There are lots of photos to share from yesterday’s Premium APA brewday. It took a little while to sift out the least steam affected images and upload them all, which is why they didn’t make the original post. I’m also aware that brewday photos get a bit samey after a while, unless something spectacularly bad happens, but hey ho, I’ll keep taking them and posting them for now, plus,just for a laugh, I’ve added a couple of blurry little videos of bubbling liquid!
The brewday all went to plan – it took under five hours from mashing in to pitching in, and was relaxed enough to allow me dash out for hops, get a few chores done and run some errands – not bad. I’d even factored in a pint of mild at my local, but the bar was being smashed up by chippies building a new stillage area for guest ale firkins – can’t argue with that!
When our stout was knocked up recently, a return to batch sparging saw my efficiency plummet below 75 percent, so in order to compensate for this recipe I asked BrewSmith to assume 65 percent instead. As a result I managed to get 24L into the FV at 1.058, which is actually great news and will afford a half dozen or so swingtop bottles for Christmas presents in addition to a full Corni. At 48 or so IBUs, stacks of aroma and around 5.9% ABV (if the gravity stops at 1.018) this APA will take a while to mature and won’t be easy to ignore.
Anyway, as promised, here are some very short, low-res, blurry videos showing the hops in the rolling boil and the yeast and trub whirling in the FV (ignore the rambling radio in the background). There’s also a gallery of the day with captions. Cheers!
- At 6.75Kg this was the biggest grain bill we’ve used for a five gallon brew. Muntons organic pale with a dash of Barley Bottom wheat
- Into the lovely new shiny mashtun. It really is so much better for space, mashing in and heat retention than the old coolbox
- This 90 minute mash was held at 65C. I’ve spent a fortune on flash digital thermometers and they are all now dead
- Plenty of runnings were taken after the mash…
- …then returned gently so as not to disturb the grain too much
- Two ten minute batches were each stirred in thoroughly and runnings again returned
- I now enjoy the smell of the mash almost as much as the boil. Munich malt is still the best smell though
- I love Cascade and this high AA jobs were very green and smelled fantastic. In with the coppers.
- If you scratch the screen you should be able to smell them. Second batch of liquor still to come here
- A 90 minute boil this time. I let the remainder of the second batch sparge top up boil over and evaporation a little when possible
- An impressively dry mass of old grain left in the tun. One day we will move in some chickens to eat this stuff
- This is as full as a boiler should ever be, really…
- In with the 15 minute bittering hops and a Protafloc tablet
- With the boil over, 60g of very smelly Cascades were steeped for 30 minutes before chilling
- Everything’s Gone Green. Much more fun than making stout
- After half an hour’s rest, the chiller did its good work. Not the same when it isn’t watering the pumpkin patch though
- Sanitised FV, paddle, seive, tap closed – check!
- Fermentis might seem a bit unadventurous, but it rehydrates fantastically well. This was added during the FV filling and was paddled in thoroughly
- The boiler drained really well this time and plenty of break was left behind
- Exactly 24L at 1.058. An extra litre of beer isn’t such a bad thing. Batch sparging probably takes efficiency from 75% to 70%, not 65%
- Safe and sound in an FV bucket with a stout ready to keg for company
- About 20 hours later. Fermentation well underway in a heated room, plenty of trub and yeasties spinning around
Nice work! very interesting site.
Thanks for dropping in. If I could only get around to emptying, cleaning and filling a new keg, I might even have another update to write!