National Homebrew Club Ireland

Earlier this week I was asked to brew a keg of beer for my mate's wife's 40th in 4 weeks' time.

I've done 7 brews already this year, all using the same process, so I thought for brew number 8 I'd document this process in case it's of use to anyone, but also to demonstrate the following:

• You can very easily knock out a brew in the evening (e.g. after kids have gone to bed) if weekends (like mine) are completely out of the question for brewing
• You can do this relatively cheaply; you don't need to own a Braumeister or Grainfather
• 4 weeks is more than enough turnaround time for a straightfowrard style
• If you're a lazy b*****d like me you can achieve good results with as little effort as possible

Another reason is to demonstrate a few brewing techniques I've adopted in more recent times i.e.

• Switching from AG to BIAB
• Fermentation under pressure in a corny keg
• Transfer under pressure from fermentation keg to serving keg **
• Keg hopping (dry hopping in serving keg)  **

** These are not covered in this initial post. I will add them at the appropriate times.


One thing to bear in mind is that I only do 17L brews these days, because:

• It's one of the constraints of fermenting in a 19L corny keg
• No sparge BIAB in a 30L kettle only allows for a 19-20L batch anyway, less if you're doing a high ABV brew with more grain
• I completely detest bottling
• Makes for a shorter brewing evening in terms of time to heat and cool volumes of water and wort.
• Have I mentioned before that I'm a lazy b*****d?

Also, I typically only mash for an hour and boil for an hour.

Anyway, on to the brew. It's a simple SNPA hybrid. Nothing too complicated for a birthday do. Please forgive the quality of a number of the photos - some things are bloody hard to do one-handed when you're trying to take shots with the other hand.


Thursday morning before work. Fill kettle with desired volume of water (as dictated by Beersmith), with a crushed Camden tablet. As you might be able to make out, my trusty stirring paddle doubles up as a pretty effective fill level indicator:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2008.18.28.jpg)

5:30 - Home from work; turn on the kettle to get water up to mashing temp:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2017.46.36.jpg)

Meanwhile - weigh out the grains...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.10.17.jpg)

...Into the grinder...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.12.43.jpg)

...one feverish hand pumping session later (oo-er missus):
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.18.58.jpg)


**N.B. I normally do all the above the night before but Wed night I was down the pub watching Liverpool getting their arses handed to them by Sevilla :(


Mashing temp reached (again, as dictated by Beersmith) for a medium body BAIB mash (67 degrees C, so allowing for grain cooling):
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.30.03.jpg)

In goes the grain to the kettle (pre-lined with mashing bag)...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.31.52.jpg)

...good stir to break up the lumps...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.32.59.jpg)

...and 6:30PM - Kettle is covered by some insulation and its original box for an hour. Professional or what?
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.36.14.jpg)

While the mash is on, prepare the fermentation keg...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.56.46.jpg)

...with a soaking of W5 solution to clean, and Starsan to sanitise:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2018.57.12.jpg)

Plenty of time to watch the kids fighting, trying to make them go to bed, and eventually despairing of your seeming total lack of authority in the house then it's time to get back to the brew.

7:45-ish - start bringing kettle up to the boil (keeping the grains in there for 7-8 mins at the start):
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2019.38.59.jpg)

...meanwhile, weigh out the bittering hops (12g Chinook)...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2019.41.17.jpg)

...pull the grain bag out of the kettle and let it drain. I don't recommend doing this one-handed:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2019.47.23.jpg)

8:00-ish - Hot Break! Rolling boil reached:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2020.02.35.jpg)

8:05 - Drop in the hop spider with the bittering hops:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2020.04.30.jpg)
n.b. Hop spider is not necessary. You can boil your hops in a nylon bag or, even better, have a decent hop filter attached to your kettle tap

8:50 - 15 minute hop addition (12g Northdown) along with 1/4 protafloc tablet:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2020.50.47.jpg)

...meanwhile, weigh out final (1 minute) hop addition. (10g Citra and 15g Cascade) 10+15 = 26:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2020.55.11.jpg)

9:00 - dump in copper cooler for last 5 minutes of boil to sterilise it. As you can see, it's a little awkward getting it and the hop spider into such a confined space. Cue the trusty paddle again to help add some stability :) :
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.02.25.jpg)

9:04 - last of the hops are added for a 1 minute boil, after which the kettle is turned off and the water turned on to commence cooling (n.b. I included a picture of me turning on the water in case anyone was unsure how a tap worked):
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.07.30.jpg)

9:20-ish - Wort now cooled to pitching temp. Copper coil and hop spider are removed:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.24.48.jpg)

Wort is emptied into previously-sanitised corny:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.38.49.jpg)

US-05 yeast applied. Do your work, my son:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.44.38.jpg)
n.b. I typically don't rehydrate US-05 yeast for a smaller batch like this

Lid placed on corny and 20PSI of CO2 applied to seal lid:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2021.47.47.jpg)

Spunding valve placed on the gas in post. 20 PSI upside-down is still 20 PSI:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2022.03.42.jpg)

Safely into the (home-made) fermentation chamber:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2022.06.28.jpg)

And temperature set to 19 degrees C:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2022.06.57.jpg)

Gravity of 1052 - bang on with Beersmith's calculation:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2022.51.37.jpg)

9:45-ish - All done. Just a shitload of cleaning up left to do:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-05-19%2022.28.13.jpg)
Bollox!


I checked the keg this morning and the spunding valve indicates pressure has dropped from 20PSI to around 12 PSI, which is to be expected. Once this begins to rise again, we know that fermentation has started and has begun to produce CO2.
The purpose of the spunding valve then is to keep the pressure at around 15PSI for the remainder of fermentation, to ensure a decent level of carbonation in the finished beer.

I'll update this post at the next stage, i.e. transferring to the serving keg and dry-hopping. If all goes to plan this should be in 2 weeks' time.


Cheers,

-Barry

Great post.
Fermenting in a corny keg isn't something i have every tried, but i must give it a go.

Great post Bazza!

Happy face at the end made me chuckle. Love the homemade fermentation chamber.

Havta get these kegs on the go, that or borrow a bottling system

Love watching other people's brewdays and bored of my own, like you I'm scaling back to corny sized production runs, well done especially that patent pending method for keeping your mash warm, hey if it works for tramps!

Looks good! Fermentation chamber looks well! What do you use for heat?

Quote from: sub82 on May 21, 2016, 12:24:34 AM
Looks good! Fermentation chamber looks well! What do you use for heat?

Just been using a 60 watt tube heater, 12 quid off Amazon. Have a similar one in the keggerator. Going strong for over 3 years with no issues. Will dig out the link for you.

Update: PSI was back up to 20 when I got home from work today  so fermentation is well under way. Opened the spunding valve to keep it at 15 psi so nothing to do for 2 weeks  :)

- Barry

Hmmm. .. Seems to have gone up in price since I was last looking but this is what I was talking about:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00408OB1W/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1463817408&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=60+watt+heaters&dpPl=1&dpID=31GrYhjvWWL&ref=plSrch

-Barry

Nice post!

You say you transfer post fermentation from the keg under pressure. There must be a lot of trub initially during transfer, do you just wait until the transfer runs clean before moving to the new vessel?

Quote from: Johnnycheech on May 21, 2016, 09:13:27 AM
There must be a lot of trub initially during transfer, do you just wait until the transfer runs clean before moving to the new vessel?

Yeah. First pint is fairly trubby. That gets drawn out into a jug using a picnic tap. Once it's running clear I connect up the 2 kegs.

The jug of trubby stuff does settle down pretty quickly and leaves a perfectly drinkable albeit flat beer sitting on top. Waste not,  want not  :)

- Barry

Would you consider shortening the dip tube to miss the trub? You can get spare ones if you still want to use it as a keg again.

Do you find the yeast behaves differently or throws any new esters when under pressure? Whitelabs have one or two pressure lager strains, I noticed.

Great post Bazza! Do you purge the keg of O2 before setting to 20psi to ensure an O2 free fermentation or do you leave it to give the yeast something to work with?

Those tube heaters are also on eBay, I'd always recommend a computer fan if using an stc to heat or chill it spears the temp rapidly and you use half the energy

Quote from: Tom on May 21, 2016, 09:41:33 AM
Would you consider shortening the dip tube to miss the trub? You can get spare ones if you still want to use it as a keg again.

Do you find the yeast behaves differently or throws any new esters when under pressure? Whitelabs have one or two pressure lager strains, I noticed.

First time I tried it out I decided not to cut the dip tube in case there wouldn't be a second time. Since then I've seen no real need to cut it as, once settled, it's always poured really clear from the serving keg. Also, I don't have the necessary tools to ensure a clean, infection free cut.

As for yeast, I've only used packet yeasts like US05, Mangrove and Nottingham, and have seen no difference in their behaviour.

Quote from: banjobrew on May 21, 2016, 11:04:50 AM
Do you purge the keg of O2 before setting to 20psi to ensure an O2 free fermentation or do you leave it to give the yeast something to work with?

No I don't purge the fermenting keg. I want to give it as much O2 as possible to keep fermentation kicking along at a decent rate. I do, however, completely purge the serving keg both prior to, and following the transfer from the fermenter.

Cheers,

-Barry

Great post!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are not a true lazy bastard if your milling your grain by hand though. Unless you start using a drill you risk being seen as quite the hard worker.

Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Quote from: auralabuse on May 23, 2016, 12:02:24 PM
Unless you start using a drill you risk being seen as quite the hard worker.

Too risky. If the missus twigged I owned a drill she'd have me putting up shelves, pictures and shit all over the place  :-X

-Barry

Did you build your own spunding valve? Was it easy?

Quote from: belfastjacko on May 25, 2016, 12:53:42 PM
Did you build your own spunding valve? Was it easy?

Nope. I bought mine here:

https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/adjustable-pressure-release-valve-gauge-for-cornelius.html

I have taken it apart, though, and looks like there's very little to it. I'm sure it'd be easy to knock one together. There're plenty of online guides to making them.


Cheers,

-Barry

Cheers, I've had a look not sure I could build one as cheap as that.

It's all coming together nicely now.

A belated follow-up to the original post

When we last met Freddy Fermenter, he was using his imposed incarceration in the Fermentation chamber to make some beer for all his friends. 2 weeks on, let's see how he's doing.

After 10 days in the fermentation chamber at 19 degrees C the spunding value was closed completely. It held at a steady 15 PSI, meaning that no more CO2 was being produced and therefore fermentation had completed. Into the fridge she went for 3 days' cold crashing.

3 days later. PSI has understandably dropped to under 10 PSI:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.03.23.jpg)

Time to prepare the serving keg with the same W5 and Starsan combination as the brew day:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-01%2014.43.37.jpg)

This one's going to be keg hopped with 8g Citra and 12g Cascade:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.35.00.jpg)

Boil up the nylon hop bag for 5 minutes to kill any germs and then liberally spray with Starsan:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.19.54.jpg)

In go the hops and the bag is tied tightly...
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.38.20.jpg)

...and into the serving keg she goes:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.38.51.jpg)

Clean and sterilise the other major bits of equipment needed for keg to keg transfer:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.40.36.jpg)

Fermentation keg (left) and serving keg (right) placed with the liquid out's side by side:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.43.55.jpg)

Serving keg is pressurised to 5 PSI:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.44.56.jpg)

Gas supply is then removed and attached to the fermentation keg. A picnic tap is attached to the fermentation keg's liquid out to decant the first half litre or so of yeasty mess:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.48.12.jpg)

Yum yum, murky:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.50.37.jpg)

Liquid out posts of the sending (fermentation) and receiving (serving) kegs are connected up:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.52.00.jpg)

Spunding valve placed on the gas in post of the receiving keg:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.52.17.jpg)

At this stage the gas supply is attached to the gas in of the sending keg, at 5 PSI. To allow transfer of beer the spunding value is opened to lower the PSI on the receiving keg to around 2 PSI. The pressure differential causes the beer to flow through the line from the fermenter to the serving keg:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2020.56.44.jpg)

Keeping the flow going by mainting pressure differentials via adjustment of spunding valve and gas supply involves a degree of trial and error, but the transfer should be complete in a few minutes. As soon as the line gurgles dry, the two kegs are quickly detached from each other and the spunding valve is popped off the receiving keg.

All that's left now is to seal the lid of the serving keg at 30 PSI:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2021.02.48.jpg)

Back into your box!
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2021.05.08.jpg)

I'll keep it in there for a week or so, to allow the hop aroma to establish itself but, even at this early stage, the beer is already sufficiently carbonated and ready to drink if a little cloudy and under-hopped.

2 or 3 days before the party I'll pop it into the fridge to get it down to a decent serving temperature. By that stage it should be much clearer and have have a decent hop aroma.

Since the fermentation keg is still sealed and pressurised, I'll not bother cleaning it until I'm ready to use it again so, all told, there's bugger all cleaning to do:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86457308/LazyBrewDay/2016-06-02%2021.07.26.jpg)


Tune in next time to see if it tastes like shite.

Cheers,

-Barry

You are getting quite good at these and they make a great read!
Be careful about over exposure of the hops, they do most of the work in 72 hours after 7 days you run the risk of your beer picking up grassy flavours.

Quote from: CH on June 06, 2016, 03:55:40 PM
Be careful about over exposure of the hops, they do most of the work in 72 hours after 7 days you run the risk of your beer picking up grassy flavours.

Point taken. Normally after kegging I'd have put the keg into the fridge for a week or so but, given the quick turnaround time needed, I wanted to give the hops aroma the best possible chance to develop quickly hence the warmer temp.

This was kegged last Thursday so maybe that's plenty of time, so might just put it into the fridge this evening.

Cheers,

-Barry

The plus side of course when you DH in the keg is a little roll to mix and you can work out exactly where the sweet spot it, involves sampling every day though, are you up for the job?

Forgive man speaking with forked tongue

http://brulosophy.com/2016/06/13/under-pressure-pt-3-the-impact-of-pressurized-fermentation-on-lager-exbeeriment-results/?

Cheers for that, John. No real surprises there, given that a) their previous experiments were inconclusive and b) every other experiment of theirs that I've read has been inconclusive :P

Of the reasons I listed for fermenting under pressure, better tasting beer was not one of them; for me it was mostly to do with a saving on effort, time and an ever so marginal saving on CO2.

Interesting article nonetheless.


Cheers,

-Barry

The ideas for testing are good and so is his methodology but he's had splinters in his arse from sitting on the fence with his conclusions on the last few and I'm not sure it's his tasters are at fault but he needs to reevaluate that part of his analysis, maybe some qualified bjcp judges

Great post Baz.  Really like your method here.

I wouldn't mind getting into this myself as I've been looking for a way to make smaller batches and this looks really streamlined.  All I would need is a hop bag, a kettle and spunding valve as I have everything else.

Was the kettle expensive?  Was it a big job to hack it so that it allows a continuous boil?  Also where do you get your muslin bag?  Definitely need to get something together next month (payday).

Cheers,
Paddy

Cheers for the feedback, Paddy.

Kettle was relatively inexpensive (£75):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cygnet-MFCT1030-Counter-Manual-Stainless/dp/B004EAERSS/ref=pd_sim_sbs_201_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=310LnKmQrYL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=QM9ETV0W0D5QYC3JY60T

No Mods required. The instructions say she'll hold a rolling boil at the highest setting on the dial and that's just what she does. You'll notice a large proportion of the reviews are from homebrewers but, apparently, if you need to run a church fete or have the vicar coming round for tea at short notice, she's good for that too :)

The Ebay link for the bag I use doesn't seem to work anymore i.e. seller seems to have disappeared, but I think it's this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ritchies-Mashing-and-Sparging-Bag/dp/B00BPSHPYK

Over 20 brews and it's still holding strong.


Cheers,

-Barry

... oh, and the hop bags I got here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-x-Home-Brew-Nylon-Straining-Muslin-Bag-Pull-Cord-Beer-Hop-Wine-Spice-Herb-/231757390902?hash=item35f5d12436

They seem to wash spotlessly white after use; good to go again.

Cheers,

-Barry

Brilliant Bazza.  Thanks for the info.  Will see if I can get away with a £75 spend without the good Mrs noticing *cough* :)