Been some time since I posted a brew day.
Didn't take that many pics as I was trying to video the brew with an IPwebcam and the cheap digital camera.
Not really that successful; no1 son trying to whip the footage into shape.
Could always post the IPcam link so you lot can watch the whole brew day live? 6hrs of excitement? :rofl:
For this brew I'm looking for a two beer brew; while young I want a sweetish very dark ale with a strong black current note from the hops, as it ages I hope to get the licorice coffee dryness taking the fore.
Grains, well apart from the 3kg of pale malt already in the tun.
I'm crushing my own malt just now, a bit of an experiment to see if it stays fresher. This is driven be the purchase of a small hand grinder to crush my home malted Bere grain.
Here's my brewery. I like the cheep home made style as the tinkering is almost as important as the brewing. Having said that it's not changed much in the last year.
Also, I'm currently do not want to brew bigger batches. The brewing is the fun for me and 5 gallon batches means I can brew on average every second weekend.
HLT set to 79.6°C
Mash Tun at it's max..
Thought I'd do a temperature check on the tun thermometer and the HERM pid. The Herms is a copper coil in a budget kettle controlled by a PID and the pump is a 12v solar heating pump run off my old train transformer.
Into recording the mash ph just now. Not doing anything with the data yet, just recording to build a data base for future water treatment designs.
I have a cheep electronic ph meter, the paper strip agrees ph 5.1
First wort hopping this one.
I read that, although technically the bitterness is as that of a full boil, the perception of bitterness is less when first wort hopping and an element of flavour and aroma comes through.
Boil done, chilling time.
Chill down to 80°C then hold for 15mins while the additional Citra hops soak.
Once down to 20°C I let it trickle out of the boiler into the fv, taking about 45mins, to add the necessary O2.
Dirty shot. Cold break doesn't show too well in the pic.
Yeast added then into the temperature controlled fridge at 19°C. Got 25 litre at 1053.
My brew dog is a bit bored. Suzi is 5 months now.
Fermentation day1
day2
day3
day4
missed the cauliflower head stage so here's a previous one
That's it ready to rack tomorrow. I will rack into 2nd fv and sit in cold garage for a week before I bottle.
Only problem is both buckets are full so will need to bottle the lager first tomorrow. Then rack this one which will empty the fv, so guess I will need to brew tomorrow to fill it. :party:
Didn't take that many pics as I was trying to video the brew with an IPwebcam and the cheap digital camera.
Not really that successful; no1 son trying to whip the footage into shape.
Could always post the IPcam link so you lot can watch the whole brew day live? 6hrs of excitement? :rofl:
For this brew I'm looking for a two beer brew; while young I want a sweetish very dark ale with a strong black current note from the hops, as it ages I hope to get the licorice coffee dryness taking the fore.
Grains, well apart from the 3kg of pale malt already in the tun.
I'm crushing my own malt just now, a bit of an experiment to see if it stays fresher. This is driven be the purchase of a small hand grinder to crush my home malted Bere grain.
Here's my brewery. I like the cheep home made style as the tinkering is almost as important as the brewing. Having said that it's not changed much in the last year.
Also, I'm currently do not want to brew bigger batches. The brewing is the fun for me and 5 gallon batches means I can brew on average every second weekend.
HLT set to 79.6°C
Mash Tun at it's max..
Thought I'd do a temperature check on the tun thermometer and the HERM pid. The Herms is a copper coil in a budget kettle controlled by a PID and the pump is a 12v solar heating pump run off my old train transformer.
Into recording the mash ph just now. Not doing anything with the data yet, just recording to build a data base for future water treatment designs.
I have a cheep electronic ph meter, the paper strip agrees ph 5.1
First wort hopping this one.
I read that, although technically the bitterness is as that of a full boil, the perception of bitterness is less when first wort hopping and an element of flavour and aroma comes through.
Boil done, chilling time.
Chill down to 80°C then hold for 15mins while the additional Citra hops soak.
Once down to 20°C I let it trickle out of the boiler into the fv, taking about 45mins, to add the necessary O2.
Dirty shot. Cold break doesn't show too well in the pic.
Yeast added then into the temperature controlled fridge at 19°C. Got 25 litre at 1053.
My brew dog is a bit bored. Suzi is 5 months now.
Fermentation day1
day2
day3
day4
missed the cauliflower head stage so here's a previous one
That's it ready to rack tomorrow. I will rack into 2nd fv and sit in cold garage for a week before I bottle.
Only problem is both buckets are full so will need to bottle the lager first tomorrow. Then rack this one which will empty the fv, so guess I will need to brew tomorrow to fill it. :party:
