Allgrain brewday #3 today. Hook Norton's Old Bill variant.
I was trying to brew something a bit similar to the Hook Norton Old Bill - a dark, well-bodied malty ale, and played around a bit and went with the following:
3.5kg - Marris Otter Pale Malt
100gms - Black malt
350gms - Flaked Barley
450gms - Soft Dark Brown Sugar (added to boil at 20mins to go)
60min mash at 68 degrees
60min boil, with the following for the duration of that time:
60gms - Fuggles leaf (60mins)
35gms - Brambling Cross leaf (60mins)
Used my boiler for the initial liquor - its a converted Wilko fementer with two Tesco kettle elements, so can only manage around 25litres - got up to around 80degrees.
I added a crushed Campden tablet and two teaspoons of Gypsum as a general water treatment.
Warmed up the coolbox mashtun (having fitted the straining manifold) with boiling water, drained it, then added 8litres of liquor to mash-in to (this around a 2:1 ration of water to grain). As I was brewing in the utility room (no heating) with the door open to prevent condensation (parent's house....) it was pretty chilly and despite trying to keep the lid semi-on during mashing in, final temp was around 66 degrees so i added a litre or so of boiling water from the kettle to get her up to 68. Covered it all up and mashed it for 60mins. At the end of the mash it had dropped to 66.5, which i can live with.
After about half an hour of mash, I've emptied the remaining hot liquor from the boiler into my HLT (an old single-element Electrim boiler) and topped it up to around 25 litres again with tap water and set it to 85degrees - it gradually gets to that by the end of the mash. Why do I do this? Because the two-element boiler takes less time to do the initial liquor heating.
First runnings were jugged back onto grainbed onto foil with slits in. All looked lovely and dark - small amount of black malt goes a long way!
Took about 3litres of jugging back to get the runnings clear enough to start the sparging, running from the mash-tun and into now-empty boiler, via hose to avoid splashing.
I started to take hydrometer readings after I'd collected around 15 litres - taking my sample from the tap-runnings, not just testing everything I'd collected so far in the boiler, which is what I did first time round, which resulted in me gathering around 10litres extra, possibly over-extracting.
My boiler can only safely boil around 23litres without boil-overs, so I collect the last 2.5litres in jugs at the very end of the sparging, which I add back in to the boiler as evaporation allows. This time round I'd remembered to put the hop-strainer into the boiler before i started sparging....
While I am collecting those jugs, I've moved the boiler and got both elements going, and take a sample from the boiler - My final gravity reading following the mash was a temperature corrected 1.037 ish, which seems low for 4.95kg of grains? What do others think - should I increase my mash time to 90mins perhaps?? I'm not sure if there is a lot in the Flaked Barley?
Doesn't take long and the rolling boil starts, I switch off one element to avoid boiling over. Start the timer - 60mins to go. Ish.
In go the hops - Brambling Cross and Fuggles - all in together, little stir to get them all submerged.
Coffee time.... sterilise fermenter...
Gradually, over the duration of the boil I jug in the extra wort, getting in as soon as it allows me.
With 20mins to go, I added the brown sugar, after some advice from this forum about adding the sugar late in the boil, not at the start.
This recipe calls for 450gms 'brown sugar' - I raided the baking cupboard and had two choices - 200gms of granulated brown cane sugar (not enough) or 500gm of Soft Dark Brown Sugar. I wasn't really sure which 'brown sugar' was best, but went for 450gms Soft Dark Brown Sugar instead of a mxture of the two. It did smell a lot richer and of molasses than the bog-standard granulated brown - not sure if that's a good thing or not, but in it went all the same with a good stir... time will tell.
After the sugar I put in 1 tablespoon of Irish Moss, which i'd rehydrated in a 100ml or so of warm water, put on before starting the mash, so was very sludgey by now....
With the boil nearly over with just 15mins to go I've finalled managed no messy boil over! My more careful approach has trumped my trying to squeeze every last drop out of the mash... I'm busily congratulating myself at this point.
15mins to go, in went the chiller coil to sterilise. Damn! Forgot about displacement....! the remainder was a gnats-nadger from going over.. but some strategic use of a dishcloth and not too much mess.
I rehydrate Safale-04 dry yeast in around 300 ml of warm water about 30mins before end of boil - so by now its starting to look a little more lively.
Once I get the wort down to around 26degrees I turn off the chiller and start to run into the fermenter - sloshing it around to aerate until it becomes too full/heavy.
I was just about spot on with volume, collecting around 23litres.
Temperature corrected gravity reading post-boil - with all the brown sugar now added - was up to 1.047, so a bit more respectable.
Had to stick it outside for 15mins or so (with the lid on) to get down to around 23degrees and then pitched in the hydrated yeast, giving it a bit of stir.
Fermenter lid on - I've not used an airlock on the past two brews as it seems to seal well enough - and then in to the temp-controlled fermenting fridge set at 22degrees which i'll maintain for 24hrs to give it abit of a boost then down to 18degrees. I'm not back for three weeks, so it can sit there happily until then....
So, pretty pleased with how this day went - definitely feeling a lot more confident and not having to check my notes every ten minutes, although still need to be attending it pretty much every step of the way. Fewer cock-ups (aside from a brief open-tap moment!) and my taste-test of the dregs in the boiler are of a sweet, malty brew, good dark colour, reasoably mellow hop flavour - so, promising.
I'll finish off with a shot of my previous brew - Citra IPA - being transported from the temp-fermenter to a cooler place. They've had 2weeks at 22degrees to condition, now theyre off to the garage where its significantly colder.
Isn't this what wheelbarrows should always be used for?!
All good fun. Hope this was useful to someone considering going to AG - it's amazing how quick you get the hang of the process. The biggest hassle is a) storing all the gear and b) sterilising everything....
Next up - I think a Robust Porter, in three weeks time..... watch this space.
I was trying to brew something a bit similar to the Hook Norton Old Bill - a dark, well-bodied malty ale, and played around a bit and went with the following:
3.5kg - Marris Otter Pale Malt
100gms - Black malt
350gms - Flaked Barley
450gms - Soft Dark Brown Sugar (added to boil at 20mins to go)
60min mash at 68 degrees
60min boil, with the following for the duration of that time:
60gms - Fuggles leaf (60mins)
35gms - Brambling Cross leaf (60mins)
Used my boiler for the initial liquor - its a converted Wilko fementer with two Tesco kettle elements, so can only manage around 25litres - got up to around 80degrees.
I added a crushed Campden tablet and two teaspoons of Gypsum as a general water treatment.
Warmed up the coolbox mashtun (having fitted the straining manifold) with boiling water, drained it, then added 8litres of liquor to mash-in to (this around a 2:1 ration of water to grain). As I was brewing in the utility room (no heating) with the door open to prevent condensation (parent's house....) it was pretty chilly and despite trying to keep the lid semi-on during mashing in, final temp was around 66 degrees so i added a litre or so of boiling water from the kettle to get her up to 68. Covered it all up and mashed it for 60mins. At the end of the mash it had dropped to 66.5, which i can live with.
After about half an hour of mash, I've emptied the remaining hot liquor from the boiler into my HLT (an old single-element Electrim boiler) and topped it up to around 25 litres again with tap water and set it to 85degrees - it gradually gets to that by the end of the mash. Why do I do this? Because the two-element boiler takes less time to do the initial liquor heating.
First runnings were jugged back onto grainbed onto foil with slits in. All looked lovely and dark - small amount of black malt goes a long way!
Took about 3litres of jugging back to get the runnings clear enough to start the sparging, running from the mash-tun and into now-empty boiler, via hose to avoid splashing.
I started to take hydrometer readings after I'd collected around 15 litres - taking my sample from the tap-runnings, not just testing everything I'd collected so far in the boiler, which is what I did first time round, which resulted in me gathering around 10litres extra, possibly over-extracting.
My boiler can only safely boil around 23litres without boil-overs, so I collect the last 2.5litres in jugs at the very end of the sparging, which I add back in to the boiler as evaporation allows. This time round I'd remembered to put the hop-strainer into the boiler before i started sparging....
While I am collecting those jugs, I've moved the boiler and got both elements going, and take a sample from the boiler - My final gravity reading following the mash was a temperature corrected 1.037 ish, which seems low for 4.95kg of grains? What do others think - should I increase my mash time to 90mins perhaps?? I'm not sure if there is a lot in the Flaked Barley?
Doesn't take long and the rolling boil starts, I switch off one element to avoid boiling over. Start the timer - 60mins to go. Ish.
In go the hops - Brambling Cross and Fuggles - all in together, little stir to get them all submerged.
Coffee time.... sterilise fermenter...
Gradually, over the duration of the boil I jug in the extra wort, getting in as soon as it allows me.
With 20mins to go, I added the brown sugar, after some advice from this forum about adding the sugar late in the boil, not at the start.
This recipe calls for 450gms 'brown sugar' - I raided the baking cupboard and had two choices - 200gms of granulated brown cane sugar (not enough) or 500gm of Soft Dark Brown Sugar. I wasn't really sure which 'brown sugar' was best, but went for 450gms Soft Dark Brown Sugar instead of a mxture of the two. It did smell a lot richer and of molasses than the bog-standard granulated brown - not sure if that's a good thing or not, but in it went all the same with a good stir... time will tell.
After the sugar I put in 1 tablespoon of Irish Moss, which i'd rehydrated in a 100ml or so of warm water, put on before starting the mash, so was very sludgey by now....
With the boil nearly over with just 15mins to go I've finalled managed no messy boil over! My more careful approach has trumped my trying to squeeze every last drop out of the mash... I'm busily congratulating myself at this point.
15mins to go, in went the chiller coil to sterilise. Damn! Forgot about displacement....! the remainder was a gnats-nadger from going over.. but some strategic use of a dishcloth and not too much mess.
I rehydrate Safale-04 dry yeast in around 300 ml of warm water about 30mins before end of boil - so by now its starting to look a little more lively.
Once I get the wort down to around 26degrees I turn off the chiller and start to run into the fermenter - sloshing it around to aerate until it becomes too full/heavy.
I was just about spot on with volume, collecting around 23litres.
Temperature corrected gravity reading post-boil - with all the brown sugar now added - was up to 1.047, so a bit more respectable.
Had to stick it outside for 15mins or so (with the lid on) to get down to around 23degrees and then pitched in the hydrated yeast, giving it a bit of stir.
Fermenter lid on - I've not used an airlock on the past two brews as it seems to seal well enough - and then in to the temp-controlled fermenting fridge set at 22degrees which i'll maintain for 24hrs to give it abit of a boost then down to 18degrees. I'm not back for three weeks, so it can sit there happily until then....
So, pretty pleased with how this day went - definitely feeling a lot more confident and not having to check my notes every ten minutes, although still need to be attending it pretty much every step of the way. Fewer cock-ups (aside from a brief open-tap moment!) and my taste-test of the dregs in the boiler are of a sweet, malty brew, good dark colour, reasoably mellow hop flavour - so, promising.
I'll finish off with a shot of my previous brew - Citra IPA - being transported from the temp-fermenter to a cooler place. They've had 2weeks at 22degrees to condition, now theyre off to the garage where its significantly colder.
Isn't this what wheelbarrows should always be used for?!
All good fun. Hope this was useful to someone considering going to AG - it's amazing how quick you get the hang of the process. The biggest hassle is a) storing all the gear and b) sterilising everything....
Next up - I think a Robust Porter, in three weeks time..... watch this space.
