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?
