Golden Otter 40L Brewing Journal

Started 12th October 2018

Combining the age old favourite of Challenger and East Kent Goldings hops together with a more unusual pairing of Pale and Munich Malts. This is a fairly standard bitter but is the kind of beer that is easy drinking and well liked by guests. the estimated ABV is 5.00%, so this is not too strong as a regular session beer.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pale Malt (EBC 6)	8500g
Munich Malt (EBC 25)	1000g
Crystal Malt (EBC 150)	500g
Challenger Hops (Start of Boil)	70g
EKG Hops - Pellets (Last 10 Min)	30g
EKG Hops - Pellets (Flame Out)	20g
Yeast (Using Starter)	WLP002
Mash Liquor	25 Litres
Strike Heat	72C
Mash Temperature	66C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Fermentation Temperature	18C
Expected OG	1055
Actual OG	1053
Expected FG	1015
Actual FG	1014

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	154 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	124 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	0.6 ml/L
Total CRS to add to Mash (25L)	15 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (9.5+24.5L)	20 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	110 ppm
Calcium Required	180 ppm
Adjustment	70 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	1.5 Tsp

Water Schedule:

This brew will be batch sparged, so the water will be scheduled as follows:

Mash = 25L using 15 ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 9.5L using 6 ml of CRS
Final Batch Sparge = 24.5L using 15 ml of CRS and 1/2 campden tab

Mashing:

I am using my SS Brewtech infussion mash tun for the first time. This is a large chunk of stainless steel so I will need preheat.

12L of water at 78C added to mast tun.
HLT topped back up and set for 78C
Water treated with 15ml CRS and 1/ Campden tab.
25L of water added to the mash tun, which settled quickly to 73C, so stirred until 72c
Doughed in.
Temperature dropped to 67C. which is perfect.
Forgot Gypsum so quickly added at 5 min and stirred in.
Measured temperature with Thermapen and mash was showing as 65C but mash tun probe is still showing 67C in middle of mash.
mash will now be left alone for 1.5 hours.
10 minutes left on the clock and mash tun thermometer is showing as 66.5c
Final temperature was around 66C

Sparging

25L of sparge water was heated to 85C and treated
9.5L added to mas tun
Recirc started and run for 20 minutes
Pumped wort into boiler but last 2 pints were very turbid. Need to stop pumping just before final runnings.
Added 24.L of sparge water to mash tun and stirred and recirc left running for 20 minutes.
Pumped to boiler and stopped just as the turbid last runnings appeared in the pipe.

Boiling

Boiler switched on as soon as first few litres of wort were drained from mash Tun.
Challenger hops added at start of boil
Last 15 minutes. Protofloc and EKG added
Immersion coil inserted to ensure sterilised.
Recirc started - Air locks were a challenge but as soon as i stopped the gas it was fine. recirc will run while cooling takes place to ensure wort is filtered and aid cooling.
Post boil gravity = 13 brix, 1053
post boil recirc eventually got stuck. The only way to clear way to reverse the flow of the pump to blow the blockage out. This was only partially successful and resulted in a very slow transfer to the fermenter. The final runnings stopped earlier than normal and did not syphon the last few litres from the boiler. This was due to excessive trub in the boiler which blocked my hop filter. This was either due to the pellet hops OR the excessive amount of trub transferred to the boiler from the new mash tun.

Fermentation:

A 1.75L yeast starter of Yeast WLP002 was started 2 days before and refrigerated the evening prior to brew day.
Yeast was removed from the fridge around 1 hour prior to pitching and the main volume of liquid poured off.
When the wort was at a suitable temperature, some was transferred into the starter flask to aclimatise. This was already fermenting by the time the yeast was pitched.
Wort is at 26C, so Chiller set-up to continue cooling.
12/10/18 - 18;20 - Wort pitched at 22C. Target temperature is 18C but this will soon be reached as teh chiller is running.
12/10/18 - 22:00 - Temperature has stabalised at 18.5C
13/10/18 - 08:30 - A thick rocky krausen has formed and the chiller has been on to maintain temperature. Overnight was very warm for October but the fact that temperature was obviously rising shows that activity is high.
14/10/18 - Krausen still rocky, some trub has been thrown onto surface but this is nothing unusual.
16/10/18 - Krausen has mainly dropped, Temperature raised to 19.5C for a few days to ensure that diacetyl is cleared up.
17/10/18 - Bix reading is 7.1, which equates to an SG of 1014 and this should be the final gravity. If this is unchanged tomorrow I will cold crash.
18/10/18 - SG is now stable and brew has been at 19.5C for 2 days, so any diacetyl should be eliminated. Temperature now set to 0C for 2 days cold crash, although it will not get that low.
19/10/18 - Gelatin was disloved in 1 pint of warm water (boiled and cooled first). This was then heated to 65C in teh microwave and stirred well. The Beer was at 5C and the Gelatin was gently stirred in.

Notes For next Brew:

Ensure that first sparge pumping is stopped as soon as liquid is below the sight glass.

After second sparge, be careful to stop as soon as any trub appears, or stop slightly early as there is no dead space so little loss anyway.

Tasting Notes:

A crafty sample was taken from the fermenter and the smell is fantastic. The wort is not totally clear at this stage but is not far from the final clarity. The colour is great and this very young beer tasted excellent with a good mouth feel. There is quite a strong bitter taste but also a great hop flavour. The bitterness will subside with Ageing, so I am looking forward to trying this in a couple of weeks time.