tom_hampton
Well-Known Member
Its my first time making Pliny...I wish I had the real thing to compare with. Holy moly what a brew day. At 8 hours it was twice the length of my average everyday beer brewday.
There are two ways I make beer:
1. The drinkable beer method - I don't really fuss over all the measurements. I'll take most of them, but I don't generally do much about them. Heck I brewed the last hefe, while my hydrometer was broken. Didn't even take a gravity reading. The first reading I took was the FG.
2. The "perfect" beer method - I take everything at every step, dough-in pH/Temp, mid-mash pH/Temp, Temp/SG/pH/Vol of all runnings and final pre-boil wort, post-boil, into fermenter. Adjust as necessary to keep everything in the desired ranges.
I switch back and forth depending on my mood, mostly.
Well, Pliny being an obviously "special" beer, simply for the expense of the hops....but, also because its my only decent chance of having something that approaches the real thing (I'm in Texas, Pliny is NOT).
1. I cut my water 50% with RO to get the carbonates down to a managable level. Then added CaCl, MgSO4, and CaSO4 in porportions to end up with a 7:1 SO4:Cl ratio, and needed Mg/Ca for mash-pH. I don't normally cut with RO, but I've learned some experiential lessons recently about my carbonates and controlling pH of these light-colored beers. The last thing you want is that much hop material and a high Boil-pH!!!!
2. I treated my sparge water with lactic acid to hold the runnings pH down...again to help control sparge pH and ultimately boil-pH. Normally, I NEVER do this. The first attempt resulted in a sparge water pH of 4.8...I had to add more water and retry to get to my target pH of 5.7. Final runnings pH was 5.81, ultimate Kettle pH 5.65.
3. The big process change for the day was a new mash-tun. I've been using a 5g round cooler for 7 years. I finally switched to a 12g ice cube cooler. I didn't really WANT to change process and have Pliny be the first beer on the new MLT....but, I didn't want to brew anything else since the Hops arrived last week. It seemed like a fairly low risk change.
I just moved my valve and false bottom over from the 5g setup. This worked great as a mash-tun...it retained the heat just fine (2 degrees in 60 minutes). As a lauter tun, its not quite there. My false bottom didn't seal against the spout area and grain got underneath and into the outlet plumbing. I ended up sucking on the outlet tubing to pull the grain slug through. Good thing the hot side doesn't have to be sanitary!
4. I ended up with more wort than I'd planned. Some bad arithmetic at the last moment resulted in an extra 3/4 gallon in the kettle. That was ok, because my efficiency was a little lower than planned, and the extra volume got me those last gravity points that I would have been missing otherwise. So, I had to boil for an extra 45 minutes to get down to my intended pre-boil volume and gravity. But, I hit it dead-on at 1.045 and 8.52 gallons after the extra boil-time. Even so, my final runnings were 1.011 with a pH of 5.81...so, I shouldn't have extracted any unwanted tanins.
5. Then there's the hops! I typically make late-hop only IPAs...so, I'm used to adding 3-5 ounces of hops at a time. but, I generally do that with 10 mintues to go....not AT THE START OF A 90 MINUTE BOIL!!!! At 4 oz, I added more hops at flame-out, then I often add to entire batches of anything except an IPA. In total, I added 9 ounces of hops over a 90 minute boil. Beersmith calculates 217 IBUs (of which only 90-95 may actually make it into the beer).
That much hops presents an interested challenge to the whirlpool, and draining of the kettle. I had a mass of hops about 4 inches thick in the bottom of my converted keg. It didn't want to drain very well and the last gallon of wort was a bit of a fight to get out. In the end I collected 6 gallons of the nector at 1.070 OG.
I chilled it to 69F in the kettle. My ground water temp is now at 68F...so I'm going to have to do something for the summer brews. I'll probably get a utility pump and recirc ice-water once I get below 90F, in the future.
Then I placed it in the walk-in and began areating it. By the time I pitched the 2L starter of WLP001 the wort was down to 68F, and this morning 63F. There was already some activity in the airlock, I turned the controller on the temperture should to come back up to 67 where I have the controller set. the ambient temp in the walk-in is 52F....plenty cool to counteract any fermentation rise.
For the next three weeks, she will sit and ferment undisturbed. 67F this week, 69-70F next week, then (assuming its fermented out) turn off the controller and let it cool to walk-in temp and begin to clarify.
Once it is clear enough, I'll transfer to a keg and start the dry-hopping. With another 3 3/4 ounces of hops.
I've already started adjusting the recipe for the next brew, based on the few adjustments I had to make throughout the day:
1. My mash efficiency was lower than expected, and my final batch volume was lower due to the extreme trub losses (hops absorbtion). So, I've lowered the brewhouse efficiency to 72%, and upped by trub losses to 1.25 gallons. As a result my grain bill and total pre-boil volume will go up in order to more easily hit the [email protected] target. This of course has many follow on effects for salts, acids, and hops.
2. I had to make several pH corrections at various points (with lactic). I'm trying to capture those lactic acid adjustments, so that I more accurately hit my target pH's without much need for adjustment. I'm particularly concerned about hitting mash-pH early on. Waiting 10 minutes to take the first sample, a few minutes for it to cool, take the reading, make an adjustment, and wait another 10 minutes for the pH to stabilize....means I could be 30 minutes into the mash before the pH is correct.
3. I'd start my starter at least 24 hours and maybe 48 hours earlier. that way I would have the time to decant the last step and then wake up with a little more wort on brew-day. This is my first time using CalAle...I've always been an english style brewer. So, I'm learning this yeast. It is a medium floc yeast, and I was not prepared for how much different it is versus English Ale. I worried about the starter because the yeast wouldn't drop out, and I couldn't really tell how much yeast was present.
I use Beersmith2, and I'm trying to capture EVERYTHING including salts and acids separated into mash and sparge. I've created new profiles for most of the parts that drive this recipe (fermentation, mash, water, etc).
I even found an error in my standard brewsheet. I didn't remember that there is a special recipe tag for $STEEP_HOPS that is separate from $STEEP_INGREDIENTS...which seems to be specific to extract/partial-mash recipes. Whereas $STEEP_HOPS is specifically for flame-out/Aroma additions.
There are two ways I make beer:
1. The drinkable beer method - I don't really fuss over all the measurements. I'll take most of them, but I don't generally do much about them. Heck I brewed the last hefe, while my hydrometer was broken. Didn't even take a gravity reading. The first reading I took was the FG.
2. The "perfect" beer method - I take everything at every step, dough-in pH/Temp, mid-mash pH/Temp, Temp/SG/pH/Vol of all runnings and final pre-boil wort, post-boil, into fermenter. Adjust as necessary to keep everything in the desired ranges.
I switch back and forth depending on my mood, mostly.
Well, Pliny being an obviously "special" beer, simply for the expense of the hops....but, also because its my only decent chance of having something that approaches the real thing (I'm in Texas, Pliny is NOT).
1. I cut my water 50% with RO to get the carbonates down to a managable level. Then added CaCl, MgSO4, and CaSO4 in porportions to end up with a 7:1 SO4:Cl ratio, and needed Mg/Ca for mash-pH. I don't normally cut with RO, but I've learned some experiential lessons recently about my carbonates and controlling pH of these light-colored beers. The last thing you want is that much hop material and a high Boil-pH!!!!
2. I treated my sparge water with lactic acid to hold the runnings pH down...again to help control sparge pH and ultimately boil-pH. Normally, I NEVER do this. The first attempt resulted in a sparge water pH of 4.8...I had to add more water and retry to get to my target pH of 5.7. Final runnings pH was 5.81, ultimate Kettle pH 5.65.
3. The big process change for the day was a new mash-tun. I've been using a 5g round cooler for 7 years. I finally switched to a 12g ice cube cooler. I didn't really WANT to change process and have Pliny be the first beer on the new MLT....but, I didn't want to brew anything else since the Hops arrived last week. It seemed like a fairly low risk change.
I just moved my valve and false bottom over from the 5g setup. This worked great as a mash-tun...it retained the heat just fine (2 degrees in 60 minutes). As a lauter tun, its not quite there. My false bottom didn't seal against the spout area and grain got underneath and into the outlet plumbing. I ended up sucking on the outlet tubing to pull the grain slug through. Good thing the hot side doesn't have to be sanitary!
4. I ended up with more wort than I'd planned. Some bad arithmetic at the last moment resulted in an extra 3/4 gallon in the kettle. That was ok, because my efficiency was a little lower than planned, and the extra volume got me those last gravity points that I would have been missing otherwise. So, I had to boil for an extra 45 minutes to get down to my intended pre-boil volume and gravity. But, I hit it dead-on at 1.045 and 8.52 gallons after the extra boil-time. Even so, my final runnings were 1.011 with a pH of 5.81...so, I shouldn't have extracted any unwanted tanins.
5. Then there's the hops! I typically make late-hop only IPAs...so, I'm used to adding 3-5 ounces of hops at a time. but, I generally do that with 10 mintues to go....not AT THE START OF A 90 MINUTE BOIL!!!! At 4 oz, I added more hops at flame-out, then I often add to entire batches of anything except an IPA. In total, I added 9 ounces of hops over a 90 minute boil. Beersmith calculates 217 IBUs (of which only 90-95 may actually make it into the beer).
That much hops presents an interested challenge to the whirlpool, and draining of the kettle. I had a mass of hops about 4 inches thick in the bottom of my converted keg. It didn't want to drain very well and the last gallon of wort was a bit of a fight to get out. In the end I collected 6 gallons of the nector at 1.070 OG.
I chilled it to 69F in the kettle. My ground water temp is now at 68F...so I'm going to have to do something for the summer brews. I'll probably get a utility pump and recirc ice-water once I get below 90F, in the future.
Then I placed it in the walk-in and began areating it. By the time I pitched the 2L starter of WLP001 the wort was down to 68F, and this morning 63F. There was already some activity in the airlock, I turned the controller on the temperture should to come back up to 67 where I have the controller set. the ambient temp in the walk-in is 52F....plenty cool to counteract any fermentation rise.
For the next three weeks, she will sit and ferment undisturbed. 67F this week, 69-70F next week, then (assuming its fermented out) turn off the controller and let it cool to walk-in temp and begin to clarify.
Once it is clear enough, I'll transfer to a keg and start the dry-hopping. With another 3 3/4 ounces of hops.
I've already started adjusting the recipe for the next brew, based on the few adjustments I had to make throughout the day:
1. My mash efficiency was lower than expected, and my final batch volume was lower due to the extreme trub losses (hops absorbtion). So, I've lowered the brewhouse efficiency to 72%, and upped by trub losses to 1.25 gallons. As a result my grain bill and total pre-boil volume will go up in order to more easily hit the [email protected] target. This of course has many follow on effects for salts, acids, and hops.
2. I had to make several pH corrections at various points (with lactic). I'm trying to capture those lactic acid adjustments, so that I more accurately hit my target pH's without much need for adjustment. I'm particularly concerned about hitting mash-pH early on. Waiting 10 minutes to take the first sample, a few minutes for it to cool, take the reading, make an adjustment, and wait another 10 minutes for the pH to stabilize....means I could be 30 minutes into the mash before the pH is correct.
3. I'd start my starter at least 24 hours and maybe 48 hours earlier. that way I would have the time to decant the last step and then wake up with a little more wort on brew-day. This is my first time using CalAle...I've always been an english style brewer. So, I'm learning this yeast. It is a medium floc yeast, and I was not prepared for how much different it is versus English Ale. I worried about the starter because the yeast wouldn't drop out, and I couldn't really tell how much yeast was present.
I use Beersmith2, and I'm trying to capture EVERYTHING including salts and acids separated into mash and sparge. I've created new profiles for most of the parts that drive this recipe (fermentation, mash, water, etc).
I even found an error in my standard brewsheet. I didn't remember that there is a special recipe tag for $STEEP_HOPS that is separate from $STEEP_INGREDIENTS...which seems to be specific to extract/partial-mash recipes. Whereas $STEEP_HOPS is specifically for flame-out/Aroma additions.
