Brewday Update #2: Top Secret Autumn Ale

Just a quick update on the progress of the Autumn Ale, which has taken off like a rocket. It seems very happy in a room at almost exactly 20c. The constant burping of the airlocks is actually quite comforting (as well as off-putting and gas-inducing!) and I think the kräusen will hit the lids on both FVs pretty soon.

Just for fun, here’s a quick video clip of fermentation just 14 hours after pitching. Normally we’d skim all that break/trub to encourage a more vigorous ferment, but this time there’s definitely no need, and we’ll just allow it to settle out and stay behind when each beer is moved to a secondary vessel in around a week’s time:

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Brewday Update: Top Secret Autumn Ale

Good news – the upgraded brewery works a treat and the inaugural brew went very well indeed.

We collected 50L split across two fermenting buckets at the anticipated starting gravity of 1.043. It should ferment out at around 1.012 and deliver a deep brown 4% brew with a fat slice of bitterness and a pleasing hop kick. The blend of malts is intended to provide a complexity that waves goodbye to the Summer and it’s more direct pale ales. But we’ve also loaded plenty of pungent hops at the start of the boil to keep things interesting for the hopheads.

We’re pleased to say there were no problems during the brew. The new HLT is probably a little small in volume, but being able to fill it with a hose and heat liquor in situ was still so much easier and safer than hefting hot liquids around. The big mashtun has been a fixture in the Boxshed for a while now and did its job very well as always, maintaining a constant temperature over 90 minutes with ease. The real star was the new boiler, which was our biggest unknown quantity and worry beforehand. The two large immersion heater elements brought 65 litres of sweet wort to the boil very quickly, and a constant rolling boil could be maintained by using either one of the elements on its own. Special mention must go to the new hopstopper created by fellow enthusiast Garth, which coped admirably with several ounces of pellets without any clogging.

Anyway, enough words, here are the pictures already…

This is the basic setup at the Boxshed for now – 50L brewlengths, primarily built in stainless steel with some plastic and copper here and there. It isn’t finished , but we’re intending to stay gravity and avoid electric pumps. The new chrome staging is fantastic, and very sturdy

The old Burco boiler has been cut up and adapted into an HLT with a sight tube and large bore lever tap. One day this will go altogether in favour of another 70L homemade heated vessel, but this is a step up from an insulated tub. The chiller also needs remaking and lengthening very soon

The mashtun has been a feature for a while now and works just great. The hose attachment fits through the staging and increases draw

The new 70L boiler features two large immersion heater elements, doubles brew length and rolls along just great. That big mouse-proof bin holds pale malt. Those sprays contain sanitiser

Here’s that bin again. It holds a 25Kg sack of organic marris otter, but there are plenty of other speciality grains knocking around too, mainly from Barley Bottom. Hops and yeasts are in a nearby freezer

Lots of great malts here, including 82% pale malt and four other speciality malts

Quite a loose mash began at around 70c in the preheated tun

Mash, mash, mash…

Mash, mash, mash…

Quick, quick, lock in that heat! We need around 65c for 90 minutes!

Phew, that’s about perfect

This recipe features a dash of sugar, for a change, to lift and thin it a little. This is just standard brewers’ glucose

We imported these pellet hops from The Bruhaus (thebruhaus.com) in New York

First runnings and returns. Lots of these taken from the mash run-off and two further batches

The first sweet wort ever to hit the new boiler. Takes some volume to cover both those elements…

Whoosh – the siphon effect of the chrome hose is excellent. Hope it isn’t too tricky to clean up

Mash drained very nicely

Heating up water for the batch sparging. This staging proved quite handy for just resting stuff on. Like a thermometer, or a nice cold pint, for instance

This is the final batch about to fill up the boiler to 66 litres-ish. Those hops are getting a bit nervous…

Spent malt following one drain and two large equal volume batches

Sugar in. Not an ingredient we usually use at the Boxshed, but it’s all part of the master plan for this brew

Plenty of hops in for the full boil. It looks such a small amount in pellet form, but would be a very large bag of flowers

The two elements bring the wort to a boil rapidly. A pint of BHJ looks on sulkily

Boom, rolling boil. One element held this quite nicely

Fifteen minutes before the end of the 90 minute boil, we threw in two Protofloc auxiliary finings tablets (from BB). That lid is a foot or so off the top of the boiler and is letting all the steam flow, but is also stopping drips from above

With the heat now off, it was time to throw in the steeping hops

Chilling. This took ages and underlined the need for us to upgrade our chiller as soon as possible

Ah, the classic paddle/seive shot. Into the fermenter it goes. Hurrah!

The brew comes out of the new boiler with some impetus

To make sure the wort qualities didn’t vary too much between fermenters, we filled them in turn

Around 12g of rehydrated yeast went in to each FV halfway through filling. No budget for liquid yeasts this time – it all went on hops and grain!

Two full fermenters each containing 25L of aerated, paddled bitter wort

All happy indoors at 20c, each fermenter contains 25L at 1.043, with a target of around 1.012 and an ABV of approx. 4%

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