Hopsteep Brewing

[user 18729]

Finished building my counterflow chiller today!

I was inspired by @The-Engineer-That-Brews who has a thread for anyone interested in constructing their own.

I used 10mm microbore copper tubing for the coil, with end feed solder fittings. To avoid corrosion between copper and stainless I’ve used a John Guest 10mm pipe fitting with 1/2’ female thread which fits nicely with a male quick disconnect

Leak testing it tomorrow

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Cracking job - what do you reckon the parts cost you?

 

[user 18729]

Cracking job - what do you reckon the parts cost you?

I would guess in the region of £70 give or take. You could make it a bit cheaper without using the stainless quick disconnects but for ease of swapping hoses over I think they’re worth it

 

[user 18729]

Mark (aka @Benfleet Brewery) kindly sent me a couple of beers to try. The Kolch being filled from the keg needed to be enjoyed fresh so I thought I’d better open it after chilling it down in the fridge.

Aroma- wow, as you pour it you’re hit with beautiful noble hops, hersbrucker?

Appearance- crystal clear, perfect carbonation, spot on

Taste- gorgeous... exactly what I’d want in a kolch. Light in body, crisp with some maltiness balancing the bitterness.

Overall- lovely, what a great beer. I’m guessing there was a lot of attention paid to the water treatment and temp control

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ah, glad you liked it.

Yes, great shout with the hops. Magnum early then a combination of Hersbrucker and Huell Melon. Chilled then dumped onto a slurry of CML Kolsch yeast. Mash was 60 min at 63 degrees.
I used 50% RO and 50% Tap water adjusted to exactly what the water Guru, @strange-steve recommends for a Kolsch.

 

[user 18729]

Did a leak test and after a quick touch up with the blow torch on a couple of joints, we’re good to go!

I think the counterflow fits nicely under the brew bench

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

so shiny! I bet you have to wear sunglasses while you are brewing

 

[user 18729]

so shiny! I bet you have to wear sunglasses while you are brewing

Can’t wait for a sunny brew day, nothing better that wheeling the brew rig out in the back garden

 

[user 18729]

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

View attachment 48160

Could watch that for hours... You brewing today then?

 

[user 18729]

Could watch that for hours... You brewing today then?

Yes! Christening the new chiller as I type, seems to be doing a great job

 

[Rodcx500z]

What a lovely place to brew

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

What a lovely place to brew

... or indeed, drink!

 

[samale]

Yes! Christening the new chiller as I type, seems to be doing a great job

View attachment 48170

That's some set up. What are you brewing

 

[user 18729]

Just tucked away 45 litres of my Marilyn Belgian Blond slightly modified recipe which I’ll post shortly...

 

[user 18729]

Yes! Christening the new chiller as I type, seems to be doing a great job

View attachment 48170

Well, very impressed with the DIY counterflow- the slower you run the tap water the more efficient it seems to be. The first 10 litres or so of tap water came out at over 90 degrees and the returning wort at about 25 degrees

Very very impressed. The only down side I can see is that even with a behemoth of a pump (the mighty riptide) the restriction on the flow rate means I can’t get much of a whirlpool going.

I’m tempted to run two pumps for hop heavy beers- one purely for the whirlpool and the other for chilling

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Yep, a counterflow chiller is really very very thermodynamically efficient.

And the best bit is how it gives you a nice big tub of hot, clean water for doing the wash-up afterwards :-D

 

[user 18729]

Thar

Yep, a counterflow chiller is really very very thermodynamically efficient.

And the best bit is how it gives you a nice big tub of hot, clean water for doing the wash-up afterwards :-D

That was the other impressive bit- I had 30L of 68 degree hot water to use. Using my herms to chill a batch I never got anywhere near that much warm water to use for cleaning. Just goes to show how efficient it it.

My chiller isn’t as efficient as it could be either, the 20mm hose could be a lot thinner to improve cooling

 

[user 18729]

Here's today's beer- one of my favourite beer styles. I don't usually brew the same beer twice but this is the exception

Marilyn
Belgian Blond Ale
40L Batch

Colour 9 EBC
Est Abv 7%
22.6 IBU

Fermentables
Lager Malt 10.3kg / 86.6%
Weyerman Abbey Malt 400g / 3.4%
Belgian Candy Sugar (boil) 1200g / 10%

Boil
60 mins
Polaris 24g / 21.1 IBUs
5 mins
Hallertauer Hersbrucker 40g / 1.5 IBUs

Yeast
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier (repitched from previous brew). Fermented at the higher end to get some Belgian funk out of the yeast.

Adjusted Water
Ca 116ppm, Mg 9ppm, Na 43ppm, SO4 96ppm, Cl 101ppm and a mash PH of 5.3

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Wow - 40L... do you condition it in Cornys?