Braidwood Ale Brewing Project

[Jazzafish]

Sometimes I hate my job, taking me away from brewing!

Looks like it was a great day, looking forward to fermenting my share!

Cheers,
Jarrad

 

[Doc]

My two cubes have just hit the fermenters after cooling down overnight.
Using the WLP028 Edinburgh Ale yeast on one and the WLP029 German Ale yeast on the other.
It will be great tasting everyone elses beer fermented with different yeasts and at different temps in a few weeks.

Beers,
Doc

 

[agro]

Awesome day - I hope to make it to the next one

Thanks to all. I got a lot out of the day, and after this I will be starting to collect all I need to go all grain this year.

I'm sorting out a fermenting fridge and hope to have mine fermenting by the end of the week. I will be using WLP017 Whitbread yeast.

Cheers
Agro (Jason).

 

[timmy]

I take it no spare cubes?

SOunds like a great day.

Hopefully another opportunity will arise sometome in the future.

 

[ausdb]

Would be nice to show some photos to the forum, from those who snapped a few

Bradwood Brewery
[/quote]

Thanks for the photo's just one quick question what is the normal batch size at the brewery? the mash tun looks very tall in relation to the size of the false bottom, is it a fly sparged setup or batch sparge EDIT (oops looked at some more photos and its fly sparged by the looks of it)

A little bit of info about the brewery would be nice if anyone can contribute

Thanks

 

[ausdb]

Also nice to see that its not just home brewers who like to improvise!!!
http://www.conaghan.info/gallery/braidwood2005/DSCF3661

 

[Doc]

I take it no spare cubes?

SOunds like a great day.

Hopefully another opportunity will arise sometome in the future.

[post="99833"][/post]​

We got 23 cubes out of the brewday and all were accounted for.
Keep your ears tuned. We are looking to do it again.

Thanks for the photo's just one quick question what is the normal batch size at the brewery? the mash tun looks very tall in relation to the size of the false bottom, is it a fly sparged setup or batch sparge EDIT (oops looked at some more photos and its fly sparged by the looks of it)

A little bit of info about the brewery would be nice if anyone can contribute

Thanks

[post="99835"][/post]​

Background
The Braidwood Traditional Ales Brewery is located in Braidwood NSW which is ~300km SSW of Sydney.
Normal batch size is on the 500 litre mark.
The mash tun is quite tall. but works well at the Braidwood.
Fly sparging is used at the Braidwood as it is at most commerical breweries.
The Braidwood only brews one style of beer currently (ESB) after stopping brewery door and bottle shop sales. All product is supplied in casks to the small number of pubs that serve the Braidwood Ale through Real Beer Engines.

Hope that helps
Beers,
Doc

 

[Trev]

Yes it really was a great day

Thanks to Teasy for organising and to everybody that turned up - the brewing was interesting and the general conversation over the day was great. Good to put a few more names to the faces.

I've got mine sitting at 14C in the fermentation fridge and will be adding Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale yeast. I'll then reset the fridge to 18C and let the fermentation naturally raise to that temp. This is the method that Scott, the brewer, was discussing with us. It follows the temp ramp that is typical in a real ale brewery in UK and what he tries to do, weather permitting, in Braidwood. This yeast though can throw some Diacetyl so I'll give it a rest at about 21C after a few days.

It looks like we'll have 23 different Yeast/temp/etc combinations out of the 23 cubes and with luck a bunch of us will get together in 5 or 6 weeks time to taste the differences (Damn, I hope mine works).

With any luck this trip will be repeated in the not too distant future, and maybe even a few more times after that. If any of you get the chance to go to one of these days I'd really recommend it.

Trev

PS - Doc, thanks for the photo of my better looking side

 

[Gerard_M]

Looks like everyone had a great day. I reckon the Bathurst Comp will have a few (23 at least) English style ales to sort through.
Cheers
Gerard

 

[Ross]

Looks like everyone had a great day. I reckon the Bathurst Comp will have a few (23 at least) English style ales to sort through.
Cheers
Gerard

[post="99938"][/post]​

Bathurst comp is no more, Gerard - unless I've missed some good news??

 

[Gerard_M]

Ross, I thought (hoped) that the comp was going to continue on a much smaller scale. If not 23 different versions of a Braidwood ESB could be sampled at a very nice pizza joint at North Rocks! Ok maybe not all on the same night.
Cheers
Gerard

 

[Doc]

The brew I pitched the WLP028 Edinburgh Ale into is trying its best to crawl out of the fermenter. Will have to keep and eye on it today.
Hope everyone else is seeing active fermentation for those that have pitched.

Beers,
Doc

 

[agro]

Phew...

Managed to get hold of a bar fridge which just fits the fermenter using a blowout bottle/tube instead of an air lock. That combined with a modified fridge controller from Jaycar and I am underway.

Just waiting for the wort to cool before I will pitch with WLP017.

Cheers.

 

[agro]

Damn... Put the brew down just before rushed out for new years and forgot to take the OG.

Anybody help me on this one - I'm fairly sure they will all be the same

Cheers
Agro.

 

[Doc]

Scott said he got 1.045 at the end of the boil before we put the wort into cubes Agro.

Beers,
Doc

 

[agro]

Thanks Doc.

The new fermenting fridge is awsome... Goodbye to fruity beers


Cheers
Jason.

 

[agro]

So how are the brews going ?

Mines looking good - the samples taste pretty good as well

SG 1.022 and dropping so a few more days to go.

Agro (Jason)

 

[berapnopod]

So how are the brews going ?

Mines looking good - the samples taste pretty good as well

SG 1.022 and dropping so a few more days to go.

Agro (Jason)

[post="100847"][/post]​

Mine's finished. I tested it last night and it was at 1.008. I pitched onto a fresh cake of yeast from a stout, so I think that is the reason it went so fast. I have now kegged the beer with just enough CO2 to seal the lid. Hopefully it will ferment just a tad more to give me a light carbonation.

Berp.

 

[Linz]

Mine was at 1006 last night...I'll keg, run off about 3-4 bottles first, it tomorrow night

 

[Doc]

I'll check mine out tonight and see how they are looking and tasting.
Sounds like they should be done so I'd better polish off a couple of kegs so I can get them on tap.

Beers,
Doc