Bl****dy hell! I've just tried to upload this with all the photo links on Photobucket but the site won't let me - says it looks too spammy.... is there another way of hosting the pictures??
Inspired by all those autumn evenings spent with my dad in the outhouse, old metal boiler on a gas-ring, that incredible smell of malt and hops, steam, hours spent cleaning bottles, that incredible urge to open the fermenters.......ahhhah! Fifteen years on I thought it must be time to rekindle the Potting Shed Brewery.
The outhouse has long been knocked down and a new kitchen built â lovingly protected by my mother, to whom the mere thought of me boiling 40 pints of sugary wort is enough to cause palpitations....
But! They cleared off to a wedding for the weekend and invited me back home to âlook after the placeâ in their absence. Fools! Out came the newly constructed brewery and we were in business!?
I expect it will become clear why this beer has to be called: âMotherâs Wrath Best Bitterâ !!
I followed a simple recipe from JimsBeerKit tutorial for a standard bitter:
3.5kg Marris Otter Pale Malt
250g Crystal Malt
60min mash
1hr 30min boil
30g Fuggles @ 1hr 15mins
20g Challenger@ 1hr 15mins
5g Challenger @15mins
No idea how it will turn out but it seemed simple so thatâs what I went with.
Grain bill â this was some rather old grain I had ordered at the start of the year, although the Best Before End was all August 2014. It has been kept bagged, dry, dark stored so hope that will be okay. But for a first brew I thought Iâd just go with what Iâd got.
I used a Wilko fermenter fitted with two kettle elements, some plumbing fittings etc to make this boiler. The plastic is pretty thin and flexible, took a bit of silicone to stop any leaks but it held firm for this brew. This is supposed to be my boiler due to the two elements.
I also have an old Electrim boiler, single element but with variable control.
I used the two-element boiler as my HLT due to the speed in getting up to 78c strike temperature. I heated up the maximum amount for this container which is around 25lts. It took less than 30mins with both the elements going. I was worried about drawing two elements from a double socket but it didnât cause any problems in tripping out.
As far as water treatment â I added one crushed Campden tablet to help dissolve Chloramines and two teaspoons of Gypsum. No idea if thatâs worthwhile, but i had some and iâd read that it is a simple addition to make an improvement.
I had built a standard coolbox mashtun with camping mat and space blanket insulation.
I mashed in at a ratio of 2.5lts to 1kg of grain â this works out at 9.375lts of water.
I jugged it in but by the time I had run that from the HLT, measured it in my 2lt jug and dumped it into my pre-warmed mash tun it was already loosing temperature.
I doughed in, but the temperature of the mash was now below the desired 67c. So I had to add water from a boiled kettle. Not really sure how much extra water â probably as much as a litre had to be added. This was mostly because I was slow in getting the mash water into the tun quick enough.
I left it to mash for 60mins and it lost 1degree over that time so pretty happy with the insulation properties of the tun. Maybe could do more to insulate the copper tube and tap on the outside aside from wrapping a tea-towel round.
By now, I had transferred the water from the 2-element boiler which i had used earlier as my HLT into the Electrim boiler, seeing as the water was already well warmed. This was then brought up to 85degree mash-out temperature for the sparging stage, and meant I could sparge straight into the 2-element boiler. This worked quite well as a scheme, although I think I may just add another cheap element to the Electrim so that I have 2-element power in both vessels so no messing.
First runnings came out wonderfully dark. Took about 4litres at a very slow flow rate before it ran clear.
I was just using a bit of tin foil to protect the grainbed, with a jug taking water from the electrim boiler to sparge, keeping the volume 1inch above the grain bed.
Here was my first cock-up â while iâd tried to work out dead space etc, my boiler was only able to heat up around 25lts and I didnât refill it after mashing. So, by the time I was getting around 20litres of runnings, I was out of water in the HLT, so after adding a litre to the mash tun, i was adding a litre of tapwater to the HLT with the element on full chat to get it up to 85degrees, and doing that litre by litre.
My wilko-fermenter cum 2-element boiler also only has a capacity of 25litres, so Iâd planned on collecting the last of my runnings into some jugs. This would allow me to then add it to the boiler as the level dropped due to boil-off losses.
Second cock up - I was following BrewStews instructions and there is a section where it states to stop collecting once you hit 0.990 gravity. But i didnât grasp that this is NOT the measurement of the collected wort in the boiler, but the actual runnings coming out. So, i was checking the content of my boiler â which at about 23litres was reading 1.020 (not corrected for temp). I did finally realise that I should be checking the runnings, and by this point they were at 0.990 â but I wasnât correcting for temperature, and I am sure they were more than 20degrees. Iâm not sure whether I have now âover extractedâ or not.
Anyway, I ended up with a full boiler plus 4litres of additional wort in jugs â which was gradually of thinner and thinner colour, as can be expected.
So, then it was on with the boil â I turned both elements on and it very quickly came up to a rolling boil, at which point I turned one off. Bit by bit I added the jugs of wort Iâd collected toward the end of the sparging process, and I did get them all in.
Of course, I was lulled into a false sense of security and in a moment of distraction I left it and of course it boiled over.... so there was the first sticky mess to clear up.
I boiled for 15mins, then after that added my main bittering hops which were boiled for 1hr, then added my final hops with just 15mins to go. I also added some rehydrated Irish Moss.
Chiller went in for the final 15mins boil â another design flaw â the diameter of the coil is too large to fit down between the two elements and sit on the bottom of the boiler, so it was actually standing on the elements â this wasnât good as it was causing a lot of stress on them and their joints in the relatively thin plastic of the Wilko boiler bucket â so I managed to get it in at an angle but for the next brew I will need to add some legs to the chiller coil so that it supports its own weight.
Too about 20mins to drop to 26 degrees. Then I opened the valve and ran it out into my sterilised Wilko fermenting bin.
Here was another major cock-up. Due to the pressure the wort flowed horizontally from the valve, so i positioned the bucked underneath to start collecting. Of course, as the pressure dropped, the flow diminished and moved â if that makes sense â and once again, i turned my back and returned to find that probably 2 or 3 litres of wort had now missed the bucked and gone all over the floor!
Still, I had collected just a fraction under 23litres, it was thoroughly aerated due to the splashing and had cooled to about 24degrees.
My yeast was a random leftover packet from a failed Wilkinsons beer kit â not sure what sort it is:
I made a starter bottle with some chilled wort, added some sugar, gave it all a shake and a warm water bath to get it going around about 20mins from the end of the boil. It didânt look particularly lively but pitched it anyway, with a prayer to the yeast-gods.
So this was the gravity reading of the final cooled wort â around 1.040.
So that was that â first brew day complete â I sealed up my Wilko fermenter and put it under the stairs. Now this was 3 weeks ago tomorrow. Back then, it was when we had a cold snap, and the temperature was around 15degrees, so not ideal. I hope to have a temp-controlled fermentation cabinet built at some point.
I managed to clean up before the parents returned home â mopped the floor 4 times to stop it being so sticky! Had to wipe down the door, the skirting board, the cupboards... oooops!
Anyway, I also donât have any airlocks or such like â so for the past 3 weeks it has been sealed up, but I know that those cheap barrels are probably not the best.
I havenât been at my parents since the brew and it hasnât been opened, although my dad said it looked to be fermenting, from what he could tell from looking without taking off the lid, with plenty of krausen formed.
I hope to get over to my parents this weekend to check how it is going and to rack it off â I havenât decided whether to risk trying my second-hand purchased Youngs Pressure Barrell, or to attempt bottling.
I have a load of my dadâs old bottles, plus plastic push-on caps he used to use. I am not sure how good they are? Any thoughts? He used to use them back in the day, but everyone seems to use crown caps now....
So it was a great trial run of the kit and I learned a lot â cant wait to get the next brew on.
Questions:
⢠Was I right in thinking that I ought to be checking the gravity of the runnings â not the collected wort â during the sparging process?
⢠Will it matter particularly if what I collected was over-extracted?
⢠Does it particularly matter that I was using tap water to top up the HLT during the sparging process, without it benefiting from the campden tablets etc? Or the fact that it was boiled all together with the treated water will be fine...
What other gravity readings to I need to take in order to work out my efficiency and the final gravity of the beer?
⢠Anyone got any suggestions for preventing my mothers kitchen floor feeling like a bad nightclub !!!
Inspired by all those autumn evenings spent with my dad in the outhouse, old metal boiler on a gas-ring, that incredible smell of malt and hops, steam, hours spent cleaning bottles, that incredible urge to open the fermenters.......ahhhah! Fifteen years on I thought it must be time to rekindle the Potting Shed Brewery.
The outhouse has long been knocked down and a new kitchen built â lovingly protected by my mother, to whom the mere thought of me boiling 40 pints of sugary wort is enough to cause palpitations....
But! They cleared off to a wedding for the weekend and invited me back home to âlook after the placeâ in their absence. Fools! Out came the newly constructed brewery and we were in business!?
I expect it will become clear why this beer has to be called: âMotherâs Wrath Best Bitterâ !!
I followed a simple recipe from JimsBeerKit tutorial for a standard bitter:
3.5kg Marris Otter Pale Malt
250g Crystal Malt
60min mash
1hr 30min boil
30g Fuggles @ 1hr 15mins
20g Challenger@ 1hr 15mins
5g Challenger @15mins
No idea how it will turn out but it seemed simple so thatâs what I went with.
Grain bill â this was some rather old grain I had ordered at the start of the year, although the Best Before End was all August 2014. It has been kept bagged, dry, dark stored so hope that will be okay. But for a first brew I thought Iâd just go with what Iâd got.
I used a Wilko fermenter fitted with two kettle elements, some plumbing fittings etc to make this boiler. The plastic is pretty thin and flexible, took a bit of silicone to stop any leaks but it held firm for this brew. This is supposed to be my boiler due to the two elements.
I also have an old Electrim boiler, single element but with variable control.
I used the two-element boiler as my HLT due to the speed in getting up to 78c strike temperature. I heated up the maximum amount for this container which is around 25lts. It took less than 30mins with both the elements going. I was worried about drawing two elements from a double socket but it didnât cause any problems in tripping out.
As far as water treatment â I added one crushed Campden tablet to help dissolve Chloramines and two teaspoons of Gypsum. No idea if thatâs worthwhile, but i had some and iâd read that it is a simple addition to make an improvement.
I had built a standard coolbox mashtun with camping mat and space blanket insulation.
I mashed in at a ratio of 2.5lts to 1kg of grain â this works out at 9.375lts of water.
I jugged it in but by the time I had run that from the HLT, measured it in my 2lt jug and dumped it into my pre-warmed mash tun it was already loosing temperature.
I doughed in, but the temperature of the mash was now below the desired 67c. So I had to add water from a boiled kettle. Not really sure how much extra water â probably as much as a litre had to be added. This was mostly because I was slow in getting the mash water into the tun quick enough.
I left it to mash for 60mins and it lost 1degree over that time so pretty happy with the insulation properties of the tun. Maybe could do more to insulate the copper tube and tap on the outside aside from wrapping a tea-towel round.
By now, I had transferred the water from the 2-element boiler which i had used earlier as my HLT into the Electrim boiler, seeing as the water was already well warmed. This was then brought up to 85degree mash-out temperature for the sparging stage, and meant I could sparge straight into the 2-element boiler. This worked quite well as a scheme, although I think I may just add another cheap element to the Electrim so that I have 2-element power in both vessels so no messing.
First runnings came out wonderfully dark. Took about 4litres at a very slow flow rate before it ran clear.
I was just using a bit of tin foil to protect the grainbed, with a jug taking water from the electrim boiler to sparge, keeping the volume 1inch above the grain bed.
Here was my first cock-up â while iâd tried to work out dead space etc, my boiler was only able to heat up around 25lts and I didnât refill it after mashing. So, by the time I was getting around 20litres of runnings, I was out of water in the HLT, so after adding a litre to the mash tun, i was adding a litre of tapwater to the HLT with the element on full chat to get it up to 85degrees, and doing that litre by litre.
My wilko-fermenter cum 2-element boiler also only has a capacity of 25litres, so Iâd planned on collecting the last of my runnings into some jugs. This would allow me to then add it to the boiler as the level dropped due to boil-off losses.
Second cock up - I was following BrewStews instructions and there is a section where it states to stop collecting once you hit 0.990 gravity. But i didnât grasp that this is NOT the measurement of the collected wort in the boiler, but the actual runnings coming out. So, i was checking the content of my boiler â which at about 23litres was reading 1.020 (not corrected for temp). I did finally realise that I should be checking the runnings, and by this point they were at 0.990 â but I wasnât correcting for temperature, and I am sure they were more than 20degrees. Iâm not sure whether I have now âover extractedâ or not.
Anyway, I ended up with a full boiler plus 4litres of additional wort in jugs â which was gradually of thinner and thinner colour, as can be expected.
So, then it was on with the boil â I turned both elements on and it very quickly came up to a rolling boil, at which point I turned one off. Bit by bit I added the jugs of wort Iâd collected toward the end of the sparging process, and I did get them all in.
Of course, I was lulled into a false sense of security and in a moment of distraction I left it and of course it boiled over.... so there was the first sticky mess to clear up.
I boiled for 15mins, then after that added my main bittering hops which were boiled for 1hr, then added my final hops with just 15mins to go. I also added some rehydrated Irish Moss.
Chiller went in for the final 15mins boil â another design flaw â the diameter of the coil is too large to fit down between the two elements and sit on the bottom of the boiler, so it was actually standing on the elements â this wasnât good as it was causing a lot of stress on them and their joints in the relatively thin plastic of the Wilko boiler bucket â so I managed to get it in at an angle but for the next brew I will need to add some legs to the chiller coil so that it supports its own weight.
Too about 20mins to drop to 26 degrees. Then I opened the valve and ran it out into my sterilised Wilko fermenting bin.
Here was another major cock-up. Due to the pressure the wort flowed horizontally from the valve, so i positioned the bucked underneath to start collecting. Of course, as the pressure dropped, the flow diminished and moved â if that makes sense â and once again, i turned my back and returned to find that probably 2 or 3 litres of wort had now missed the bucked and gone all over the floor!
Still, I had collected just a fraction under 23litres, it was thoroughly aerated due to the splashing and had cooled to about 24degrees.
My yeast was a random leftover packet from a failed Wilkinsons beer kit â not sure what sort it is:
I made a starter bottle with some chilled wort, added some sugar, gave it all a shake and a warm water bath to get it going around about 20mins from the end of the boil. It didânt look particularly lively but pitched it anyway, with a prayer to the yeast-gods.
So this was the gravity reading of the final cooled wort â around 1.040.
So that was that â first brew day complete â I sealed up my Wilko fermenter and put it under the stairs. Now this was 3 weeks ago tomorrow. Back then, it was when we had a cold snap, and the temperature was around 15degrees, so not ideal. I hope to have a temp-controlled fermentation cabinet built at some point.
I managed to clean up before the parents returned home â mopped the floor 4 times to stop it being so sticky! Had to wipe down the door, the skirting board, the cupboards... oooops!
Anyway, I also donât have any airlocks or such like â so for the past 3 weeks it has been sealed up, but I know that those cheap barrels are probably not the best.
I havenât been at my parents since the brew and it hasnât been opened, although my dad said it looked to be fermenting, from what he could tell from looking without taking off the lid, with plenty of krausen formed.
I hope to get over to my parents this weekend to check how it is going and to rack it off â I havenât decided whether to risk trying my second-hand purchased Youngs Pressure Barrell, or to attempt bottling.
I have a load of my dadâs old bottles, plus plastic push-on caps he used to use. I am not sure how good they are? Any thoughts? He used to use them back in the day, but everyone seems to use crown caps now....
So it was a great trial run of the kit and I learned a lot â cant wait to get the next brew on.
Questions:
⢠Was I right in thinking that I ought to be checking the gravity of the runnings â not the collected wort â during the sparging process?
⢠Will it matter particularly if what I collected was over-extracted?
⢠Does it particularly matter that I was using tap water to top up the HLT during the sparging process, without it benefiting from the campden tablets etc? Or the fact that it was boiled all together with the treated water will be fine...
What other gravity readings to I need to take in order to work out my efficiency and the final gravity of the beer?
⢠Anyone got any suggestions for preventing my mothers kitchen floor feeling like a bad nightclub !!!
just means you've got them under your belt now like the rest of us .
