Physics clone MM

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WeeDave

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Afternoon.

Been away for a long time. I've been building my career, bought a house and drifted majorly from brewing.

When I bought the house, I thought I'd get back into it for small batch AG. So, I got bit's and bob's from Malt Miller, including this 1 gallon kit in 2020. Needless to say, life got in the way and I never made it. It's out of date now (grain and hops) but the grain was crunchy and tasted ok, so thought: let's get it done!

I am experimenting with No Sparge BIAB. Here's my process - with some photos - and I welcome all feedback!

1) Brought 7l of tap water (treated with half a Campden tab) to 70 degrees.
2) Added grain, stirring with mash paddle. Mash temp was 66 degrees (target is 65) so wrapped it up and waited 60 mins. Mashed was checked at the 30 min stage. Mash had dropped to 63 degs. Straight back on hob to 66 degrees, then off hob, wrapped up again and left it.

3) Weighed out hops as per recipe.
4) Drained bag into pot and left bag over colander in a spare FV. Added to stockpot then brought to the boil. Pre boil gravity on refractometer was 1033. Thought that was a bit low... so added 250g DME to 800ml of boiled water... checked recipe and was meant to mash for 75 mins.
5) 60 min boil with hop additions, Irish moss etc, as per recipe but also added my DME mixture at 30 min mark. Added chiller to pot for last 15mins to sanitise. Also sanitised receiving FV, tap unit etc.
6) Chilled wort to 24 degrees. Took about 20 mins. Gravity was 1065 (temp adjusted as per brewers friend .com.) Target is 1049. My stupidity is going to give me a strong beer, if it ferments all the way...
7) Strained into FV, pitched half a pack of (recently purchased) US-05 at 23 degrees.The picture shows a very full, little FV. It's now living in a 25l FV just in case it starts to creep out the FV, which I'm certain it will.
8) Cleaned up.
9) Started the process about 12.30pm. Finished at 4.30pm.

Learning points: dont add extra stuff and read the recipe, plus don't fill my wee FV to the brim.

Pics now added.

The Physics Clone.
Recipe (1 gallon)
800g MO
62g Caramalt
46g Crystal Malt
188g Dark Crystal Malt

Hops
18g Amarilo
3g Bramling Cross
Safale US 05

Mash: 75 mins at 65 degrees. I did 60 mins cos I'm a tool.
Boil: 60 min

Additions:
60 mins - 5g Amarillo
30 mins - 3g Amarillo
15 mins -- 5g Irish Moss
10 mins - 3g Bramling Cross
Flame Out: 10g Amarillo

All feedback welcome.
 

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Last edited:
Sample today: 1012 on hydrometer.
1035 on refractometer.
Both calibrated prior to use, but to have +.020 points of difference is disconcerting.

Now I got absolutely no clue as to this beer's ABV, but definitely not more than 7%...

Lesson learned: use hydrometer for OG.

Tasted absolutely fine - very beery and not overly hoppy. Got a lot of crud floating about in sample, though, and in FV too.

Going to filter this into a secondary FV today, using the Bouncer in line beer filter, with a view to bottling it on Wednesday night.
 
Bottled this today. Didn't transfer to secondary FV in the end.

Few issues.
1) syphon clogged up, even though the bit at the bottom was above the crud at the bottom of the FV. Then started sputtering beer out the end, and lots of big bubbles down the syphon tube and into the bottling bucket.
2) Tried the bouncer in line filter. Decent job but still too much debris made it into bottle bucket, leading to...
3) bottling wand/tap got cogged and refused to let out it's beery goodness.

From approx 4.5l in FV, I got just 5 pints. And it's probably oxygenated..

I have a problem, it seems, with packaging. 5 pints is not enough for over 6hrs work.

How can I avoid clogging up my tap unit? Leave it for longer in FV? Cold crash?
 
Bottled this today. Didn't transfer to secondary FV in the end.

Few issues.
1) syphon clogged up, even though the bit at the bottom was above the crud at the bottom of the FV. Then started sputtering beer out the end, and lots of big bubbles down the syphon tube and into the bottling bucket.
2) Tried the bouncer in line filter. Decent job but still too much debris made it into bottle bucket, leading to...
3) bottling wand/tap got cogged and refused to let out it's beery goodness.

From approx 4.5l in FV, I got just 5 pints. And it's probably oxygenated..

I have a problem, it seems, with packaging. 5 pints is not enough for over 6hrs work.

How can I avoid clogging up my tap unit? Leave it for longer in FV? Cold crash?
If you can cold crash for a few days that will resolve several of your clogging problems and avoids the need to use a filter, so reduces your losses. I really recommend you try to step up to a 5 gallon plastic fermenter, either with a 5 gallon extract kit, or part extract mini mash version, both of which avoid the need for a full size boiler. The time required for larger brew will be about the same, possibly less.
 
1.065 down to 1.012 gives you 6.96% so you'll be at 7% with your carbonation addition or as near as.
Use the hydrometer for FG unless you can calculate the reading off the refractometer...as you've noticed the results look different!
 
I made this clone a while ago, looks like the same recipe as yours, but I did 23l. It’s a good beer but it did need a while to condition (4 weeks at least). Don’t be tempted to drink it too soon else it’s mediocre at best. I made that mistake, thought the beer wasn’t great, but it really came into its own for the last couple of litres in the keg 😂
 
If you can cold crash for a few days that will resolve several of your clogging problems and avoids the need to use a filter, so reduces your losses. I really recommend you try to step up to a 5 gallon plastic fermenter, either with a 5 gallon extract kit, or part extract mini mash version, both of which avoid the need for a full size boiler. The time required for larger brew will be about the same, possibly less.
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping to persevere with my small batch AG - everything up until bottling is fine - the packaging problem I need to overcome.

I think, for next time, I'm going for a 15l stout (in my 25l FV) and hope to bottle straight from there but not sure best way to ensure minimal cloggage of tap/bottle wand. This is the part that is troubling me greatly!

I noticed, after cooling and straining through sieve, that a lot of hop pellet material and general gunk, from the wort, found it's way into my wee FV. That, alongside the yeast debris, caused me problems, I'm certain.

It could be my tap unit. The aperture to allow liquid to pass through is fairly narrow, therefore just a little cloggage seemingly equates to big bottling problems. Never had this issue with my old Cooper's FV (that - after many kit brews - got all scratched at the bottom and left me in fear of infection and found it's way to the municipal cleansing depot.)

Brewing is like life: it's all about figuring it out and making the best of what you got.
 
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