Water Preparation
Like most brew days, we started off by collecting our water. 23L strike water for the BrewZilla, and 12L of sparge water in our Digiboil. The recipe only called for around 8-9L of sparge water but we always like to have a little extra
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| Filling our BrewZilla with our strike water the night before brew day |
We then measured out our additions of calcium chloride and calcium sulphate to reach our desired water profile - both the strike water and sparge water were treated.
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| Water chemistry adjustments - calcium sulphate |
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| Water chemistry adjustments - calcium chloride |
We also added some phosphoric acid to the strike and sparge water to lower the pH
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| Phosphoric acid addition for the mash/strike water |
We got the sparge water treated to a pH of 5.25
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| Adjusting pH of sparge water |
Grain Preparation
Next, we measured out the grain to be used in the recipe - a mix of regular 2 row (ale) malt, quick oats, wheat malt, and some gladiator (dextrin) malt.
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| Weighing out some of the grains |
We then milled all the grains (except for the oats) and started mashing in.
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| Milling the grains for our hazy pale ale |
First Mash pH Reading
After mashing in and leaving the grain bed to settle for about 10 minutes, we took our first sample for a pH reading.
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| Starting mash pH of 5.34 |
One thing worth mentioning is the new stainless steel cups we've started using for these samples. We've previously used a small beer glass which took at least a minute or two to cool the same down from mash temperature (~65-67°C) to 20°C for more accurate readings, but with these stainless cups, thermal transfer happens much faster, so after submerging the cup in an bowl of ice water, the temperature crashes into the 20's in around 10 seconds!
Such a little thing but makes us much more willing to do more regular pH readings as they can now be done so much faster.
Back to the pH - with an initial reading of 5.34 we were well within the desired 5.2 - 5.6 range, however we wanted to get a little closer to 5.2.
We added another 1mL of phosphoric acid which barely made any difference, so we then added another 2mL on top of this, followed by another 1mL which got us to 5.22
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| Mash pH at 5.22 |
The Mash
We began recirculating our wort with the sergeant sparge head and got pretty decent flow through the grain bed for the 60 minute mash duration.
We did discover that the RAPT Temperature Probe we normally use was reading a few degrees low after double checking with a second thermometer, not sure what's going on with it but we may look at getting a replacement probe.
In any case, we maintained the target temperature of 67°C for 60 minutes before ramping up to 75°C for a 10 minute mash-out period.
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| Our trusty backup thermometer came in handy when our RAPT Temperature probe stopped giving accurate readings |
Sparging
After the 10 minute mash out we lifted the grain basket and began sparging until we reached our desired pre-boil volume of 218L in the BrewZilla. Just like the mash recirculation, the flow through the grain bed with the sparge water was good - no stuck sparge so it was completed in around 10 minutes or so.
Pre-Boil Gravity Reading
Our first gravity reading came in at 1.045 - a single point higher than expected from the recipe. We did lower our brewhouse efficiency from 75% to 70% as we know from experience that when using oats in the grist we get a slight drop in efficiency.
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| Pre-Boil gravity reading of 1.045 |
The Boil
Plenty of hot break when the boil got underway, which was otherwise uneventful. Only a couple of hop additions, along with some yeast nutrient and whirlfloc with 10 minutes left in the boil. Even though it's a hazy style, we decided to use a whirlfloc anyway.
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| Plenty of hot break at the beginning of the boil |
Post-Boil
At the conclusion of the 60 minute boil we chilled the wort slightly to around 85°C before whirlpooling for 15 minutes (without any further hop additions). We then continued to chill the wort using our immersion chiller.
Due to the relatively warm ground water, we got the wort into the high 20's (°C) then transferred to the fermenter and put it into the fermentation fridge to allow it to chill further overnight to the target fermentation temperature of 22°C.
Our post-boil gravity reading came in at 1.052 - a little higher than expected, especially considering the pre-boil gravity so it's possible one of these readings was off by a point or two
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| Original gravity - 1.052 for this batch |
Yeast Pitch
The following morning when the wort had cooled further, we pitched a single packet of Fermentis S-04 yeast, and saw fermentation was underway within 12 hours.
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| We pitched a single packet of Fermentis S-04 for this batch |
Fermentation
After pitching the yeast on Saturday morning, we took a sample on Tuesday night prior to dry hopping which gave us a reading of 1.013. With the starting gravity of 1.052, this gave us a current ABV of 5.1%.
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| Floating hydrometer showed a FG of 1.013 |
The gravity appears to have stopped dropping at this point after what appeared to be a fairly aggressive fermentation over Sunday.
Dry Hop
On the Tuesday night we added the dry hop of 100g Mosaic and 50g Citra, as per the recipe instructions to dry hop on day 4. We used our Hop Bong to try minimise the likelihood of oxygen being introduced into the beer.
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| Hops - 100g Mosaic and 50g Citra |
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| Hop Bong loaded up and ready to go |
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