Finally made the transition to all-grain brewing

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hello all from St Albans - coincidently the home of CAMRA apparently

Well it's been a loooooong time since I brewed any beer but as with many, I think, the lockdown was the stimulus I needed to get my bum in gear and start doing it again. So I blew the dust off my original (1993) edition of Graham Wheeler and Roger Protz' "Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home" and got stuck in.

A few weeks later and I'm nearing the end of my first (is it right to say "gyle" or is that just pretentious?) all-grain brew, according to their recipe for Timmy Taylor Best Bitter. Just WOW...

I'll put my hand up and admit to being a total geek, so to be honest at least half the fun has come from doing all the research and making my own equipment. According to my wife, the garage now looks like a crack lab...

 

[Galena]

Looks like a good pint and yes I agree that half the fun is in the research and for me the gradual development of understanding and better beers.
I must admit I am curious what the domestic kettle that seems to have wires and pipes coming out of it is for?

 

[An Ankoù]

Hello all from St Albans - coincidently the home of CAMRA apparently

Well it's been a loooooong time since I brewed any beer but as with many, I think, the lockdown was the stimulus I needed to get my bum in gear and start doing it again. So I blew the dust off my original (1993) edition of Graham Wheeler and Roger Protz' "Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home" and got stuck in.

A few weeks later and I'm nearing the end of my first (is it right to say "gyle" or is that just pretentious?) all-grain brew, according to their recipe for Timmy Taylor Best Bitter. Just WOW...

I'll put my hand up and admit to being a total geek, so to be honest at least half the fun has come from doing all the research and making my own equipment. According to my wife, the garage now looks like a crack lab...

https://english.elpais.com/economy_...lls-disaster-for-spanish-travel-industry.html

You kit looks good, One of Wheeler's better books and your beer looks


as if you could do with a bigger glass.

Did you ever ask yourself how your good lady knows what a crack lab looks like?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Looks like a good pint and yes I agree that half the fun is in the research and for me the gradual development of understanding and better beers.
I mjust admit I am curious what the domestic kettle that seems to have wires and pipes coming out of it is for?

Ah well now - I'm glad you asked (but you won't be, by the time I've finished wittering on...)

The kettle is for measuring and managing the temperature of the goods during the mash.
It heats water that I pump around a 10mm copper coil immersed in the mash - via the two silicone hoses coming out of the top. Those hook up to copper feed/return pipes that go down into the kettle, and to a little 12v hot water circulation pump (small beige jobbie bottom left of the kettle).

The black wire coming out of the front of the kettle is a temperature sensor that plugs in to the black box, which is a digital controller I built to measure the temp of the water coming back from the heating coil and adjust the power to the kettle accordingly.

Said I was a geek... :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

You kit looks good, One of Wheeler's better books and your beer looks


as if you could do with a bigger glass.

Did you ever ask yourself how your good lady knows what a crack lab looks like?

Yeah.... glass definitely over-specced ;-)

 

[Galena]

Ahh so it's a heat exchanger, great bit of innovation

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Ahh so it's a heat exchanger, great bit of innovation

Thankyou, kind sir :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

When I get round to it (tm) I'll stick a few pictures of the rest of my kit onto a new thread somewhere

 

[DCBC]

Looks delicious! And I now need to start cloning Tim Taylor myself now that they're on the boycott list due to the part they played in the Small Brewers Relief changes recently.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Looks delicious! And I now need to start cloning Tim Taylor myself now that they're on the boycott list due to the part they played in the Small Brewers Relief changes recently.

FWIW the "Timmy Taylor Best Bitter" Recipe I used:

OG 1037, FG 1009, abv 3.8%, 30 EBU

Mash (10 litres, 90mins at 66 deg C):

• 3,600g Marris Otter Pale Malt (Maltmaster, eBay)
• 630g Medium Crystal Malt (Maltmaster, eBay)

Start of boil (23 litres, 2hrs):

• 28g Goldings (leaf, vacuum packed, the-home-brew-shop.co.uk)
• 30g Fuggles (ditto)
• 16g Styrian Goldings (ditto)

Last 15 mins of boil:

• 15g Goldings
• 1 tsp Irish Moss

Fermentation:

• Safale S04 (1 sachet, just sprinkled on after wort aeration)
• racked off sediment into clean bin after 24h
• transferred to cask on 3rd day and flushed headspace with CO2
• vented on 6th day, bottled on 7th (no fining or priming)
• drinkable at that point but flavour rounded out after a couple of weeks

 

[Galena]

Looks delicious! And I now need to start cloning Tim Taylor myself now that they're on the boycott list due to the part they played in the Small Brewers Relief changes recently.

I have not heard of that, please explain?