I am often changing my brewing procedure and equipment in the search for even better beers. Every brew up to gyle 148 (apart from gyle 1) was brewed essentially using the process described under “Brewery #1” and those from gyle 149 onwards using “Brewery #2”. From gyle 178 I started brewing pale coloured beers according to Brewery #3. From gyle 181/2 I also started brewing according to Brewery #4. Gyle 190 onwards were Brewery #5.
For 21 years I brewed using the following procedure. While it was not ideal in many respects, it usually produced a fine beer in my opinion.
The brewing process started by heating up 3 gallons of water in a “Bruheat” to around 170ºF. While the water (or “liquor”) heated up I would weigh out my grains into a dry bucket. A typical “grist” would consist of around 7lb of crushed pale malt with possibly the addition of smaller amounts (ounces) of a wide selection of other malted, roasted, flaked and/or torrefied grains. With this set up the main restriction was that using more than around 7lb of malt would result in a reduction of extraction efficiency that meant that it was never possible to use more than about 8lb of malt.
When the liquor had reached the desired “strike temperature” I would put a mash/sparge bag into the Bruheat and turn the controller down to the mashing setting (about 5.5 on mine). I would then rapidly pour the grain into the liquor and stir it in as fast as I could with a long-handled wooden spoon (plastic ones go wobbly at these temperatures). The intention was to wet out all of the grain and drop the temperature to around 150ºF as fast as possible. I usually prefer the final temperature to be a few degrees above 150ºF but it is not critical. Once all the grain was in, then I could leave the mashing process to continue undisturbed for an hour. I previously mashed for 1.5 hours, but at an SCB meeting it was suggested that this could be safely reduced to as little as 40 minutes, so I reduced my mashing time to 1 hour with no obvious problems.
During the mashing stage enzymes in the malt break down its starch to shorter chain saccharides. You are aiming for 100% conversion of the polysaccharide starch (because starch can cause haze formation) to oligosaccharide dextrins and then roughly 80% conversion of the dextrins to fermentable mono-, di- and trisaccharides. After fermentation the remaining unfermentable dextrins will provide the body, mouthfeel and sweetness in the finished beer.
After this mashing period I would turn off the Bruheat and run the extract into a bucket. There was usually around 2 gallons of extract at this stage (the rest of the liquor is absorbed into the grain). I’d then close the tap (I once forgot!) and pour the extract back on top of the grain suspended in the Bruheat. Amongst other things this compressed the grain bed in the mash/sparge bag and slowed down the rate at which liquid could flow through the grain. I might have added first few pints that come through the bottom of the Bruheat back to the top of the grain. Using this technique I could never obtain a clear extract in the early stages but it didn’t seem to result in any consistent clarity problems in the finished beer.
I would then allow the extract to drain out of the Bruheat into the waiting bucket. As mentioned above, this was a much slower process than the first re-circulation. When the extract level approached the top of the grain I poured around 2 gallons of hot water (I used hot tap water) onto the top of the grain over the back of the wooden spoon to deflect the flow from breaking up the grain surface too much. This was my “sparge”. It was not the way it is traditionally done where the hot sparge water would be sprayed slowly over the grain. I relied instead on my deliberately compressed grain bed to slow the flow of water/extract through the grain bed. I know it was cheating but it worked well enough and I typically obtained around 85% extract efficiencies.
Once I had collected just over 4 gallons of extract I’d stop my “sparge”, pull out the grain bag and throw away the spent grain. I would then stir up the extract and take a preliminary SG reading (this is usually inaccurate, even after correcting for the elevated temperature but it can give a good indication whether or not you are on target). I’d then pour all of the extract back into the Bruheat (making sure that the tap is closed) and turn it up to full power. A major limitation of this approach was that the (as supplied) Bruheat only just about has enough power to bring the wort to a simmer. I got around this by bypassing the thermostat and plugging a kettle power lead directly into the element. This brought it to the boil sooner and could provide a (desirable) violent boil. However, since there was no longer any (thermostat) control element you did have to keep your eye on it. I tended to alternate between Bruheat-control and Les-control. Once the wort started to boil I’d add a small amount of Irish Moss (actually dried seaweed) and add the “copper” hops. These are the hops that are intended to supply the bitterness in the final beer.
After the wort had boiled for around an hour I would usually add the “late” hops. These are often a different variety, and will provide little bitterness but more hop flavour and aroma.
After the late hops had been in the boil for (typically) around 5 minutes I would turn off the power. I would then decant the wort from the Bruheat into the fermenting bucket through a stainless steel colander (polythene ones are useless at these temperatures) to strain out the hops. I would have previously placed a copper cooling coil into the fermenting bucket. After a few minutes the hops would be discarded and cold water would be put through the copper coil. This would drop the wort temperature down to pitching temperature in around 20 minutes.
With Brewery #1 this brewing process would take around 7 hours.
The brewing process starts by heating up around 4 gallons of water in a “Bruheat” (HLB-Hot Liquor Back) to around 180ºF. While the water (or “liquor”) heats up I weigh out my grains into dry bucket as with Brewery #1. However, I no longer have the grain weight limitation of around 7lb.
When the liquor has reached the desired “strike temperature” I will prepare my mash tun (MT) that is constructed from an insulated picnic hamper and an EasyMasher®. I will then run liquor from the HLB into the MT (controlling its rate with the HLB tap) while I shovel in grain (using a scoop), stir it in (using the long-handled wooden spoon) and keep an eye on the temperature (using a laser-targeted thermometer). It will be apparent that ideally four hands are required for this process and once you have started you cannot stop (so this is guaranteed to cause the doorbell or phone to ring). I make things a bit easier for myself by using the laser targeted thermometer which isn’t very accurate but is very rapid and is good enough to check that the mashing temperature is around 150ºF. As mentioned under Brewery #1, I’d prefer the final temperature to be a few degrees above 150ºF but, so far, I’ve struggled to achieve this with Brewery #2. This is compounded by a subsequent drop in temperature on standing in the MT, but doesn’t seem to cause any problems with the final beer. Once all the grain is in, I check the temperature (even though my only method of heating it up is to add more hot water), put the lid on the MT and leave the mashing process to continue undisturbed for an hour. I’ll add more cold water to the HLB and start heating it up in preparation for the sparge.
After the mashing period I slowly open the tap on the MT and collect some extract and return it to the MT until it runs clear. This happens very quickly (within a pint or so) as long as I don’t open the tap too much. I then allow the extract to drain out of the MT into a waiting bucket (Underback). I then start running hot water from the HLB and splash it over the surface of the grain in the MT using a rotating sparge arm. This is my sparge and is much more “correct” than the process used in Brewery #1. A typical extract efficiency with this process is around 80%. For some brews (gyles 166-72) I experimented with "batch sparging" rather than this "fly sparging" process. When I batch sparge I run off the first runnings from the MT before closing the tap and running in 1.5-2 gal of water from the HLB, stirring up the mash and running off the second runnings from the MT. I repeat this process twice more and so far have found that I am achieving an extract efficiency of 85-90% faster than the fly sparging process and without any apparent adverse effects in the finished beer. However, I reverted to fly sparging because I found it less trouble overall.
The extract from the underback is continually transferred to a 32 litre stainless steel kettle sat on my stove that is heated by a large gas ring. With Brewery #1 I had to stop sparging at around 4 gallons because of the boiling limitations of the Bruheat. This is not a problem with the new kettle and I typically sparge until I run out of water in the HLB and end up with around 5 gallons of extract in the kettle. The spent grain is discarded from the MT. I will then stir up the extract in the kettle and take a preliminary SG reading. By the end of the sparge the extract in the kettle is not far off the boil (as well as being faster to boil, the ability to start the boil in the copper while still sparging in Brewery #2 results in a big improvement in brewing speed) and once the wort starts to boil I’ll add a small amount of Irish Moss and add the “copper” hops.
After the wort has boiled for around an hour I will usually add the “late” hops. After the late hops have been in the boil for (typically) around 5 minutes I will turn off the gas. I will then decant the wort from the kettle into the fermenting bucket through the stainless steel colander to strain out the hops. I will have previously placed a copper cooling coil into the fermenting bucket. After a few minutes the hops will be discarded and cold water will be put through the copper coil. This will drop the wort temperature down to pitching temperature in around 20 minutes.
With Brewery #2 this brewing process takes around 6 hours. As well as being faster than Brewery #1 it is also a more “correct” process. However, I am not expecting a big improvement in beer quality (they were usually pretty good anyway) but I expect an improvement in consistency. I am already seeing that with the use of Cornelius kegs and (so far) every brew since gyle 142 has been drunk dry.
From this point onwards the operation of Brewery #1 and #2 is the same.
When the wort is at or below 20ºC (sorry for the mixed units, but it makes the numbers easier to remember) I will measure the beer’s final OG. I will then shake the wort around to get some oxygen dissolved into it before pitching the yeast. Depending on the time of year I may leave the cooling coil in during fermentation since it allows an degree of control over proceedings.
All being well the fermentation should start rapidly and last for around 3 days. When the fermentation has visibly slowed (or maybe a bit before) I may rack the beer into a KingKeg and loosely seal it. This removes most of the yeast and trub from the beer. The beer will complete its fermentation and start to clear. After a week or so, I shall rack the beer from the KingKeg into a Cornelius keg. At this stage the beer is usually almost clear, so it will be sitting on very little sediment during storage in the Cornelius. I’ll inject some CO2 into the Corny to compress the seals and flush any oxygen from its head space. At this stage the beer is usually perfectly drinkable, if a bit hazy.
Another few days of conditioning and clearing and the beer will be ready.
In mid 2006, as a result of my experiences with Brewery #2 and various discussions and research I made a few changes to my brewing process which I will describe here.
The brewing process starts by heating up around 5 gallons of water in a “Bruheat” (HLB-Hot Liquor Back) to around 180ºF. I treat this water by adding sodium metabisuphite, Epsom salts and gypsum to "Burtonise" my water. The table below gives my tap water analysis as supplied by Scottish Water , an analysis for Burton on Trent and the additions I make to approximate to this when brewing a pale-coloured ale. I am fortunate that my water is very soft so it easy to make a range of liquor adjustments. The sodium metabisulphite is added to remove chlorine and chloramine and contributes Na+ and Cl- ions to the liquor so I don't add any common salt.
| Ion | Howarth's /ppm | Burton /ppm | Addition / ppm | Total /ppm |
| Ca2+ | 9.5 | 270 | 168 + 94.5 | 272 |
| Mg2+ | 1.2 | 60 | 60 | 61.2 |
| Na+ | 3.5 | 30 | 22 | 25.5 |
| CO32- | - | 200 | 142 | 142 + |
| SO42- | 10.8 | 640 | 240 + 393 | 643.8 |
| Cl- | 7.1 | 40 | 34 | 41.1 |
While the liquor heats up I weigh out my grains into dry bucket as with Brewery #2.
When the liquor has reached the desired “strike temperature” I will mash as for Brewery #2, but I no longer have any problems hitting an initial mash temperature of around 156ºF and I no longer bother with the laser-targetted thermometer (so I only need 3 hands now).
After the mashing period I fly sparge as in Brewery #2 but now take some care not to over-sparge by checking that the SG of the runnings do not drop below ~1.010 before stopping the sparge. I also add some vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to the sparge water to reduce pH and (maybe) reduce oxidation. I usually use around 3 gal of sparge water and this shorter sparge not only reduces/eliminates any astringency in the final brew due to tannins extracted from the grain husks but also saves some time. There is a small reduction in extract efficiency but I still achieve 80-85% which is acceptable to me.
The extract from the underback is continually transferred to my "copper" and boiled as in Brewery #2. I now add the Irish moss 15 minutes before the end of the boil rather than at the start.
After the boill I transfer the wort and continue as in Brewery #2 but now I aerate the cooled wort using an aquarium air pump and air stone for 10 minutes before pitching the yeast.
With Brewery #3 this brewing process takes around 5 hours which is obviously a further time saving over Brewery #2 (mainly due to the reduced sparging).
All being well the fermentation should start rapidly and last for around 3 days. When the fermentation has visibly slowed (or maybe a bit before) I rack the beer into a Cornelius keg and seal it, releasing pressure as necessary. This removes most of the yeast and trub from the beer. The beer will complete its fermentation and start to clear. After a week or so, I shall transfer the beer from the conditioning corny into a corny for storage and serving. I do this by the following procedure:
1. Purge the receiving corny with CO2 and pressurise to 5-10 psi more than the conditioning corny;
2. Connect the gas connectors with a gas line to equalise the pressures in both kegs;
3. Connect the two beer connections with a beer line;
4. Place the receiving keg below the conditioning keg;
5. Disconnect the gas line;
6. Briefly lift the pressure release valve of the receiving keg to reduce the pressure and cause beer to be pushed into the beer line;
7. Reconnect the gas line. The beer will then syphon from between the kegs under CO2 pressure and the gas displaced by the beer passes back up the gas line into the conditioning keg.
8. The interconnects are removed..
Upon completion of the transfer, the beer has been transferred between the kegs with minimal exposure to oxygen and maintained under a CO2 pressure during the process.
A week or so of maturation and the beer will be ready. I’ll have 4 gallons of fresh clear tasty beer created by my own fair hand from the raw ingredients. And if this wasn’t satisfying enough, the cost of the beer is only around 20p per pint. So as I savour the fruits of my labour I can start planning my next brew…
In early 2007, as a result of further thought and discussion I made a few further changes to my brewing process. I also started to use a refractometer in my brewing. I realised that some "errors" that I made in my early days of brewing may actually have been contributing to my brewing success in those days!
Firstly, I often added the hops to the copper before the wort had come to the boil. It now seems that I was accidentally using a technique called "first wort hopping" that is widely considered to give superior hop flavour and bitterness in the finished beer. Gyle 181 confirmed to me that first wort hopping could indeed produce a most pleasant hop flavour.
Secondly, my sparging process was rather inefficient and on some occasions I didn't even bother to sparge! While it is well known that over-sparging is not a good idea, the benefits of deliberate under-sparging are less recognised. Gyle 182 was a reduced sparge experiment in which I reformulated the recipe assuming an extract efficiency of 70% (I normally achieve ~85%). I brewed the beer and used the refractometer to monitor the SG of the extract in the copper. When it reached my target OG I'd stop sparging. The resulting brew certainly had a lot of rich malt flavour and body but this threw the beer out of balance. In subsequent brews I have therefore increased the quantity of copper hops to compensate for this effect and, so far, this seems to be producing good results...
Previously, I had always done my brewing in the kitchen and all of the equipment described above was kept in the cupboard under the stairs when not in use. This meant that I would only bring the equipment out on the brewing day and progressively put it away again as the brewing process progressed. At the end of the brewing session all that would be left would be a bucket of wort and the lovely malty, hoppy aroma of a brewery. However, when I got married, Mara didn't agree with my opinion of the smell and after an unfortunate incident with "exploding" IPA it was made clear to me that when we moved home our new residence would have a dedicated brewing (and sampling) room of some sort. With our move to Essex, the search for a property having suitable accommodation for a brewery and sampling room began and was eventually found in the form of a detached garage with lean-to shed. The process of conversion commenced...
The shed was demolished and rebuilt, bigger and better, complete with electric lighting and a stable door (something I've always imagined my dream brewery would have for some reason). The electrics in the garage were refurbished, windows fitted, water supply and drainage installed (but not as yet connected). The garage was rather cluttered with boxes and other "junk" all covered in a layer of brick dust! See LH image below (which also provides a clue to the removal company that made such a mess of things). I have started clearing out, cleaning, painting and organising the garage and shed. The RH image below shows a corner that has had this treatment...
As of November 2008 the garage became useable as a brewery by the creation of enough room to move and the purchase of a Chef King CK2700 2.7kW Induction hob (pictured below) after a significant amount of research and discussion on homebrew forums. This hob has the advantages of being as controllable as gas, no metalworking required upon my boiling vessel (or "copper"), similar efficiency to an immersion element, safe operation and is run from a standard 13A supply. I have found that it works very well indeed and can easily bring my usual boil volume of 5 UK gallons to the boil and is capable of boiling off around 1 gal of water per hour. On one occasion I was able to successfully boil around 7 gal of wort which is about the limit of my current copper. The boil is odd in that it produces a large mass of small bubbles which may not roll as much as a conventionally heated wort but it seems to work well enough at extracting α-acids and consequent bitterness from hops. There is some scope for controlling the boil by temperature rather than power, but I found that controlling by power (at presumably the default temperature of 200°C) worked better and appeared to result in very little caramelisation. While this hob had enough power to boil 7 gallons and would probably be OK for 8 gallons I'm not sure that it could do much more, so if I was ever to decide to double my brew length I'd have to give some consideration to how I perform my boil. I went for this 2.7kW hob because I wanted to have as much power available as possible on a 13A supply to ensure I could boil at least 5 gallons to provide for my current requirements and possibly permit future expansion. It certainly achieves the first requirement and the secondary requirement is a possibility. If a brewer wanted an induction hob and was never going to boil more than 5 gallons then I believe that there is a good chance that a less expensive 2kW induction hob may be adequate but I haven't checked this so don't blame me if you buy one and it has inadequate performance!
My first brew with this set up (gyle 190) had a somewhat low brewhouse efficiency (~65%) which I put down to the use of old malt (I normally achieve 80-85%). However my second brew (gyle 191) which used mainly fresh malt was even worse (~50%)! Eventually, this was traced to a wonky digital thermometer! I'd always intended to use the digital thermometer as a quick crude measurement to be confirmed with a glass thermometer but had obviously become lazy and placed too much reliance on the digital thermometer. I have since discovered that other brewers have had similar problems so it appears to be a common problem for some reason. I have now bought a new (slightly more expensive) digital thermometer and have resolved to always double check any readings with a glass thermometer, as was my original plan. My next 2 brews (actually a parti-gyle) were back on track efficiency wise (~80%).
To be continued...