8.30am SG measured at 1015 @ 21C. Fermentation has slowed, was vigorous yesterday. Looks like it's time to move to the cellar.
Colour is about right, a good golden brown. Beer is still very cloudy of course and has a strong yeast aroma, this will subside over time. So far so good.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Number VII First Day
2.00pm SG measured at 1036 @ 19C, but this is a low figure as the measured sample was slightly diluted.
Fermentation going well, blow-off hose had fallen off, need to fix it better next time.
Cleaned up, applied fermentation lock.
Fermentation going well, blow-off hose had fallen off, need to fix it better next time.
Cleaned up, applied fermentation lock.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Stuff I need to buy now
From Brouwland
Brewing kettle 2Kw 30l
Wire base for kettle
Grain bag
2x barrels to make a lauter tun
Some fresh yeast
S30 gas cartridge for pressure barrel
Other stuff:
Cooling system!
Brewing kettle 2Kw 30l
Wire base for kettle
Grain bag
2x barrels to make a lauter tun
Some fresh yeast
S30 gas cartridge for pressure barrel
Other stuff:
Cooling system!
Brewing Number VII
Bill Brau Number VII will be a light English Ale style beer, somewhat similar to a cross between Adnams Bitter and their Regatta summer ale.
The recipe will follow, approximately, Charlie Papazian's recipe for Good Life Pale Ale on p295 of the Complete Joy of Home Brewing (the Bible) but of course with some variations. Firstly I like to brew 30l of beer at a time so the barrel I currently have is full and during the first initial fermentation the foam, containing nasty overly bitter compounds, is blown out of the top. Charlie's recepies all are designed for 20l so I always add a bit. Usually this means part grain and part extract, the extract just being enough to boost the volume to 30l without reducing the OG too much.
Yeast Starter
WYeast 1098 British Ale, opened on Tuesday (today is Saturday). It didn't expand much, I'm worried it may be too old as it was manufactured in May 2006.
Starter was made of 1l water boiled with 7 tbsp of light malt extract, cooled, and mixed with the yeast in a 2l conical flask with fermentation lock. 12 hours later there's no visible fermentation, there should be some activity, I'm sure.
Recipe
To make 30l beer:
5Kg Pale Ale malt
1Kg Munich malt
100g Crystal malt (to use it up)
1.6Kg Bernstein malt extract can
50g Fuggles hops (60 minutes boiling)
30g East Kent Goldings hops (30 minutes boiling)
30g East Kent Goldings hops (3 minutes boiling)
1 tsp gypsum
Method
The grains they are ground and will go in a grain bag in a borrowed brew pot and follow the following temperature steps:
9.00am Yeast starter is active. This is a very encouraging start, and probably because I heated the room it was in to 22C to 24C.
10.30am started heating water
11.10am water reached 63C, added grains in grain bag. This works well, but when wet the bag is heavy and not easy to get a good flow of water through it.
11.45am added 10l boiling water, temperature now 74C, too hot! Wondering why, noticed mistake in the book, this should have been 5l water. I corrected the recipe above.
12.25pm Started heating to 70C
12.45pm Conversion complete! Something of a miracle as the temperature was not stable during the previous steps. Looks good.
13.15pm Heating to boil.
13.45pm Boil started. Boiling extract and wort separately, but balanced pans to contain approx same volume. Added boiling hops some to each pan.
14.15pm Added flavour hops only to grain wort
14.40pm Added aroma hops only to grain wort
14.45pm Boil complete Scooped hops out with sieve, started cooling in bath.
Post Mortem
Generally it all went very well. The yeast seemed to come alive just in time which was perhaps because I moved it to the bathroom at 24C. The cooking was flawless and the starch conversion iodine test indicated completion very quickly, which was nice. The cooling procedure needs some work, this didn't go well.
The recipe will follow, approximately, Charlie Papazian's recipe for Good Life Pale Ale on p295 of the Complete Joy of Home Brewing (the Bible) but of course with some variations. Firstly I like to brew 30l of beer at a time so the barrel I currently have is full and during the first initial fermentation the foam, containing nasty overly bitter compounds, is blown out of the top. Charlie's recepies all are designed for 20l so I always add a bit. Usually this means part grain and part extract, the extract just being enough to boost the volume to 30l without reducing the OG too much.
Yeast Starter
WYeast 1098 British Ale, opened on Tuesday (today is Saturday). It didn't expand much, I'm worried it may be too old as it was manufactured in May 2006.
Starter was made of 1l water boiled with 7 tbsp of light malt extract, cooled, and mixed with the yeast in a 2l conical flask with fermentation lock. 12 hours later there's no visible fermentation, there should be some activity, I'm sure.
Recipe
To make 30l beer:
5Kg Pale Ale malt
1Kg Munich malt
100g Crystal malt (to use it up)
1.6Kg Bernstein malt extract can
50g Fuggles hops (60 minutes boiling)
30g East Kent Goldings hops (30 minutes boiling)
30g East Kent Goldings hops (3 minutes boiling)
1 tsp gypsum
Method
The grains they are ground and will go in a grain bag in a borrowed brew pot and follow the following temperature steps:
- 10.5l water heated to 63C, add gypsum, grains and hold at 56C for 30 mins.
- Start heating 5l water in another pan. Note this is a mistake in the book!
- Add another 5l boiling water, make sure temperature is now 68C and hold at 69C for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Start heating another 10l water.
- Raise just slightly to 70C and hold 10 to 20 mins until an iodine test indicates complete conversion.
- Raise temperature again to 75C and separate grains from wort.
- Flush grains with 10l boiling water.
- Combine wort and water flushed from grains in brew pot and bring to boil.
- Start 10l water boiling again for extract.
- Add boiling hops 1 when grain wort is boiling, wait 30 minutes.
- Add boiling hops 2 and boil 20 minutes more
- Add finishing hops 3 and boil 3 minutes.
- Remove hops and cool to 21-24C.
- Pitch yeast and hope it has all worked....
9.00am Yeast starter is active. This is a very encouraging start, and probably because I heated the room it was in to 22C to 24C.
10.30am started heating water
11.10am water reached 63C, added grains in grain bag. This works well, but when wet the bag is heavy and not easy to get a good flow of water through it.
11.45am added 10l boiling water, temperature now 74C, too hot! Wondering why, noticed mistake in the book, this should have been 5l water. I corrected the recipe above.
12.25pm Started heating to 70C
12.45pm Conversion complete! Something of a miracle as the temperature was not stable during the previous steps. Looks good.
13.15pm Heating to boil.
13.45pm Boil started. Boiling extract and wort separately, but balanced pans to contain approx same volume. Added boiling hops some to each pan.
14.15pm Added flavour hops only to grain wort
14.40pm Added aroma hops only to grain wort
14.45pm Boil complete Scooped hops out with sieve, started cooling in bath.
Post Mortem
Generally it all went very well. The yeast seemed to come alive just in time which was perhaps because I moved it to the bathroom at 24C. The cooking was flawless and the starch conversion iodine test indicated completion very quickly, which was nice. The cooling procedure needs some work, this didn't go well.
Bill Brau - The Beginning
One day, while sitting with my brother at our parents' place in Southwold, home of the world famous Adnams Brewery, we got on to the topic of starting our own brewery, abandoning our current jobs and settling in to a life of alcohol induced luxury. Well, this never quite happened but following from this conversation I started home brewing beer. My brother and I both live in Munich which is a lovely city full of Germans who are generally lovely people but convinced they know how to brew beer. They're welcome to that opinion and, let's face it, they do love their beer, but if they all discovered Adnams at once the little brewery wouldn't be able to keep up with demand and would go all commercial and probably start to produce flavourless fizzy crap like in Munich. Did I just say that?
Anyway, back to the point. I started home brewing because I love English Ale and it's just not available in my adopted home town. It then turned out that brewing is a nice combination between science and fun, between planning practical requirements and simply 'doing it', requiring some equipment and offering the opportunity to create bits of equipment and in the end you end up with beer. Perfect. Friends have tried Bill's braus and have all approved, one even also started brewing beer as if to prove the theory that it can be addictive.
Bill Brau has now produced six beers, imaginatively titled Number I to Number VI, and now I'm planning Number VII. This blog starts as my girlfriend is playing the 'Crazy Frog' she found on the internet, the church next door is bonging the bells fit to bust and I'm worried about yeast that appears not to be alive and how to recharge the CO2 in my pressure barrel downstairs. What joy.
Anyway, back to the point. I started home brewing because I love English Ale and it's just not available in my adopted home town. It then turned out that brewing is a nice combination between science and fun, between planning practical requirements and simply 'doing it', requiring some equipment and offering the opportunity to create bits of equipment and in the end you end up with beer. Perfect. Friends have tried Bill's braus and have all approved, one even also started brewing beer as if to prove the theory that it can be addictive.
Bill Brau has now produced six beers, imaginatively titled Number I to Number VI, and now I'm planning Number VII. This blog starts as my girlfriend is playing the 'Crazy Frog' she found on the internet, the church next door is bonging the bells fit to bust and I'm worried about yeast that appears not to be alive and how to recharge the CO2 in my pressure barrel downstairs. What joy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)