Not quite at once then, but I have had the chance to brew 3 times in the last 6 weeks. Just in time too. I had run out of home brewed ale and was having to rely on the odd bottle from the shops, having not brewed since the beginning of December 2011. I even considered putting a kit or two on.
Things have changed since that December brew day too. Anglian Water have issued their first hose-pipe ban in around 20 years so I was worried about how to handle a brew day without the use of hoses to move the water around.
Filling the HLT was the first hurdle but that's an easy one to overcome. I simply half fill the HLT from the tap before moving into position and then filling to the required level using a spare bucket.
The next issue then is being able to cool the wort at the end of the boil. Of course I could leave it to cool overnight, with the inherent risks of infection (bacterial and/or wild yeast). And then there is the concern that without the crash cooling the cold break will not be secured.
I realise that there are plenty of brewers out there that don't bother with chilling the boiled wort and still make excellent beer but I won't be one of them.
No, I still want to cool using my immersion chiller.
In the end I bought a cheap pond pump from Amazon and used this with a load of ice to pre-chill the water.
I fill up a fermenting bin with water from a water butt and then add litre bottles of ice for the last 30 minutes or so of the boil. The chiller goes into the wort for the last 15-20 minutes as usual to kill off any nasties and then the pump is switched on when the boiler is switched off.
So, the wort is cooled to 24°C from the rolling boil within the hour - actually more like 40 mins.
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| IC run from pump using pre-chilled water. |
So, what did I brew? The first brew day was a clone of Brentwood Brewery's excellent Lumberjack. This is one I'd definitely do again at some point.
The second brew day was inspired by the very unseasonal hot weather we were having. I went for a tweaked version of the summer favourite, Way to Amarillo, or in this case, Another Way to Amarillo.
Name: Another Way to Amarillo
Type: All Grain
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch size: 19.00 ltrs
Boil size: 26.00 ltrs
Boil Time: 90 min
Efficiency: 75%
Est. OG: 1.049 SG
Est. FG: 1.010 SG
Est. ABV: 5.10 %
Est. Colour: 14.5 EBC
Est. Bitterness: 44.2 IBU
Fermentables
| Amount | Type | Colour |
| 3300.00 gm | Pale Malt, Maris Otter | 5.9 EBC |
| 250.00 gm | Caramunich | 100.5 EBC |
| 200.00 gm | Wheat, Torrified | 3.9 EBC |
| 200.00 gm | Caramalt | 29.6 EBC |
Hops
| Amount | Hop Type | Alpha Acid % | Time | Use |
| 30.00 gm | Amarillo | 9.00%AA | 90 min | Boil |
| 15.00 gm | Amarillo | 9.00%AA | 15 min | Boil |
| 10.00 gm | Amarillo | 9.00%AA | 5 min | Boil |
| 30.00 gm | Amarillo | 9.00%AA | 0 min | Aroma |
Yeast
Safale US-05
Mashed @ 66°C for 90mins using a General water profile. This one smelt awesome in the FV and is just about ready to bottle now.
The actual OG was slightly down due to collecting slightly too much wort but still consistent with my 75% efficiency target.
I was originally going to dry hop this one but have decided that there is already plenty of aroma and flavour in this one.
The weather then proceeded to take a turn for the worst - this has got to be the wettest drought on record!
I decided to revisit an old favourite of mine. A tweak to the Far Weltered recipe. This is a dark ale using traditional English hops but I've never been quite happy with the balance of the beer. This time I still boiled for 90 minutes to secure the hot break but piled in the hops towards the end of the schedule. I also reduced the IBU's, aiming for a more balanced and fuller bodied finish to the beer. Only time will tell!
Name: Far Weltered Ale (Mk4)
Type: All Grain
Style: English Bitter
Batch size: 19.00 ltrs
Boil size: 26.00 ltrs
Boil Time: 90 min
Efficiency: 75%
Est. OG: 1.046 SG
Est. FG: 1.013 SG
Est. ABV: 4.30 %
Est. Colour: 24.7 EBC
Est. Bitterness: 34.00 IBU
Fermentables
| Amount | Type | Colour |
| 3200.00 gm | Pale Malt, Maris Otter | 5.9 EBC |
| 400.00 gm | Crystal Malt | 118.3 EBC |
| 100.00 gm | Wheat, Torrified | 3.9 EBC |
| 35.00 gm | Black Malt | 1300.2 EBC |
Hops
| Amount | Hop Type | Alpha Acid % | Time | Use |
| 55.00 gm | Fuggles | 3.8%AA | 60 min | Boil |
| 30.00 gm | Fuggles | 3.8%AA | 15 min | Boil |
| 20.00 gm | Fuggles | 3.8%AA | 5 min | Boil |
| 10.00 gm | East Kent Goldings | 5.0%AA | 0 min | Aroma |
Yeast
Safale S04
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| Late Aroma hops added @85°C |
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| Clear wort and targets hit |
With this one I had intended to mash at a slightly higher 68°C but messed setting the temperature up and ended up with a reasonable 66°C.
My biggest worry from the last few brews is that the mash tun seems to be losing a few more degrees centigrade than it used to over a 90 minute mash. It might be because I've managed to damage the cool box casing, introducing a couple of small holes in it. For now I think I'll just wrap it up more during the mash and see how it goes.
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