Pale Oak

Started 14/09/14

This brew was planned using the Beer Engine software to make a 2 Corny batch. I had quite a bit of Malt to use up, so this batch was planned using a total of 11.5kg of malt. This is the first attempt at batch sparging, so I have purposefully used a lot more malt to ensure that I still get a good beer even if it all goes wrong.

This will also be the first time that I am brewing entirely in my garage. Keeping everything clean is going to be a challenge as I do not have a nice stainless steel sink. This will be overcome by keeping a bucket with no-rinse sterlising solution handy.

Recipe

Ingredients:

As I have limited capacity in my HLT, I have reduced the liquor to grain ratio to 2.3L per KG for this batch. This will give a slightly thicker mash but I can always add a little water later if it is too thick.

To calculate the water required for the batch sparge, I am using Jims Calculator, see Here

Recipe	Measure
Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less)	11039g
Crystal Malt	500g
Target (start of Boil)	60g
Goldings Hops (Last 10 Min of Boil)	26g
Goldings Hops (End of Boil)	25g
Yeast	S-04 X 2
Mash Liquor	26.5 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
Batch Volume	40 Litres
Fermentation Temperature	18C
Expected OG	1062
Actual OG	1056
Expected FG	1015
Actual FG	Not Recorded

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate (CAC03) Anglian - Measured with Salifert Kit	154 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	124 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	0.5 ml/L
Total CRS to add to Mash - 26.5L	13 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge Batch 1 - 12.3L	6 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge Batch 2 - 25.3L	12 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	62 ppm
Calcium Required	180 ppm
Adjustment	118 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	No DLS available so not added

Mashing:

All ingredients were measured out the night before and stored inside to ensure they were at room temperature.
Mash water was measured out the night before as well. In the morning this showed an alkalinity of 134 compared to 150 for fresh water from the tap.
Water was treated with 10ml CLS and 1/2 campden tablet.
It has taken 55 minutes for the water to reach 78C.
Filled mash tun with water and left for 5 minutes. Temperature was now at 73C so stirred a little until it dropped to 72C.
Doughed in in stages of about 2Kg at a time as I have 11.5KG of grain in total and do not want dry pockets.
After 10 minutes the temperature was between 66-67C, which is fine.
20 minutes later the temperature was around 66-67C so I will now leave the mash alone.
As it is quite warm outside and I have a large volume of grain/liquor I have not added extra insulation to the mash tun.
The final temperature in the mash tun was 65-66C

Sparging

I will be using the batch sparging method for the brew, which means some additional water calculations are required.

The Mash Tun was initially loaded with 26.5L of water. The top up calculations have determined that I need to add 12.3L to this, in order to ensure that both run off's from the Mash tun are equal.
The HLT was filled to 25L and treated with 11ml CRS & 1/2 Campden tablet. The temperature was set to 85C.
When the Mash was complete 12.3 L of water was added to the Tun. With the amount of grain being used, my mash tun could not of held any more. The water level was right up to the top of the cool box. This made stirring a little tricky but I managed.
Second Batch sparge requires 25.3L of water, so the HLT was topped back up to 25L and the temp set to 80C.
The mash was stirred and left for 10 minutes before starting the draining process.
Every 2 gallons was loaded into the boiler and the boiler was switched on.
When mash tun was empty I had to wait another 10 minutes for the HLT to get to 80C.
25L of water was dumped on top of the grain and stirred in.This was left for 10 minutes before draining and loading into the boiler.

Boiling

I ended up with around 60L in the boiler which was as expected.
Once boiling first hop additions were added.
The lid was left slightly ajar to let steam escape.
10 minutes to go. 2nd Hops added and protofloc. Chiller also put into boiler to sterlisise.
At end of boil final hop additions were added.
SG reading was Brix 13.2, SG 1053. This is a little disappointing as I was expecting Higher. I may have more volume than required or it may have been the stiffer mash or my batch sparge method. My last brew was also very low on efficiency so this may also be an issue with the grain as it is no as fresh as it could be.
Final SG readings once wort had cooled were higher. Brix 13.9 SG 1056. Using Grahame Wheelers beer engine to recalculate the OG based on 45 litres at 72% efficiency works out at SG 1055, so this is spot on.
NOTE: Using Jims Batch Sparge water calculator I have ended up with 5L more wort than planned. This needs to be adjusted for my next brew. Using 10% boil loss instead of 15 and reducing mash tun loss to 1L and hop/ trub loss to 2 litres seems to show around 5 litres less, so I will try this next time.

Fermentation:

14/09 - 16:15 - Yeast pitched at 26C
14/09 - 16:45 - Stirred yeast in and connected up heating/cooling equipment.
14/09 - 19:15 - Wort is now at 18C
15/09 - 09:00 - Temperature is 18C and Krausen has formed. The Krausen is a little browner on top than my last brew but this one does have some crystal malt and the batch sparging method disturbs the grain bed so brings a little more trub into the boiler.
16/09 - Seems to be fermenting well with a good level of Krausen. Temperature is stable at around 18.4C
21/09 - Racked off the yeast sediment and left to clear under airlock. While the beer was being transferred, I tasted a little. At this stage there is a strong bitter taste from the target hops but this should mellow a little with age (I hope).
28/09 - there are still a few bubbles coming through the airlock which was surprising but the weather is suddenly warm again for late Sept. I will leave for a few more days before checking again.

Tasting Notes:

After a couple of weeks this brew is drinkable but as it is a strong brew, further conditioning will improve the flavours. With an ABV of 6.2%, this is more like a Leffe type of brew. You can really taste the alcohol, which is a little overpowering at the moment. This should mellow with age, so we will have to wait and see. Overall the flavour is already quite mellow with a high alcohol kick, not too bitter and a with great mouth feel.

Colour is deep golden and has cleared nicely. Head retention is OK but not as good as some of my previous brews.

A 5L Keg of this brew has been given to a friend to try. Even though this still needs some ageing, the feedback was extremely high praise for this beer with the flavour described as Superb.