All grain batch #6. We wanted to repeat last year’s success, and deliver some high quality craft beer to this year’s Sheep Head party at the institute. However, running a little late, we skipped the process of making our own recipe and yeast starter, and bought one of Vestbrygg’s kits in stead. Our choise was a Nelson Pale Ale.
October 8 Brew day. Basement, rotating tank lab. Heated up 25L to 72C before adding the malt. Mashing at 66C for 60 minutes, then increased temperature to 76C for mash out for 10 minutes. Kept the stove off for most of the time during mashing, temperature kept stable to within 1C. Sparging was done with 9.5L of water at 77C.
Boiling starts at 1900, at start of boiling volume is 32L, and gravity is measured to 1.046, which is promising. Boiling for 1 hour, with hops additions at 60 and 2 minutes. Put the spiral in the kettle for the last 15 minutes of boil for desinfection.
Wort is cooled within 20 minutes, and is set to rest while cleaning up other gear. Patience is limited, but it got a good 30 minutes rest before pouring it over to the fermentation bucket. We used the (now sterilized) mash bag as a filter, but the wort came out relatively clean – perhaps 30 minutes rest is good enough. Finally we pitched the yeast dry, gave the bucket a good shake, before leaving it in peace under a desk.
Dry hopping scheduled for October 15. Scheduled bottling day October 22, but perhaps should do it before, to be ready for the party on November 6?
October 9 It’s bubbling!
October 22 Bottling day. FG measured to 1.016, while target gravity was 1.012. Priming sugar was added (5.5g/L * 27L=) 148.5g as a solution into an empty fermenter bucket, before transferring the beer to this bucket using a siphon. From there we filled the bottles using a bottling tube to the tap on the bucket. We ended up with 41×0.5L and 11×0.33L, summing up to 24L, meaning we lost a little more than anticipated in the process. Taste is promising, can’t wait to taste the final product!
Getting the last precious drops out.
Capping the bottles on the rotating table.