Summer Lightning (Hopback) Brewing Journal

Started 7th October 2011

Recipe:

Recipe	Measure
Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less)	4.99Kg
Challenger Hops (start of Boil)	46g
Goldings Hops (Last 10 Min of Boil)	15g
Goldings Hops (End of Boil)	9g
Yeast	S-04
Mash Liquor	14 Litres
Mash Temperature	66C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Batch Volume	23 Litres
Fermentation Temperature	20C
Expected OG	1052
Actual OG	1048
Expected FG	1013
Actual FG	1010

Mashing:

The Mash water (liquor) was heated to around 77C and transferred into the Mash Tun.
In the mash tun the temperature had settled at around 72C so I waited until it reached 72C (about 5 minutes)
Strike Heat of 72C was used.
The grain was then added and well stirred to ensure that no dry pockets existed.
After about 5 minutes the temperature was perfect at 66C After 15 minutes the temperature has settled at 66.2C, which is perfect so no adjustments are required.
Refilled the boiler with sparge water and switched on to ensure sparge water was ready.
Time for a cup of tea as nothing to do now for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Only 15 minutes left now and mash is still at 66c :)

Sparging:

I will be using the fly mashing method using my "Phils Rotating Sparger" Sparge water was heated to 85C and added to another vessel, I need to boiler to catch the run off.
I am using a 3 tier set-up with sparge water at the top, then mash tun, then boiler at the bottom.
Sparge water immediately dropped to just under 80c so I started the sparge running. Run off into the boiler was balanced with sparge water being added for about 2/3 of the brew length.
I then slowed down the sparge and let the mash tun empty. I tipped the tun to ensure any good wort came out of the void in the bottom of my mash tun.
The boiler was now full. Just realised that I did not attach my hop filter in the boiler. Too late now so plan B will need to be be used (Mash Tun as Hopback)

Note:- Tipping the mash tun to get the wort out of the void also brought a lot of debris with it. I will not do this next time.

Boiling:

Seems to be taking ages to come to a rolling boil, must be nearly an hour.
Now boliing well First batch of hops added and timer set for 1 hour 30 minutes.
Nearing the last 15 minutes, so I have put the Wort chiller into the boiling wort. This ensures that it is fully sterlilised.
A dessert spoonful of Irish Moss is also added for last 15 minutes.
The second batch of hops was added for last 10 minutes.
After the full 1 hour 30 minutes the boiler was switched off and the final batch of hops were added.
As I forgot to add my hop strainer in my boiler I had to bail the hot wort into my mash tun in order to filter the hops. Put cooler in mash tun.

Cooling:

Connected up the garden hose pipe to the wort chiller and started the cooling process.
After about 30 minutes the wort was below 30c. A further 10 minutes and it was around 25c.

Draining and Aeration:

The cooled Wort was Slowly drained into another bucket.
First few pints were gently tipped back into the hopback as these were quite turbid.
Once it started to pour clear it was left to drain. Wort seemed to be reasonable clean and free from trub.
During the draining, the wort also got a good aeration.The wort was then poured into the final fermentation vessel from about 3 feet high. This ensured good aeration.
Final volume was about 22l so I topped up to 23l.

Fermentation:

Original Gravity (OG) measurements were taken, which were somewhere around the 1048 mark. This is still a bit lower than expected but still an acceptable result. I am not sure if my hydrometer is accurate as it seems to read low on both OG and FG, perhaps I need a new one.
The wort was around the 21C mark so safe for yeast pitching. I did not make a yeast starter as I have had trouble with these in the past, so just sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort.
I left the yeast on top of the wort for around 10 minutes to re-hydrate and then stirred in.
2 and half hours later bubbles are beginning to rise.
Fermentation was running well after 24 hours.
After 7 days an airlock was fitted as fermentation has now slowed. There is still a yeast head floating on top of the beer and bubbles are seen every minute or so in the airlock.
Beer will now be left for 1 week to completely finish under airlock.
Final Gravity seems to be in the range of 1010
There still quite a bit of yeast floating on top of the beer. This should have dropped to the bottom by now so not sure what has occurred here. It may be that there is too much trub in the beer, which has combined with the yeast making it float. I have added some gelatine as finings to see what happens.
Beer is now in a cool location so will leave another week before kegging.

Clearing:

Added some gelatine to assist clearing.
Beer is under airlock and has finished fermenting so 1 further week should do the trick.
The Beer is now clear but there are quite a few bits of yeast floating around in clumps. Its been long enough now so I will have to Keg it anyway. This must be due to the yeast clinging to trub in the beer. I have tasted the beer and it is fine so hopefully will be OK.

Kegging:

Bottles 6 pints into brown glass bottles using about half a teaspoon of sugar.
Some yeast floaters got transferred to the bottles so it will be interesting to see what happens as the beer matures.
After 2 days all the floating yeast seems to have settled on the bottom of the bottles so it seems OK.
Balance was Kegged in a clean Corny Keg. Pressurised to 30psi and purged about 4 times.
The pressure was left on the Corny at a constant 30 psi for about 4 days. After this point the beer had stopped absorbing C02.
Beer stored out in the garage to keep cool for around 4 weeks before it is ready to drink.

Tasting Notes:

The floating yeast all settled out of the beer and caused no issues at all. The finished beer was a crystal clear light golden colour with a reasonably creamy white head. The flavour was perfect, soft and malty, with good mouth feel and a distinct bitter taste.

Most of the Keg was consumed within about 6 weeks as it was just too nice. I did keep a couple of bottles in the cupboard for around 5 months but to be honest they were better when first bottled. Ageing in the bottles seems to have lost the strong malty flavour and enhanced the bettering elements. This was still a great beer but my personal preference is to drink it after around 4 weeks of conditioning.