clog up the spider. Once the boil was over I left it to cool slightly in the Ace whilst I picked up the wife from shopping. After 45 mins approx it was down to 70ish so transfer into the FV and used the Hop Spider to aid with any trub removal which was minimal. Got 22 ltrs at 1.038 which was 2 points higher than the recipe said at the correct volume so alls well there. I will leave to cool outside in the Fv for the rest of the day/early evening and then pitch the re-used Wilko yeast when at 22c and ferment in my garage at about a average temp of around 17/18c at this time of the year, no fermentation fridge at the mo but maybe for the future. All in all the brew time was 3 1/2 hours plus 10 mins to transfer when it had cooled a little so quite a good brewday. Will update as it ferments

Well its chugging away nicely, may have to take it off the yeast in 5 days as hopefully brewing on wednesday and want the yeast cake if possible

What's going on in that first pic @the baron ? Are you using the sieve to vorlauf during the mash to remove small particles?

At one stage (pic 6) you seem to be running the wort into your FV through a hop spider, Is that to filter out particulate matter or are you doing a hopback? I've acquired a hop spider which I've never used and it would be good to get some service out of it.

matt76 said:

What's going on in that first pic @the baron ? Are you using the sieve to vorlauf during the mash to remove small particles?

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Hi Matt I am recircing with the pump and using the sieve just to catch any initial grain particles why I do not really know as it should just settle on the grain bed
Doh I just remembered why I do it Matt its to dissipate the wort coming out of the pump so it does not make a hole in the grain bed like using a sprinkler - must have had a senior moment there

An Ankoù said:

At one stage (pic 6) you seem to be running the wort into your FV through a hop spider, Is that to filter out particulate matter or are you doing a hopback? I've acquired a hop spider which I've never used and it would be good to get some service out of it.

Click to expand...

Hi AA it is just to filter any large **** out but usually it does not catch much as a general rule the grainbed has settled down and fliters it, its just belt and braces

At it again French Saison with Centennial and Columbus. Srted at 6.55am with the Ace, this is the first Saison I have ever done so may need a little help on this one and using Mangrove M29 French Saison yeast which I believe need sto be fermented quite high between 26/32 going to be hard at this time of the year as no fermentation fridge but will find the warmest area and duvet wrap the fermenter. Just about ready for the Protofloc or 1/2 of it and the hops all going in at 8 mins to give approx 25 IBU's.
I am have decided to measure PH in the mash which I have not bothered with recently but it was 5.9 so will need to learn how to adjust it from now onwards. I have bought some 80% Lactic acid in liquid form but need some advice on how to use it next time, can I add it to the strike water before? or do I need to adjust in the mash. The tap water is showing 7.3 PH at 7C so a little advice needed as water chemistry is not something I have really taken to heart as yet but I should really learn the basics

All done in the FV cooling down will add the yeast later this evening at a higher than normal temp as it says ferments at 26c/32c. Expecting a vigorous ferment

Kegged the yorkshire Bitter and 4 bottles. I have also for the first time added 10ml of heading fluid which I have never done before but doing it as a experiment for the next 5 brews, I have never had a problem with head but retention on some could be better so lets see over time if this has any improvement.

First taste of the YB and the First Gold certainly gives it a mild british taste that I like better than Fuggles which I have found sometimes too earthy.

I am letting my first ever Saison ferment for longer than usual as from advice I've seen it has to drop lower than a average beer so time will tell.
Today I am doing a low ABV Rye Pale with Azaaca as a single hop I am also using acid malt for the first time to try and get near a perfect Mash PH its just mashing now and ready for the mash reading as I type

Todays recipe for the Rye Pale
1500 g Pale Ale Malt
1500 g Rye Malt
200 g Porridge oats
108 g Acid Malt
400 g Munich Malt
25 g of Azacca 10mins
25 g of Azacca at 7 mins
re-used Wilko Yeast from the Y Bitter
OG 1.036
FG 1.008
ABV 3.7
IBU 26.8
Ps have just taken the PH and its no different from the last brew so does the acid malt work or do I need more?

Without putting it in Brewers Friend I would say you need more, did you mix it in well?

Also putting salt in a light beer will give you poor head retention.

Yes mixed it well Foxy, I was following advise to use 9g per kilo of grainbill to drop it 0.1 but as you say it does not look to be enough as the Ph has dropped from my last brew from 5.9 to 5.8. Its not drastic but just trying to get back to doing the job slightly better as bad habits do creep in over time. I also have got some lactic acid @ 80% to try on my next brew which could be as soon as tomorrow if things work out

Ps the high percentage of Rye and Porridge caused a semi stuck mash even with Oat Husks. I think I will be down on Eff and Volume as the grains felt quite heavy today when dispatching them so look like they have retained more than normal water
Have just taken my pre-boil and it was 1.033/4 and the volume is prob a litre down but should be 1.031 but as I said approx a litre down so better than expected seeing as the sparge was slow and hard

I use lactic acid, also 80%, in many of my brews - usually the maltier ones (CRS for the hoppier ones).

I add 5ml (just measured with kitchen measuring spoons, but pretty accurate) to 15L tap water, along with 1/2 a Campden tablet and gypsum or CaCl as required.

(N.B. I do full-volume no-sparge mashes and typically add 2.5-3.0kg grain to this water for an OG of 1.045-1.055)

My water is mega hard so I'm always fighting an uphill battle but it gets the mash pH closer to where it needs to be.

I did some experiments a while back which showed that the effect of adding lactic acid at this rate was just about perceptible if you know it's there and are really looking for it, but certainly not unpleasant or intrusive.

Thanks Matt I have cancelled the brew tomorrow until next week (poorly Grandchild to look after tomoz)but may try the lactic just to see the difference. The brew today ended up 1 ltr down but hit 1.036 so the eff was down to 67% rather than 70%. I have read that 5ml of lactic in a standard brew is the detectable limit as you say so may try 4ml and see where that takes it on the next brew. I did get a little of a horseshoe burn on the Ace today but only minor and put this down to the high % of Rye and porridge slowing down the re-circ

I’m looking at attempting a bit of water treatment on my next brew. Checking out the water treatment tool on this site it recommends 31 millilitres of CRS for 20 litres of my (very hard) water. What’s the difference between CRS and lactic acid?

CRS is a blend of acids to reduce carbonate levels(Carbonate Reducing Solution) I believe where as Lactic is just what it says just lactic acid. I have never used CRS but plenty of forum members have and I am no expert what I would do is post as a different thread in the forum and you will get way better advice than I can give. Steve Strange is the man on this forum and has written a sticky on basic water treatment so look at the sticky's first