29 May 2012

Home Brewing With Properbeermate Part 2

Back again with with Part 2!

Time to wake up the brew after 60 mins mashing time in the beer-bed .


I now unwrap the pot and bring her back out side and pop the lid.


Mmmmm.......Nice intense malty aroma just what we want! You can actually give this stuff a taste just to get an idea how the level of maltyness in the final beer will be . Very sweet stuff aye..... brewers actually call it "sweet water".


I pick up the heavy bag and let the rest of the sweet water pour into the pot which is great for my biceps!  The bag can get real heavy with all that grain and liquid so what I do is when my arms get tried from holding it up I place it into another big pot to drip out .  Another way of doing this is to get an "A" frame ladder and tie the brew bag to the top of the ladder over the brew pot and let it drip out that way.



Time to put the big brewpot full of sweet malty goodness on to the burner to start the boiling process. Once the brew has come to a good rolling boil I add whatever liquid is remaining in the smaller pot as well. Some people like to sparge some hot water over the remaining grains to get more malty goodness out and add that to the brew too. Personal preference I don't do this as I am quite happy with my past results without doing this : ) .



Time to get the hops ready!



Woo-hoo-- Hops! One of my favorite things in the world! These are Czech Saaz hop pellets which are basic compressed and extruded hop flowers which are great for home brewing.  I have added a bit more hops than the recipe calls for as I had some left over Saaz from a previous brew day and I 'coz love my hoppy character in beer. This single hop addition will change the sweet water's flavour and aroma from sweet and malty to something a a bit more bitter and aromatic that resembles beer in its purest form.


So once the brew has come to a good rolling boil I add my first and only hop addition for this simple recipe @60mins. The count down from 60mins starts now. Some other recipes such as big IPA's  can have 15 hop additions throughout the boil at different intervals. Usually the first addition at is for bittering and towards the end for the boil eg @10-15mins the hop addition is for taste and finally @zero mins the addition would be for aroma either in the brew pot or as a dry hop in the fermenter.

Now at of the boil ten mins to go I add my whirlfloc tablet to assist in clearing the brew and stir the brew to make sure it dissolves properly. Once the count down has finished I turn off the burner (flameout) and put the lid back on the brew.

I use the Aussie no-chill method  to get the brew down to a suitable temp for pitching the yeast... As it is Autumn here in Australia at the moment and the temp is around 10-18 degrees C at night here I let the brew cool on my cold garage floor making sure the lid is on securely and not letting any nasties in. If you are in a warmer  climate I suggest putting the pot into an ice bath or I have even heard of some brewers using their swimming pool as a solution! The best way is actually  with extra equipment such as a wort chiller or plate chiller which i'll be asking Santa for later this year!



So the brew (wort) is going to take another rest overnight to cool next to it's final home my PROPERBEER kegarator fridge!
Part three will be up in a couple of days!

16 May 2012

Home Brewing with ProperBeerMate Part 1

Hey Guys I'm going to show you how I brew my beer at home here in Australia. Today I'm doing an all grain brew using the Brew In A Bag method (BIAB)  I'll be brewing a Czech Dark Ale Version of one of my all time favie beers Budvar Dark!

Here's my Grain bill and Ingredients which is a recipe from my local Home Brew Shop-- Marks Home Brew  here in beaut Newcastle Australia!

Grains:
Cracked extra fine (0.9mm) for BIAB
Premium Pilsener  3.230 Kg
Munich Dark 0.586 Kg
Cara Munich T2  0.586 Kg
Wheat Chocolate (yummy!) 0.220 kg

Hops:
Saaz Czech (T90) 79g @60mins boil time

Yeast:
Safale US-05 (I'm using Muntons Prenium Gold this time)

Here's my Equipment & Grains


From Left :
  1. Thermometer -decent scientific one.
  2. Hydrometer  to calculate abv and gravity
  3. Whirlfloc tablet- finning/to clear the brew at end of boil
  4. Saaz Hop Pellets-Yay- Hops!
  5. Grain bill-Malty goodness!
  6. Burner- Mine's an Italian spiral type
More Equipment:


-My good 'ol faithful brew bag that holds 5 kgs of grain no worries! Cleaned and ready for action!



My Brew pot that I picked up In Thailand last year- 36 litre capacity and does the job. Filled up with just over 20 litres of good 'ol H2O.



Here's some Spare Pots from previous brewing adventures along with a strainer and my mash paddle which is also great for stir frys too!



I prop the burner up onto my old barbie (BBQ) for safety reasons pop the pot filled with water on top  and connect the gas up to the burner and let her rip! Aiming for 50 degrees Celsius strike water temp I grab the thermometer and monitor the temp.



Woo-hoo! After about 10 mins the water temp nears 50C strike temp-- time to get the bag and grains ready!



So after the temp hits just over 50c I turn off the gas and take the pot down off the burner (with oven gloves on- as I don't like getting burnt) . Now the bag goes in the pot followed by the grainy goodness being poured in nice 'an slow.



Now the grain is given a good stir making sure I get all the lumpy bits mashed and all the grains are wet.
Oohh it smells good! Once thats done I pull the tie on the bag to seal it up and pop the top on the brew pot.



Now I'll put the brew to bed for 60mins to let it mash--- have a beer and read some beerbeer.org and properbeermate!



What I use to wrap the pot up to maintain the mash temp is a towel and some old clean bed covers -does the trick!
In Part two the which will be posted  next week we'll start the boil and add the magic that is HOPS!!
Cheers till then!