What did you brew today?

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I had planned to brew an Irish Stout today but the weather is making me hold off until later this week. Here are my grains, hops, and yeast I picked up at my LHBS the other day. Using Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter as my base.

View attachment 56397
Hi, a lovely collection there.
Is that whole grain Maris Otter you have?
Do you crush your own, as I believe it needs to be for mashing?
Either my eyes deceive me and it is pre-crushed, or you are more experienced at this whole home brew thing than I had thought.
 
Hi, a lovely collection there.
Is that whole grain Maris Otter you have?
Do you crush your own, as I believe it needs to be for mashing?
Either my eyes deceive me and it is pre-crushed, or you are more experienced at this whole home brew thing than I had thought.

Your eyes are not deceiving you that is whole grain Maris Otter and I crush my own. ;)
 
Did a Wherry kit, had to be done at some point
Brewed a bit short to 18L
Got some Styrian Goldings on the way I plan on dry hopping one or two of these
IMG_20211026_203640261.jpg
 
First brew in nearly five weeks not including the cider (which isn't brewed anyway). Forced on my by three factors: brewing withdrawal symptoms, no room in the freezers due to piles of raspberries, in danger of having nothing in a fermenter which would anger the gods something chronic.

So Raspberry beer. The last time I made this was in 2008 when I made a half-hopped version of Summer Lightning and threw loads of raspberries into the beer after first racking. it was lovely and was going to do the same until I had a taste of a couple of experiments last night. I'll come back to those experiments. Suffice it to say that I was so impressed by the malt/yeast combination that I decided to adapt my recipe accordingly.

Recipe for 23 litres. OG before the raspberries 1050, IBUs 20, FG low.
4 Kg Crisp's Best Ale malt
250 g Crystal malt 150 ebc
600 g Caramalt
Mash 2 hours at 65C falling to 63C
Magnum hops to 20 ebc (a bit short on magnum and had some barbe rouge to use up so mostly magnum)
Boil 75 minutes
Protofloc half a tab last 15 minutes
Cool and ferment with Safale US-05
Hoping for an FG around 1006, but it'll probably be highly with all that crystally stuff.
Ferment until nearly done, rack onto 3 Kg raspberries and allow to ferment out.
Bottle
Chill
Drink
Sleep
Paracetamol for breakfast
 
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Today I brewed a clone of Old Sslug Porter. I found a recipe on the internet but it looked like it would be much too light so I adapted it a bit. Not sure it will be like Old Slug but should be good hopefully.

4.5 Kg Maris Otter
40g Crystal malt
50g Black malt
175g Chocolate malt

90 min mash (I got delayed with other things)

60 min boil:
17g East Kent Goldings
17g Fuggles
20 min boil:
15g East Kent Goldings
15g Fuggles

Nottingham ale yeast
 
Suffering a slight electrical issue here. Brew completed and is fine, but I've noticed before that the plug into the mains for the boiler gets *very* hot. And today it was virtually 'welded' in there. The power had been switched off for a while, and the plug was cold, when I attempted to remove it, but it would not move. I had to carefully pry it off with a screwdriver. Plug casing has brown scorch marks.

I can (and will) fit a new plug tomorrow, but I wonder if it's drawing too much power. As I've said before, the boiler is *really* old (50 years +). So it dates from the days of the old 'round pin' plugs. Now my recollection is that the old plugs were rated at 15A, whereas the modern rectangular-pinned plugs are only 13A.

Can anyone knowledgeable about electrics confirm? Would this be enough to make a difference? That said, it's served me well for many many brews, and I daresay it'll do a few more with a new plug and fuse.

Rated at 3 kW, which I suppose is about the max for the mains.
 
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Suffering a slight electrical issue here. Brew completed and is fine, but I've noticed before that the plug into the mains for the boiler gets *very* hot. And today it was virtually 'welded' in there. The power had been switched off for a while, and the plug was cold, when I attempted to remove it, but it would not move. I had to carefully pry it off with a screwdriver. Plug casing has brown scorch marks.

I can (and will) fit a new plug tomorrow, but I wonder if it's drawing too much power. As I've said before, the boiler is *really* old (50 years +). So it dates from the days of the old 'round pin' plugs. Now my recollection is that the old plugs were rated at 15A, whereas the modern rectangular-pinned plugs are only 13A.

Can anyone knowledgeable about electrics confirm? Would this be enough to make a difference? That said, it's served me well for many many brews, and I daresay it'll do a few more with a new plug and fuse.

Rated at 3 kW, which I suppose is about the max for the mains.
The plug and element are both acting normally. 3 kw element is exactly that. 3000w resistor that heats up as electricity tries to pass through it. The plug top heats up and cools down and the connections gradually become loose both at the pins on the plug top and the connections inside the socket causing the heat to ‘weld’ the plugtop to the socket. Both plug top and socket will need changed or it will keep happening.
I’m a maintenance spark and come across it weekly in houses. Normally where a tumble dryer (same 3kw load) has welded to the socket
Plenty of life left in they boiler yet. Today’s ones would not last that long.
Edit *
3000w = 12.5a (3000 divided by 240v) but a 13a fuse can tolerate 20 amps.
 
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