AG#45 Bitter using Mild Ale Malt - Loads of Pictures

[TheMumbler]

On holiday this week so brewing something which should be drinkable fairly quickly. First go at using BrewR which seems to vary a touch from qbrew which is what I use normally.

Brewlength 21L

Predicted OG 1038
Predicted FG 1009
Predicted abv 3.7%
Colour 6.9 SRM

IBU 30

2500g Mild Ale Malt
500g Flaked Barley
500g Flaked Wheat
150g Crystal
150g Carapils

Mash 66*C
1 tsp (4g gypsum)

Challenger (6.9) 60 mins
Challenger (6.9) 15 mins
Columbus (17.1) 0 mins

Yeast S04

lots of pics to follow

HLT Filled and 1/4 campden tablet added, More water, (20L) with 1/4 campden tablet ready to use in a FV, with a fresh batch of StarSan on top

Checking the alkalinity of the water. See here for a guide
0.92ml remaining, so 0.33 meq/litre x50 = 16.5 ppm CaCO3

I then calculate my water additions using the forum tool and information from United Utilities. If I am being lazy (and I usually am) I assume that my water is soft (which it will be unless we are in a drought and the source changes) and use 1tsp(~4g) gypsum in the boil and 2 tsp gypsum in the boil (~8g) for any pale ale or bitter type of thing. I would always go carefully for a dark beer as I don't have a good water profile for them.

I need 4g gypsum for the mash
8.5g gypsum, 2g salt, 2.5g epsom salts and5g CaCl for the boil. My scales aren't all that accurate at these sorts of weights so this is all "in the ballpark"

Flaked grains measured out, then in goes the crystal and carapils, finally a temp measurement showing the Mild Ale Malt

Check the water temperature is about where I want it. Check the tap on the Mash Tun (small one today) is closed (very important)

Add water to the MT and check it is where I want it in terms of temperature (I use a spreadsheet to do the calculation based on grain temp and weight and water temp and weight. In this case 73*C

Mash in, pouring and stirring is a two hands job so no pic. I pour slowly stirring well to try and avoid dough ball formation. Then give it a good stir just in case.

Then check the temperature is where I want it (66*C) put the lid on the Mash Tun and then wrap in a sleeping bag for more insulation (not shown but I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like ).

Mash for 2 hours as I have some other stuff to get on with. I then top up with hot water to stop the mash aiming to get the temp in the mid 70s. Stir and leave for another 15mins or so to let the grain bed settle down again. I then mash out.

Recirculate the first runnings until the wort is less turbid, at least so there are no bits of grain in it. I don't usually bother going for really clear wort at this stage. I use two trays from a steamer rotated round so that the holes are out of alignment to do this. Once the wort is clear enough I run the wort out, in this case into a FV but I usually run straight into the boiler for the first batch.

Once the first batch is drained out it goes into the boiler today (really not sure why I didn't run straight in). Check the hop filter is securely attached and add the boil salts before doing this. The boiler can then be switched on to get the wort heating up while I do the second batch.

I then do the second batch adding water around 80*C and leave to settle again. I then repeat the run off process described above. A few jugs worth of wort recirculated before running off.

When I have my full volume of wort in the boiler I take a preboil gravity reading to check that my hopping is going to be OK. I usually chill this down to around 30*C so that the adjustment for temperature isn't too wobbly

Today I have 1036@ 30*C so around 1039. I am going to be stronger than I was aiming for. Looking at my IBU estimate I'm happy that being a bit less bitter is going to be OK so I don't adjust. You can do this by going back to your software and adjusting the efficiency until the predicted OG is what I estimate it to be assuming around 10% evaporation.

Once the wort is up to a boil I usually skim some of the grey scum off the top. To be honest I have no idea whether this is a good idea or not. I then add the 60 min hops and start a timer.

Time for a coffee so I sort out my cold extract coffee. I'm almost tempted to put some coffee in the beer but think better of it. I also get some water for the yeast boiling in a pyrex jug in the microwave covered with a saucer. I then leave this in the microwave to cool slowly as the boil progresses.

About 30 mins in I think I am losing more volume than I expected so I top up with 2L of my spare campden treated water. I then decide I've added too much so extend the boil by 15mins before adding the 15min hops. I am not worried about any extra bitterness as my preboil gravity tells me that I am going to be stronger than my original calculations here and I didn't alter my hopping.

With a little more than 15 mins left to go I add the immersion chiller to get it sanitised. You can see the fan that I use to blow some of the moisture out of the door. We have a split door so I can boil indoors if the weather isn't great. I try to do this with enough time for the boil to get going again before adding the 15 min hops and half a protofloc tablet.

The leftover hops go in a ziploc bag with as much air squeezed out as I can and then back into the freezer

At the end of boil I chill down to around 80*C and then add the zero min hops, I chopped them up today as an experiment to see if that yields more flavour. Then leave them to steep for 20-30 minutes. Once the boil is done I am careful that nothing contacts the wort or anything that I am going to put in the wort (e.g. the yeast) without being sanitised with StarSan

Once the steep is done I chill down to 18*c,stirring with the immersion chiller speeds this process up. Then leave to settle for another 20-30 mins again covering with a lid and towel to keep the flies out. At this point I get the water for the yeast down to 30*C using a water bath and then sprinkle in the yeast, remembering to give it a stir after 15 mins or so. I use the sanitised thermometer to do this

Once the wort is settled I check the tap on the FV and then drain into it from height and giving a good stir using a sanitised sirrer to aerate. I take a sample for gravity somewhere in the middle of the process. I also add the yeast mid way, rinsing the jug out with wort to get all of the yeast in there.

OG of 1044, just shy of 21 litres

Then into the brew fridge, I have the probe outside of the wort hanging on the FV handle to make sure it is actually in the fridge and set the temp on the STC100 to 17.5*C

Time to clean up, boiler to be washed making sure that the element is cleaned. Hops squeezed out and in the food waste. Grains go to a guy for his chickens so I bag that up in a bin liner as I'm out of the used feed bags he gives me. A fair amount of **** has made it into the "false bottom".

 

[TheMumbler]

Rest of the pics added. This is a fairly detailed write up as I seem to have posted very little in the way of pics for my last few brews. Hope it is of interest and/or of use to somebody.

 

[Good Ed]

looks good, a nice lot of pics :thumb:

What's the cold extract coffee btw?

 

[TheMumbler]

Coffee brewed at room temperature for a long time (24 hours). You end up with pretty strong coffee. You can then go again with the same grounds for 48 hours to get some more coffee at half the strength of the first lot. It gives a smoother flavour profile, not going above 80 degrees avoids astringency just like cold extract of dark grains for brewing. Different, not necessarily better to coffee made on stove-top.

 

[frenchy]

That looks good!

Quick question about your boiler, from what I can see it's a plastic bucket with a heating element.
What size is the bucket?

 

[TheMumbler]

I haven't measured the exact volume but I would guess 30L based on the position of the 25L mark embossed inside. It is an older Ritchies bucket with a kettle element. It is considerably more rigid than any of the other fermenters I have. Seems to be the same material though (5 PP on the recycling information), so I assume it is just thicker. It has been totally fine for rigidity for a number of brews, I wouldn't necessarily trust any given FV though.

In terms of volume, it is fine for a corny's worth of beer (20-21 in the FV for 19L in the corny). I'd say 5 gal (23l) brew is the outside limit for brewlength and that means starting the brew closer to the top than I would like.

Hope that helps

 

[TheMumbler]

Fermentation seems to be nicely underway around 24 hours after pitching.

 

[Jeff Brewjubbly]

Appreciate the pictures Mumbler... Makes it fascinating to read :)

 

[frenchy]

Thanks for TheMumbler :)
I was asking that because I'm considering building one.

 

[RobWalker]

great stuff! that's a tonne of flaked grains, how does that work out in the finished beer?

looking forward to your results, cracking brewday :

 

[TheMumbler]

Thanks for TheMumbler :)
I was asking that because I'm considering building one.

I figured you might be. I would have a look around the equipment forums as you do want to be careful when selecting the bucket. Some of them go alarmingly wobbly at temperature and you really don't want to end up with boiling wort all over the floor, or worse yourself. I inherited mine from a friend who upgraded to an aluminium stockpot so I knew it handled the temps well.

great stuff! that's a tonne of flaked grains, how does that work out in the finished beer?

looking forward to your results, cracking brewday :

I like it, gives a bit more body but you do lose some clarity in my experience. I'm not really bothered about having really clear beer so long as it tastes good but YMMV. Obviously you need to make sure you have enough malted grain to get the enzymes for conversion. I have had low efficiency in the past using flaked grains which is why I estimated it at 70% in this brew. I did way better that that in the end so possibly my low efficiency in other brews may have been down to something else.

I had some of my APA with Chinook and Amarillo which has a fair amount of flaked grain in it on the day. That should give you some idea of the clarity.

 

[TheMumbler]

Check on fermentation today. Everything looks fine, the head has dropped back leaving some clumps of yeast floating on the top so it is probably getting towards being done. I take a gravity reading using the sanitised baster to collect the wort. I also push the temperature up a bit to help the yeast finish up (from around 17 to around 20).

1016@18*C so 1016. I expect this will still drop a bit more so I could add some dry hops at this point if I wanted to as the yeast will still be active enough to mop up a little bit of oxygen.

I have a taste and all seems fine, not especially bitter but about enough, I would have been happy with a touch more bitterness but it is fine - should be a nice easy drinking bitter. I think the Columbus late addition has worked well on the basis of this tasting but time will tell. I think some Columbus as a dry hop would work well enough but since I'm after a reasonably traditional tasting English Bitter type of a thing I won't dry hop in this case.

 

[BrewBilly]

Very good clear process, much appreciated - as I'm moving to AG soon. Pics also much appreciated.

 

[RobWalker]

i usually find the bitterness is a bit more apparent once it's cleared and conditioned a little, so hopefully it'll be better! colour is lovely. like beery orange juice :lol:

 

[TheMumbler]

i usually find the bitterness is a bit more apparent once it's cleared and conditioned a little, so hopefully it'll be better! colour is lovely. like beery orange juice :lol:

Me too, I am guessing about the end point from my experience of tasting the trial jar. There was probably still a bit of sugar left in there with the gravity at 1016. I reckon it will be fine which is the main thing. I'm not really a precision brewer as I'm sure is apparent. The colour looks nice as you say, I guess most of that is down to the mild ale malt.

Very good clear process, much appreciated - as I'm moving to AG soon. Pics also much appreciated.

Thanks BrewBilly and the other people who took the time to say thanks or give positive comments it makes the effort of linking all those photos feel more worthwhile :

 

[Brewbob]

What a great thread, thats why I like this forum

 

[TheMumbler]

Today it is a week so I take hydrometer reading with the expectation that it will be about where it will finish. I'll take another in 2 or 3 days and if it is the same fermentation is pretty much done. The reading is 1012/13 @ 19.5*C, no need to adjust as my hydrometer is calibrated at 20*C. The beer is tasting good and has improved for drop in gravity to my mind the bitterness is coming through a little more as predicted. It is a bit clearer but certainly not clear at this stage.

 

[BrewBilly]

Looks good, you will be able to put it through the fek test in no time.

IMHO this is a very good thread, well done Mumbler

 

[TheMumbler]

I got sick after the last measurement so went nearly a week before taking a second reading - 1008
I assumed it was more or less finished there so put the fridge on without temp control to drop the yeast out and because I knew I wasn't going to be able to package it for a while.

I eventually got it in the corny today, I don't use the tap on this FV as it is quite high and always gets a load of trub in it. I then label the corny and start gassing it up

At this point it tastes slightly more bitter than I would like but I expect the bitterness will back off a bit in a week or two. I think it tasted better with a bit more residual sugar so I might mash for less time or at a higher temperature if I make it again depending on how it tastes in a couple of weeks.