My Brew Day

[lookout]

Today I am attempting to brew a stout, the recipe is loosely based around Wheeler & Protz, Brew your own Real Ale at Home page 147 for Guinness EXTRA STOUT. With a couple of exceptions. I ran out of Pale Malt and being a country brewer there is no chance of nipping down to the store to get some more. I did have some wheat malt looking for a home so in that went with 10 extra grams of both roast and flaked barley (I dont think it is going to be the fastest sparge but oh well). On bashing the numbers into ProMash it claimed a OG of 1042 which is the recipe target, so we will see.

HLT Filled last night and set to be at 74 deg for the morning. This has worked well no delays and able to get strait into it.

Recipe (so far!)

Pale malt 3,000g (should have been 3,900g)
Roast Barley 500g (should have been 490g)
Flaked barley 500g (should have been 490g)
Wheat malt 360g (just what I had laying around)

 

[lookout]

Bugger!!!!! <_<

Forgot that the hopper I sponged together wasnt actually attached to the mill, one of those things that are obvious just after the XXXX has hit the fan. Looks like this is not going to be the easiest of brew days.

Sat staring at the mess for a while wondering what I was going to do, with no possible way to replace the grain. I normally pick up a sack from Grumpys when going to Adelaide but this is 900 odd km away.

So I decided to scrape up what I could, my rational is that I will boil the wort and that in the malt houses of the past the grain was just spread out on the floor and walked all over. How bad can it be??

Grain bill is now 3.2 kg, down from 3.36kg, and as for the ratio of grains?? Who knows?

 

[Pumpy]

Today I am attempting to brew a stout, the recipe is loosely based around Wheeler & Protz, Brew your own Real Ale at Home page 147 for Guinness EXTRA STOUT. With a couple of exceptions. I ran out of Pale Malt and being a country brewer there is no chance of nipping down to the store to get some more. I did have some wheat malt looking for a home so in that went with 10 extra grams of both roast and flaked barley (I dont think it is going to be the fastest sparge but oh well). On bashing the numbers into ProMash it claimed a OG of 1042 which is the recipe target, so we will see.

HLT Filled last night and set to be at 74 deg for the morning. This has worked well no delays and able to get strait into it.

Recipe (so far!)

Pale malt 3,000g (should have been 3,900g)
Roast Barley 500g (should have been 490g)
Flaked barley 500g (should have been 490g)
Wheat malt 360g (just what I had laying around)


View attachment 8813View attachment 8812

Look I am not an expert on stouts but it seems an awful lot of Roast barley !!! :blink:

Pumpy :unsure:

 

[lookout]

Look I am not an expert on stouts but it seems an awful lot of Roast barley !!! :blink:

Pumpy :unsure:
[/quote]

Yep, particularly when you are down 900g of pale, the wheat should lighten it a little, and a lot of it is now on the carpet. The recipe itself works out very well, the last batch didn't hang around for long. We will have to see how this slapped together grain bill works out.

Lookout

 

[lookout]

My Beer Wife!!



What do you think are the chances that she actualy cleaned up the mess I made?

 

[lookout]

Mash Time.

A quick check on ProMash for strike temp with 160g missing and I decided to go for 11 litres and 74 deg strike for a mash temp of 66 deg.

My mash tun is a converted rubber made drink container with a perf stainless bottom, I have been using it for about 4 years and it has worked very well.

The mash in worked without incident and target temp hit without issue, things are looking up.it cant last.

 

[lookout]

Sparging

Sparge water at 79 deg

Sparge went well, no problem with flow, more good news!! At the end of the sparge OG is sitting at 1.040 to 1.042 which means I will need some make up water to account for the loss during the boil. Have refilled the HLT and to boil up some more water. Quick taste test, all ok, think I will get away with the grain bill, doesnt seam overpowered by the roast barley.

When sparging I set the PID to my desired temp, and as long at I place the thermocouple at the bottom of the boiler it maintains the temp through the spage. The only thing to be careful of is to turn off the power at the end, I forgot once, and the replacement element I installed is now a little too small (will get a bigger one one day). This therefore means that I now mash for 2 hours as this is the time it takes for the HLT to get to sparge temp when I re-fill.

You will see from the photos that I use 2 irrigation valves to control the flow in and out of the tun with the sparge water dropping onto a plastic lid to stop disturbing the grain bed. I will no doubt make something flasher one day but this setup is simple and has served me well. The only real criticism I have is that it is not automated and I have to stand by a watch it.lifes tuff isnt it.




Flame on!!! :super:

 

[lookout]

Hops added at start of boil

Chalanger 30g
Target 15g

The quantities are adjusted from that in the book as Wheeler & Protz are using hop whole hops.

I place them in a boiling bag and suspend it in the top of the boiler

 

[Tony]

I recon it will be a great stout

I use this basic recipe often

80% pale ( i used vienna in my latest stout)
10% flaked barley
10% roast barley.

I think my latest one had 7% RB, 2% chocolate, 10% flaked barley and 5% crystal with the vienna base

I always use target and challenger in a 60 min boil for stouts too, its a great combo.

cheers and let us know how it goes

 

[lookout]

Boiled for 90min with Irish Moss added in the last 5min, Wheeler and Protz use 2 hrs but this always seems a little long for me. At the end of all this I hit my target OG of 1.042.

I then ran the wort through my counter flow heat exchanger to cool it. As you can see from the photos I got a little wet, at the last minute I fitted a tap to control the flow but didnt quite get the fittings perfect. Other than the spray nothing damaged and was able to quickly recover. By controlling the flow and measuring the outlet temp I was able to hit 22 deg which was my target.



The outlet from the heat exchanger was into one of my barrels that I then transferred into the fermenter. The reason for this is the 50l fermenter doesnt fit under outlet and my gravity system is already tall enough, requiring a step ladder to get to the HLT. Anyway the transfer process lets me aerate the wort nicely.

The fermenter is the second conical I have made. This model includes a larger tap with an elbow to help with yeast extraction, a cooling/heating jacket, insulation and a larger access cut into the top for cleaning. I still havent quite worked out the final lid, but in the interim one of my old fermenter lids sealed with mastic (blue tack) will hopefully do the trick.



The jacket is connected to a pond pump submerged in a bucket with a 100w fish tank heater. The heater keeps the water at a constant temp and the pump is switched on and off by my PID controller based on the temperature of the wort, measured using a thermocouple suspended in it.



As for the yeast I used Safale US-56, for the sole reason that it was all I had left. After this brew I will need to make a trip to the big city to stock up on supplies again.

And then there is the clean up, hate this bit. I have just bought a pressure cleaner, it was the cheapest I could find, its a ripper. I would recommend this as an essential piece of equipment for those who also hate this part.



Finally the day is over, a successful days brewing, and with encouraging comments from Tony its time to sit back and have a cold one. :chug:

 

[hupnupnee]

Great stuff Lookout,

Looks like you've got a great place there. I'm really interested in your setup, particularly your conical fermenter with jacket. How did you come up with that and what is it constructer of.


My brew day today consisted of a robust proter, my first porter attempt.


Cheers mate, thanks for all the great pictures

Floculator

Tim

 

[razz]

Bloody beauty lookout ! Nice job on the conical with jacket and stand. It's good to have a shithouse start to the day turn into some so fruitfull. Great vista in the last pic too by the way.

 

[Tony]

I think i speak for each and every AHB member here !!!

More info on the conical firmenter mate

more info............more info...........more info....

Is it plactic or stainless?
How did you make it?
Whats the jacket made of?

Pics of it would be great

cheers

 

[goatherder]

Hey lookout, that last shot is a ripper. what a great place to sit back with a beer! what's that little town you are looking over?

Nice work with the brew, the stout sounds great. I'm with Tony, tell us about the conical. what's it made of and where did you get it? and how much did it hurt?

And that little PID box with the GPO on the front is a beauty - i take it you built it yourself? can you tell us a bit more about him?

 

[lookout]

In answer to the questions about my conical fermenter.

The fermenter is made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), I had a couple made as an experiment to test the concept. For the first 2 I had to compromise with the mold and as a result there is a step at the transition to the cone. While this is not ideal it has made mounting easier with a stand made by cutting a hole in a sheet of MDF, and on my first brew the build-up of yeast on this ledge didnt seem too bad, but time will tell. The fermenter is about 5 mm thick which was helpful for fitting the tap at the bottom where I just tapped a 3/4in BSP thread. The problem is that the thickness resulted in some distortion in the vessel which although not affecting the function doesnt look the best, this can be seen in some of the photos attached. I also experimented with casting some inserts in the tank with the idea of using these to mount the tank; in the end I didnt use these.

I still havent cracked the lid, on the first tank I left the top closed, only drilling a hole for the rubber bung and airlock. This was fine except cleaning is a little difficult, although I was able to use the pressure cleaner to reasonable effect. I will probably drill a couple of inspection holes around the perimeter small enough for a bung but large enough to fit the head of the pressure cleaner. The ultimate is of course CIP, we can only dream. For the second vessel I cut a 250mm dia inspection hole, this allows easy access but is more difficult to seal. In the brew I just finished I tried mastic on an old lit but this hasnt worked. I note a US conical manufacturer recommends open top for their unit. I will probably end up with an o-ring and Perspex lid on this one.

I still have some more experimenting to do, and if I am happy enough with the results I will have a new mold made incorporating the improvements.

If anyone is interested in experimenting with the tank as it stands I would be happy to supply them with one. I will have to crunch the numbers, but I suspect it will be around the $100 mark + transport.

 

[lookout]

The Water Jacket

The water jacket is nothing more complex than black poly pipe wrapped around the tank. This photo is of the first tank with the coil attached.



For the second tank I used the same coil but wrapped the tank in foam insulating. This was just a roll of foam that builders use for the expansion joint on concrete (acquired from Bunnings). The reason for the insulation is that I wasnt able to maintain temperature on the first brew, the current brew seems to be doing fine. The water is circulated using a cheep pond pump that I got form the pet store (Weipro WH-4000), which is placed in a bucket of water (another old fermenter) with a 100w fish tank heater. The setup works quite well and could easily be fitted to a more conventional fermenter.

The temperature control is via a K type thermocouple suspended in the brew and my PID controller, cycling the pump on an off. To be honest this is a bit of overkill as the fish tank heater is temperature adjustable, this could be set to the target and the pump left on.

 

[razz]

Lookout old fella, I think you may have just answered the prayers of many forum members !

 

[Coodgee]

so when can you start mass producing them for dirt cheap?

 

[lookout]

Hey lookout, that last shot is a ripper. what a great place to sit back with a beer! what's that little town you are looking over?

Nice work with the brew, the stout sounds great. I'm with Tony, tell us about the conical. what's it made of and where did you get it? and how much did it hurt?

And that little PID box with the GPO on the front is a beauty - i take it you built it yourself? can you tell us a bit more about him?

Goatherder,

The PID I use is a Shimaden SR72, but I think there are a number of equally good, possibly better units (try ebay) available at less cost, at least I hope they have a better manual than this little ****. I have mounted it in a box I got from Dick Smiths with a double GPO. Inside is a 10A relay switched by the PID, if you are going to build your own I would also suggest a fuse or circuit breaker. I use a K type thermocouple coupled into the back of the PID, although for home brew there are a number of other probe options that are probably more convenient as with a thermocouple you cannot just add wire to it to reach further. In all it is quite simple, the PID is probably overkill for homebrew, but on the up side they are well packaged and easy to use. I find this box quite convenient as it allows me to move it from my HLT to the fermenter and anything else I can think of without any hassle.

 

[mika]

You could probably use a mashmaster temp controller. If they switch a fridge they'll switch an aquarium ump no dramas.