Hopback Summer Lightening Clone
Brew Date : 2015-09-07
I first read the recipe in the Graham Wheeler Book - 'Camra's Brew Your Own British Real Ale'.
I have been encouraged by Steve's Beer and Bike blog where he details his brew day with this recipe. If your attempting this recipe, I encourage you to have a read.
Recipe
| Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less) | 5.1Kg |
| Challenger Hops (start of Boil) | 38g |
| Goldings Hops (Last 10 Min of Boil) | 13g |
| Goldings Hops (End of Boil) | 8g |
| Yeast | Danster - Nottingham Ale Yeast |
Targets
| Water for Mash | 32 litres |
| Mash Temperature | 68C |
| Mash Time | 90 mins |
| Mash Efficiency For No Sparge | 65% |
| Boil Time | 90 mins |
| Volume to transfer to fermenter | 19 litres |
| Primary Fermenter Target Temperature | 18C |
| Original Gravity Expected | 1.049 |
| Final Gravity Expected | 1.011 |
| Alchohol (by volume) | 5% |
| IBU's of Bitterness | 38% |
| Colour as EBC | 5.8 |
Measurements
Pre Boil
Gravity
1045
Post Boil Gravity - Actual OG
1056
Gravity after primary - Actual FG
1013
Mash pH
5.7 (paper test
strip)
First Runnings
pH
not taken
Pre Boil
Volume
25 Litres
Post Boil
Volume
19 Litres
Trub Loss
1.5 Litres
Bottle / Keg
Volume
batch discarded
Preparation
Water - Prepared over previous two days
Basically filtered then boiled two batches of water, allowed to cool then drained from boiler all except the dregs. Full details of process here.
Ingredients - Checked in the days prior to brew
These were purchased from Brew UK.
Hops were vacuum packed 100g pellets.
Malt was pre-milled in 1KG packages.
Gypsum and Epsom Salts as powders in plastic containers.
Yeast dry vacuum packed.Hops and Yeast stored in fridge at 5C - good for yeast, unknown for hops.
Malt stored in garage at approx 16C - no idea of this is a good storage temp. Needs to be dry though.
Paperwork
We printed off a copy of the recipe and also these two Brew Day Sheets from the Brewers Friend Website:
Setup
We have a small table, some milk crates, a couple of tiles and a couple of blocks of wood. The milk crates make great draining stands when cleaning, are robust enough to put the boiler on or use as steps.
Process
Brought 28 liters up to 75C and added about 10 litres into mash tun to warm.
Topped up boiler and brought to to 72C.
Dropped out most of water in mash tun.
Added 25 litres of 72C water to mash-tun.
Waited until water came down to 68C.
Added 5.1KG grist.
Added further 8 litres of water at 72C to bring the total volume of water to 33litres.
Sealed mash tun as best we could leaving digital thermometer in place.
Realized that we had missed adding the salts, opened the mash tun to add these. Schoolboy error.
Added more hot water as temperature was dropping below 65C.
The last 30 mins the temperature remained more stable. Assume that the tun at this point was fully heated, including the lid and air-void.
After 90 mins performed vorlauf using a steel pan
Drained about 20 litres of wort from mash tun into boiler and lifted it up to its position.
Switched on boiler.
Used the steel pan to continue to retrieve wort from grain bed and add to boiler.
Took sample for hydrometer reading.
Boiled for 90 mins adding hops in bags at appropriate times.
Boil complete, added post boil hops and switched off boiler for 30 mins.
While post boil hops in progress, cleaned and sanitized plate chiller, pump, fermenter, airlock, silicone pipes and setup chiller.
Started running off wort through chiller into fermentation bin but wort still very hot. This was an error. Should have sanitized boiler lid and kept liquid out of contact with air until cool enough.
When wort to 20C, ran off wort into fermenter.
Pitched yeast which had been hydrates for 20 mins in boiled water saved from first water batch.
Draining wort into boiler
As the brew kettle got going, we notices a slug on the wall yearning for the biggest beer trap .. in the world.
Boiling hops is really something. I could not imagine boiling this in the house.
Running the plate chiller with pipes that were too long. Live and learn.
Bag of hop pellets after been in the boil. Looks reasonably dodgy.
Lessons Learned
The muslin bags we used were brought from a brewing supplies shop. They
didn't stop the finest particles getting into the brew, which seemed to
mostly end up caked on the lid. The bittering hops was the largest amount used in this brew and we tied this bag too tight. By doing the same batch again, and tying the bag looser, we discovered that this effected how much hop flavour ends up in the final product. In future, make sure bags are tied loosely.
At the end of the boil, and after the post boil hops had been steeped, we used a pump to push wort through a plate chiller. These pipes were heavy with wort and very hot. We determined that the pipes length and its hot contents added to the general collapsible nature of silicone pipes. They had to be held in such a way as to keep the wort flowing. In future, shorter pipes and place the pump as close as possible to the Ball Valve.
At the end of the boil, and after the post boil hops had been steeped, we used a pump to push wort through a plate chiller. These pipes were heavy with wort and very hot. We determined that the pipes length and its hot contents added to the general collapsible nature of silicone pipes. They had to be held in such a way as to keep the wort flowing. In future, shorter pipes and place the pump as close as possible to the Ball Valve.
Wort should be pumped back into boiler until whole wort is down to correct temp.
Silicone pipes bend and stop water flow and are difficult to hold when filled with boiling fluid. Some clips to hold pipes in place would be useful.
We were using jubilee clips to hold the silicone pipes on the 1/2"BSP stainless steel barbs. We only had four and managed to lose one. Need to have more on hand. Longer term, we'll invest in quick disconnects
Lid for mash-tun needs better insulation. Its hollow plastic and has a space where the trolley handle was removed. Had to add extra boiling water a couple of times. Need to get creative.
Thermally protect tap for heat loss
during mash as it gets very hot.
MISTAKE: Forgot to add salts to grist - must make sure that this happens when weighing out grist.
We didn’t take pH reading of wort - only had paper strips that I am suspicious don't actually work. Need a digital pH meter.
Weighing up malt was a bit of a faff as our reliable scales could only measure 2KG at a time and we didn't have a large container to hand to keep it all in after it was weighed.
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