Time to Re-Wire the Brewery

I brewed last night and things didn't go according to plan!

The temperature controller that I use to maintain the temperature of the wort as it is recirculated through the heat exchanger just wasn't showing a stable temperature.  It fluctuated by as much as 20°C so any kind of control was out of the question.  I have had this problem before and I know it's down to moisture in the wiring which I've been putting off replacing for months.  I think I now have to bite the bullet.

I managed to get through by monitoring the temperature of the mash tun and the heat exchanger with a thermometer and controlling the heat exchanger manually.  A few pints of AK helped me along too!


In case you want to see the recipe here it is:

Chineham Pale Ale
Brew Length (L):          55.00
Total Grain (kg):         9.40
OG:          1.040
Anticipated EBC:          29.6
Anticipated IBU:          31.0
Brewhouse Efficiency:       75 %
Wort Boil Time:             80    Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                           EBC
-----------------------------------------------------
 87.8    8.25 kg.  Pale Malt(2-row)            7
  5.3     0.50 kg.  Crystal 55L                     145
  5.3     0.50 kg.  Flaked Corn (Maize)      0
  1.6     0.15 kg.  Black Patent Malt            1390

Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 55.00 g.     Fuggle                              Whole    4.40  12.6  First WH
 55.00 g.     Goldings - E.K.               Whole    4.20  12.1  First WH
 40.00 g.     Fuggle                              Whole    4.40   3.2   20 min.
 40.00 g.     Goldings - E.K.               Whole    4.20   3.1   20 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Bottling chaos

Well, my plan of cask conditioning for a few weeks has gone down the pan.  I changed my mind and decided to bottle both casks today after just 3 days in the cask.  The picture shows the chaos that ensued!

Actually it didn't take very long.  9 gallons minus the ullage ended up as 67 pints bottled plus a pint sunk by myself.  All done in about 80 minutes.

This bottling form cask is very straight forward.  I use a "little bottler" connected to the cask tap.  To make things as easy as possible I brought my floor capper into the utility room.

I didn't use any priming sugar as there'll be a couple of gravity points worth left to ferment over time.  The only problem is I don't have a very good track record of giving my beers time to mature. The lure of the malty, hoppy lovliness is just too much for me.  Now where can I hide it so I don't drink it all???

AK Fermentation Complete

Well, the fermentation's pretty much done now.  I've just measured it at 1.012 and I wouldn't expect it to much below that if at all.  Fullers yeast is supposed to go to something like 71% attenuation and this has reached 73%.

I've turned the temperature controller down to 6°C to cold condition but I've disconnected the chiller so the beer will cool down naturally (the garage is currently sitting at about 1°C).

In the interests of science I felt it necessary to taste the hydrometer sample.  So, the beer's almost clear but it's already down to 9.2°C so any slight haze could well be chill haze anyway.  The nose is malty with a little hop aroma.  This follows through into the taste which has a good level of sweetness and a lovely backgound of hop.  Bitterness is not overwelming but it's there in good balance.

What is surprising is the amount of body this beer has considering the fact that 19% of the sugars in the beer are from brewing sugar.  I've used sugars in beer before but never in this kind of percentage.

I'm so impressed, in fact, that I might well have to brew this again as I don't think this is going to last very long.....

Update on AK Fermentation

The fermenting AK is now up to 19.6°C and fermenting nicely.....phew!

This cold weather makes me think I should have brewed the black lager I've been threatening to do for so long.  Maybe next weekend.

Low fermentation temperature...brrrr

I checked on the AK this morning and found it bubbling away slowly but the temperature is a little low.  The little 25w vivarium heater stuck to the side of the FV is barely able to keep the fermenting beer above 17°C.  Originally I fitted two heaters but one melted.  I must get around to replacing it with a new one.  Anyway, currently it's at 17.2°C despite being set to 19°C.  This is OK and I would expect the fermentation to start creating its own heat soon but it's just a bit slower than I wanted.  Still, it should make a nice, clean beer and stop the 1.75kg of sugar causing nasty flavours.

All done but I could do with a beer

55 litres of Fullers AK (1910) in the FV at 20C. 4.5 litres of actively fermenting wort added during the runoff.

All packed away and the brewery cleaned by 15:00. Walked the dog, the boy and the wife by 17:00. Getting stuck into my first pint of the day at 17:01!

What am I drinking? It's from a recipe for Simonds IPA from 1878. OG of 1.068 (should have been 1.070 but I was a little tipsy when I brewed it) and a calculated 175 IBU. I know, I know, you can't taste IBU's beyond 95 but the amount of hop flavour you get by going beyond that is fantastic.

It's a light copper colour; not crystal clear but its only about 5 degrees where the bottles are stored so it's got a slight chill haze that disappears as it warms. It has a good tight, white head which disperses once you start drinking it. Probably this beer would be better suited to drinking it from a smaller glass and topping up from a jug to preserve the head. On the nose there's malt and hops with alcohol. The taste is of hops (obviously) with a background of sweetness and a lingering bitterness on the farewell.

I have about 10 pints in bottles and 4.5 gallons in a pin, cask conditioning. I'll probably get around to bottling this when it gets a bit warmer..... if I can resist the urge to tap it and take a few pints one night. At 6.9% abv it's not the sort of beer to have on draft!

Brewday underway - Fullers AK (1910)

So, I went with the AK recipe afterall. The newly clad mash tun held its temperature perfectly and a steady 66°C will see those enzymes happy as a pig in sh1t, converting the starches to lovely sugars.

It's bloomin cold in my garage today so the uninsulated copper may take longer to boil than normal. Maybe that wants cladding too!

The mash was more efficient than I wanted (as it always is) so I overshot my extract and will end up with either slightly more beer (never a bad thing) or a beer with an OG of 1.050 rather than 1.045 (also no disaster).