Welcome to my Little Brewery Blog

Brewing has been a part of my life since an early age. As a sixteen year old I worked in a Bakery with my dear dad. As it happened the bakery had a supply of both light and dark malt extract stored in large drums. This was used for making malt bread, but I knew from reading that it could be used to make beer. After finding a book on brewing ales in the city library, I set about making my dad some beer. Using dried hops, which one could buy at the grocer shop back in 1967. I mixed the extract with boiled water and added bakers yeast at 72°F (the scale at the time) and fermented the 5 gallons in a large plastic bin. I remember the recipe was from an English book on brewing at home was named Avon Ale. After fermentation the beer was primed with sugar for bottle conditioning and stored away for 6 weeks. Both mum and dad thought the beer was good, but didn't request that I maintain my newfound hobby.

Making Beer


Making beer on my system - simplified:  


To make 45l of fermentable wort around 65L of water from the city supply is filtered using a carbon filter.  The water is heated in the Hot Liquor Tank to 60°C.  Depending upon the recipe around 7.5Kg of malted barley is crushed using my mill which is driven using an electric variable speed drill.  


The Mash: Mash water (liquor in brewing terms) is added to the Mash/Lauter Tun at a rate around 2.75L per Kg of Grist.  So around 21L (rounded to nearest litre) of 60°C liquor is added to the mash tun.  At this point the pump is started and the liquor is recirculated from the Mash/Lauter Tun through the Heat Exchanger (controller set at 55°C) and back to the Tun.  Adding at 60°C allows for some heat loss to the stainless steel Tun, pump and lines.  Once liquor temp has stabilised at 55°C the grist (milled barley) is added to the liquor in the Tun.  Grist is added in thirds with a stir between each addition to break up any lumps (doughballs).  I don't like to stir much as this brings too much flour and small particulate matter into suspension in the wort and can reduce the efficiency of a good open gristbed.


I generally use a three step mash schedule, which is outlined below.


Protien Rest:  I like to use a pseudo Protien Rest of 55°C of only 10 min for most well modified malts.  Now the Heat Exchanger control is set to the next rest temp, usually around 66°C.  Ramping the mash to this temperature from 55°C usually takes around 15 minutes.


Saccharification Rest:  This is the conversion rest.  The temperature can vary but I usually us 66°C for 75 minutes.  This rest is where starch in the grist which has been hydrolised by mixing with water is converted to saccharides (sugars) by enzymic action.  Various enzymes contained within the grain are activated at different temperatures and convert starch to saccharides (sugars) of varying complexity.  The more simple the sugar the more fermentable it is by brewing yeast strains.  The brewer chooses his mash temperature steps with this in mind when formulating a recipe and mash process for the style of beer he is wanting to brew.  Naturally the more complex sugars that are produced in the mash the less the yeast will be able to ferment out the wort.  The resulting beer will finish at a higher gravity than if the same wort had been mashed at temperatures favouring the conversion of starch to more fermentable (simple) sugars.
After 75 min at 66°C the Heat Exchanger control is set to the Mash Out Rest temp of 77°C.  Again ramping from 66°C takes around 15 minutes.


The Mash Out Rest:  This rest of 10 minutes at 77°C is used to set the mash profile.  Enzymes responsible for conversion of starch to sugars are denatured at this temperature and no further conversion will occur.  As all enzymic activity ceases at this temperature the brewer can be assured that fermentability of the wort produced is now set.


Sparging:  As wort is drained off from the Mash/Lauter Tun to the Kettle the remaining hot liquor (water) is run into the top of the Tun.  During the mash process the temperature of water remaining in the Hot Liquor Tank is raised from the original 60°C to 77°C for sparging.  As the water is added at the top of the tun and sweet wort is drained off from the bottom sugars are rinsed or sparged from the gristbed.  This sparging/draining is conducted slowly to remove sugars efficiently from the grist, and usually takes around an hour.


The Boil:  Once half of the wort has drained from the Tun to the Kettle the gas burner is lit.  After all wort is in the kettle there will be around 55L total and a rolling boil will be achieved within around 40 min on my system.  My normal boil time is 90 min.


Adding Hops


Bittering Hops:  Bittering hops are added to the kettle to balance the sweetness of the wort.  Hops for bittering are added with 60 minutes of the boil remaining.


Flavour Hops:  Hop additions for flavour are added to the kettle with 30 to 20 minutes of boil time remaining.  Hop varieties are selected which best produce the flavour the brewer is looking for, depending upon style and brewer preference.


Aroma Hops:  Hop additions for aroma are added to the kettle with 20 to 0 minutes of boil time remaining.  Hop varieties are selected for the aroma desired by the brewer to match style and brewer preference.


Whirlpool/Chilling:  After flameout the wort in the kettle is recirculated using the pump via the Plate Chiller and is returned to the kettle producing a whirlpool to settle out protien and hop trub in the centre if the kettle bottom.  Cold water is run through the other chamber of the plate chiller in the opposite direction to hot wort flow.  Wort is chilled to 19° before being pumped to the fermenter. 


Fermentation:  Once wort temperature drops to 19°C for Ale fermentation or 12°C for Larger fermentation the fermenters are transferred to the fermenting refrigerator which is temperature controlled.  Yeast starter can now be pitched.

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