One Armadillo Brewing Journal

Started 16th June 2018

Summer special ale with Munich Malt, EKG and Fuggles

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less)	8000g
Munich Malt	2000g
Crystal Malt	500g
Chocolate Malt	100g
Admiral Hops (Start of Boil)	20g
Challenger Hops (Start of Boil)	25g
EKG (Last 10 Min)	30g
Fuggles Hops (Last 10 Min)	30g
EKG (Flame out)	20g
Fuggles (Flame out)	20g
Yeast (Using Starter)	WLP002
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
Fermentation Temperature	18C
Expected OG @ 80%	1058
Actual OG	1057
Expected FG	1017
Actual FG

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	177 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	30 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	147 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	0.8 ml/L
Total CRS to add to Mash (26L)	20 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (8.6+24.5L)	6.8 + 19ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	126 ppm
Calcium Required	180 ppm
Adjustment	66 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	1 Tsp

Water Schedule:

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

Mash = 26.5L using 19ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 8.6L using ml of 6.8 CRS
Final Batch Sparge = 24.5L using 19 ml of CRS and 1/2 campden tab

Mashing:

Mash tun was pre heated with a kettle full of boiling water.

Mash water heated to 78c and treatments added.
Added 26L of water to mash tun, which settled quickly to 72C, so doughed in with 1 tsp of gypsum.
After 5 minutes the temperature was 67C, so the lid was sealed for 1 Hour 30 Min.
The final Mash temperature was 65c.

Sparging

25L of sparge water was heated to 85C and treated
8.6L of water was added to the Mash tun at 85C. I then started the re-circulation using my new pump.
HLT filled back to 25L, treated with CRS, and heated to 79C
Pump used to move wort from mash tun to boiler. Hose was connected to bottom tap of boiler, which should minimize hot side aeration.
Mash Tun topped back up to 25L with water at 79C for final sparge and stirred.
2nd Sparge left for 15 Min before switching on pump to boiler.
Last runnings were a bit difficult. Had to keep stopping andstarting the pump to prevent it running dry as last runnings were too slow for the pump.

Boiling

Boiler switched on as soon as first few litres of wort were drained from mash Tun.
First batch of hops added once the boil started.
Last 15 minutes - inserted immersion Cooler and protofloc.
Last 10 minutes - hops added
Flame out final hops added and pump used to re-circ hot wort to sterilize pump and help with cooling.
IC started with first hot heat exchange water captured for cleaning
Re-circ pump was left running for entire cooling stage and definitely assisted by ensuring no hot pockets. Stirring was not necessary.
44L of wort was collected
Hoses were carefully drained into fermenter to minimize loses. This is a little tricky but I seem to have got the hang of this by lifting the pump and ensuring that wort is in the dangling loop before disconnecting.
Cleaning hoses was a bit of a faff. I added some oxyclean to the hot water i captures and then re-circulated this using teh pump and my boil kettle. When finished I put the hoses in the cleaning water to soak the outside and then flushed with clean water.

Fermentation:

A 1.75L yeast starter of Yeast WLP002 was started 2 days before and refrigerated on the evening before the brew day.
The starter was taken out of the fridge 2 hours prior to pitching.
Most of the liquid was poured away and the remaining 0.25L was mixed well with the yeast.
Wort was transferred from the boil kettle using the pump. There was no cleaning worries as this had been running boiling wort during cooling and was left running until the point of transfer to the fermenter. The pump out hose was hung over the top of the fermenter and the weight of the camlock kept it in place. This also gave the wort a good aering. Minimal wort was lost from the boiler although a little more than usual.
16/06/16 18:00 - Yeast pitched, temperature 23C. The chiller is running so this will fall quickly to 18C.
16/06/18 19:30 - Temperature already at 18c.
17/06/18 09:00 - Fermentation is underway. There is already a fairly thick Krausen, so this brew has got off to a good start.
17/06/18 19:00 - Krausen is now fully formed and rocky. Temperature is 18c but this is just under minimum range for this yeast so i will raise to 18.5c.
22/06/08 - Fermentation is starting to slow down. SG now at 1.020

Tasting Notes:

I am not sure if I measured the Chocolate malt incorrectly or added too much Munich malt but the end result was bordering on a stout. This brew has very strong burnt coffee notes and is a bit of an aquired taste. It is not un-drinkable by any standard but not what I was aiming for. it is mellowing with age so it will still get drunk in good time.

Overall te colour is very dark and teh mouth feel is good. Head retention was a little low initialy but this has developed well with conditioning. As alreadyu mentioned, the combination of Munich and Chocolate malts seesm to have accentuated the burnt roasted flavours, which although not unpleasant is not quite what I was aiming for.