Bowtiebrewery
Well-Known Member
Its been about 4-5 months since i brewed (got married, got busy, etc...) So i figured I would try my hand at brewing a pale ale from the Electric Brewery, by Kal. Here is the recipe:
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24947
One disclosure... Kal's recipe calls for 12 G of collected wort and an OG of 1.056, with a brewhouse efficiency of 95% (the calculator online says its actually 92%)... I totally did not see his BH Efficiency in the beginning. I've never even got close to that number before and this brew day I decided to forgo fly sparging for Batch sparging because of time constraints. I ended up at 1.048 for a 79% efficiency.
On to the brew day:
I laid out all my hops additions in containers, because apparently that is the cool way to do it now. I used Whole hops in muslin bags because I didnt want that going into my plate chiller.
Here is my system in its new home at dough in which it held perfectly at 152 (although in the picture it shows 153, it was just flickering between 152 and 153 at the time:
First runnings. I use my whirlpool port on my BK as I create less splashing then hanging it over the side.
I was mashing out and couldnt quite get it up to 168*F in the time i wanted with the batch sparge method, but it was close enough for me. I did a 10 Minute mash out:
Boiling wort ready for first hops addition: For most of the boil, i throttled the boil kettle back to 80% up till the very end when I started my recirculation through the plate chiller to sterilize it. At that point i boosted it up to 100%
First hops at the 20 minute mark, as you can see by my watch at 2:21PM LOL:
15 Minute whirfloc addition went in and then the 10 Min addition and Flameout with a 15 minute whirlpool through the chiller: Looks like floating islands!:
Into the fermenters at 65*F. No aeration was used other than velocity and a bit of shaking. My Aeration stone seems to create more problems than it solves:
So now i'm on the fence... I was going to buy a new conical fermenter, so I didnt have to use 2 carboys like this anymore, but i'm thinking it might be wiser to invest the money into a new mash Tun instead, as well as a dedicated sparge arm, like the Blichman Auto-Sparge.
For me 79% Brewhouse efficiency is a bit low... I typically hover around the 85% range for my fly sparges with my current set up. I know my crush is pretty good coming from my LHBS as its the same mill they use for their brewery which is operating at a 93% BH efficiency.
I guess before i jump to any conclusions, i'll see where this beer comes out at and if it tastes good maybe I won't do anything. I can always adjust the recipes up or add some extract to boost my points.
Cheers!
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24947
One disclosure... Kal's recipe calls for 12 G of collected wort and an OG of 1.056, with a brewhouse efficiency of 95% (the calculator online says its actually 92%)... I totally did not see his BH Efficiency in the beginning. I've never even got close to that number before and this brew day I decided to forgo fly sparging for Batch sparging because of time constraints. I ended up at 1.048 for a 79% efficiency.
On to the brew day:
I laid out all my hops additions in containers, because apparently that is the cool way to do it now. I used Whole hops in muslin bags because I didnt want that going into my plate chiller.
Here is my system in its new home at dough in which it held perfectly at 152 (although in the picture it shows 153, it was just flickering between 152 and 153 at the time:
First runnings. I use my whirlpool port on my BK as I create less splashing then hanging it over the side.
I was mashing out and couldnt quite get it up to 168*F in the time i wanted with the batch sparge method, but it was close enough for me. I did a 10 Minute mash out:
Boiling wort ready for first hops addition: For most of the boil, i throttled the boil kettle back to 80% up till the very end when I started my recirculation through the plate chiller to sterilize it. At that point i boosted it up to 100%
First hops at the 20 minute mark, as you can see by my watch at 2:21PM LOL:
15 Minute whirfloc addition went in and then the 10 Min addition and Flameout with a 15 minute whirlpool through the chiller: Looks like floating islands!:
Into the fermenters at 65*F. No aeration was used other than velocity and a bit of shaking. My Aeration stone seems to create more problems than it solves:
So now i'm on the fence... I was going to buy a new conical fermenter, so I didnt have to use 2 carboys like this anymore, but i'm thinking it might be wiser to invest the money into a new mash Tun instead, as well as a dedicated sparge arm, like the Blichman Auto-Sparge.
For me 79% Brewhouse efficiency is a bit low... I typically hover around the 85% range for my fly sparges with my current set up. I know my crush is pretty good coming from my LHBS as its the same mill they use for their brewery which is operating at a 93% BH efficiency.
I guess before i jump to any conclusions, i'll see where this beer comes out at and if it tastes good maybe I won't do anything. I can always adjust the recipes up or add some extract to boost my points.
Cheers!
