Story of a Barrel Aged beer

[beerfly]

Decided to document the the refilling of the capital barrel, this fist part should also work as rough guide to all grain, will update with each new step.  secondary/transport, filling and emptying.
Due to the editing restrictions it will probably be a but disjointed but i will probably consolidate it at a later date, including expanding the descriptions on some of the techniques like sparging and mashing if requested.

So we decided to do a belgium dubble as the second beer in the capital barrel being hosted in tog, recipe can be found here http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,4723.0.html

So starting off we heat the strike water, this will be put in the mash tun with the grain.  Temperture reading provided by the trusty STC1000, easier then constantly fishing out an alcohol theermometer.  The recipe calls for 6.5kg of grain and 18L of water.  We are looking to get it into the mash tun at 68.5c, so according to the tempure adjustment calculators this calls for the 18L of water to be heated to 76c so when the colder grain is mixed in we arrive at the desired temperture.


While this is heating up i filled the mash tun with a kettle full of boiling water to heat it up, put the lid on and preceded to measure out the grain.  The base malt, maris otter, was already crushed.  I just got a new mill so all the speciality grain i ordered was uncrushed so this was also its maiden voyage. 
Grain being weighed out.


The grain was then put ing the mill.  Since it was only about 2kg of grain i decided to mill it by hand and it tore through it, very impressed with the mill.


When the strike water reached 76c i opened the mash tun and poured out the water that was in it.
i poured in all the strike water and added in the all the grain, stiring as i went to prevent it clumping.


The thickness of the mash was watery compared to what i usually do.  But i hit the targer temp, see kids maths can be useful 
Took a ph reading too just for curiosity sake, tap water was 7.3 and after a few minutes the mash ph was 5.2 - 5.3


Break time while the emzymes go to work....

After an hour (we had targeted a 45min mash but my sparge water was a bit slow heating up)
Thanks to Padraig for sharing the secret of the sparge guard.  Get a sheet of tin foil large enough to fit in the mash tun.
Get a knife and put as many holes in it as you can with out tearing it and you should get something like this


This will help when you are pouring the wort or water back into the mash tun by absorbing the force of the liquid and not mixing up the grain bed.
The holes you made with the knife will allow the liquid to drain through and the foil will float so you still get an even flow through the grain bed like so


While thats going on up top the wort is slowly draining from the bottom.
For people intrested in numbers my sparge started at 1.086 and was 1.030 at the end.  1.065 overall back into the pot


Transfered the wort from the bucket back to the pot and back on the heat.
We were using east kent goldings for bittering.  the recipe called for 40g, adjusting for the difference in alpha acid and the age of the hops i used 50g.
I also decided i would give first wort hopping a shot so added 20g at this point and the remaining 30g when the boil started.


While this was happening there was also 500g of candi sugar to add.  i did not want to take the risk of just adding straight in incase it sank to the bottom and started to burn.
I took a liter or 2 of remaining wort from the mash tun and heated it up and let it boild for a short while the cool back down a bit.
I added the candi sugar to this and kept sturring till it disolved.
By the time the boil was almost done, 15mins left, the amount of water that had boiled off was close to the amount of wort that i had disolved the candi sugar in.
I heated this back up till it boiling then added it to the main pot, added some irish moss and placed in my chiller to sterilize it.


When the boil was done, 60 mins since the last hops were added, i knocked off the heat and turned on the water to start cooling.
After about 30mins it was cool enough to transfer into the fermentor, i got 20l @ 1.075.
Are target was 1.068 and i also wanted a few booles so i topped it up with some water to 23l and it was 1.067


For the yeast we were using WLP540 that we grew from a slant, the process for which is basicly making a striped down basic extract beer and growing a speck of yeast to a size of 1l - 2l over the space of a week, until you end up with something like this


Then all that was left was the joy of cleaning up. 12hrs later and she was churning away

[Ciderhead]

This fly on the wall brewing is becoming very popular, what have I started!, I love seeing different peoples set ups and how folks do things.
Barfly waiting for that hot break must be interesting I get at least 5-7 cm of foam before she breaks!

[Boycott]

Nice write up. While i heard of the tinfoil thing i always forget to use it. Will try next time.

[beerfly]

im normally watching it like a hawk, oddly enough that brew had very little foam.  im wondering if it was because of the hop oils from having some hops in it already, going to repeat that next time to see.

[Rossa]

Very nice;)

[irish_goat]

Nice write up. While i heard of the tinfoil thing i always forget to use it. Will try next time.

Also helps if you put the tin foil in at the beginning of the mash to keep more of the heat in.

[Dunkel]

"After about 30mins it was cool enough to transfer into the fermentor, i got 20l @ 1.075"

This is the bit I'm interested in. With no spigot on the pot, did you just simply pour the wort into the fermenter? Or through some kind of filter?

[Ciderhead]

Just spotted the iodine

[beerfly]

This is the bit I'm interested in. With no spigot on the pot, did you just simply pour the wort into the fermenter? Or through some kind of filter?

The one part i forgot to take a picture off, i might still have an old one if so i'll add it in later

usually i would transfer it into a through a sieve covered with a muslin cloth into a bottling bucket to catch the break and hop gunk, let it settle and pout it into the fermenter through the sieve again to catch anything i missed.  does a good job of aerating it too.

for that one i was just pouring it into the fermenter through the sieve using a jug cause my bucket was in tog

Just spotted the iodine

got that when i was just getting into "get all the toys" phase  only used it once

[brenmurph]

nice unusual  fermenter, where u pick that up?

[beerfly]

coopers starter kit
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-diy-beer-kit-new-with-vwp-sterilizer-246-p.asp

really like it the no airlock design, handy for stuffing it in a press, would be nice if you could just get the fermenter one its own.  she probably does not have much life left in her.

[Samael]

Good stuff Ronan

[beerfly]

crap keg the beer and forgot about continuing this, oh well looks like i HAVE to brew more beer now