Having taken a few days off and done a bit of camera work on Wednesday and Thursday I decided today was a good day to do a brew - I have been meaning to do a Hobgoblin type of beer for a while, and so finally got around to it - its a bit of a big beer with a fairly substantial Hop bill - should mellow out by Christmas.
A few photos of the process, I brew whats known as BIAB - Brew in a Bag - This is a All grain brew so no kit or extract used - my own recipe.
So the grain goes into a large bag for the mash process rather than into a seperate tun, this means you only need 1 pot and you create the full wort in one vessel then decant that to a Fermentation Vessel for the yeast to work its magic and turn the wort into Beer.
The grain. 8.2 kilos, a moderately large grain bill and not easy to handle given that at the end of the Mash you have to lift it out of the pot in the bag (hot) and ensure as much of the liquid is left in the pot as you can, I am working on a sky hook in the garage to make it easier to lift and drain.
The Hop Bill. A mutually large amount of hops - Fuggles and Styrian Goldings - a fine pair of traditional hops - 180gms in all added at various amounts at various times in the boil.
The Mash. This where the grain is added to the hot (68c) water and left to steep for 60 mins to extract the sugars - the aim is to hold the temperature at that point for the full time so as to get the maximum sugar extraction - hence the insulated jacket around the pot to maintain a steady temperature
Then you bring the wort to the boil and add the hops at set times - boil for 90 mins
Then Chill down from boil to around 20c as fast as possible, so a large coil of copper pipe with cold water run through it as a heat exchanger
Then decant to the Fermentation vessel - add yeast - 14 days later - fermentation ends and you bottle the resultant beer - wait 4 weeks (minimum) and enjoy.
If you ignore the cost of the hardware and gas ( its a gas ring to boil the wort ) the ingredients cost about £20 - this lot made 26ltrs of beer - so given that this is my 6th All Grain Brew so depreciating the hardware cost by bottle produced and adding that to the ingredients make it a great beer for about £1.10 a bottle - the more I make the more the hardware depreciation - I should get to under £1 a pint after the next brew.
