I’m calling it American Pale Ale at the moment because I haven’t thought of a name and A.P.A is the way of describing the style at the moment.
I’m going to keep updating this post in real time as the brew day goes along.
0830: I mashed in with the same malts I would use for Samuel Berry’s which is 5.1%, but with twist, I added 1kg of Summit hops to the mash.
0900: the hot water is heating up ready to sparge, time to get the first wort hops ready Apollo!!
0930: caustic is flowing from the kettle to the fermenting vessel, first hops are ready.
0950: the spage arm is turning and wort is flowing in to the under-back, I’m geting any hops yet but they were well distributed in the mash. hopfully I’ll get some hoppy aromas when the middle worts are coming through.
0955: the first wort hops are in 500g of Apollo.
1017 I’m just starting to get a little bit of hops coming through now, its more obvious when the wort is cold.
1030: we have 2 barrels of wort in the kettle and the steam is on.
1053: we have 3 barrels of wort in the kettle and another 18 gallons of water to sparge
1100 sparge is off, just another 3/4 of a barrel (27 gallon) to collect from the mash.
1125: we now have 4.3 barrels of wort in the kettle and its just showing signs of a rolling boil.
1130: full rolling boil time for more hops!
1135: time to dig the mash and start the CIP cleaning in the fermenting vessel.
1143: the mash smells amazing! but does that mean most of the aromas didn’t make it to the kettle?
1200: mash tun is cleaned out.
1210: time for lunch.
1220:
1225: lunch is gone time to rince the fermenting vessel.
1235: time to weigh out the late hops and start adding them to the boil.
1240: 1kg of cenntenial has just been added, time to weigh out the Apollo.
1245:1kg of Apollo has been added.
1250: boil completed, the wort will sit for 15 minutes.
1305: recirculate the wort in the kettle and flush the wort pipe to fermenting vessel.
1320: wort flows to the fermenting vessel through the heat exchanger which cools it down to 19 degrees centigrade, the gravity is 1058.5, it smells amazing I’m really happy with this brew!
1350: the kettle is empty apart from the hops, but they aren’t quite spent yet because its hop sparge time.
1400: we have 3.6 barrels of wort in the fermenting vessel and we need 4.25 brls so I am doing a hop sparge, this is when I add some more not water to the spent hops in the kettle and recirculate it. The hop sparge is going to extract more fementables, bitterness and hop flavour from the spent hops.
1410: start pumping and cooling the hop sparge liquid.
1430: we have 4.25 barrels of wort at a gravity of 1052 this should ferment to about 1009 be about 5.3% abv.
1435: US-05 dried yeast is added to the fermenter, the lid is on and I’ll check it tomorrow.
As Porky Pig would say “thats all folks”. Thanks for the comments through the day, its been like having you all in for a brew day.
This brew is going to get some more hops it so stay tuned and I’ll blog the details later in the week.
One last thing before click the post button for the the last time, this beer needs a name?
May 11th, 2010 at 8:09 am
This sounds awesome – great idea and break for a budding homebrewer like me to maybe pick up some hints and tips. Sounds a great brew – had some Dark Star APA a couple weeks ago and it was excellent. Would love to try yours but probably too far away in Edinburgh!
May 11th, 2010 at 8:11 am
My beer was on in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, I think it was The Malt n Hops.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Is caustic used to clean rather than steralise?
May 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am
both its at 75c
May 11th, 2010 at 9:04 am
nice one, keep up the good work mate, its great to see you blogging, can’t wait for my next brewday.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Sounds like a good brew – interesting following progress. Would the hops that you put in the mash not just add the same flavours as if you put it in the boil considering they are going through the same boil length as the first additions? Interesting though – i want your job!
May 11th, 2010 at 11:38 am
It kinda seems like a waste putting the hops in the mash to me, though i’m not a brewer and am only posting this in the hope of getting learned.
from what i understand you either want the alpha acids to be isomerised into the wort, done only with vigorous boiling, to give bitterness. or you want the essential oils Myrcene, Humulene, Caryophyllene, and farnesene, for aroma and non bitter flavours, which are volatile and lost during a vigorous boil.
so although the mash will have been a good temparature to extract these essential oils. the oils will have been lost during the long boil due to there volatile nature. also there will have been no benefit for adding bitterness as i imagine the hops stayed with the grain in the tun so were never boiled and properly isomerized.
i think there is probably something i’m missing here but i’m very intrested in learning more.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Sorry i left this as a reply to you callum, i’m a bit nouveau blog. i did just have one last thought i thought i’d add before i slip out for a beer though.
I know the ph of the mash is important. i have no idea whether alkali or acid is good or even what effect this has on the sugars or enzymes. but i’m wondering, hops containing a lot of acids, would they have altered your mash ph in some way?
May 11th, 2010 at 11:58 am
This is sounding bloody delicious Stu!
May 11th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Sounding good!
May 11th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
i heard a theory from a brewer friend of mine the other week, and its that the essential oils that are extracted in the wort (mash or kettle) prior to boiling could actually stabilise and might not boil off. Why not give it a try I thought.
May 11th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
lunch looked good! must send u some of my chilli some time…
May 11th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Very interesting with the hops in the mash and ‘will they, wont they’ boil off…great they you’re giving it a shot and have that attitude – would love the try this beer…are you bottling any?! Great i’d with regards the ‘hop sparge’…havent heard of that before…are you not in danger of taking a lot of the break material with it though?
May 11th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
my hop sparge is always bright and clean.
May 11th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Very interesting they don’t teach some of those techniques at Brewlab
As for the name, how about “Virtual Pale Ale”
May 11th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I’ve asked this before. Is it because the cold break isnt happening in the kettle … it’s happening between the kettle and FV. So you’ll only be at risk of rinsing the hot break into the FV. Considering all the cold break stuff will settle out in the FV anyway, is it a big deal?
I’ve been tempted to change my brewing process based on what you do Stu, I’m just a bit worried that I’ll pull some tannin like harsh bitterness and astringency through by rinsing the hops. Is there a reason you started doing it or was it just a random thing that you did once and liked the result of?
May 11th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
How about calling it ‘bloggers-beer’
May 11th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Cracking stuff…
Try it with Photos next time
I was climbing out of the copper after digging the hops etc at about 4pm-ish
May 11th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Hop sparging is very common in small and large brewery’s.
When I’ve done home brew size test brews in the past I’ve always sparged the hops with about 2 liters of hot water. my home brew boiler has a tap on the side so when I emptied it I would tip it up so all the liquid would run out of the tap, then when it had all run out I would gently pour the hot water over all the hops in the bottom (very gently, same as sparging the grains) and let the liquid run out in to my brew. I didn’t have a method for cooling the wort so I just left it over night and added the yeast in the morning.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
no need for climbing out my kettle ain’t that big.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
That wort really did taste good I really can’t wait to taste the final beer!
May 11th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
it would have been quite intresting to just have had the wort fermented. i’m sure it would have been delicious.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Crown X(perimental)pa
Sun Ra cosmic Ale
My two pennorth worth
May 11th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
your clocks wrong
May 13th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hop-Juice?
May 13th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Start a new series dedicated to members of the Radiophonic Workshop:
John Baker Ale
Delia Derbyshire IPA
Desmond Briscoe Stout
Daphne Oram Porter
A Pint of Paddy Kinglsand
etc.
May 13th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Britney-Blonde?!
May 13th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Virtual APA
May 17th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
I vote for “your clocks wrong”, a great name for a beer.