Brewing with Bambule.

[Bambule]

I thought I'd put up a little photo essay of my most recent brew day. Mainly as I've gotten quite a bit of value out of seeing other peoples way of doing the same thing, like Mr Cherry and Joking. My set up is fairly modest, but its effective. But first some preamble...


I brew beer, but I'd much rather drink beer. In the past brewing has left me white knuckled, fists clenched, tense. I worried too much. I remember relating this to Soren when I first met him and he looked at me astonished. "Brewing shouldn't be like that" he cried. In hindsight he was, of course, right. And its probably the best brewing advice I have received.

My brew day has indeed improved. I'm relaxed, its a slick operation. I can multi-task on untold numbers of other tasks, but always ready to start the sparge, add the hops or start cooling. I have what a chef calls his mise en place . That is everything is ready, clean, sterile. Hops measured out, grain crushed, recipe worked out on the computer. Everything. If that sounds a bit obsessive, then so be it. Its not my nature to be like that but my beer is better for it.


So grab a snifter of something and sit back and enjoy... or watch on in horror.

Brew day. A sunny Wairarapa day. To quote Bonny Prince Billy: This is how I start another day in my kingdom. At least when its not blowing a gale or raining etc. Today we're brewing an American Brown (Summit and Nelson Sauvin Hops).

Beer belly ready

Grain measured out.

Monster mill courtesy of Studio one. I grind it using a hand brace that I got from my grandfather, who incidentally was the Rimutaka Hill climb champion some time in the 50s.

Grain crushed

Geeking out the recipe

Mashing in

Running off the sweet wort following recirculation (about 5-10L depending on what mood I'm in). My favourite part, and fun for all the family.

I batch sparge. I have tried fly sparging in the past with some success, but I find batch sparging much simpler and I only loose a couple of gravity points.

Pre-boil gravity not bad 1.048 adjusted for temp.

A healthy boil

Adding the hops while the copper cooling coil sterilises.

I whirlpool (only started that about 3 brews ago, talk about a lagard) and siphon into the fermenter. I use that little blue gadget to start a sterile siphon. Its a piece of operating theatre kit my wife brought home from the hospital. Its meant to be for irrigating during nuero-surgery I'm told. Relax, it was unused. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right?

Add the yeast, I'm a sprinker.

Final OG 1.052. Ok, I'm a bit under as I'm about 1L up on my batch size.

Cheers!

[JoKing]

Cheers to you! What a cruisy looking brew day mate... looks like you have it all going on. That Halcyon malt makes some tasty wort aye?! When this beer is ready, I think it might be time for another fun brew brother swap... waddya reckon?

[Bambule]

It was great. I've tried some of my Maximus clone which had the Halcyon malt and I'm impressed. The 1450 yeast works well with it too, so you notice some malt charater aside from being bludgeoned by hops, plus it doesn't mind sitting at 20C. The US05 tends to freak a bit when that happens. I havea bottle of the clone set aside for you and one of these once its bottle if you like?

[JoKing]

Sounds great! I have a few brews up my sleave at the moment... so I'll see what's available in a few weeks when your stout is ready.

[Pilgrim]

Looks like you've got it sussed mate. Very organised.

[MrC]

Nice one Bambule! It's always great to see how other people brew. Always the same but different. Good to see some #8 wire in there too.

Have you noticed any difference in the finished beer since you started whirlpooling?

[Bambule]

Whirlpooling. Hell yes. Just clarity in the wort. You can almost do away with fining, depending on the yeast.

[Stu H]

Great write-up! Do you use a pump to whirlpool, or a paddle?

[Bambule]

Just a paddle after cooling. A pump would be better but not essential.

[Stu H]

Classic! I'm going to try that this weekend!

[Bambule]

Yeah, just give it a really good stir till you've got a vigorous whirlpool going. Then leave it for about 20-30 mins and all the trub and hops should have formed a cone at the bottom of your kettle. Don't disturb your kettle when you rack it to your fermenter. You'll be amazed at how clear the wort is.