Spent almost all of today using my newly constructed Mash Tun, Wort Cooler and Inkbird Temperature Controller.
Great fun but heading for bed pretty soon!
I loaded up the boiler with 20 litres of water, set the temperature at 80 degrees on the Inkbird and measured out the grains and hops for a 14 litre brew as per:
1,890 gram - Pale Maris Otter (Grain)
315 gram - Flaked Oats (Grain)
210 gram - Chocolate Malt (Grain)
175 gram - Caramel Malt (Grain)
175 gram - Crystal Malt (Grain)
30 gram - Fuggles [5%] - Boil 60 min (Hops)
2 packets - Youngs Ale Yeast
I had expected to use just over 7 litres of Strike Water (2.8kg of grain x 2.6ltr/kg of water) but the level seemed really low, so I put in 10 litres instead. Next time I will believe the calculations as the mash was very "watery".
I increased the temperature on the boiler to 95 degrees with the Inkbird ready for Mashing Out.
When the one hour mash time was up the Mash Tun had lost only three degrees (65 degrees down to 62 degrees) so I attempted to Mash Out with about 5 litres of near boiling water; but didn't get the temperature to the required 77 degrees due to too much Strike Water.
I banged a bit of cold water into the boiler and re-set the Inkbird at 80 degrees for the sparge.
I started to lauter the mash and hit another problem when the tap blocked within seconds!! I then remembered the tiny filter fitted into the tap's nozzle and removed it with a sigh of relief!
After lautering I started to run the wort into an intermediate vessel whilst I knocked up a folded tin-foil sheet to lay over the top of the mash. I punched dozens of small holes in the tin foil to ensure that the sparge water was introduced evenly across the grain bed and then sparged with a further +/-10 litres of water at 80 degrees.
I stopped sparging when I had just under 20 litres of wort in the intermediate vessel and used the excess water in the boiler to clean out the Mash Tun. (I have never seen copper tubing so clean and shiny! Amazing!)
I then moved the wort to the now empty boiler and chucked in the bag of hops when the wort started to boil.
After a one hour boil I removed the bag of hops and (more by good luck than good management) realised that I had just under 15 litres of boiled wort to cool.
I used the new wort chiller and soon discovered that a) I was running off the wort too quickly (it was hitting the FV at +/-70 degrees) and at the same time I was using way too much water (I used 25 litres in about a minute).
I reduced the flow of wort to a trickle and ditto the flow of water through the jacket. The increased residence time of both fluids gave a much better heat exchange and the wort was cooled to +/- 24 degrees as it ran into the FV over the next half hour. (Unfortunately, the excess heat of the first couple of minutes meant that the finished article was at 34 degrees so I had to wait over an hour before I pitched the yeast.)
As the wort cooled to 22 degrees I spent the time cleaning the boiler and wort cooler and re-setting the Inkbird to control the warm-cupboard at 20 degrees.
The final yield was 14 litres with an OG of 1.042 which, when fermented down to 1.010, should result in an ABV of 4.2% (say 4.7% to account for secondary fermentation in the bottle).
Happy with the results, I pitched the yeast at 22 degrees, moved the FV into the warm-cupboard and called it a day. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
A great day with many lessons learned ... :thumb: :thumb:
... one of which is to take off my specs before I open up a hot and steamy Mash Tun or a boiler!! :whistle: :whistle:
Great fun but heading for bed pretty soon!
I loaded up the boiler with 20 litres of water, set the temperature at 80 degrees on the Inkbird and measured out the grains and hops for a 14 litre brew as per:
1,890 gram - Pale Maris Otter (Grain)
315 gram - Flaked Oats (Grain)
210 gram - Chocolate Malt (Grain)
175 gram - Caramel Malt (Grain)
175 gram - Crystal Malt (Grain)
30 gram - Fuggles [5%] - Boil 60 min (Hops)
2 packets - Youngs Ale Yeast
I had expected to use just over 7 litres of Strike Water (2.8kg of grain x 2.6ltr/kg of water) but the level seemed really low, so I put in 10 litres instead. Next time I will believe the calculations as the mash was very "watery".
I increased the temperature on the boiler to 95 degrees with the Inkbird ready for Mashing Out.
When the one hour mash time was up the Mash Tun had lost only three degrees (65 degrees down to 62 degrees) so I attempted to Mash Out with about 5 litres of near boiling water; but didn't get the temperature to the required 77 degrees due to too much Strike Water.
I banged a bit of cold water into the boiler and re-set the Inkbird at 80 degrees for the sparge.
I started to lauter the mash and hit another problem when the tap blocked within seconds!! I then remembered the tiny filter fitted into the tap's nozzle and removed it with a sigh of relief!
After lautering I started to run the wort into an intermediate vessel whilst I knocked up a folded tin-foil sheet to lay over the top of the mash. I punched dozens of small holes in the tin foil to ensure that the sparge water was introduced evenly across the grain bed and then sparged with a further +/-10 litres of water at 80 degrees.
I stopped sparging when I had just under 20 litres of wort in the intermediate vessel and used the excess water in the boiler to clean out the Mash Tun. (I have never seen copper tubing so clean and shiny! Amazing!)
I then moved the wort to the now empty boiler and chucked in the bag of hops when the wort started to boil.
After a one hour boil I removed the bag of hops and (more by good luck than good management) realised that I had just under 15 litres of boiled wort to cool.
I used the new wort chiller and soon discovered that a) I was running off the wort too quickly (it was hitting the FV at +/-70 degrees) and at the same time I was using way too much water (I used 25 litres in about a minute).
I reduced the flow of wort to a trickle and ditto the flow of water through the jacket. The increased residence time of both fluids gave a much better heat exchange and the wort was cooled to +/- 24 degrees as it ran into the FV over the next half hour. (Unfortunately, the excess heat of the first couple of minutes meant that the finished article was at 34 degrees so I had to wait over an hour before I pitched the yeast.)
As the wort cooled to 22 degrees I spent the time cleaning the boiler and wort cooler and re-setting the Inkbird to control the warm-cupboard at 20 degrees.
The final yield was 14 litres with an OG of 1.042 which, when fermented down to 1.010, should result in an ABV of 4.2% (say 4.7% to account for secondary fermentation in the bottle).
Happy with the results, I pitched the yeast at 22 degrees, moved the FV into the warm-cupboard and called it a day. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
A great day with many lessons learned ... :thumb: :thumb:
... one of which is to take off my specs before I open up a hot and steamy Mash Tun or a boiler!! :whistle: :whistle:
