Update #1: Boxshed Premium APA

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