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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Brewfacturing: 70L Stainless Steel Electric Boiler

It’s been a heckuver long time since my last post, and even longer since our last brewday. Our kegs are all in use (I’m still drinking Landlubber!) and there’s been no need or capacity for another brew to keep beer levels up.

Nevertheless, we’ve put some of the time to good use, and have finally expanded the brew length of the Boxshed Brewery by creating a boiler/copper with twice the volume of the old boiler! Great stuff.

The mashtun I made last year was built with the extended brew length in mind so will fit perfectly into the new setup. The old boiler, now complete with sight tube, will make a perfect HLT. All that was then required was a big pot to convert into a boiler, and now that’s complete too.

I remembered to take a few photos during the build. Sadly I missed several stages and most of the pictures aren’t great, but hey, I’m uploading them all anyway as a handy record (and because I’ll never move on with this blog otherwise!)

Really can’t wait to use this new vessel in anger – it looks so cool compared to the old one!

I’ll post future updates if I remember any more details of the build, but for now photos and captions will have to do the job:

I waited an age to get a good sized pot for the right price and in the end bought from homebrewers’ fave, Nordic Optical, and had this 70L one with lid shipped from Germany. Plumbing parts and stainless elements came from BES plumbing. All sight tube stuff came from craftbrewer Garth

It’s hard to tell in a photo, but these pots really do look massive. Making the first cut into the perfect mirror finish is a bit of a worry. All I can say is, get some decent tools, and measure and level check plenty of times

This isn’t intended as a guide on how to make one of these things. Look on JBK or The Homebrew Forum and you’ll get see real guides from proper skilled handymen. I made crude marks with marker pens and centre punches and went for it 🙂

I used a cordless drill with a rotation of charged batteries to keeo power at its optimum. Buildbase kindly sold me a set of Bosch Cobalt Bi-metal holesaws for half price. Brilliant. First step, fitting the smashing three-piece stainless ball valve tap.

Centre punch. Arbour. 25mm holesaw. It’s pretty much an identical process to cutting the sight tube holes on the HLT. I didn’t take any photos of cutting the hole, basically

Bit of a different beast for the two elements. 64mm holesaws are a bit unwieldly

I cocked it up, basically. The smaller saws went through like butter, but the larger ones, together with the curveture of the pot, made cutting these holes a nightmare

The saws didn’t cut through. I work hardened the cutting area by trying too hard. I got angry and sweary

Ug. I wasn’t very happy at this point and didn’t know how to fix it

As you can see I destroyed quite an expensive saw. The teeth flattened out and it basically caught on fire

If in dount, reach for a Dremel. Whatever the situation – burnt souffle, chicken pox, nasty nappy – a Dremel always helps

Cut off saws (lots of them) were used to cut out the holes freehand. They looked dreadful. I took off the burrs and tidied up the shiz with a polishing thingy

Ahem, and then it was fine! Actually, it took bloody ages of painstaking grinding, but eventually the elements were in and they looked ace. Doncha think?

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that tightening these elements with an element spanner and a cobra strap wrench is anything other than hellish. Do anything that requires skin on your knuckles before you start

The backs of the elements are huge

Sight tube elbowy bits (thanks Garth)

Nothing’s easy. Evene these things were a nightmare to tighten without killing them

Nipples. PTFE tape. Nipples nipples nipples

Really nice, these three-piece SS taps are. Copper running nipple, fibre washer, stainless back nut

This elbow makes the tap go from outy to downy

Wahay! Tap fixed on, elements in, sight tube attached – looking good…

This is what the back of those elements looks like with the shrouds. Ignore the warning label. Electricity mixes excellently with water

These thermostat probe bits aren’t needed and prevent a rolling boil. Pull them out and set them aside in case you need some cyberpunk chopsticks

Okay, so this is what you’re left with. The earth and neutral are pretty straightforward, but the live needs connecting with a piece of heat resistant electrical block. Use ceramic, or 30A rated chocolate block only

Um. Those elements again.

…

And here’s the finished boiler. After a test boil I added some silcone gasket to seal all the various threads. The next test boil went really well

I used high temperature cable for one element and even higher tolerance for the other, which is a longer run so that I can use seperate power sockets. Two elements get to the boil quickly, and one is enough to keep it rolling. Jobs a good ‘un – can’t wait to fit a hopstopper and use it anger!

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