Great brewing day today.
Had a busy weekend but managed to keg and bottle my American IPA All Grain kit on Sunday but last week I saw that the weather was going to be good so booked today day off of work specifically to do a brew.
Wanted to do a Caledonian Deuchars IPA from Graham Wheelers BYOBRA book. First issue, recipe calls for Fuggles but I didn't have any so used EKG (adjusted for different AA%).
Next issue, I was doing a BIAB with sparge and had a brainstorm and set my strike temp to 80C instead of 70C. Didn't realise until I checked my mash temp after doughing in (emphasis on the Doh!
) Quickly cooled down to 68 with the addition of a couple of litres of cold water.
Only lost 2 degrees over the hour, including a stir after 30 minutes so I was pleased with that. Used a reflective camping mat wrapped around my Pico boiler and a heavy towel on the lid. worked a treat.
Drained it off and dunked the bag into another bucket with 4.5L of water and left it while I set up the boil. Then rinsed them with another 2L. I added this to the main boil after I'd got some evaporation loss.
Bittering hops added, then some Styrian Goldings for aroma and then the next issue. The hose clips I used to connect the hose pipe to the immersion chiller wouldn't tighten enough and the water was spurting everywhere, lucky I was taking advantage of the sunshine and was boiling outside. They were just cleap, thin metal ones and I didn't have any others so after the boil was done I covered the wort and a quick drive to my local DIY shop got me some better ones.
Once that was fixed I got the wort cooled to 25C and hit the next issue. When I went to get my hydrometer I found it in two pieces, no idea how that happened but it gave me a chance to try out my new refractometer. OG was showing at 1.044 which indicates an efficiency of around 80%, not sure I believe that so am going to get another glass hydrometer to check. Pitched a pack of Mangrove Jacks M44 US West Coast yeast and am now waiting for it to burst into life.
This is my second all grain since coming back to the hobby and I've had a great day. Sun's out, beer brewing, stuff happened. Great day. Going to be a bit of a bummer going back to work tomorrow.
Kev
Had a busy weekend but managed to keg and bottle my American IPA All Grain kit on Sunday but last week I saw that the weather was going to be good so booked today day off of work specifically to do a brew.
Wanted to do a Caledonian Deuchars IPA from Graham Wheelers BYOBRA book. First issue, recipe calls for Fuggles but I didn't have any so used EKG (adjusted for different AA%).
Next issue, I was doing a BIAB with sparge and had a brainstorm and set my strike temp to 80C instead of 70C. Didn't realise until I checked my mash temp after doughing in (emphasis on the Doh!
) Quickly cooled down to 68 with the addition of a couple of litres of cold water.Only lost 2 degrees over the hour, including a stir after 30 minutes so I was pleased with that. Used a reflective camping mat wrapped around my Pico boiler and a heavy towel on the lid. worked a treat.
Drained it off and dunked the bag into another bucket with 4.5L of water and left it while I set up the boil. Then rinsed them with another 2L. I added this to the main boil after I'd got some evaporation loss.
Bittering hops added, then some Styrian Goldings for aroma and then the next issue. The hose clips I used to connect the hose pipe to the immersion chiller wouldn't tighten enough and the water was spurting everywhere, lucky I was taking advantage of the sunshine and was boiling outside. They were just cleap, thin metal ones and I didn't have any others so after the boil was done I covered the wort and a quick drive to my local DIY shop got me some better ones.
Once that was fixed I got the wort cooled to 25C and hit the next issue. When I went to get my hydrometer I found it in two pieces, no idea how that happened but it gave me a chance to try out my new refractometer. OG was showing at 1.044 which indicates an efficiency of around 80%, not sure I believe that so am going to get another glass hydrometer to check. Pitched a pack of Mangrove Jacks M44 US West Coast yeast and am now waiting for it to burst into life.
This is my second all grain since coming back to the hobby and I've had a great day. Sun's out, beer brewing, stuff happened. Great day. Going to be a bit of a bummer going back to work tomorrow.
Kev
