So why the stuck sparge? Well it was partly my fault. I'd ordered a fine crush in the MM Verdant IPA which is the most expensive grain kit I've ever bought at a whopping £49 
. It does have though an equally huge amount of hops included, and I am determined to make a proper NEIPA!. Problem was that the sparge was taking forever and I started heating the wort for the boil before it had finished, thinking I'd take it to just under boiling and hold it there to make up the time. Except I hadn't thought about the steam, which I think cooked the grain next to the mash pipe base and stopped the wort draining at all. By this time I was totally fed up, late starting, needing to get the beef joint in the oven and desperately hoping I'd some roasties in the freezer part made from before (I make double batches of roast potatoes and freeze half the batch at the part prepped stage)
The boil was fairly uneventful with only a tiny amount of bittering hops which I used the metal hop spider for - and I don't think I'm going to use it again, the mesh is far too fine and it's really difficult to drain through. For the aroma hops I used a fairly large hop sock and recirculated the wort onto it while keeping it submerged, I really had no confidence in the hop spider working.
I ended up almost a litre short in the boil and unsurprisingly about 3/4 litre short in the fermenter
. Thankfully I was a wee bit over on my OG at 1.071 having aimed for 1.068, so I decided to add 750ml bottled water which seems to have brought the gravity to spot on target. I wanted to make it up to 19litres as I worried that by the time I lost volume to the dry hop and trub it was beginning to feel far too expensive a brew.
So here's the expensive problem child, now nicely tucked up at 18 deg, and yes I do know that the picture shows my attempt at sprinkling the yeast on top was a bit of a fail, it doesn't seem to have affected it as after 24 hours it was foaming and bubbling away nicely
.
Anna
. It does have though an equally huge amount of hops included, and I am determined to make a proper NEIPA!. Problem was that the sparge was taking forever and I started heating the wort for the boil before it had finished, thinking I'd take it to just under boiling and hold it there to make up the time. Except I hadn't thought about the steam, which I think cooked the grain next to the mash pipe base and stopped the wort draining at all. By this time I was totally fed up, late starting, needing to get the beef joint in the oven and desperately hoping I'd some roasties in the freezer part made from before (I make double batches of roast potatoes and freeze half the batch at the part prepped stage)The boil was fairly uneventful with only a tiny amount of bittering hops which I used the metal hop spider for - and I don't think I'm going to use it again, the mesh is far too fine and it's really difficult to drain through. For the aroma hops I used a fairly large hop sock and recirculated the wort onto it while keeping it submerged, I really had no confidence in the hop spider working.
I ended up almost a litre short in the boil and unsurprisingly about 3/4 litre short in the fermenter
. Thankfully I was a wee bit over on my OG at 1.071 having aimed for 1.068, so I decided to add 750ml bottled water which seems to have brought the gravity to spot on target. I wanted to make it up to 19litres as I worried that by the time I lost volume to the dry hop and trub it was beginning to feel far too expensive a brew.
So here's the expensive problem child, now nicely tucked up at 18 deg, and yes I do know that the picture shows my attempt at sprinkling the yeast on top was a bit of a fail, it doesn't seem to have affected it as after 24 hours it was foaming and bubbling away nicely
.
Anna
With thanks, Confused at The Buffers
new toys arrived today! Now all I need to do is fit them in and onto the fridge. Hmmm… problem is it’s full of hops at the moment waiting for the vacuum sealer so I can distribute them
.... really really (are you convinced yet? 
)
- and here next to one of the reconditioned older style ones.
.
