Erik The Anglophile's brewdays.

[Erik The Anglophile]

That's true I guess, although in winter here the main risk is the yeast being killed by freezing, spending a lot of time on a unheated cargo hold in a truck driving in sub -30c temps...
And dry yeast is a lot less hassle, I have found a good dry house strain for my Bri'ish ales, so why bother faffing with liquid you know?

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

The plan also is to start harvesting and washing yeast in the future, when I have better facilities for it.
Although that's more because I'm cheap...

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Batch #3 Best Bitter
Designed for a bit over 21L in the kettle and ~20L in the bucket.

Maris Otter 3.21kg 81%
T. Wheat 160g 4%
Crisp's Amber 160g 4%
Crystal 240ebc 120g 3%
Invert #3 320g 8%

Mashed at 66c/60 min
Boiled 90 min

32.9g Challenger 60 min
10.5g Challenger 15 min
21g Challenger 20min/80c
21g Styrian Goldings/Bobek 20min/80c

Final volume 22.7L vs estimated ~21.5
Est OG 1.042 actual 1.043
Est IBU 33, probably landed thereabouts as I did not calculate any IBU contribution from the hopstand.

This brew went reasonably well, from the numbers I got from my first larger batch and calculated on, I ended up a lot closer to the truth.
Still a little off on the boil off rate, but not by much, I think I have a somewhat accurate number to adjust down with now, for my next brew.
Will probably have to adjust my efficiency a little though, even though I ended up with a little over a liter more wort than anticipated my OG was a wee bit over, it seems since I started buying whole grain base malt and milling all malt myself, my efficiency has gone up a little from my usual 75%.
The only cockups this time was completely forgetting the protafloc... And when I had done my hopstand, I put my Thermometer in the kettle tilted against the side, only to hear that dreaded sound of something scraping against metal...
No worries though, Swedish Hillbillies come equipped with common sense, so I kept chilling and just used the IC to swirl around a little once in a while, and when the outside of the kettle felt room temperatured I considered it close enough to pitching temp.
It's sitting in the fermentor now, I checked this morning and no fermentation but some pressure was starting to build up, so something is starting to happen, will hopefully have a krausen coming tonight.
Well, let's see how this turns out, hopefully this will get me a little of that TT citrusy, floral hoppyness.
Taste test of this, the Brown Ale and the stout coming in a month or so, just need to get this batch done and conditioned, and my keg fridge ready.
Cheers!

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Took a gravity sample yesterday evening, and it had only gone down to 1.013. Although there was still a whole bunch of yeast in suspension, it did not taste completely finished and the pressure in the bucket seemed to rise back up rather fast after pouring the sample. The yeast I use can often be a little sluggish to ferment out that last bit, and I expect it to drop a few points more in the coming days. Plan to keg it on friday, should probably go back to my method of just letting it sit it's 2 weeks and just do a gravity check the day before kegging, but patience is hard to master...

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Kegged the bitter yesterday night, took a new gravity sample thursday.
It had gone down a little to 1.012, or more a tie between 012-011 but a wee bit closer to 12 for an abv of about 4.2% after the keg is conditioned.
Gonna check my glass immersion thermometer today, it is off by 2c but it's good to check for any changes.
"Recalibrate" my hydrometer (putting new electrical tape in the top until it is zeroed in 20c water) and mill grain i measured up earlier this week.
Then tonight I Will brew a dark mild, gonna use light muscovado with a dash of dark early in the boil to see if it is a better emulation of invert #3.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Another brew done yesterday, now I have the last one done to fill 4 kegs, might be a while until I brew next time.

#4 Dark Mild 15.5L batch to be put in a 12L keg.
Maris Otter 1930g 72%
Brown Malt (Crisp) 110g 4%
Crystal 220g 8%50/50 mix of 150/240 ebc
Wheat 110g 4%
Black Malt 50g 2%
Muscovado sugar 270g 10%, a mix of 8/10 light muscovado and 2/10 dark muscovado.
I realised my glass thermometer has gone bonkers and is off by quite a bit, but I think I mashed at 67-68c for an hour...

90 min boil
10.7g Challenger 60 min
10.5g EKG 15 min
Est IBU 19

Water
Cl ~230
So4 ~155
Ca ~178
Na~ 66

Well, no mishaps this brew apart from my worthless thermometer, even remembered the protafloc this time...
I still seem to have some issues with the efficiency since I started milling the base malt myself, the preboil SG was a bit high but I diluted it to the right level and then took some away to achieve the proper pre boil volume. Changed up my efficiency setting in Beersmith to 80% and will see if that's more correct.
Although I forgot to turn up the PPG to match that of raw sugar instead of homemade invert syrup, so I landed at about 14L in the bucket at 1.041 instead of the 38 I wanted.
Have changed my other recipes accordingly though, now I only have to see if my muscovado mix is a closer emulation to "real" invert than the caramellised syrup I have done previously...
Fermented with Brewly English Ale, currently sitting at 19c, gonna raise to 20 after work tomorrow.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Not a brew, but related...
Was tinkering a bit with what is becoming my keg fridge yesterday after the kids passed out.
I will have to attach a piece of 2x4 behind the taps to get some distance out from the wall, but if I take some care to round the edges and oil it up etc it will probably be a nice look paired with the wood tap handles.
I have drilled a small hole on the opposite side of the taps for the gas tube feeding the manifold, and will attach a small fan for air circulation and to get an even temp inside.
The thought is to put a 5L jug of water under the wood shelf at the bottom and tape the thermostat probe to that, with some insolution covering it, to keep the kegs at a cozy 11c.
Plan on setting the regulator on 10psi, with a little pressure drop over the manifold check valves, the serving pressure and keg temp should be at about equilibrium for the 1.7 vols I prime the kegs to. For a little fake cask imitation since I don't really have the possibility nor consume enough for a proper beer engine set up.