Archive for July, 2011

Amazon shopping spree

Aside from our much needed breakmaker, I spent my amazon voucher on brewing stuff!

I ordered the following

    Books: 

  • Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues by Dr. George J. Fix

    •  

    Bottling Equipment:

  • Twin Level Bottle Capper
  • 150 Crown Caps
  • Bottling tree to hold 80 bottles

    •  

    Boiler Equipment:

  • 2x 15mm Compression Ball Valves
  • 2x 15mm Compression Tank Connectors
  • A pack of elbows for connecting everything up

    •  

    Fermentation Cabinet:

  • An STC-1000 temperature controller

    •  

    Brewing Supplies:

  • A vial of white labs WLP-300 -Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

    •  

I also managed to pick up a freezer from Freecycle to use as the fermentation cabinet. It seems like there may be an issue with it though… The freezer was said to have drawers which come out… it does, but it also has shelves which have the coolant pipes running through them. This means that the shelves do NOT come out, and my keg(s) will not fit into the freezer.

I may have a solution to this however. If I can use the new freezer for food then I can pull the drawers from the old freezer and use that for fermenting. I just need to get a fermenter heater to wrap around the vessel that is controlled by the STC-1000. It’s not a very elegant solution, but until I find a fridge to replace the new freezer, it will have to do.

AG#1 – American Pale Ale

Time to wet my teeth with my first ALL-GRAIN brew!
I brewed this one (New Flat Ale) on Sunday June 12th, and everything went pretty smooth.

I only encountered a couple of issues with this one:

  • The stove has trouble boiling much more than about 18-19 liters of water at a time.
  • The auto siphon became VERY clogged while trying to siphon out the boiler into the fermenter.
  • The fermenter didn’t fit into the water bath I had prepared for it to control the temperature, so I had to siphon the beer into a second fermenter and use that one instead.

    • Other than those few minor issues, the brew went without a hitch!

    Aaaaaaaaaaaand here are the photos of the brew day!

    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)
    From AG #1 – New Flat Ale (12 June 2011)

     

    New Flat Ale

    This is my first ever AG recipe. I nabbed it from some forum.

     

    OVERVIEW
    Style:    American Pale Ale
    Name:    New Flat Ale
    Yeast:   US-05
    Fermentation Temp:   18 C
    Original Gravity:   1.045
    Total IBU's:   34.81
    Colour (EBC):   24.6
    End of Boil Efficiency   76%
    Mash Length (mins):   90
    Boil Length (mins):   60
    Notes:   A very popular and robust recipe. Amounts can be varied greatly whilst still getting a great beer.

    Volumes etc.
    Water Required (L):   34.21
    Mash Temp (C):   65 C
    End of Boil Volume (L):   26.84
    Volume into Fermenter (L):   23
    Final Yield (L):   21.3
    Total Grain Bill (g):   5176.2

    Grains   Weight (Percentage)
    Pale Ale Malt (Any type)   3980g (76.9%)
    Munich 1   797g (15.4%)
    CaraAmber   404g (7.8%)

    Hops   AA%   Weight   Minutes
    Amarillo   8.9   25 grams   60
    Amarillo   8.9   22 grams   20
    Amarillo   8.9   18 grams   5
    Amarillo     8.9   10 grams    0

    Adjuncts         Minutes
    Adjunct:    1 teaspoon yeast nutrient      10
    Finings:   1/2 tablet of Irish Moss      10
    Mineral:   None

     

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