Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

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Have you thought about supplying a couple of local pubs?!?
No. I brew what I like for myself, it’s just a hobby with benefits.

If I brewed for local pubs I’d need to seriously upscale from my 20 litre batches, take on a load of admin with the tax man and a host of others, and take on obligations to deliver a regular supply.
 
Just brewing the Altbier now and messed up the mash. First I overshot the collection of RO water and not wanting to waste it I used all of it and used a bit less tap water - this decreased the alkalinity of course. Because I didn’t test my tap water I didn’t notice the water source had changed from aquifer to surface water - this again decreased the alkalinity. The end result, the mash pH ended up at 4.6 so now I’m brewing a sour! Also the gravity is down by 6 points because the enzymes are struggling a bit at the lower pH.

I can raise the gravity by adding a little DME and I will sparge with pure tap water which should help raise the pH a little. I might just get away with it but if the finished beer is a bit tart I might just blend this beer with a stout I have planned in the next tranche!
 
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The Altbier is done, 22 litres in the fermentation cabinet with an OG of 1048. A little DME did fix the lower gravity, using tap water for the sparge made no difference whatever to the pH. We’ll have to see how this one turns out.
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There will be no brewday tomorrow now all four slots in my fermentation cabinet and the one slot in the brewshed are all in use. #DayOff
 
Tomorrow I’m brewing the first beer of my second tranche, a German Lager. This will be followed by a best bitter, pale ale, stout, and ordinary bitter.

I’ll also be kegging the Baltic Porter tomorrow and will move the Schwarzbier from the shed (14C) into the fermentation cabinet (18C) to encourage the yeast to clean up any diacetyl.
 
Stout brewed today. I also kegged my Black IPA but forgot to take a picture before I drank the sample I took. Never mind, it looked the same as the Baltic Porter or Schwarzbier!
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Last brew in this tranche tomorrow and I’m brewing a lower alcohol bitter - that’s lower alcohol rather than low alcohol, probably around 3%. I’ll also bottle/keg that Altbier tomorrow too.
 
I brewed a golden ale and made a mistake along the way. OG 1.033 I was aiming for 1.040, My first low alcohol brew, I had considered adding some sugar to bring the ABV up to 3.8%
 
That’s it, second tranche completed today. I brewed a lower alcohol bitter today which I’m calling an ordinary bitter though the ABV might be a tad shy at about 3% give or take a couple of points. I also bottled/kegged the Altbier and I’m pleased to say it turned out fine and not a sour as I had feared.

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That’s it, second tranche completed today. I brewed a lower alcohol bitter today which I’m calling an ordinary bitter though the ABV might be a tad shy at about 3% give or take a couple of points. I also bottled/kegged the Altbier and I’m pleased to say it turned out fine and not a sour as I had feared.

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I brewed an 80 bob that was only 3.2% and that was nice.
 
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