First one down - Coniston Blue Birdesque

[Gadjobrinus]

Well, not a big deal but did a shakedown cruise on a new system, checked system parameters and pleased. Got 80% efficiency off a 10 gallon Igloo and hand-ladling fly sparging, with the normal bumps off learning on a new system. 95% 2-row, 5% Baird's 135-165; "northern England" water, so that's a tweak but I wanted to see what 250 ppm sulfate and 175 ppm Cl tasted like on an ordinary bitter. Challenger throughout. For the first time, used dry yeast - Lallemand Nottingham.

Based on pre-boil gravity, I thought I'd end up with a slightly higher OG so adjusted the Challenger bittering, and as I ended up about where I thought I would be initially (1.038 OG v. 1.036 targeted), I think the BU:GU at nominal 37:38 BU:GU (97) is more than I was looking for at BU:GU 89. And the Igloo mash tun soaked up more heat than I'd parsed going in, so I mashed in low at 146 F and had to gun it on boiling additions to get it to targeted mash-in at 152F. Then to infuse to 170F for mash out, took considerably more water than I'd anticipated.

I may use my 10 gallon BK as a mash tun, and just use the cooler as my dedicated LT - so, direct heat any ramping past mash-in and keep infusion ratios reasonable.

Clean up and indoors was a breeze, relative to the 20 gallon, pump-driven propane spike system. Blew my knee as it turns out hunting with my son up north, and it was merciful not to lug the big stuff anymore.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Ha! Just found my 1st brew log book from the 90's. Pg. 1 starts with that first kit from my wife, an IPA. Pretty stoked.

 

[Brewskey]

Well, not a big deal but did a shakedown cruise on a new system, checked system parameters and pleased. Got 80% efficiency off a 10 gallon Igloo and hand-ladling fly sparging, with the normal bumps off learning on a new system. 95% 2-row, 5% Baird's 135-165; "northern England" water, so that's a tweak but I wanted to see what 250 ppm sulfate and 175 ppm Cl tasted like on an ordinary bitter. Challenger throughout. For the first time, used dry yeast - Lallemand Nottingham.

Based on pre-boil gravity, I thought I'd end up with a slightly higher OG so adjusted the Challenger bittering, and as I ended up about where I thought I would be initially (1.038 OG v. 1.036 targeted), I think the BU:GU at nominal 37:38 BU:GU (97) is more than I was looking for at BU:GU 89. And the Igloo mash tun soaked up more heat than I'd parsed going in, so I mashed in low at 146 F and had to gun it on boiling additions to get it to targeted mash-in at 152F. Then to infuse to 170F for mash out, took considerably more water than I'd anticipated.

I may use my 10 gallon BK as a mash tun, and just use the cooler as my dedicated LT - so, direct heat any ramping past mash-in and keep infusion ratios reasonable.

Clean up and indoors was a breeze, relative to the 20 gallon, pump-driven propane spike system. Blew my knee as it turns out hunting with my son up north, and it was merciful not to lug the big stuff anymore.

Looking good sir. For the igloo mash tun I always overheat my strike water by 5 or so degrees before adding it to the igloo. It does a pretty good job of pre heating it, but you'll have to wait a few for it to come back down to strike temp.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Looking good sir. For the igloo mash tun I always overheat my strike water by 5 or so degrees before adding it to the igloo. It does a pretty good job of pre heating it, but you'll have to wait a few for it to come back down to strike temp.

Thanks man! So you mean, if your "normal" strike water is say 174 for a 152 mash in, you'd probably go to about 179F on your strike temp? If so, funny you say that because I use Promash (still!) and had the Igloo thermal mass set to .22, which undershot me. Parsing it out at .39 would land me about right, at least according to the program. And 179F was the calculated strike in, lol.

I kind of like the freedom of using the BK also as my MT and just lautering in the Igloo, mostly for the flexibility of direct-fire stepping if I'd like. But it adds another vessel, a cleanup step, and I wonder if some efficiency loss with not getting all the mash out into the lauter (I'm really uptight about "every last bit" into whatever food....same as when I was a chef....extract every last bit of contributing flavor), and also possibly hit side oxidation. Both probably unwarranted.

What do you think about this idea, using the BK for mashing then transferring to the Igloo?

 

[Brewskey]

So you mean, if your "normal" strike water is say 174 for a 152 mash in, you'd probably go to about 179F on your strike temp?

If your normal strike temp is 174 you'd heat to 179, but your strike temp is still going to be 174. After heating to 179, add the water to the igloo and put the lid on to preheat the mash tun. It will take a few minutes, but when the strike water drops to 174 go ahead and mash in. You shouldn't lose as much heat this way. My "Mash Tun Specific Heat" in BeerSmith 2 is set to .30, I assume that's the same as Thermal Mass in Promash but I'm not 100% on that. If mashing in the BK and lautering in the Igloo works for you I'd go for it. But, mashing and lautering in the same vessel is very convenient.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

If your normal strike temp is 174 you'd heat to 179, but your strike temp is still going to be 174. After heating to 179, add the water to the igloo and put the lid on to preheat the mash tun. It will take a few minutes, but when the strike water drops to 174 go ahead and mash in. You shouldn't lose as much heat this way. My "Mash Tun Specific Heat" in BeerSmith 2 is set to .30, I assume that's the same as Thermal Mass in Promash but I'm not 100% on that. If mashing in the BK and lautering in the Igloo works for you I'd go for it. But, mashing and lautering in the same vessel is very convenient.

Thanks. I looked back at my notes and did an amended guess on the thermal mass to .29, so that gives me some confidence given your .30 (I'm guessing they're the same, in the 2 programs?).

That makes more sense, than to add another step/cleanup. I'll just keep tweaking if needs be to make the Igloo work. Pretty awesome little tun.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Well, only day 4 and it appears we're at least close, at 1.012. Tastes great, though as expected a bit out of balance on bitterness but I think even there it will mellow nicely. A nice shakedown cruise. I'm really surprised how fast this Nottingham has worked. I'll check over the next few days and barring movement, bottle, hopefully conditioned enough to bring some up north for Christmas, though I know it's rushing it.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

1.010. Tastes great. Bitterness is very clean and smoothing already, very delicate touch of bruised peach and florality.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Will be heading out of town in a few days and wanted to give some friends a couple six-packs, though they need to condition for a few weeks more, so I opened one up this morning after only 5 days in bottle to see if we're on the right track.

I couldn't be more pleased. Really, really good, exactly as I remember the Bluebird - excellent mouthfeel, first time I'd experienced such a low gravity beer being so pleasingly rich. Everything is in excellent balance with a delicate malt up front to a clean bittering finish. Added bonus that this is the first ever ordinary bitter I've brewed, and it's on this new system.