Vic 2016 Xmas Case Swap

[Mardoo]

I'll report it to the SES.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Might need to drone strike it.

 

[husky]

Thanks to all who organised and cocko for hosting. I had a great day/night and it was good to meet some like minded people and drink plenty of different beers!
Great location/weather/company/beers!
Cheers,

 

[technobabble66]

(As in the PM note i just sent: )

A MASSIVE thanks to Cocko for offering up Chez **** for hosting this one: Perfect setting with perfect weather, and a very very accommodating host. It's a beautiful piece of Australia you have there!

A huge thanks to Mick for organising the food, and all the contributors there (esp the Meat Providers + Rusty & his spit - that was some seriously good meat coming off that baby!). Oh, and thanks to Jesse for the Salad :lol: (- "needs more avocado" next time! h34r: ).

Another huge thanks for all those that contributed gear to the brewing setup - esp Idzy, Wiggas, Mildy Boys, Martin & of course Cocko (including taking one for the team - sorry for your loss!!). Literally couldn't have been done without your gear.
More thanks to Martin & Jesse for organising the supply of ingredients.

And a final huge thanks to all helping in the brewing itself - many helped through both days. It really is a collaborative effort, where the work, advise and expertise/experience of many comes together for the epic brew day.
In particular, for helping with set-up & advising/managing the process, big thanks to Jesse (Friday's 2IC - extra thanks!), Martin + Leigh + Mike (esp with extra ongoing help throughout the Brew Day itself), & of course Idzy.
Plus a big thanks to the others that helped in various parts of the process on the day - Jason, Mike(Mofox), Brett, & Patto (Chief Kettle Cleaner!). Apologies if i missed anyone, but all the efforts were most appreciated!
... And i'm sure Michael/Mayor would've loved to have been helping a truckload on the day if he hadn't "accidentally" broken his arm beforehand.

And of course, thanks to everyone for bringing lots and lots and lots of tasty beers to sample over 2 days! :beer:

PS: big ups to Bruce & Tracey for making the mammoth effort of persisting to make it down even after totalling one vehicle en route.
Impressive dedication!

 

[Mardoo]

How many cubes did we end up with?

 

[malt junkie]

Thanks to everyone, what a bloody fantastic weekend. Great to add some more faces to name. Beautiful spot you have there cocko thanks so much for sharing.


Cocko left the camera on the wire shelving, happy for you to uplaod some pics of the swap, just not the R rated ones of me and the missus!

 

[technobabble66]

How many cubes did we end up with?

All 22 on the list (maybe ~22L each - we (ie: Mofox[emoji6]) filled them pretty much to the brim), plus a sneaky extra 10L for me, and an extra 2x 15L's for the host.
So 524L, let's say ~520L into cubes,

... with maybe 10-15L left in the kettle, with ~15-20L trub in a sweet tight cone in the bottom.

 

[Mardoo]

Awesome! Well done.

Gravity?

 

[mmmyummybeer]

All 22 on the list (maybe ~22L each - we (ie: Mofox[emoji6]) filled them pretty much to the brim), plus a sneaky extra 10L for me, and an extra 2x 15L's for the host.
So 524L, let's say ~520L into cubes,
... with maybe 10-15L left in the kettle, with ~15-20L trub in a sweet tight cone in the bottom.

Was probable 21 cubes… as we ended up forgetting our cube in the repack rush.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

Thanks Cocko for a great swap. Had a ball. Made it home safer than the way down and thanks for everyone's concern. Thanks to everyone for organising everything, food was amazing like always. Beers delicious and view so relaxing. Can't believe how quickly the weekend disappears. Thanks guys looking forward to next one.

 

[micbrew]

Amazing .. Weekend of people , beers , location and food

Echoing everyone sentiments ... On the brew team another cracka in the cube

Still in recovery mode ...

No gas meant no breakfast ...

Cocko heaps of bacon and other stuff in your keezer

If not already done , is the spit still were it was ... Will need to be moved undercover ..

Thanks again to all involved

Cheers sleepy

 

[micbrew]

Amazing .. Weekend of people , beers , location and food

Echoing everyone sentiments ... On the brew team another cracka in the cube

Still in recovery mode ...

No gas meant no breakfast ...

Cocko heaps of bacon and other stuff in your keezer

If not already done , is the spit still were it was ... Will need to be moved undercover ..

Thanks again to all involved

Cheers sleepy

 

[technobabble66]

Was probable 21 cubes… as we ended up forgetting our cube in the repack rush.

Oh yeah, and schooner & breakbeer were no-shows as well. so that makes 19 cubes in total.
Brings the total volume down to ~460L.
(slightly less awesome :lol: )

So for future reference, it'd probably be worthwhile making sure each cube is only filled to 21L otherwise Idzy's kettle would struggle to hold enough for the full 22 cubers. It was pretty damn full at the start of the boil, and was more of a mild rolling boil for 60-90mins (so minimal boil-off).

 

[technobabble66]

Awesome! Well done.

Gravity?

OG=1.076, according to Wigga's refractometer.

The syrup supposedly adds 15-16 points, so the OG of the wort including the syrup addition is OG=1.091-2.
Which is the same as the original CSI recipe. Pretty happy with that, let me tell you!

So it means we hit ~73% efficiency overall.
Not too bad, considering the issues with getting the mash to temp on a cobbled-together set-up. OTOH, we did 1 ~70°C "decoction" and another proper decoction - solely to boost the mash temp rather than for flavour - which may've helped (by enhancing starch release) or hindered (by cooking out the enzymes).

Admittedly the proof is in the pudding, so we'll see how it ferments out, but it was rewarding (& surprising) at the end of a very long day to hit the OG.

Also there was 80L of lower grav second runnings cubed at the end, so i suppose if it had've been needed (i.e.: we realised in time!) we could've added 1/2 of that back into the main kettle to boost the volume of the main brew.

 

[TheWiggman]

1.075 if memory serves me correctly.
Another awesome meet, thanks for the good times all. I'm back to reality and in shitloads of trouble because my wife's phone didn't work when trying to call me (legitimately), so lucky these things are few and far between.
Thanks Stu for the hard work and passion on a freshly assembled system and those who pitched in with bits and pieces as per above. Before you brew the swap cube you'd better nuke your brewery. Cocko for the hospitality and smashing my amber keg, barely a middy left in it. Martin for organising the ingredients and Yob for the hops. Idzy of course for the gear. Micbrew that meat was sensational, I've forgotten who contributed with the spit but a job well done. Everything basically came together and each did their bit (cooking, providing consumables, salads, filling cubes, repairing burnt mill motors from pre-wetting grain etc) to make it overall smooth and for the most part relaxing. Of note -
Warm(er)beer's Bock was beer of show for me. Very well brewed and what a strong lager is all about.
AJ, sour journey as per, the apricot one was my pick.
VP that IPA was on-point, I went back a few times.
Mardoo there was not a bad word said about your DIPA and I concur. I regret asking you about the hops in it, you probably would have named fewer if I asked what wasn't it it.
Bandicoot colab - serious and no-nonsense RIS
Techno's wort sample - memorable. I'll leave it at that.
Many other single tasters from bottles over the course of the event, high standard overall. That sour stout remains suspicious though...
Hopefully will see you all at the next swap and might finally put a face to the names of Camo and Grumpy.

 

[Mardoo]

So it means we hit ~73% efficiency overall.
Not too bad, considering the issues with getting the mash to temp on a cobbled-together set-up. OTOH, we did 1 ~70°C "decoction" and another proper decoction - solely to boost the mash temp rather than for flavour - which may've helped (by enhancing starch release) or hindered (by cooking out the enzymes).

Admittedly the proof is in the pudding, so we'll see how it ferments out, but it was rewarding (& surprising) at the end of a very long day to hit the OG.

As much as we try to lock brewing down into a purely predictable science, the old saying that malt wants to be beer becomes clearer and clearer to me the more I brew, and particularly gypsy brewing on lots of different systems, as I have been mostly doing for the last year or so. Complete ****-up brew days can produce excellent wort, which can produce excellent beer if the ferment is handled properly. Being able to think and alter course on the fly is clearly an advantage for a brewer. I'm very happy to have learned this from having the chance to brew with some excellent brewers. Otherwise I'd still be trying to imitate software on brew days.

That said, brewing can be locked down into a predictable science, but then you'll be producing Carlton Draft.

 

[Schooner_downunder]

Oh yeah, and schooner & breakbeer were no-shows as well. so that makes 19 cubes in total.
Brings the total volume down to ~460L.
(slightly less awesome :lol: )

So for future reference, it'd probably be worthwhile making sure each cube is only filled to 21L otherwise Idzy's kettle would struggle to hold enough for the full 22 cubers. It was pretty damn full at the start of the boil, and was more of a mild rolling boil for 60-90mins (so minimal boil-off).

Hi Guys,

Not sure if you saw my post in the Swap Deets PM but I had a family emergency and had to pull out early Saturday morning. Sounds like it was a great time by all.

Cheers,
Schooner

 

[Mardoo]

Oh yeah, and schooner & breakbeer were no-shows as well. so that makes 19 cubes in total.
Brings the total volume down to ~460L.
(slightly less awesome :lol: )

So for future reference, it'd probably be worthwhile making sure each cube is only filled to 21L otherwise Idzy's kettle would struggle to hold enough for the full 22 cubers. It was pretty damn full at the start of the boil, and was more of a mild rolling boil for 60-90mins (so minimal boil-off).

Probably should make the cut-off 18 or 20 cubes and have a reserve list for the ones past those, who will, up to a point, likely get a cube.

 

[technobabble66]

^^ agree.
Could probably go 20 cubes, then cut-off.
Any more than that and the filling would need to be done carefully to limit it to 21L per cube, etc.
We filled idzy's ******* Massive Kettle (the FMK) to as close to the limit as possible, while still having enough space to boil. It was kinda fine - only 1, well, maybe 2, slightly explosive boil-overs. So it was the maximum volume we could realistically get from it, without introducing additional wort mid-boil as a top-up.
FWIW, the cone at the bottom was a thing of beauty, if i do say so myself - you'd hope so after ~1hr whirlpool! But it meant we could get the most wort out at the end; so the output was kinda maximised.

Also fwiw, the cubes were varied, with only a few being the regular blue jerry-can type. Most were the more square cubes, plus 4x the 12L cubes ( h34r: ) so the volumes were maybe more than ~22L per cube. (I guesstimated 22L per cube for an estimate as a simplification).

 

[Mardoo]

They actually aren't 12. I've measured them with both boiling water and cold and they're 11 at a stretch, if that. I think some guys just want to think they have bigger cubes than they actually do.