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BREW DAY!! WATCHA' GOT, EH!? 2019


ben 10

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I agree totally,it just seems like I had an extra couple of liters of wort besides the hot break to play with and the extra boil time. I just like to understand the system fully and know what I am doing and why. Now it is the water levels and chemistry, or additions. I am just tossing stuff in to get the hops or malt to shine, after I get my water report and to try to balance my ph. I ain't not chemist, I am surprised I spelled that right.

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That's why I just distill the water I use except on certain recipes where I've found the tap water profile works best. That way I can dial in a reasonably precise profile for whatever I'm brewing rather than guess what it is from some average figures on a water report from two years ago. 

I usually have wort left over as well, but there's not much I can do with it. I could tip all the hot break into a container and wait for it to settle out but so far I've decided it isn't worth bothering. I just use enough water to get the target volume in the FV. It's still gonna use the same amount of ingredients whether that wort is saved or not. 

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12 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

That's why I just distill the water I use

Hey Kelsey

What do you use to distill your water? Can you post a picture or model details?  I have read you say that your partner does not mind it being in the kitchen because it looks like a fancy coffee percolator.  A piece of kit that looks good, keeps SWMBO happy AND is functional for better brewing is worth thinking about acquiring.

Thanks Shamus

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Peaches Pale Ale

Got the house to myself so it's Xmas brew day!  A stove top AG NZPA I called "peaches" because of the HORT4337 and Wai-iti hops featured in this one.  🍑

  • 3.2kg GF American Ale Malt
  • 300g GF Supernova Malt
  • 550g LME
  • 25g Green Bullet @ 25mins
  • 25g HORT4337 @10mins
  • 25g Wai-Iti @5mins
  • 25g HORT4337 Dry Hop
  • 25g Wai-iti Dry Hop
  • 5g Gypsum
  • M42 Yeast

 

 

I had to head out for a couple of hours but the wort was still sitting at 26ºC. Pitch or not?  Hmmm...    I decided to pitch warm, afterall I used to rehydrate dry yeast at 35ºC.   When I returned home a few hours later I checked the temperature - 18ºC.  Perfect!    But then I noticed something...  a krausen already forming!  😮

 

Edited by BlackSands
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On 12/24/2019 at 9:26 PM, Shamus O'Sean said:

Hey Kelsey

What do you use to distill your water? Can you post a picture or model details?  I have read you say that your partner does not mind it being in the kitchen because it looks like a fancy coffee percolator.  A piece of kit that looks good, keeps SWMBO happy AND is functional for better brewing is worth thinking about acquiring.

Thanks Shamus

Just a small water still. I got it from eBay, if you do a search for water distiller a whole heap of them come up. I got a stainless one, which I found is constructed better than my old one. The inside of the "lid" is all stainless instead of plastic like the old one. This plastic eventually cracked and caused leaking. 

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1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Just a small water still. I got it from eBay, if you do a search for water distiller a whole heap of them come up. I got a stainless one, which I found is constructed better than my old one. The inside of the "lid" is all stainless instead of plastic like the old one. This plastic eventually cracked and caused leaking. 

Could you please post a pic or maybe a link? The ones I am seeing don't show the inside of the lid and the externals are plastic. 

There's this one, which MIGHT be metal for the fan but it would be a bugger to get it and find it's plastic. Even what price you paid might help.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4L-Water-Distiller-LCD-Temperature-Controlled-Alcohol-1-L-H-Premium-Countertop/333187141350?hash=item4d93804ee6:g:zdgAAOSw0VBc0kJi

Edited by Journeyman
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That's pretty similar to mine although I don't have the LCD display on it. I think I paid about $100, the outer casing is still plastic but looks like stainless, however this isn't the issue I had with the old one, just the underside of the top being plastic. It still lasted about 4 years, although this one should go longer. 

Mine has the same glass collection bottle so I'd assume the unit itself is basically the same model. Certainly looks like it is. 

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It's been a long brew day but now I'm almost done. The cube is in the pool cooling off and the gear is soaking in sodium percarb. The only thing left to do is to get the wort in the fermenter once it has cooled off.

AG brew no. 3 went without a hiccup for a change. It's a simple SMASH with HORT4337, just to get to know the hop. I also figured out where I had lost so much liquid the last couple of times. It's the darn hop spider. It must hold close to 2 litres of liquid once it's all clogged up and clog up it will. I used hop socks this time around and sure enough, I ended up with about 21l, 20l in the cube instead of 18. I also used only half a whirlflock tablet and the wort was a lot clearer running into the cube. Now I will crack open a nice HB and join my cube in the pool 🙂 🍻

Happy brewing

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Just spent 2.5 hours going through this thread looking for AG recipes.  Still only up to page 36,. So 16 pages to go and boy some guys hop bills must cost a sqillion.   Some of the American Pales Ales sure do have a huge quantity and weight of hops in them.   

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