#30, #31, #32 - Triple Brew Day for Barrel Project [All Grain]

The 10kg+/ bucket grain allocations for the 3 brews

The NHC recently acquired a bunch of old whiskey barrels from a friendly man in northern Ireland. These barrels had reached the end of their life and were several decades old. Most of the barrels were distributed to the brewing clubs around the country with each club brewing their own recipe. Each barrel took approximately 200L of beer to fill and most already had about 1L of 60% whiskey still in the barrels to keep them wet. Given that my location overlaps between two clubs I ended up contributing beer to two barrels. The first recipe with (South Dublin Brewers) is an imperial porter which has plenty of brown malt, to help make up the volume for the barrel and as I love porters, I volunteered to produce 40L of imperial porter for that barrel. The second barrel with (Capital Brewers) is going to be an imperial stout with a large emphasis on roasted malt and early hopping. Both recipes were light on late hop additions as hop aroma was expected to be non existent after ageing in the barrels.

The Mash tun at its absolute limit!

Paint strainer bag to for the pellet hops

The amount of grain used to make three 10% beers is like nothing I have ever dealt with before. I had anticipated this and bought an electric drill to aid the grinding process but even at that it took hours! I ground the grain the night before the brew day to reduce the workload. I mashed in one of the brews that night to speed the brewday the following morning but at that point I had not planned to do all 3 brews in the one day. My mash tun was push to its absolute limits, I even had to add pieces of wood beneath it to ensure it was level to get more water into it. I used a large paint strainer bag in an attempt to contain the pellet hops used for the brew. For the first boil I started heating the wort immediately after the first runnnigs but this turned out to be a mistake as the highly concentrated wort must have caramelised and eventually scorched on the element towards the end of the boil. Luckily my kettle has two elements so I was able to finish the boil but I didn't heat the wort for subsequent brews until all the wort was in the kettle.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: South Dublin Brewers - Imperial Porter
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.13 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.88 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 18.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.108 SG
Estimated Color: 104.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 105.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8000.00 g             Pale Ale Malt (4.9 EBC)                  Grain         1        71.1 %        
1000.00 g             Amber Malt (118.2 EBC)                   Grain         2        8.9 %         
1000.00 g             Brown Malt (114.3 EBC)                   Grain         3        8.9 %         
500.00 g              Chocolate Malt (738.8 EBC)               Grain         4        4.4 %         
500.00 g              Crystal 55 (108.3 EBC)                   Grain         5        4.4 %         
250.00 g              Black Malt (985.0 EBC)                   Grain         6        2.2 %         
40.00 g               Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 90.0 min         Hop           7        50.8 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 20.0  Hop           8        55.1 IBUs     
2.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         9        -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 11250.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 26.13 l of water at 166. 150.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 13.70l, 2.07l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
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Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
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BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Capital Brewers - Imperial Stout
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.13 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.88 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 18.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.103 SG
Estimated Color: 225.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 115.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8000.00 g             Pale Ale Malt (9.7 EBC)                  Grain         1        74.8 %        
1000.00 g             Amber Malt (232.9 EBC)                   Grain         2        9.3 %         
700.00 g              Roasted Barley (1765.8 EBC)              Grain         3        6.5 %         
500.00 g              Chocolate Malt (1455.3 EBC)              Grain         4        4.7 %         
300.00 g              Black Malt (1940.5 EBC)                  Grain         5        2.8 %         
200.00 g              Crystal 55 (213.4 EBC)                   Grain         6        1.9 %         
30.00 g               Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 90.0 min         Hop           7        39.5 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 20.0  Hop           8        57.0 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 5.0 m Hop           9        18.8 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)     Yeast         10       -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 10699.99 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 24.97 l of water at 163. 150.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 14.61l, 1.77l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
------


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#28 - Coffin Ship Survivor Imperial Stout [All Grain]

I was really happy with how my previous imperial stout turned out despite its below average marks (31/50) in a recent brewing competition. I am down to my last two bottles so I decided it was time to make a new version to try out a few different things. The new version is going to use different hops, contain alterations to the malt bill and also will have oak chips added after the initial fermentation as ceased. I'm calling this one the "Coffin Ship Survivor" in reference to the coffin ships that would have brought Irish immigrants to America. The boat that would have brought them there would have been made of oak and the ancestors of those that would have survived the journey would have drank beer made with the Columbus and Cascade hops which give this beer its flavour.

Chocolate & Pale Malt

The 11kg Grain Bill

The malt bill is quite large for this brew as when I was originally making the recipe my efficiency was consistently in the 50% region or so I thought. Realising my errors in calculation I calculated my efficiency today to be 63%, I guess it would have been higher only I had to make a thicker mash so that I could fit all the grain into my mash tun.

Hop Bill

In the previous imperial stout I put in over 100g of hops at flame-out and dry hopped with another 100g.  Given that imperial stouts are meant to be aged for a while, this action is a bit of a waste of hops as the aroma would have diminished significantly in the several months that the beer would have been ageing. Instead I am putting in the hop additions earlier at 10 and 5 minutes with a small amount at flame-out to use up anything I had lying around. 

The Boil

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Oak Aged Imperial Stout 
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.34 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.092 SG
Estimated Color: 105.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 79.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 50.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 57.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
7000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        60.9 %        
900.00 g              Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)                   Grain         2        7.8 %         
900.00 g              Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         3        7.8 %         
750.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (30.0 EBC)    Grain         4        6.5 %         
750.00 g              Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC)                    Grain         5        6.5 %         
500.00 g              Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC)                 Grain         6        4.3 %         
500.00 g              Black Malt (Stout) (1333.0 EBC)          Grain         7        4.3 %         
200.00 g              Chocolate Malt (1050.5 EBC)              Grain         8        1.7 %         
60.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop           9        48.4 IBUs     
30.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 30. Hop           10       18.6 IBUs     
60.00 g               Cascade [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           11       7.9 IBUs      
60.00 g               Cascade [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           12       4.8 IBUs      
10.00 g               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           13       0.0 IBUs      
10.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop           14       0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)     Yeast         15       -             
50.00 g               Oak Chips (Primary 7.0 days)             Flavor        16       -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 11500.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 22.05 l of water at 169. 152.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 13.29l, 4.02l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
------
Columbus hops adjusted to 10% Alpha from 14% as they are more than a year old. 
Cascade hops adjusted to 4.5% Alpha from 5.5% as they are more than 5 months old.

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#24 - Junga SHaMM [All Grain]

Following my previous brew with Junga hops there was a lot of curiosity from other brewers about type of flavour and aroma came from the relatively unknown hop variety. Unfortunately an imperial stout isn't a good beer for showcasing hops and given that I too was curious about their profile I decided to do a single hop pale ale using only Junga hops. I had been contemplating an English mild brew for a long time but generally I find them quite boring flavour wise so I upped the IBU's into american pale ale territory while keeping the malt profile roughly similar to a mild. I used a mild ale malt this time round which is a slight divergence from my usual Maris Otter malt for a couple of reasons; I want to see how it affects the flavour and if it makes any difference to the terrible efficiency I have been consistently getting.

5 minutes into the boil

Unfortunately the slightly different malt resulted in the same efficiency of 50%. I measured the mash PH this time and it was a bit high at 6 so I will try that PH stabiliser solution to see if that makes a difference.

Recipe:

Recipe: Junga SHaMM

Style: American Pale Ale

TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Boil Size: 26.21 l

Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l

Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   

Bottling Volume: 17.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.053 SG

Estimated Color: 25.1 EBC

Estimated IBU: 46.2 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %

Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

3000.00 g             Mild Malt (7.9 EBC)                      Grain         1        54.1 %        

1000.00 g             Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC)                    Grain         2        18.0 %        

500.00 g              Biscuit Malt (45.3 EBC)                  Grain         3        9.0 %         

500.00 g              Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC)             Grain         4        9.0 %         

500.00 g              Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         5        9.0 %         

50.00 g               Chocolate Malt (1050.5 EBC)              Grain         6        0.9 %         

15.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop           7        20.4 IBUs     

15.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min          Hop           8        15.7 IBUs     

15.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min          Hop           9        10.1 IBUs     

30.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min           Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         11       -             

25.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days       Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]

Total Grain Weight: 5550.00 g

----------------------------

Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       

Mash Step         Add 12.50 l of water at 167. 154.0 F                40 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 21.77l) of 168.1 F water

Notes:

Mash high to increase the body in the beer. 

Multiple different types of malts added to add additional complexity to make up for the single hop. 

#22 - Raging Red Ale [All Grain]

I had an Odell's Red Ale recently and while I enjoyed the flavour I didn't enjoy the €7 price tag. I had been contemplating brewing a red ale since making the Ruby Red Ale kit. I knew I couldn't replicate that unique, sweet, hoppy aroma and flavour that is common across most of the Odell's range but I wanted something similar. While searching for a recipe I discovered that they used to brew a beer called "Extra Special Red Ale". I found an all grain recipe (see end of post) for this beer and modified it based on the ingredients which I could find in my local home brew store. 

The fist issue with this recipe is that it doesn't really conform to any BJCP style guide lines. Its really an imperial red ale but that style doesn't exist. I have put it in as an american amber ale due to its deeper red colour but even at that all the other categories are maxed out for the style. An American IPA style might have fitted better perhaps but does it really matter? 

My efficiency has been consistently poor in the 50 to 60% range so I have been adding more grain to account for this. I also forgot that the plumber had replaced my tap in the kitchen so my hose to tap connection, for hooking up the wort chiller, no longer fitted at all. I had to fill my mash tun with water and run that through the chiller instead which was a pain. After nearly an hour of water slowly trickling through the wort chiller, the temperature was down to 28degrees C, being impatient and tried after the brew day I decided to pitch the yeast at this temperature. It was fine and kicked off the next day, it is still in the primary fermenter so I don't know whether I will pay for that impatience later in terms of affects on flavour. 

Recipe: Extra Special Red Ale
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 26.21 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 35.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 79.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.0 EBC)         Grain         1        46.2 %        
2000.00 g             Munich Malt (14.0 EBC)                   Grain         2        30.8 %        
500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         3        7.7 %         
500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (200.0 EBC)   Grain         4        7.7 %         
500.00 g              Munich Malt - 10L (22.0 EBC)             Grain         5        7.7 %         
35.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           6        46.9 IBUs     
15.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min         Hop           7        18.4 IBUs     
7.00 g                Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           8        7.2 IBUs      
15.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min   Hop           9        4.8 IBUs      
15.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min    Hop           10       2.6 IBUs      
30.00 g               Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min    Hop           11       0.0 IBUs      
30.00 g               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         13       -             
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 6500.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash In           Add 12.11 l of water at 168. 152.0 F                60 min          
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 23l) of 168.1 F water

#21 - Rhubarb Wine

I'm a big fan of rhubarb tart and when I came across the article in the Guardian about brewing rhubarb wine, I was very interested. I didn't change the recipe that much from what John described in the article except for a couple of things. I used an ale yeast that I had lying around instead of the wine yeast, I figured at the time that this would result in a sweeter wine. I also couldn't find any white grape juice in my local store so I omitted that addition. 

Rhubarb and Sugar

I picked up the ripest looking rhubarb that I could find in the store and chopped it up as per the original recipe. I added the sugar to this mixture and left it for 4 days. 

When I crushed the rhubarb and strained all the liquid into a demijohn, the first thing I noticed was the colour. The recipe on the website showed the demijohn to be a red/pink colour while mine had somehow ended up a milky white colour. Not deterred I figured my rhubarb wasn't ripe enough but the mixture still smelled like rhubarb so I continued and added the yeast. I racked the mixture after a week and left it for another 3 weeks. 

Upon tasting I had a different experience to the author in the article. My version had turned out pretty nasty, it had that 'rocket fuel' taste that I have gotten from previous brews involving fruit. I think there are several reasons for this, in fairness I used an ale yeast where a wine yeast would have fermented the mixture a lot dryer. I didn't add the wine juice which essentially meant that I added some rhubarb flavour to a mix of sugar water. I'm thinking if I increase the amount of rhubarb, don't leave out the wine juice and use the wine yeast then it should turn out better the next time. Overall, making a nice brew from fruit continues to elude me! :)

Brew Kettle Modification

Brew Kettle with  2 x 2kW elements

I recently upgraded all my equipment with the move to all grain brewing but it didn't take me long to notice the areas of improvement. The most obvious and simple upgrade is to add a second heating element to the brew kettle. While that was simple, I found the investigation to identify the maximum amount of power that can be drawn from a double socket more challenging. I noticed a huge variance in comments across the internet with a lot of people making the assumption that if you have a double socket then, in theory, it should be able to power two 13A appliances at the same time. I found this to be a fair, albeit inaccurate, assumption to make and one would hope that the electrician had chosen the appropriate gauge wiring for such a scenario. 

Breaker switches for kitchen sockets

I decided in the end that there was too much speculation and investigated my circuit breakers. Thankfully they are very well labelled so there is no random manual tripping of switches to see what is what. The kitchen has two double sockets and after manually tripping the switches in the breaker box confirmed that they were wired to separate breaker switches. 

A quick look at the manufacturers datasheet confirmed that the 'B20' on the breakers represented 20A so this implies that it can in theory provide 4.6kW of power (20A*230V) before tripping. Each element in the kettle is rated at 2kW so both of them could feasibly run on a double socket provided no other appliance shared that link. 

Unsurprisingly the other appliances in the kitchen also shared these links, it is just all hidden in the walls and presses. The fridge, microwave, extractor fan and washing machine are spread between the two lines.  

Current Derating Curve for 'B Type' 20A MCB

On a typical brew day, the fridge and extractor fan are definitely going to be on and while both of them have relatively low power consumption, they both have very high inrush currents when starting. Both units can use up to 1kW for a few seconds when cutting in. This might only happen once with the extractor fan but it is going to be happening several times an hour with the fridge. To see how the breaker deals with these temporary surges, one must consult the manufacturers datasheet again. Unlike a current rating which is 20A, we are looking for a 'derating curve' which will give an indication as to how the breaker performs under loads greater than its specified range. 

We will assume that the 2 kettle elements, the fridge and the extractor fan are all being powered from the same breaker switch so this would give the following nominal power consumption:

Kettle Element 1: 2kW
Kettle Element 2: 2kW
Extractor Fan: ~300W
Fridge: ~120W

This gives a total of 4.42kW during periods when all of them are running which is within the range of the breaker. Even if the fridge and extractor fan both turned on at the exact same time, the most power that would be drawn wouldn't be much more than 6 or 7kW for a few seconds. Taking the worst case scenario into account, 7kW (~31A) is almost double the rating of the breaker so we will round it up to 40Amps. Now look at  the derating curve, 40A is a multiple of two of IN (Nominal Current). Tracing this value into the curve shows that the breaker can handle 40A for a time between 10 to 40 seconds. The inrush current situation would only last for a few seconds so the breaker is well capable of dealing with such an occurrence. I found this on a forum which is a reference to the rating of a double socket. 

BS1363-2:1995 requires for double socket outlets that both socket outlets have loads applied via test plugs, 1 test plug having a load of 14 amps whilst the other has a load of 6 amps, making a total load of 20 amps on the cable supplying the double socket outlet. The double socket outlet is then subjected to this loading for a minimum continuous period of 4 hours or longer until stability is reached with a maximum duration of 8 hours (stability being taken as less than 1 degC rise within 1 h). The test is passed if neither the terminals / terminations, nor the accessible external surface, increase in temperature by more than 52 degC.

So some sockets could get as hot as 70degrees C (20deg ambient + 52deg) and pass. A double socket is capable of safely driving a dual element brew kettle but personally I'm not happy putting that much power through one cable for 4 or 5 hours on a brew day. I will split the kettle elements between the 2 double sockets in the kitchen and be comfortable in the knowledge that it is well within the ratings in my apartment wiring infrastructure.

#18 - Ronk Torpedo [All Grain]

As I mentioned in brew #17, I got a lot of brewing presents for Christmas and this enabled me to buy the necessary equipment to transition to all grain brewing. My previous brew kettle was too small for full boils so I got a new boiler, mash tun and wort chiller. 

New All Grain Equipment and Ingredients

Another of my favourite beers is the Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. It has a relatively high alcohol content so can only really be drank sparingly. I only ever buy it as a treat or as the last beer of the night for 'dessert'. I found a clone for this recipe on one of the American brewing forums but I think that recipe is originally from BYO.

Mashing the grain

I first started by heating my strike water in the boiler and got all my grains ready. I poured 3 litres of boiling water from the kettle into the mash-tun to preheat it so that there wasn't too much of a temperature loss. 

Once my strike water was ready I emptied the mash tun and poured in the water. I then started adding the grain slowly while stirring frequently to ensure there weren't any dough balls or clumping of the grain. Once it was all added I gave it a good stir from the bottom to the top and into the corners to ensure an even temperature distribution. 

I then checked the temperature in each of the 4 corners and in the middle and the temperature was approximately 68 Degrees C (~153 degrees F).  I poured boiling water on the inside of the mash-tun lid which had cooled down in the mean time and closed the box. I put a folded heavy blanked over the box to ensure better insulation, this proved to be a useful addition as quite a lot of heat could be felt when putting my hand in between the blanked and the lid. 

Checking Mash Temperature

After a half an hour I checked the temperature of the mash and again after an hour. It didn't lose any more than 1 degree C/F over the mashing period. I was quite happy with this result as I would often read about brewers losing several degrees over the duration of their mash. 

I first got a jug, opened the tap slightly and began vorlaufing the first runnings. BeerSmith indicated that an initial sparge of 1 litre would be necessary using this liquid. Impressively it was quite accurate, as soon as I had accumulated 800ml of water, the wort had cleared sufficiently. I then gently (so not to disturb the grain bed) added this liquid back into the mash as it was quite cloudy and contained lumps of grain. 

I then opened the tap again to drain the first runnings into my old brew pot. I couldn't drain it into my boiler as it was in the process of heating the sparge water. Once the they were drained I closed the tap and emptied the sparge water into the mash-tun as I was doing a batch sparge as opposed to fly sparging. I have the mash a good stir from top to bottom to ensure all the grain got well mixed to wash out any residual sugars. 

First Runnings in the Boiler

The photo opposite shows the boiler containing the first runnings from the mash-tun. I left the sparge water to sit in the mash-tun for another 20minutes before collecting the rest of the wort and adding it to the boiler. 

The final boiling volume was just over 26 litres with about 3 litres being lost to evaporation and 4 lost to break material left in the end of the boiler. After finding the pre-boil gravity I found my mash efficiency to be about 61% which I was relatively happy with given that it was my first attempt at all grain. I will probably add an extra 500g of grain in future to counteract this inefficiency.  

This was my third brew in 3 days and yesterday I made an extract brew. The difference in the smell of the wort from grain compared to malt extract is unbelievable. The smell was fantastic and seemed very fresh. The whole process of mashing and boiling seemed physically cleaner overall as there was no messing around with grain bags for steeping or malt extract spilling all over the place. Usually the kitchen was a sticky mess after an extract brew but not after the all grain brew. All this was contained within the mash tun which was the only messy additional item to clean. Cleaning it in the bath seemed the easiest thing to do as I could use the shower head to wash down the sides etc.....

Ginger Beer, Ronk Island IPA and Ronk Torpedo IPA

The post boil gravity of the wort was 1071 so I would expect an alcohol content of at least 8% if the beer attenuates down to 1010 as it should with the WLP001 liquid yeast. The adjacent image shows the 3 brews from the last 3 days. I added a blow-off tube to the last brew as all grain batches are apparently known for their vigorous fermentations and the fermentation bucket is also quite small.

This recipe can be seen below:

Recipe: Ronk Torpedo IPA TYPE: All Grain
Style: American IPA
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 19.0 EBC SRM RANGE: 11.8-29.6 EBC
IBU: 64.2 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.068 SG OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.014 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 0.946 Calories: 427.1 kcal/l Est ABV: 7.1 %
EE%: 62.00 % Batch: 19.00 l      Boil: 26.21 l BT: 60 Mins
Total Grain Weight: 6.80 kg Total Hops: 148.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
6.00 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (5.9 EBC)          Grain         1        88.2 %        
0.50 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         2        7.4 %         
0.15 kg               Munich Malt (17.7 EBC)                   Grain         3        2.2 %         
0.15 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         4        2.2 %         
Name              Description                  Step Temperature  Step Time       
Mash In           Add 20.23 l of water at 72.5 66.7 C            60 min          
---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 22.2 C/60.0 C
Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.93l, 14.35l) of 75.6 C water
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG Est OG: 1.068 SG
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
35.00 g               Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           5        53.5 IBUs     
0.25 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        6        -             
28.00 g               Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           7        2.1 IBUs      
28.00 g               Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           8        8.5 IBUs      
---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 01/01/2012 - 4.00 Days at 19.4 C
Secondary Start: 05/01/2012 - 10.00 Days at 19.4 C
Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols
---NOTES------------------------------------
Mash at 67 C,Ferment at 20 C,Dry hop for 10 days to 2 weeks

#17 - Ronk Island IPA [Extract]

My favourite type of beer at the moment is the IPA (India Pale Ale). I like it because it is relatively light in terms of malt flavour and heavy in terms of hop bittering and aroma. One brand of commercial IPA which has got my attention again and again is Goose Island IPA. I decided to make a clone of this beer using a modified extract recipe from one of the American brewing websites. It was modified due to availability of hops and grain in my main home brew supplier.  

Ingredients for Kit, Extract and All Grain Brews

Over Christmas I got plenty of brewing equipment and vouchers so I decided to finally make the transition to All Grain brewing.

This brew would probably be my last extract brew before I exclusively transition to all grain. The adjacent photo shows the ingredients for 3 brews (1016, 1017 and 1018) and pretty much represents my progress in learning brewing over the last 8 months.

Yeast Starter, Irish Moss and Hops

I made a yeast starter for this brew using Danstar Nottingham yeast. I made this with a small amount of malt extract and hops. The dust from the pellet hops can actually be seen on the krausen on top of the starter. 

I boiled the brew with my new boiler which is just a fermenter bucket with a 2kW (240V) kettle element and a hop strainer. The 2kW element is sufficient to achieve a good rolling boil but it takes quite a while to reach this point. A great improvement would be the addition of a second element to speed up the boiling process and then turn it off once a rolling boil starts. This addition would save nearly an hour on brew-day! The hop strainer consists of a copper pipe covered in holes which is then connected to a tap in the side of the boiler. This strainer simply does not work if pellet hops are used, I tried to use it and not even a drop came out it was blocked too badly. It works perfectly when only leaf hops are used. 

Steeping Grains

 The recipe calls for 3 different types of grain, 2 of which need to be mashed (Wheat and Munich Malt) and 1 which only needs to be steeped (Crystal). The recipe doesn't say that they need to be mashed so they are really only contributing some flavour. I decided to try and get a bit of conversion going and left all the grain steeping for an hour at approximately 67 degrees C (152 degrees F). 

As can be seen from the photo, the colour is beginning to change due to the contribution from the crystal grains. I found that the other grains were making the beer cloudy more than anything else which was probably mainly starch as there was not enough base grain for a good conversion to take place.  

Once the grains were steeped for an hour I brought the wort back up to boiling and started the timer for the hop additions. The hops were added as per schedule along with the Irish moss. I think I added too much Irish moss as there was a huge amount of break material generated while the wort was cooling. As stated earlier, the hop strainer was instantly blocked from the volume of material which must have taken up between 4 and 5 litres at the bottom of the boiler. I siphoned out the wort into the fermenter and it eventually got blocked once the wort drained to the same level as the break material. I got 18 litres instead of the anticipated 19 litres so I have updated the boiler losses in BeerSmith to take this into account.

The recipe for this brew can be found below:
Recipe: Ronk Island IPA TYPE: Extract    Style: American IPA

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 21.6 EBC SRM RANGE: 11.8-29.6 EBC
IBU: 66.0 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.060 SG OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.014 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 1.093 Calories: 427.1 kcal/l Est ABV: 6.1 %
EE%: 70.00 % Batch: 19.00 l      Boil: 26.21 l BT: 60 Mins
Total Grain Weight: 4.20 kg Total Hops: 105.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
0.50 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         1        11.9 %        
0.35 kg               Munich Malt (17.7 EBC)                   Grain         2        8.3 %         
0.35 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         3        8.3 %         
---SPARGE PROCESS---
Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.050 SG Est OG: 1.060 SG
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 kg               Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC)             Dry Extract   4        71.4 %        
37.00 g               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min     Hop           5        42.7 IBUs     
38.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           6        15.2 IBUs     
1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 20.0 mins)              Fining        7        -             
22.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           8        5.7 IBUs      
8.00 g                Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           9        2.5 IBUs      
---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 01/01/2012 - 4.00 Days at 19.4 C
Secondary Start: 05/01/2012 - 10.00 Days at 19.4 C
Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols

#16 - Coopers Ginger Beer [Kit]

First brew of 2012! At one of my previous beer tastings, one of my friends (who is also a brewer), brought a few samples of a coopers ginger beer that he made. Needless to say it was the hit of the night and everybody loved the taste including my girlfriend who kept going on about it and wondering when my friend was going to bring more over again. Naturally this was prime opportunity for a Christmas present and her first brewing opportunity. :)

Coopers Ginger Beer

Sure enough I got it for her along with 500g of extra light and 500g of light spray malt. Along with the contents of the can, this would bring the alcohol content of the beer to between 3 and 3.5% which should lead to a light and refreshing brew. 

Making the brew was not much different from that of a normal kit except for the fact that less water is needed. The kit is mixed with 2 litres of boiling water and then mixed with the malt extract. It is then topped up to 19 litres compared to the conventional 23 litres as is common with other kits. 

It is now in the fermenter with an OG of 1032, which is a little on the low side and will probably result in a final gravity of 1010 giving just under 3% alcohol. When carbonating the sugar might add on another 0.25 to 0.5%. The instructions on the back recommend using 1kg of raw sugar which would have a higher fermentability than malt extract at the expense of body. If making the kit again I would make it with the raw sugar and compare against the malt extract to see which gives the better flavour. 

#15 - Ronk Christmas Bock [Extract]

Since its getting close to the festive season I went searching for a Christmas beer that sounded tasty. Seeing as I was still quite new to extract brewing and I had just started using BeerSmith (#14), I went looking on their website for a recipe. I went through the various recipies and came across "Happy Holidays Ale" which attracted my attention due to the simplicity of the ingredients and the addition of a speciality grain called 'Special B Malt'. It was great to see something that wasn't the same old iteration involving crystal grains.

Steeping grains

As was the case in the previous brew (#14), some of the ingredients were not available in the home brew store. I had to substitute the grains with something so I literally guessed that Carafa Special I Roasted Caramalt would do the trick. 

The resulting taste of this brew has been very good. Fairly good head retention which I reckon could be improved a lot with the addition of some flaked Oates. As it was a Christmas beer I would have liked a bit more of the cloves and cinnamon to come through. They were very much in the background and I couldn't detect them. The next time I think I would double their addition size to increase their potency. The hops come through very well in aroma and taste. They are not overpowering but are still upfront enough to be enjoyable. Overall a recommended recipe. :) 

Recipe: Ronk Christmas Bock TYPE: Extract

Style: Fruit Beer/Bock

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------

SRM: 31.3 SRM SRM RANGE: 5.0-50.0 SRM

IBU: 21.4 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs

OG: 1.059 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG

FG: 1.013 SG FG RANGE: 1.006-1.024 SG

BU:GU: 0.365 Calories: 169.1 kCal/12 oz Est ABV: 6.0 %

EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 5.02 gal      Boil: 3.69 gal BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------

Taste of Christmas! 

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

3.96 gal              Dublin, Ireland                       Water         1           -             

Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------

Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.088 SG Est OG: 1.059 SG

Amt                   Name                                                 Type           #        %/IBU         

6 lbs 9.8 oz          Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)                  Dry Extract   3        85.7 %        

2.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min           Hop           4        19.3 IBUs     

0.45 kg               Honey (Boil 45.0 mins)                         Other         5        -             

1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)                    Fining        6        -             

4.00 Items           Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins)      Spice         7        -             

2.00 tsp              Vanilla (Boil 10.0 mins)                         Spice         8        -             

0.25 tsp              Cloves (Ground) (Boil 10.0 mins)           Spice         10       -             

0.25 tsp              Cinnamon (Powdered) (Boil 10.0 mins)   Spice         9        -             

1.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min            Hop           11       2.1 IBUs      

#14 - 60 Minute IPA (Continually Hopped) [Extract]

Ingredients for first extract recipe

After brewing with kits and experiments I finally moved up the ladder to extract brewing. I purchased a small 4 gallon stock pot and finally got round to using BeerSmith to its potential! My first brew was initially meant to be a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA clone based on this recipe but none of the Irish home brew stores had all the hops so I had to substitute. I think most hops were substituted quite well other than the Amarillo Hops which seem to be quite unique. I also had to get a slightly different type of grain (Crystal 60L) for the same reason as the hops. I'm thinking that with the amount of substitutions it is no longer a clone. :)

Steeping the grains, Crystal 

Initially I brought the water up to 65 degrees and put 

in the grains to steep for around 20 minutes. As my stove is so slow to heat the water, I was able to turn it down to the lowest output and that kept the temperature relatively constant. The colour change from a couple of minutes of steeping the grains can be seen in the adjacent image. 

After steeping, I removed the grains and didn't sparge them although I have read in several places that you should, so I might do that the next time. I then brought the water to a boil which took AGES due to the poor cooker. The length of time that it takes to bring it to a rolling boil really made me understand while all the yanks are using propane burners or huge elements in their kettles. It really is a time saver to have a decent source of heat.  

Once boiling, the endurance test began. The recipe calls for the wort to be continuously hopped for the full 60 minutes. I had two timers going, one for the total 60 minutes and the other which went off every minute to signal a hop addition. The idea behind this is to add a few pellets/cones every minute so that you end up spreading out the whole lot over 60 minutes. I was extremely paranoid about a boil-over so I had 2 tea towels ready to grab the handles and take it off the head at the first signs of boiling over. Thankfully the boil-over never really happened, probably due to the length of time it takes for the cooker to bring the wort to the boil.  

Once the 60 minutes had elapsed, I took the pot off the head and lowered the pot into a sink of cold water. I then ran down to my local store and got 2 bags of ice which I then dumped into the pot. The ice is surprisingly effective at getting the wort down to pitching temperatures. I have seen arguments about putting ice about whether it is a good idea or not but it is safe to assume that the ice is completely sterile as otherwise people would be getting sick when consuming it with their drinks.

High Krausen!

It took about 5 minutes for the wort to cool once the ice was added so I then transferred it to a freshly sanitised fermenter through a couple of sieves. There was a lot of debris in the wort due to the large amount of pellet and whole hops so the sieves got clogged repeatedly. I topped up the fermenter to the 19L mark with cold tap water and pitched the yeast. I had previously made a 1L starter with a sachet of Safale US-05 and some malt extract. Due to my experience of using kits I wasn't familiar with the necessity of using a blow-off tube.....It was necessary this time.....for several days in fact! Part of the problem was due to the fact that the capacity of the fermenter was only 23L (as opposed to the normal 30L) so the head-space was quickly filled with Krausen. It is due to reactions like this that I have added this  brewing t shirt  to my Christmas list. :)

#12 - Brewers Choice Traditional IPA [Extract]

Since my original coopers IPA in brew #3 had completely run out I decided it was time for another IPA. I so impressed with the process of making the Weissbier in brew #11 that I went with another Brewers Choice kit. When making kits you never have any experience of steeping grains (at least not initially) but this IPA had several types of grains to be steeped and a couple of types of hops. They were all contained in their own tea bag things but you could smell that "IPA smell" from one of the grain bags and I was really impressed with that. I didn't realise that certain types of grain could have such an affect on the taste.

Please excuse the apparent filth of the cooker but it was rusting before I moved in here. :P  I have the grains and hops steeping in a pot of boiled water which is sitting on a wooden board to keep in some of the heat. This steeping is done 3 times. The coopers malt extract is also heating up in the back along with a Alexander's Pale Kicker which I later dumped as it was old and smelt disgusting.

When bottling the brew I used dextrose for the fist time without a bottling bucket. If there is one method that makes the misery of bottling worse then this has to be it. It was an awful mess, when adding the dextrose to the beer, it foamed out of the bottles. When adding the dextrose first it then foamed meaning it took twice as long as it required waiting till the foam died down. I was also conservative with the amount I put in with slightly less than 1 teaspoon. I opened a bottle earlier in the week and it wasn't carbonated yet which has quelled my previous worry that the whole batch would start exploding. : /

I will update this as the picture changes.


Stats:
Started - 28.8.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 08.09.11
Bottled - 08.09.11
Code - 1012
Yeast Brand - B.C Yeast
Yeast Code -  DZB 6G
Y-Temp -  22.0
Beer/Product Type -   Brewers Choice Traditional IPA
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.5kG Coopers LME Amber
Volume -  23.0 L
OG - 1058 
FG -  1017
Proof  - 6.00 (Including 0.5% Priming)

#11 - Brewers Choice Bavarian Weissbier [Extract]

This brew was my 2nd attempt at making a beer that had that sweet distinctive Weissbier taste that I had hoped to emulate in brew #2. The key ingredient that was missing in that brew to create that taste was the correct type of yeast. This was not a problem with this kit. The Brewers Choice kits are also a bit more 'involved' than the traditional kit type as they have separate hops, grains, DME and an additional malt extract which you buy separately. 

I chose to buy an LME(wheat) for this brew as it was recommended as a means of getting the highest quality possible out of the kit. I also made my first yeast starter which I'm sure wasn't made correctly as I just used a bit of sugar and water to make it. I left it for 4 or 5 hours and it had grown quite a bit but I have no idea whether it was too much, too little and I wasn't bothered checking that website that tells you the correct amount of yeast to pitch into wort. Either way it was fine and it really does reinforce what I read on a forum recently, "its quite hard to screw up a batch of beer". I would tend to agree with this when kits are concerned. My tract record of venturing outside kit territory has been fraught with failure so far! :) 

The end result was very positive, it had 'the' taste that I was looking for and the first taste induces that "mmmm German beer" mental comment when you drink it.


Stats:
Started - 28.7.11
Racked -  28.8.11
Finished - 2.8.11
Bottled - 14.8.11
Code - 1011
Yeast Brand - Muntons Yeast
Yeast Code - NA
Y-Temp - 21.0
Beer/Product Type -   Brewers Choice Bavarian Weissbier 
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.5kG Coopers Wheat
Volume -  24.0 L
OG - 1055
FG -  1018
Proof  - 5.46 (Including 0.5% Priming)

#10 - Basic Mead [Extract]

While the other Mead #7 was brewing I was eager to get another Mead in the pipeline given that a Mead pipeline can be measured in years rather than months for beer. I had been reading around and felt that the previous brew had been unnecessarily complicated. I reduced the amount of ingredients and made my own guide to brewing the must so that it would be clearer in future. 

Simple Mead Recipe

•  1.2kg     pure raw honey                  (for sweet, stronger Mead)

• 5              Litres spring water            (Bottled, not tap unless chlorine free)

• 1              tsp. yeast nutrient            (Citrix Additive)

• 1              tsp. Nutmeg                       (main flavour)

• 5              tsp Mellon balls                (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 3              slices lime                           (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 1/4          tsp. Irish moss                   (to clarify Mead)

• 1/2          packet yeast                      (ale yeast)

Bring 1.5L of water to the boil. Take off the heat, add the honey and stir in until dissolved. Add the nutmeg, yeast nutrient and put back on the heat. Skim off the protein scum as it forms and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to prevent boil overs if necessary. Add Irish moss and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. More scum, protein and clumps will form due to the Irish moss. Skim all of this off. Take off the heat and add all of the fruit. Allow the liquid to cool for 60 minutes.  

Add 0.5L of cool water to a sanitised demijohn; this prevents thermal shock when hot liquid added. Using a funnel and sieve, pour the mixture into the demi john and top up the liquid to the 1 gallon mark leaving enough head space for the krausen to form. Fill a sink with water and ice and gently lower the demijohn into it. This will cool the mixture to a temperature which is suitable for pitching the yeast. Add the yeast once the temperature has dropped below 25oC. 18-20 oC is preferable if you have patience. Bung the demijohn and shake the mixture to mix the yeast and aerate the mixture. Insert air lock and store in a cool, dark location for a month before racking to secondary. 

OG should be in the 1090 – 1100 range, FG should be 1000 or less

I racked the yeast after one month and took a small sample for tasting. If you compare this sample to that from brew #7, it can be seen that this one is a lot cloudier. This is to be expected as it was only fermenting for 1 month and hasn't had the same amount of time to settle. The taste from this recipe was delicious and was completely unexpected this early on! I figure the sweetness was due to an unfinished fermentation and the fact that I used ale yeast this time instead of the nasty champaign yeast. In theory the ale yeast shouldn't be able to ferment to the same level and should begin to die at 8 or 9% volume?  I don't have full faith in that assumption as it didn't work to well with the cider in brew #4. 

I am considering stabilising the fermentation to maintain the flavour as I feel it tastes great now and doesn't need any more. I will leave it go for another month and rack it again and taste it again to see what it is like. If it is still ok I will stabilise and perhaps add some bentonite to clear it further before bottling. 

Stats:
Started - 11.7.11
Racked -  28.8.11
Finished - NA
Bottled - NA
Code - 1010
Yeast Brand - Coopers Ale Yeast
Yeast Code - 19310 IPA
Y-Temp - 25.0
Beer/Product Type -   Basic Mead
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.2kG honey + limited Flavours
Volume -  5L
OG - 1091
FG - NA
Proof  - NA