Pakman
Regular.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2012
- Messages
- 225
- Reaction score
- 3
For my birthday, in April, my mates bought me the chance to brew a commercial beer in a real brewery. The location was at the Aylesbury Brewery Company which is an eight barrel plant located behind the Hop Pole public house in Aylesbury.
We started at 07:00 in the morning by mashing in 125kg of Maris Otter extra pale and about 10kg of wheat malt. Once this was completed and the mash was happily sat at 66 degrees we had breakfast. I then sterilised the fermenter using an acid spray and cold hose whilst Hayden, the brewer connected up the pipes for the single batch sparge. By the time the boiler was full and the wort diluted a little to achieve the desired s.g. it was time for lunch and a beer. The first batch of hops were added at the start - before reaching a boil, and then at 80 mins as well as 2.5kg being added at flameout. When we came to cool the wort the fitted pump leaked all over the floor so we jury-rigged a temporary one with a couple of hoses. The wort cooled through the plate cooler to 18 degrees in about 20 minutes with the heated cooling water being received in the mash run for cleaning purposes.
Then into the ferment or where the o.g. was checked and adjusted after the yeast had been added. To oxygenate the yeasted wort they pump from the bottom to the top of the fv for 15 minutes every hour for the first 24 hours. That is how they achieve the creamy top yeast head that is skimmed of for the next brew. They reuse yeast up to 80 times before starting afresh. As the yeast stock is shared with Vale brewery the skimmed yeast is never stored for more than 24 hours.
A great day and I'm now really looking forward to tasting the result in a couple of weeks time. They will be having a firkin at my local ;0)
Graham
We started at 07:00 in the morning by mashing in 125kg of Maris Otter extra pale and about 10kg of wheat malt. Once this was completed and the mash was happily sat at 66 degrees we had breakfast. I then sterilised the fermenter using an acid spray and cold hose whilst Hayden, the brewer connected up the pipes for the single batch sparge. By the time the boiler was full and the wort diluted a little to achieve the desired s.g. it was time for lunch and a beer. The first batch of hops were added at the start - before reaching a boil, and then at 80 mins as well as 2.5kg being added at flameout. When we came to cool the wort the fitted pump leaked all over the floor so we jury-rigged a temporary one with a couple of hoses. The wort cooled through the plate cooler to 18 degrees in about 20 minutes with the heated cooling water being received in the mash run for cleaning purposes.
Then into the ferment or where the o.g. was checked and adjusted after the yeast had been added. To oxygenate the yeasted wort they pump from the bottom to the top of the fv for 15 minutes every hour for the first 24 hours. That is how they achieve the creamy top yeast head that is skimmed of for the next brew. They reuse yeast up to 80 times before starting afresh. As the yeast stock is shared with Vale brewery the skimmed yeast is never stored for more than 24 hours.
A great day and I'm now really looking forward to tasting the result in a couple of weeks time. They will be having a firkin at my local ;0)
Graham
