Here is a description of my latest brewing endeavours! Any advice would be most welcome! So it all started with a Munton’s kit, followed by 2 malt extract recipes (Youngs special & TT landlord), progressing to all grain a couple of months ago, beginning with a Deuchars IPA, brewed to 4.5 rather than 3.8 further to brew to bottle suggestions Caledonian scientists (who make Deuchers) were kind enough to post online! Despite some mistakes and problems along the way it tasted fantastic, and my girlfriend and mates seem to agree!
My local water authority in Harrow (London UK), Veolia Water show hardness of 320mg / litres calcium carbonate, pretty much off the scale! Although I boiled the water the night before, and added just 1 gram of Epsom salts, after cooling the pH came out perhaps 5.0 (I appreciate this should be 5.3 sort of range) or even just below as determined with Indicator Strips from the hombrewshop (4.6 - 6.3) . Not sure how accurate they are but they're more expensive than most! The mash efficiency… Not sure how to work this out, but in any case matched (Graham Wheeler GW, a UK Homebrew guy who wrote a classic book) specifications exactly in terms of gravity per kg of Maris Otter. He maintains he uses conservative estimation for recipe quantities of malt, so perhaps I can get my efficiency up somehow! I’m fly sparging using Deulux Mash Tun (bought from The Home Brew Shop.co.uk) / not recirculating, although doing a slow sparge through tin foil sieve effect. Not sure why the pH would be below 5.0 although only just! Is this likely in Harrow! Should I add precipitated chalk after the boil and if so, how much per litre… Or mistrust my pH reading! Advice please! Tempted not to believe the strips!
The second beer is not yet complete. Again opting for a GW recipe, and had difficulty choosing between Hop Back Summer Lightning and the Exmoor Ale, but plumped for the Exmoor because of rave online reviews! To generate maximum value for money and quench unending thirst, I went for 40.5 litre volume in the brew pot! Problems…. Added challenger hops, to the rolling boil …. 80 grams as per the recipe
, but it boiled over spectacularly, covering the kitchen with greasy green hop residues and sticky liquid. After it calmed, I chucked the remaining 20 grams in … slower this time, figuring a lot of hops must be on my kitchen floor after the boil over! The liquid dried out under the pan, generating a sticky toffee which set on fire! I had to move the 41 litre 100 degree liquid with brute force and sponge it sown / scower it off the stove…. Gravity reading showed 1.41, rather than 1.45 predicted, reading taking prior to incubating in fermenter, so will perhaps make up the remaining with DME!... only works out as 370 grams (a tenth of total sugar content) and should not give it a tang! Agreed? So… I used 1 x 29 litres closed plastic fermenter with airlock and 2 x gallon demis with airlocks! Opted for 1099 wyeast smack pack as it claims to give a slightly fruity characteristic which I like and worked a treat with the Deuchers! Didn’t smack it hard enough so didn’t break and was warm all day, just killing the cells I expect, and consequently the fermentation didn’t start for 24 hours! The last one started within 40 minutes! Note to self, don’t be lazy, do a yeast starter! Opted for Muntons gold yeast for the demis, more than anything to try out the difference between the liquid and dried yeast as part of a controlled experiment…. Particularly since GW is very disparaging of the dried… Though the book is getting on for 10 years old so is perhaps dried yeast technology has moved on?… anyway… So, tasted this morning after bubbles almost completely subsided and gravity = 1.016! after 2 days!… Tasted slightly too week, so definitely bump up to 1.045 (equiv at the start if you see what I mean) with DME…. Also, not sure of Munton’s yeast profile, but the beer … admittedly warm and unprimed but… It was extremely fruity / citrusy and not very bitter …. Not certain if that’s a good thing and won’t know for sure until bottled and tasting the finished product!Perhaps the rolling boil disruption due to scraping sticky stuff off the stove interrupted hop extraction! I perhaps didn’t allow enough time for this at the end! Also, this is the first recipe with post boil hops, so perhaps this also added to the effect. Reading the beer profile in GW book, I don’t think it should taste so citrusy! I wonder if I can boil a pint of wort with some bitterness hops and give some more hop bitterness! I’m not certain it’s so fatal at the moment! Also, perhaps the 1099 yeast will add a different flavour profile! That one hasn’t nearly finished fermenting yet! Looking forward to trying that perhaps tomorrow as WY1099 seems to work a bit slower and didn’t get started for ages.... Does anyone know of a good step up from the GW book? Also, recommendations for good clone brew books?
Thanks for reading.
Best wishes
Joe
you'll find some good reading there. However, as you will also see, at this stage it could be better to hone your skills at avoiding crises with the likes of pots full of scalding liquids and all the other things that will go wrong, letting the science look after itself for a while. Meanwhile, if you didn't already, add some calcium back to the mash (sulphate or chloride) as the calcium in calcium carbonate will sediment after boiling your liquor. Leave the precipitated chalk to the wine makers, at least at this stage.