TETB’s Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Preparing for another batch of the Vienna.
I'm aiming to use yeast recovered from the fast-ferment test last time (#130). It's been in the fridge for about 6wks and there's not a lot of it...

Anyhow, pitched it into a starter yesterday evening and this morning all seems to be going fine :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Got some different finings to try this time... I've seen mixed reviews as to whether they are as effective as the two-part ones

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Weighing out for a batch of Vienna - just love the aroma of the malt

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Everything stabilised at strike temp…

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

10min protein rest at 51°
14min beta rest at 62.5°
Gravity after beta is 1.036

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

1.065 after 50min at 70° alpha

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Strangely, after leaving the sample in the dropper for a couple of mins the gravity reading appears to have gone up about another three points… odd

 

[Agentgonzo]

Strangely, after leaving the sample in the dropper for a couple of mins the gravity reading appears to have gone up about another three points… odd
View attachment 85627

If it's anything like mine, the ATC on the refractometer is just a sticker.
I have never trusted mine much at all. Yesterday I measure more gravities than I normally do, then wondered how accurate it was at different temperatures.
I checked that it read 1.000 with plain tap water. I measured the gravity of my sparge water (which is just tap water at 70 degrees C). It measured 0.990-0.995.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I also recall that if you have hot wort in a small volume (like a sample for a hydrometer reading), then the evaporation rate is relatively high, meaning the wort will concentrate a small amount in a few minutes whilst it's sat on whatever you have to take the sample as the water evaporates.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Just hitting the boil

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I also recall that if you have hot wort in a small volume (like a sample for a hydrometer reading), then the evaporation rate is relatively high, meaning the wort will concentrate a small amount in a few minutes whilst it's sat on whatever you have to take the sample as the water evaporates.

Good point… will think about that!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

30g of tetnang leaf in at 60 min

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Whirlpooling at 75°

 

[SMP Brewery]

I like that hop basket. Did you buy it or make it?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I like that hop basket. Did you buy it or make it?

Unusually for me I bought it - it’s the “Bulldog hop spider basket” but unfortunately it seems to be out of stock in most places at the moment (and quite a bit more expensive than when I got it)
I like the size of it because it lets the hops move about, and the mesh seems to be the right size to catch the hop seeds.
The only slight problem with it is that if you sit it flat then steam bubbles tend to get trapped underneath it during the boil, so I tend to rest it at a bit of an angle :-)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Guess what I found while I was clearing up… D’oh! Forgot to add it

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I also recall that if you have hot wort in a small volume (like a sample for a hydrometer reading), then the evaporation rate is relatively high, meaning the wort will concentrate a small amount in a few minutes whilst it's sat on whatever you have to take the sample as the water evaporates.

Possibly not evaporation as it was in an eye dropper… maybe temperature, but it’s not something I’ve noticed before. That‘s a good idea to take a reading of some hot water thanks - I’m going to try that later.
The other possibility I‘m considering is that it was ongoing enzyme action in the sample. I did notice the gravity seemed to go up during the mash out, even though it had been stable for 5 mins at the end of the alpha rest *shrug*

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Glad to see that Monday’s Vienna Pils has now developed a decent inch of Quatermass-style Krausen, so it seems the recovered yeast is working OK at 12°c:

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Meanwhile I‘ve made a late decision to get another brew going tomorrow as stocks have taken a bit of a hammering recently.
Bit late to start collecting RO so I’ve just treated 30L of Affinity Water’s finest - which they could also sell as this stuff:

Good grief it‘s taken nearly 50ml of AMS/CRS to get the bicarbonate down - now I remember why I stopped doing this

Feeling a bit jealous of people with nice soft water…

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Choice of recipe has been similarly influenced by what I’ve got in stock. I’m going for the GH Southern Brown Ale.

• 3.5 kg pale malt (MO)
• 300g crystal
• 100g torrified wheat
• 110g choc
• 55g black
• Fuggles for both bittering and aroma

I’ll be using Lalbrew English Ale yeast (I think it’ll be OK at ambient in this weather).

For a change I’m going to brew it to the recipe without scaling. GH has it at OG 1.041 or something so I don’t really mind that it will come out stronger. It’ll be a good benchmark…