Simon's Brewing Method

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ssashton

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This is a detailed description of my brewing method and I would appreciate any tip on what I might be able to improve!

Mash grain in nylon bag. Electric kettle with digital temp controller, plate on the bottom to keep bag off the heater. Usually 60 mins at ~65C.

Water from the tap, no treatment. 15L to mash. I did try bottled water from Tesco \ Asda but did not notice a significant difference. Maybe very slight. I'm in Gillingham, Kent, South East. Water report - https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/default/pdfs/ZK505.pdf


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Sparge with 5L boiled tap water directly from kettle near boiling temperature, poured slowly and leave to drain through every 2L.
Yes, I do squeeze the bag, having very wet grains to throw away. How do you dispose of grains?

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Boil usually 60mins. I use a relay to 'blip' the electric kettle on and off to maintain a rolling boil. (stout in photo)

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Hops are pellets added in nylon hop socks.

Cooling is done with a copper immersion chiller fed from tap water. I'll usually clean the coil with starsan and the rough side of a kitchen sponge.

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Hop stand where a recipe calls for 'flame out' hops I will usually do this as a 20 minute hop stand at 80C after a couple minutes cooling.

Transfer to fermenter I usually pull the coil and hop socks then give it a brisk stir and let it settle for 20 minutes. I syphon via the washed grain bag to a bucket to catch hops particles but of course some always gets in. Then I syphon from bucket to plastic pressure barrel where I do the fermentation.

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Fermentation is usually done in the cellar which on average is around 15c. In summer it can be 20C and in winter 10C. It's only half underground. I try not to worry too much about a slightly higher fermentation temp as I have read that pressure fermentation reduces off flavours from higher temps.

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Dry hopping I think might be a weakness. I need to open the pressure barrel to add the hop socks. This can of course let oxygen in. I usually let the pressure out, open it and fast as possible chuck in the sock and close it again. As the beer is already somewhat carbonated at about 8psi my hope is dissolved Co2 will quickly blanket the beer and re-pressurise the head space to keep oxygen away.

Cold crashing is something I do not always do. I often just transfer from the FG beer to a keg. However sometimes I do put the fermenter in the fridge for a couple days before transfer.

Keg prep I wash the corny kegs with dish soap then rinse with starsan. I purge with co2 by simply feeding from gas from cylinder via tube with the top open. When a flame will not stay lit inside the opening of the keg I consider it purged and close the top.

I'm aware most people fill with water then push out the water with c02. I do not like wasting so much water, but I'm not sure how much oxygen a butane flame needs?



















Transfer is done closed, but using gravity not a pump nor c02. I simply place the fermenter at a higher level than the keg so it drains to the keg. I also conenct a gas line between the two vessels so the gas in the keg can go back to the fermenter while the beer transfers.

This does mean I draw beer from the bottom mounted tap on the fermenter barrel and I do get a little trub going over at the very start and then again at the end. I usually put the last dregs of the fermenter in to glass bottles rather than the corny keg. I find bottle clear quicker than kegs.

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Conditioning I gas the kegs from the beer gas (60% CO2 \ 40% N) cylinder to 30psi then roll them on the floor to dissolve the gas. I then leave them upright in the cellar (average 15C but can be 20C) for 3 weeks then move to the fridge at 3C for one more week.

Tap and drink. I use top floating pick up tubes in the kegs so I get the clear beer sooner. I also just purchased a new tap from Malt Miller as the eBay ones that look identical had chrome plated components in the beer path and the plating got dissolved!

I do tend to tweak things here and there, for example I used to do conditioning purely in the fridge thinking clarity equals conditioning, but I think the flavours develop faster at warmer temps. Clarifying the beer I've found happens anyway over the course of 3-4 weeks. I tried filtering once, but ended up with heavily oxidised beer so gave up quickly (also don't trust my non 'food safe' pump). Had a peltier based cooler for my fermenter last year to keep it cooler during summer, but dismantled it for parts during winter.
 
Alan; The tap water has chlorine and also chloramines (chlorine derivatives) but very low levels. Compared to other EU counties the level is basically zero AFAIK. The tap water here is drinkable by all people without any issues.

TOTAL CHLORINE: 0.67102 mg/l as Cl2

Richard; That's where I struggle because I do not have feedback from other brewers IRL. I can only read internet descriptions like diacetyl is buttery, oxidation is cardboard, brett is tanngy. I don't know what those mean!! I only know my beer isn't as good as I wish it were and good craft breweries achieve.
 
Getting rid of all the chlorine in your mash and spare water should make a noticeable difference. Half Campden tablet would be more than enough.
Do you adjust the mineral content of your water according to the style?
There's no need to starsan your cooling coil and certainly don't roughen it with the pad. Leave it alone, too much copper is poisonous to yeast. The beer is hot enough to sterilise it and acidic enough to keep it clean.
 
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Hi Simon,

I live in Maidstone and there are a few others on the forum in fairly close proximity to you, we all treat our water. You do need to add a little crushed campden tablet to your water at the rate of 1/2 tablet for 30 litres (the dose isn’t critical).

Nearly boiling water is too hot for sparging, sparge water should be no more than about 75C or you might flush out tannins. These can make you beer more bitter and astringent.

I get rid of my spent grain in the food caddy when the bins go out but some people give it to chickens, sheep, etc - if you know anyone with animals. There’s even a recipe on this forum for making dog biscuits with them.

As An said, don’t scrub the copper, excess copper can also mute hop flavour/aroma and makes oxidation more likely.

What kind of beers do you make? I see stout on one occasion. Stout is well suited to our high alkalinity water but you might struggle to make a good lager from it and will need more water treatment, or bottled water, or will need to buy a reverse osmosis machine to make your own - though with your aversion to wasting water maybe bottled would be preferable. 😉 Tesco Ashbeck is the standard because of it’s low mineral content.

Beers in between stout and lager will benefit from a dilution of tap water with bottled water, the lighter the beer the greater the proportion of bottled water.

Yeast choice might also be important for the beer you’re making along with your choice and blend of grain (and hops!) so putting up your recipe might elicit more advice that will help improve your beers.

Good luck!
 
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Getting rid of all the chlorine in your mash and spare water should make a noticeable difference. Half Campden tablet would be more than enough.

Highly recommended. Maybe even an active carbon filter, they're cheap.

Nearly boiling water is too hot for sparging, sparge water should be no more than about 75C or you might flush out tannins. These can make you beer more bitter and astringent.


That's another point, if the pH gets high, it could extract tannins. The temp plays an important role.
 
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Sparge with 5L boiled tap water directly from kettle near boiling temperature, poured slowly and leave to drain through every 2L.
Yes, I do squeeze the bag, having very wet grains to throw away. How do you dispose of grains?
I tip grains and hops into a plastic box, which I then take to the local recycling centre and empty into the garden waste skip
 
Hazelwood Brewery Wow thanks, lots of good things to think about there! My next brew session will be quite fun!

Is it possible to treat our hard water to make it softer, or is that (as I assume) only possible by filtering?
 
Hazelwood Brewery Wow thanks, lots of good things to think about there! My next brew session will be quite fun!

Is it possible to treat our hard water to make it softer, or is that (as I assume) only possible by filtering?
You can filter it to remove alkalinity, you can dilute it by adding bottled water, or you can treat it with something like Carbonate Reducing Solution (CRS). You can also add acid to bring down the alkalinity of the mash - but you will learn a lot more by reading the excellent thread on water treatment created by @strange-steve, link below…

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ore-advanced-water-treatment-in-post-1.64822/
 
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