I can honestly say that it was a joy to use, and it made most of the brewday experience very relaxing, as everything felt very controlled. The only stage that I was faffing with, was when I used the counterflow chiller, which was down to my lack of understanding of how this process worked compared to using an immersion chiller.
The mash was underway at 6pm and I was all cleaned up by 11.30pm, which was about an hour quicker than my usual 3 vessel brewday, but I know that I have definite room for improvement as I refine my chilling technique and my cleaning regime.
I have been planning to brew Dennis King's Galaxy Delight for a while now, but fancied trying it with some 2017 Citra t0 start with, and boy did they smell amazing when I opened the pack!
I've also got the Galaxy version planned and also an Apollo one.
Citra Delight
American Pale Ale
Brew Date: 25/05/18
Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L): 23.5
Total Grain (kg): 5.000
Total Hops (g): 112.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.049 (°P): 12.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.07 %
Colour (SRM): 4.8 (EBC): 9.4
Bitterness (IBU): 48.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 73
Mash Efficiency (%): 88
Mash pH: 5.54
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.045 @28.5L
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
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4.600 kg Bairds Heritage 1823 Maris Otter Malt (92%)
0.300 kg Weyermann Vienna Malt (6%)
0.100 kg Dingemans Aromatic Malt (2%)
Hop Bill
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12.0 g Magnum Leaf (13.2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.8 g/L)
50.0 g Citra Pellet (13.1% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (2.1 g/L)
50.0 g Citra Pellet (13.1% Alpha) @ 10 Days (Dry Hop) (2.1 g/L)
Misc Bill
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0.83 g Calcium Chloride @ 60 Minutes (Mash)
3.95 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 60 Minutes (Mash)
3.95 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 g Protafloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Mash Out at 75C for 10 Minutes
Fermented at 19°C with M44 - Mangrove Jacks West Coast Ale
Total Liquor - 32L
Mash Liquor - 17L (2.7L/Kg + 3.5L)
Sparge Liquor - 15L
The Grainfather sitting on it's little dolly, worked out an almost perfect height for filling and sparging from my existing HLT setup - 'The Not Quite All In One Brewing System'
The Grainfather Connect Bluetooth App is a nice bit of kit, but seems slightly redundant, when you can do everything from the connect controller on the GF itself
These next 3 pictures show the mash at the start, at 30mins and then 60mins, the way that the clarity of the wort improves during the recirculation of the mash is very pleasing to the eye and mind. (note the Welsh dragon on my brewfridge keeping an eye on things in the 2nd pictue
) The sink strainer addition is something that I picked up from watching YouTube videos, to stop any pieces of the grain from going down the centre overflow pipe if the grain crush is too fine, but I had no issues, as my grain came from the Malt Miller
The Connect controller has some great features and is simple to use. My favourite feature is the way that it automatically sets the wort temperature target to 96C when you move to the sparging stage of a recipe, so it's heating towards the boil while you sparge, but has no danger of boiling over
Hop additions at 60mins (Magnum Leaf) & 15mins (Citra Pellets)
Running the wort through the counterflow chiller at knockout to sterilise things
Leftovers
Clearest wort that I've ever had at the end of a brewday
, I will just have to see if this ratio continues as I get more brews under my belt.Certainly still a successful first brewday, and with a few lessons learnt, I'm already planning the next brew which is going to be a 12L batch of a Vienna Lager.
Cheers
MB
Oooops, forgot about those. And 2 of Barnsley Brewers Beers.
