AG#6 - Nottingham Gold

[AndyBWood]

Evening All,

Not done a brew day account for a while so thought I’d get the camera out as well as the mash tun.

Just a bit of background to this one. About a year ago I bought a couple of hop rhizomes which my brother duly planted at the back of his place in Nottingham. We weren’t expecting a great show in the first year but the East Kent Goldings managed to push out just over a hundred grams (dried) which I was more than pleased with.

Harvest shot as follows :

So….. what to do with our bounty . No idea of their credentials but I thought I’d use the lot in a semi-smash and see how they stand up on their own. ( with thanks to rich27500 for the idea :thumb: )

HLT on with PID doing it’s clever thing.

Simple grain bill; Maris Otter and a little touch of Crystal.

Hop Shot !

And mashed in ( took me ages to get the strike temp right….. )

First Mash Tun ‘Cheese’ added

Followed by two more…..

Head dress optional……

Lost about a 1.5 degrees over 2 hours so ok ish. May try extra silver bubble wrap next brew but the only place these Thermopots get really warm is around the lid. May try to fashion some kind of cover out of polystyrene or similar.

Still using my real dodgy sparge set up at the moment until I finally decide what to do regarding trickling or spinning. No chance of a traditional 3 tier cascade system in my kitchen so I’ll have to stick with jugging the runnings into the boiler or maybe a small pump.

First runnings looking nice after a few litres of re circulation.

First outing of my new hop filter. My first attempt had a long run of copper extending to the back of the boiler as follows :

This worked but it was really difficult to maintain the siphon towards the end and tilting the boiler backwards to try and improve things was hit and miss. Basically, by tilting back I was asking the wort to run more and more uphill.

In testing the new filter works so much better. Really simple idea; a ½ elbow, a ½ - ¼ inch coupler, a metre of stainless braid, a ¼ inch coupler with blanking cap and a couple of jubilee clips. ( sorry if I’ve got the plumbing terminology wrong ) Works like a dream; just used PTFE tape and hand-tight on the important connections. Really pleased. Thanks to everyone for all the help when I was trying to sort out the parts list :thumb:

Went for my usual 90 min boil but this time with the first hop addition at 60 mins. So up to temp

Missed a few photos but 40g of hops went in at 60 mins to go, 20g at 15 mins plus 20g at 5 mins.

Really pleased with the hops; they’ve been sealed in plastic, frozen and have really kept their shape and aroma. These went after the boil at 80 degrees for a 20 min steep.

Aftermath………

Not sure if the picture does it justice but this is one of the clearest worts I’ve managed. I was, however, a point or so down on what I wanted. Didn’t get quite as much evaporation this time and over compensated the volume in the boiler. Should have trusted the numbers… it would have been spot on.

Tried an air stone and pump via a filter set-up this time. Was a bit of a palaver and it seemed to work but I’ve got a niggling doubt that maybe the air stone was floating near the top and has not really aerated all the FV ? ( this brew isn’t out of the blocks as quick as others I’ve done )

Yeast was recycled Whitelabs No2 English Ale

So…. that’s about it. All tucked up in the firm fridge at 19 degrees. Just hope I’ve not messed up with that air stone….. :hmm:

Cheers.

A

 

[Brewerboy]

That looks like a smashing brewday. Really nice pictures BTW.
I'd just like to ask - 100g of of hops doesnt seem like much (just about enough for 1 brew) so how much can one expect to get when the plant is fully matured?
Also what sort of conditions does the plant need?
Finally do you just dry the hops in the sun on that mesh material?
Thanks
Jacob

 

[Rolfster]

Looks good, your trail jar looks very clear.

 

[AndyBWood]

Hi Brewerboy,

I believe commercial hops can grow 30 feet high and yield many times more than I got. Looking forward to this year to see if they do better in year 2.

We didn't dry the hops outside; I've read, once picked, sunshine is bad. They where dried indoors by circulating air through them. Again, commercially, I understand hops are dried in kilns at a low temp.

Originally, however, they where dried in Oast Houses which can still seen in Kent and the South although many are now converted for other purposes.

Cheers

A

 

[AndyBWood]

Update

I don’t normally mess with my brews once they are in the fermentor but couldn’t resist.

Looks like the air stone did get enough O2 in there; yeasty goodness after 24 hours. Most of this has happened in the space of an evening ! :thumb:

I will, however, be super-critical on the flavours. The last brew I did at 19 degrees with harvested Whitelabs No2 was lovely; really clean with just enough going on.

We shall see…….

A