Meetup - Thursday 30th March - Walled City Brewery

[Fatcontro11er]

might get my brother to come along hes just getting back in to brewing after a long break!

[bazza90]

I'm planning to attend but might not make the 7pm start. Bringing along some beer (think it was Boom) that was made for us at the walled city brewery brew masters course. I'll have two samples, one where I didn't add enough sugar during the bottling process and later added some sugar. So it will be interesting to see the difference. Also, I got a BIAB All Grain Starter Kit from Geterbrewed. http://www.geterbrewed.com/biab-all-grain-starter-kit-includes-a-mash-kit/ It hasn't come with instructions but has various packets with times on them (minutes). I'd be interested in what water is being used in Derry.
Catch you all later.

[sniffer]

Where abouts in the brewery, do we have to buy off the menu,unsure of the procedure some info please

[irish_goat]

We'll be in the section to the right as you walk in the door. No need to buy food but we would all normally buy a pint or two as a thank you for allowing use of the space.

Anyone bringing beer, usual amount would be 2 bottles.

[sniffer]

Thanks thats great will bring two bottles of session ale and my last bottle of stout will see you at seven Matt

[Tom]

Just found an excuse for a trip into Derry this evening! Woop. See yous there. I'll bring stout also.

Til then.

[Fatcontro11er]

Great meet up tonight great to have so many new faces and plenty of different beers down! Great venue and much thanks to James did that!

[irish_goat]

Some great beers last night, highlights were Mat's stouts, couldn't fault them.

Hope the beer I brewed turns out ok, could maybe try and have the next meetup the same time it's tapped up.

[Fatcontro11er]

I'll be up for that! When you thinking it'll be on tap?

[brendy_éire]

Some great beers last night, highlights were Mat's stouts, couldn't fault them.

I'll second that. Did James say when he'd be looking to tap up that brew you brewed?

[irish_goat]

Didn't say. Will be cold crashing it next week so should be good  to go by the end of the month. 

[bazza90]

Yup, really enjoyed the night at the Walled city brewery. Great to feel so welcome as a newbie and got some great tips for my next brew. I was a big fan of the Belgian wit.
@Fatcontro11er - I've 5.5~6kg of Hoppy APA grain, but then after looking around the geterbrewed website that shows recipe for the ingredients I brought the other night http://www.geterbrewed.com/hoppy-american-pale-ale-all-grain-ingredient-kit/


Here's the notes I wrote after during our chat
Mash

• Bring water up to 73^O with 2.5 litres per 1 kg of grain
• Add grain straight from the pack to the hot water, stir well and bring it up to 66^O
• Cook for 90 minutes (could do a litmus test, if it's blue, there's not enough sugar. Also could add gypsum at this point

Sparging

• In a separate pot, heat around 20 litres to 73^O
• Release the mash into a spearate bucket and while it starts to reveal the mash, slowly sprinkle the 20 litres of water
• It's no necessary to use all 20 litres, run enough until what comes out of the mash is no longer sweet (or runs clear)

Wort

• Bring the to the boil for around 30 minutes
• Add the packet of hops that says 60 minutes
• Continue to boil for 50 minutes
• Add the packet of hops that says 10 minutes
• Continue to boil for 10 minutes
• Turn the heat off and drop in wort chiller to bring down to ~80^O
• Leave for 10 minutes
• Run water through wort chiller to bring down to ~15^O/16^O (Pitching temperature)
• Have the sterilised fermentation bucket and paddle. Pour wort and stir to introduce lots of air/oxygen
• Drop in the sterilised hydrometer into the fermentation bucket and take a reading, aiming for around 10.50
• Sprinkle the packet of yeast on top, no need to mix or stir in, and place lid on top (with hydrometer in)

Fermentation

• Leave for a week or so and check the hydrometer. We're aiming for 10.10
• Even if it reads 10.10, give the bucket a little shake, there could be carbon deposited on the hydrometer
• Return again to see if the hydrometer still reads 10.10 and it's good to bottle

Bottling

• Add 1/2 tea spoon of sugar into each bottle
• Siphon from the fermentation bucket into the bottle
• Leave for a week and taste
• If desired carbonation is reached, then get the bottle into a fridge ~5^O to prevent any further development of bacteria

If I get the chance, I'll give it a go this weekend.

[Ceedee]

Hi bazza90,

Great to meet you on the night, and impressed you were able to make such detailed notes with all that beer flowing about ;-)

On the bottling, I tried the method of adding sugar to the bottles and found it too fiddly and messy and trying to siphon from the primary fermenter into the bottles runs the risk of sucking up debris and introduces too much oxygen. I would advise dissolving the sugar in a saucepan with a few cups of water and putting this into another (sterilised) bucket with preferably a tap in it and then siphon your beer into this, being careful not to introduce too much air and carefully mixing the beer and dissolved sugar. Then you can attach a bottling wand to this second bucket and fill away. I like this system as it ensures that each bottle has the same amount of sugar.

[bazza90]

Well Ciaran. Yeah, I recall you mentioned this approach as I had a doubt in my mind that to siphon from the primary fermenter may introduce some debris. Good point and I have a spare bucket.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Gerryjo]

Yup, really enjoyed the night at the Walled city brewery. Great to feel so welcome as a newbie and got some great tips for my next brew. I was a big fan of the Belgian wit.
@Fatcontro11er - I've 5.5~6kg of Hoppy APA grain, but then after looking around the geterbrewed website that shows recipe for the ingredients I brought the other night http://www.geterbrewed.com/hoppy-american-pale-ale-all-grain-ingredient-kit/


Here's the notes I wrote after during our chat
Mash

• Bring water up to 73^O with 2.5 litres per 1 kg of grain
• Add grain straight from the pack to the hot water, stir well and bring it up to 66^O
• Cook for 90 minutes (could do a litmus test, if it's blue, there's not enough sugar. Also could add gypsum at this point

Sparging

• In a separate pot, heat around 20 litres to 73^O
• Release the mash into a spearate bucket and while it starts to reveal the mash, slowly sprinkle the 20 litres of water
• It's no necessary to use all 20 litres, run enough until what comes out of the mash is no longer sweet (or runs clear)

Wort

• Bring the to the boil for around 30 minutes
• Add the packet of hops that says 60 minutes
• Continue to boil for 50 minutes
• Add the packet of hops that says 10 minutes
• Continue to boil for 10 minutes
• Turn the heat off and drop in wort chiller to bring down to ~80^O
• Leave for 10 minutes
• Run water through wort chiller to bring down to ~15^O/16^O (Pitching temperature)
• Have the sterilised fermentation bucket and paddle. Pour wort and stir to introduce lots of air/oxygen
• Drop in the sterilised hydrometer into the fermentation bucket and take a reading, aiming for around 10.50
• Sprinkle the packet of yeast on top, no need to mix or stir in, and place lid on top (with hydrometer in)

Fermentation

• Leave for a week or so and check the hydrometer. We're aiming for 10.10
• Even if it reads 10.10, give the bucket a little shake, there could be carbon deposited on the hydrometer
• Return again to see if the hydrometer still reads 10.10 and it's good to bottle

Bottling

• Add 1/2 tea spoon of sugar into each bottle
• Siphon from the fermentation bucket into the bottle
• Leave for a week and taste
• If desired carbonation is reached, then get the bottle into a fridge ~5^O to prevent any further development of bacteria

If I get the chance, I'll give it a go this weekend.

At your final 10mins of the boil when adding hops add your wort chiller as well so as to sanitise it prior to chilling.

Sent from my ALE-L21