CRESTA PALE ALE INTO SECONDARY

The pale ale went into the Budget barrel yesterday. no photos as its simply a case of putting the (steralised) barrel under the fermentation bin and opening the tap. I do take off about a pint into a saucepan which i then gently heat on the hob as i add 2 oz of sugar and a sachet of gelatine. this is then added to the barrel when its full.

you should have all the yeast gunge left in the bottom of the fermentation bin and reasonably clear beer in your barrel now. the gelatine will "fine" your beer clearing it of any remaining yeast and debris whilst the added sugar will add a bit of natural gas or "conditioning" to the brew.

now its left alone for yet another 10 days before it goes into a corny keg (as with the brown ale see previously). this should be ready for new year at a push . idealy you should leave it alone for at least 4 weeks from brewing which this will be just. the longer you leave it the better it will be however and the more complex and strong the recipie the longer it needs to mature. barely wine for example needs about a year !

chirstmas day is testing time for my dark brown ale i shall let you know how it is then .

RACKING FROM SECONDARY TO CORNY

time to rack to the corny

my strong brown ale/stout has been in its secondary fermentation for 10 days now and tis time it moved on again.

when your beer is made it has the yeast added, then goes into a bucket for primary fermentation , this is where the sugar is turned to alcohol.

after ten days it should have stopped fermenting and it can be racked off. now this is where you have a choice, you can go straight into a barrel or bottles where it remains until it is drunk , you add a little sugar to create some Co2 which not only protects the brew from nasties it adds the fizz. Gelatin is also added to clear the beer.

Or you can go into the barrel for another ten days then rack off again when the beer is clear into your final barrel. if you are using a corny keg this is the best option as you dont get the sediment at the bottom of the barrel where the beer is drawn from via a long tube.

I was told of a method of drawing off the beer into the corny without letting any nasty air in to contaminate my precious beer. A chap on the jimsbeerkit forum explained how to do it so i gave it a try.

firstly everything was steralised as usual , then i added a squirt of Co2 to the empty corny. Co2 is heavier than air so a protective blanket is laid on the bottom of the keg where the beer is going to come in.

I connect the out disconnect to a length of hose and leave the grey in disconnect off for the moment.

once the beer starts to come in i add the grey disconnect to allow the air to escape as it is pushed to the top.

the hose is connected to the barrel thus;

i then crack open the tap of the barrel and the beer runs down through the "out" connect to the bottom of the barrel. this beer is then under the Co2 and as it rises it forces the air out of the grey "in " disconnect i have now connected. if you have a purge ring you can use that but you will be stood there holding it open like a wally for a while.

obviously at some stage the pressure in the top barrel will be negative and you will have to crack open the lid to let some air in to replace the escaping beer.

once all the beer is in leaving the sediment in the bottom of the barrel you can shut the tap off and remove both the connectors.

my corny has an S30 valve in the top instead of a purge valve so i then pump Co2 in until the safety valve expels the remaining air leaving pure Co2 at the top of the keg. if you have a purge valve you just pump in the Co2 then gently let the air that has been forced to the top escape.

there you have it! this will sit now till christmas day when i will hopefully pour out some clear sparkling beer from it. my cresta pale ale is still in primary and that will go into the secondary barrel on saturday .

till then happy drinking :-)

cresta pale ale

cresta strong pale ale

today was the day for my cresta pale ale brew. i had told my supplier that i needed the grain for today but nothing had arrived yesterday. i still had faith though so i heated up the water (liquor) to the strike temp of 73 deg and just as it hit the mark the doorbell rang and there it was.

in went 7lbs of pale malt and the temp dropped to the required 67deg.

then on went the coat, this will keep the temp more constant rather than messing around trying to keep it stable.

after 3 hours the mash was done.

the grain was then tiped into a bin lined with a grain bag. a normal mash time would be about 2 hours but this recipie from dave line wanted 3 so thats what it got .

i then let this sit while i heated up more water in the boiler for sparging.

this was then poured into an empty barrel , the water was about 80 deg and i made up about 4 gallons.

this is my three tier sparging set up , the usual arrangement for most brewers. i poured the first couple of jugs back over the grain to enusre that a filter had established then cracked open the tap to allow the level to fall just below the level of the top of the grain.

then the sparge water is allowed to run through very slowly to maintain the level. when i have collected about 4 gallons i shut the water off and let the rest just run through ending up with about 5 gallons of wort.

this is the sparge arm, as the water runs through it spins creating a fine mist of hot water to wash away the wort from the husks, too quick and the water wont collect the wort on the way .
i put a hop strainer onto the tap in the boiler as well.

as soon as the wort covers the element in the boiler i turn it on full to get the boil started.

then the boil gets going, i add 2 oz of hallertau hops and 1 1/4 oz goldings hops as well as a lb of demerara sugar . add the sugar slowly so that it doesnt just run to the bottom and melt onto the element.

2 hours of boiling and its ready. i open the windows to minimise the sauna effect .

20 mins before the end i added a whirlfloc tablet and my cooler. the boiling will steralise the cooler for me.

ive now got 4 gallons of wort as 1 gallon has been boiled off. i let it settle for 30 mins . once the hops have formed a filter bed in the bottom i turn the cooler on. 30 mins of cooing and its down to 22 deg ready for the yeast. before i started cooling i drew off about 250 mls of wort and cooled it under the tap to make a yeast starter as well. you can add it dry but this gets it off to a good start.

i drain off the wort into a steralised fermenting bin , as you can see the hops have formed a nice bed to strain out any dregs.

then i add the yeast and stir it all up with a steralised paddle. the lid goes on and 10 days of fermentation starts. the sg was 1060 so this should be a good strong brew. next blog will show the racking off process.