Tried some firsts tonight

[kombat]

I brewed a Porter tonight that I plan on portioning out into 5 one-gallon fermenters after fermentation completes and flavouring 5 different ways (gingerbread, pumpkin spice, vanilla, coffee, and chocolate or possibly peppermint). I tried a couple new techniques for the first time tonight with this batch.

Firstly, I abstained from using my hop screen (cylindrical stainless mesh container that hangs on the inside of my kettle and contains pellet hops) and instead added the hops directly to the kettle.

Secondly, I used my newly-installed whirlpool port and whirlpooled the wort after the boil. I ran the pump for 10minutes, then let it settle for 15 more minutes.

I rehydrated my yeast on a stir plate instead of just stirring it a couple of times. The spec sheet for US-05 says to sprinkle it into the water, leave it for 15 minutes, then stir it for another 30. So this time, I actually dropped in a stir bar and let it ride while I whirlpooled and chilled the wort.

Finally, I did my first fly sparge tonight. Instead of the usual batch sparging, I trickled 200° F hot liquor into the mash tun as I collected runnings continuously until I reached my desired boil volume of 6.9 gallons.

I think everything went fairly smoothly, although I ended up with less post-boil volume than I expected. I lost more wort than I'd planned to trub and hop matter. I usually just dump the whole deal into the fermenter, but this time I wanted the clearest wort possible, so after whirlpooling, I drained with my new side pickup tube to make sure I only got clear wort. The downside is I left a good 2 quarts in the boil kettle. But the resulting wort was extremely clear and devoid of trub/hop matter.

I'll be interested to see if this makes any difference in the final beer. The one thing I'm hoping to get out of this is cleaner yeast for re-use, owing to the paucity of break material and hop trub.

I also intend to eventually figure out my efficiency and see if fly sparging made a difference.

 

[bobeer]

Sounds like a good brew day. Please update if your changes made any difference. I always just dump in my whole kettle into the fermentor... I'd like to see if what you did made any difference.
I use sa05 a lot and never rehydrate. I'm interested in the outcome!
Are you going to keep an unflavored control batch at all?

 

[kh54s10]

(gingerbread, pumpkin spice, vanilla, coffee, and chocolate or possibly peppermint). I tried a couple new techniques for
the first time tonight with this batch.

Gingerbread = maybe. pumpkin spice = maybe. Vanilla = maybe. Coffee = yea! Chocolate = depending on style. Peppermint = NOOOOOOOOOO!

Firstly, I abstained from using my hop screen

OK.. I have on occasion but I prefer to screen them. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag clipped to the lip of the kettle.

Secondly, I used my newly-installed whirlpool port

Very nice! I don't have that ability with my system.

I rehydrated my yeast on a stir plate instead of just stirring it a couple of times. The spec sheet for US-05 says to sprinkle it into the water, leave it for 15 minutes, then stir it for another 30. So this time, I actually dropped in a stir bar and let it ride while I whirlpooled and chilled the wort.

I wouldn't do that. The idea of sprinkling on the surface is to allow the yeast time to absorb the water and rehydrate the cell walls. Too fast is said not to be good in allowing the cell walls to acclimate.

I trickled 200° F hot liquor into the mash tun as I collected runnings continuously until I reached my desired boil volume of 6.9 gallons.

200 degrees?? What did the grain temperature maintain? I've never fly sparged so that temperature may be OK.

extremely clear and devoid of trub/hop matter.

Good results considering not screening the hops!

I'll be interested to see if this makes any difference in the final beer. The one thing I'm hoping to get out of this is cleaner yeast for re-use, owing to the paucity of break material and hop trub.

I also intend to eventually figure out my efficiency and see if fly sparging made a difference.

I have also wondered how much efficiency would increase with a fly sparge as opposed to my batch sparging.

 

[Cyclman]

I have ONE bottle of my dark chocolate robust porter, one of my better beers. Used a pound of nibs in the boil and in secondary (total, not each).

200 sounds hot to sparge with, I usually do 180 in the HLT, which cools down below that in the MT.

 

[kombat]

200 sounds hot to sparge with, I usually do 180 in the HLT, which cools down below that in the MT.

I've read that tannin extraction is more a function of wort pH than sparge water temperature. As long as your pH remains low enough (which is virtually assured with the amount of roasted grains in this recipe), then there should be no risk of tannin extraction even when using very hot water.

I checked it this morning (10 hours after pitching), and there's a nice, thick, fluffy krausen on the surface. The beer was around 72° F when it went into the fermentation chamber and the yeast was pitched last night. The temperature controller was set to 63.5° F, and it took a few hours to get it down to that temperature. This morning, it's frothing away and sitting bang on 63.5° F.

Regarding the yeast rehydration, I did indeed "sprinkle" the dry yeast into the water and left it alone for 15 minutes to rehydrate before adding the stir bar and stirring for 30 more.