V1 Brewery

Time

2011-11-14T21:59:00.009Z

I can't believe it's almost been 3 months since I last posted, or should I say I can't believe the brewery hasn't moved on! New items for the brewery are a Crankenstein 3D malt mill with stainless rollers, motor, pulleys, belt, and also another March 809 pump to replace the Totton.

Time is really restrictive at the moment so I've no idea when the next brew will take place, but at a guess sometime next year :-(

Almost there

2011-08-26T14:12:00.005+01:00

It's been a long time coming but the V1 Brewery is almost ready to brew again, at 6 months it's taken a lot longer than expected!! The new FV cupboard is finished.

The 3 new conical fv's are almost finished

And everything is looking good

More to follow!

New FV cupboard

2011-05-23T16:25:00.003+01:00

When I've had spare time, which seems to be rarely, I've been making a new fv cupboard to house my 2 new and unused HDPE conicals. One is 110ltr, the other 40ltr, and another 40ltr will soon be acquired. Each conical cupboard will have a 60 watt tubular heater to heat the ferment when required, and each conical fv will have a cooling coil inside them to cool the ferment when required. The 110ltr conical cooling coil will be 'fed' by the recirculating python line of my beer chiller. The 2 40ltr conicals will be 'fed' by pumping a glycol solution through the 2 product coils of the beer chiller. To do this I will make a reservoir for the glycol solution and will possibly use 2 submersible pumps to recirculate the solution, though I haven't decided for definite on this. The cupboard is still to be finished though hopefully this will happen in the next 2 weeks.

The Spring Thing 13-15 May

2011-05-23T16:21:00.002+01:00

As mentioned in my previous 2 brew day posts, I was brewing the beers for entry into The Spring Thing competition. Unfortunately due to time constraints I didn't have time to get the beers ready for entry which was a great shame, next time hopefully I will.
The Spring Thing was a huge success and a great time was had by all. I really enjoyed meeting people from the forum and it was good to put faces to 'names'.
I'm really looking forward to next year, I'm sure we'll make it bigger, though better will be hard....lol.

19/03/2011

2011-03-23T20:32:00.010Z

Today I brewed 50ltrs of 1.056 American Pale Ale with hops and pellets I've never used before. The day went smoothly apart from the pellet and cold break combo constantly clogging my copper filter on run off!...very annoying. Constantly scraping the break/pellet material off the filter finally let me run the beer to fv. The yeast was a little slow to get stuck into this one, almost 24 hours lag, but it went off like a train after that. This is another brew which will be entered into the Spring Thing competition, if suitable.

Pics, the grist, the mash tun, recirculating HLT sparge liquor to get even temps

Runnings meet pellets, rolling boil, break and pellet/hop combo

Next Brew Day 26th March, possibly a double brew day, not decided yet.

12/03/2011 IPA Brew Day

2011-03-23T20:15:00.003Z

On the 12th of March the Brewery finally went back into action, and I brewed 50ltrs of 1.060 IPA. The brew day went very smoothly, I really enjoyed using the new stainless camlock fittings, just wish I'd have got them years ago. This beer was racked to secondary on the 19th and will be racked to corny and bottles next week. The bottles are destined for entry into a beer competition (The Spring Thing (see www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk)) if suitable. Next brew up, an American Pale Ale next Saturday.

17/02/2011

2011-02-17T20:25:00.002Z

The Wherry is still conditioning, it will be tapped tomorrow.
Updates on the brewery:-
The new 40ltr conical has arrived, along with the fittings for both it, and the 120ltr conical. I will also be changing all the cpc disconnects on the brewery to stainless cam locks, they're soaking in cleaning solution as I type. I hope to get the brewery ship shape for a brew day on Sunday (touches wood). The conicals won't be Christened until the new temp controlled cupboard is built which may take a few weeks.

It's all go...at long last and there is light at the end of the tunnel :-)

16/01/2011 It's been a long time coming

2011-02-08T22:28:00.005Z

I've finally managed to get round to making some beer, and I've made a double Woodfords Wherry kit. Started on the 16/01/2011, not taking any 'risks' with yeast supplied and using US05 instead, fermentation was finished in 3 days flat, at 1.008!
22/01/2011 turned down fv temp to 5 deg c, to try and clear the majority of the yeast.
01/02/2011 racked to 2 x cornies, and 7 ltr ish to bottling bucket
08/02/2011 added IG above....to be continued!

A new 40ltr HDPE conical is on the way.....more info to follow...this will also require a new temp controlled cupboard...along with it's 120ltr HDPE counterpart....exciting times at the V1 brewery :-)

Strong Stout

2010-06-03T22:09:00.005+01:00

Today (3/6/2010) I made a Strong Stout and as with the previous 2 brews this is a potential CBA Skipton entry. The brew day went to plan in glorious sunshine, and there's 50ltrs of strong black stuff in the fv.
Pictures as follows, the grist, the mash and the HERMS mash recirc

Pumping runnings to the copper and sparging the mash

A good rolling boil and all tucked up in the fv!

Next week I have another brew lined up, hopefully I can get the stout to vacate the fv in time

Traditional IPA's part 2

2010-05-21T20:03:00.004+01:00

Today (21/05/2010) I made my second traditional IPA, possibly for entry to the CBA Skipton competition. This IPA is lower in gravity and IBU's than my previous effort, though it may still not mature in time for the competition! I learned from my previous mistakes and added the hops after collecting the wort to the copper, and I stirred the wort properly before taking readings! I also changed my brewing spreadsheet to reflect a larger loss to hops, and as a result I hit my target gravity spot on and got the brew length right first time, which has given me some confidence back. No pictures this time, far too busy getting things right! The brew is sat in the fermenting cupboard at 19 deg after having had 1 hours aeration.

Traditional IPA's part 1

2010-05-21T19:28:00.005+01:00

Recently I've made 2 traditional IPA's possibly for entry to the NCBA Skipton competition, depending how they turn out/mature. I made the first on the 17/04/2010 and due to an error on my brewing spreadsheet I was 17 litres short on batch volume of 50ltr's. To remedy this I sparged the hops, something I've not done before, good fun and it worked. I also made an error when measuring the sugar points on wort collection, ending up 5 gravity points above my target gravity at the fv. I think the error occurred due to not stirring the wort properly before taking a sample for the refractometer, but it also may have something to do with trying to first wort hop almost 1.5kg of hops.....lesson learned ! The ferment went well and it has been racked to corny with IG, and will soon be re-racked to get it off the sediment. I kept the beer for 1 week at 5 deg c and racked to corny, adding IG when at cellar temps. I will be racking some to bottle condition this week, and maturing the rest in bulk, bottling nearer the time. Hopefully it will condition in time but it may be too big. So some pictures, the grain..all 20kg of it, the mash...80ltr thermobox looking quite full ! the HERMS recirc, sparging the mash

the HERMS recirc, sparging the mash

A good vigourous boil and racked to fv

Thorshead Brew Day

2010-01-18T19:31:00.013Z

I brewed this last on the 27/05/07 and was so impressed with it I vowed a repeat brew soon...so much for that. Finally on the 16/01/2010 I got round to brewing this belting brew again.

65ltr brew length, 60 ltr to fv, 75% efficiency assumed

OG 1.059, IBU 40.4, FG hopefully 1.009, ABV 5.7%,

In the tun (90 mins)mash at 66 deg c.

17.03kg Maris Otter,
0.38g Chololate Malt

Pics below, grist, mash recirc and sparge.

In the copper (90 mins)

160g Progress Hops 5.19%AA (FWH)(34.7 IBU)
50g Styrian Golding 2.91% (15 mins)(5.7 IBU)
1 Protafloc tablet at 10 mins
100g Styrian Golding 80 deg c steep for 30 mins

Pics below, full'ish' copper 85ltrs in 100ltr stock pot, hops almost overwhelming screen

All went really well with this brew. The March 809hs pump played up again, failing to re-start after being turned off at the end of the mash. I did slacken off the impeller to pump body bolts off after the last brew day, but I think I need to slacken off the internal bolts holding the two sections of the impeller housing together. I simply collected the runnings by the ltr and transferred them to the copper manually. Apart from that I dropped a gravity point, just like in the last brew, getting 1.058 instead of the target 1.059.

I now know this point is lost by the addition of the water used to reconstitute the yeast, and in addition, the water remaining in the GPHE after flushing the sanitizer through. I'll have to compensate for this on the next brew by targeting 1 gravity point higher than desired.

This beer has already made a bid for freedom having flooded the top of the fv!

It's going like the clappers at the moment.

28/01/2010

I racked this beer to Corny today, it's tasting potent already!

Mittelfrueh Delight Pale Ale

2010-01-18T19:00:00.003Z

On the 12th December I put the first brew through the re-jigged system. A lovely pale ale I've made a few times before, and just right for drinking quickly.

60ltr brew length, 75% efficiency assumed.

OG 1.055, IBU 40, FG 1.009, ABV 5.87,

In the tun (90 mins)

16.25kg Maris Otter, mash at 66 deg c.

In the copper (90 mins)

348g Mittelfrueh Hops 2.91%AA (FWH)
1 Protafloc tablet at 10 mins
217g Mittelfrueh Hops 80 deg c steep for 30 mins

This was the first time I'd fly sparged for 2 years and I was using sugar points to calculate my OG. Everything went well until it was time to sparge. At the end of the mash I pump the runnings from the mash to the copper, and simultaneously pump sparge liquor to the mash from the HLT. When I turned the pumps off to check the sugar points, the HERMS March 809HS pump decided it wasn't going to turn back on again. Luckily after 10 mins or so it started to work again. I have been advised that I may have tightened the impeller housing bolts too tightly, as when the pump heats up the impeller expands and can become stuck. I'll have too loosen the bolts off for the next brew day. Apart from that there were a few issues with pieces of kit I had forgotten to make, and I ran a few litres into an fv which still contained sanitiser, but apart from that not too bad. More importantly 52litres of lovely beer in the fv.

This beer is drinking incredibly well, a firm favourite in the V1 household

Fermenting off the cold break...a first

2009-12-17T18:44:00.006Z

So far I have always fermented on the cold break. I have finally decided to try and change this habit. The two options available to me are:-

1. Cool in the copper, wait for the cold break to settle, then transfer to fv. Cooling the bulk of the wort by recircing to the copper will take longer, but has the advantage of the hop bed as a mechanical filter for the break material.

2. Transfer and cool to another vessel, wait for the break to settle and then transfer to the fv. This Has the advantage of cooling far more quickly but has the disadvantage of transfering to the secondary vessel for a cold break rest, which increases the risk of infection.

As I'm very confident in my sanitising approach I decided to try option 2. At the end of the aroma steep I transfered the wort to my sanitised mash tun, cooling to 19 deg c as I did so. My mash tun has a bulkhead connector as its drain.

Prior to transfering the wort I added 5ltr of water to the mash tun, as I envisaged this to be the height to where the cold break would settle to, and then cut a small piece of 15mm copper pipe so it's open end was level with the water.

I inserted this copper pipe into the bulkhead connector, sanitised everything and then transfered and cooled the wort, the break is clearly visable.

After about an hour I transfered the beer to the fv and this is what was left at the bottom of the mash tun

It would appear I was a little generous with the size of the copper tube and it looks like I can cut 10mm from it. This should reduce the volume loss to the tun also. I shall shorten it before the next brew day.

Re-visiting the copper take off

2009-12-17T18:11:00.007Z

The re-jigged system had a brew through it last weekend and an issue arose with the copper take off on the back of the copper ball valve. After steeping aroma hops at 80 deg c for 30 minutes it was time to pump the wort from the copper, through the in-line filter to the gasket plate heat exchanger and on to the mash tun for a cold break rest. Operating the Totton pump at full bore a huge amount of hot break material was sucked into the in-line filter almost blocking it, so much so, I had to back off the flow rate. The issue lies in the fact that the take off from the back of the coppers ball valve points downwards, hence with powerful suction from the pump, any deposit on the coppers base behind the kettle screen will be sucked up.
My solution to this is to modify the coppers take off, so the opening is angled upwards. To do this I used a 1/2" to 3/8th reducing bush which was screwed into the elbow on the back of the coppers ball valve. I've then screwed a 3/8th street elbow into the reducing bush. To reduce volume loss to the copper I've cut down the female end of the street elbow. There will be a small plug of break collected in the elbow at the end of the aroma steep. The options are to run a small amount of wort to waste, of just let the filter deal with it, I like the latter! Hopefully that should do the job ready for the next brew.

Re-jigged Brewery finally finished

2009-12-01T16:43:00.013Z

I've finally managed to put the finishing touches to my brewery re-jig. I will be testing/cleaning the system and hopefully brewing on Saturday. Due to the drop in weather temperatures and the fact I brew outside, I wil be lagging the HLT, copper, and heat exchanger. Changes to the brewery include all vessels on a single level, which meant making a new brew bench, and changing all fittings/pipe work that comes into contact with the brew to stainless. There's still the odd plastic fitting to allow me to take certain things apart for convenience. I have also included a in-line filter in the set up to prevent hops/hot break material from getting into my plate heat exchanger. Whether the filter will be required can only be determined through use, but it's better to not need it, than having to strip down the GPHE due to hop ingress!

Tinkering

2009-10-09T18:00:00.004+01:00

Today I managed to find some time for the brewery...hooray! I've finally fitted a stainless manifold to the HERMS heat exchanger outlet. I've placed a 75mm long x 3mm wide PT100 sensor in the recirculating runnings flow. I used a 1/2" male to 3mm compression fitting, branched into the flow using a T in-line.

I also managed to fit the PT100 sensors and manifolds to my gasket plate heat exchanger. This means I can now measure the coolant water temperature coming in from the mains, and the cooled wort exiting the GPHE to fv. Using the ball valve on the coolant water inlet I should be able to control the exiting wort temperature fairly well.

Pump upgrades

2009-10-09T15:24:00.007+01:00

I've been using a Totton GP 20/12 for my last few brew days. This pump came as standard with 15mm smooth ports, which take push on fittings. I haven't been too happy with the degree of movement the push fit fittings allow, they also swivel, which can make operating a ball valve on the outlet a bit tricky. I rang Totton who advised that they do a threaded pump head with 3/8th ports. Not ideal as most of my fittings are 1/2", but I happened to have 2 x 1/2" to 3/8" reducing bushes, so that was that, problem solved.

HERMS Control Unit

2009-09-27T17:04:00.004+01:00

This is the heart of the V1 Brewery, the HERMS control unit. The facia has 3 PID controllers mounted on it. The 2 left hand PID units have a power on/off switch to their right, and a red 'power out' indictaion LED, the right hand PID only has a switch. The PID on the left controls an element in the HERMS heat exchanger to maintain mash temp. The central PID controls an element in my HLT for hitting strike and sparge temps, and the third PID is used as a thermometer for inputs from various PT100 probes in the brewery. The furthest 2 switches on the right control the HERMS recirculation pump (March 809HS) and also a general purpose pump (Totton GP 20/12). To the rear of the unit we have from left, a cooling fan to keep the unit cool, a socket to receive inputs from a PT100 switch box (which are displayed on the right hand PID). Then there are 2 input sockets for the PT100 probes from the HE and HLT. Next is a fuse, power 'out' sockets for the general purpose pump and the HLT element, then a power 'in' socket for that circuit. The next circuit starts with power out sockets for the HERMS heat exchanger element, the HERMS recirc pump, then a power 'in' socket for that set of feeds, plus a fuse.
Apologies for any misuse of 'terms'...I'm not an electrician ;-)

My New PT100 Switch Box

2009-09-27T14:44:00.004+01:00

The V1 Brewery uses a PID unit to display temperatures from a PT100 probe which I use for various applications. I use the probe to measure things such as grain temp pre dough in, boiler temp for steeping hops, pre heating my heat exchanger prior to recirculation etc. I’m making a few brewery modifications introducing a fixed PT100 in the HERMS heat exchanger, one in the wort outlet and one in the coolant inlet of my gasketed plate heat exchanger. This means I want 4 PT100 inputs going to one PID unit.The PID unit only has one set of PT100 probe input terminals at its rear, so I had to find a way of inputting 4 PT100 signals to the PID unit, through this one terminal. This has been achieved by switching the inputs from the PT100's, to the PID unit, via a switch box. This means that one PID unit can now disply the inputs from 4 different PT100's, depending on the switch position at the switch box.
This is the switch box I made.

Flowers Original Bitter Brew Day 22/07/09

2009-07-25T00:45:00.004+01:00

The V1 brewery springs back into action with a few new mods being tested for the first time. As per previous post, the new vertical filter gets it's first outing, as does the new Totton GP 20/12 pump. As if that's not enough I've chosen this brew to revert back to fly sparging and I'll be using the sugar point method to target OG.

The recipe is loosely based on Marc Ollossons book, Real Ales for the Home Brewer. I've changed the boil time from 2 hrs to 90 mins, and also the mash temp from 65 deg c to 66 deg c as those are my preferences.

Brew length 60ltr, OG 1.044, FG 1.009, IBU 30, Mash temp 66 deg c, Boil 90 mins.
Recipe based on the usual 75% batch sparge efficiency, though should get nearer 80% with fly sparging.

In the tun

8.85kg Maris Otter
0.954kg Crystal (120l)

In the copper

225g Styrian Golding 3% AA (bittering first wort hopped)
1.403kg Golden Syrup (at 1 hour)
Whirlfloc tablet (at 80 mins)
100g Styrian Golding (aroma, at 80 deg c for 30 mins)

I varied the recipe as I added 300g bittering hops. I don't like small amounts of hops 'knocking about', and as they come in 100g packs, multiples of went in.

The original recipe calls for 30 IBU's of Target hops as the bittering addition. I've brewed the original version many times and it's a really special recipe in my opinion. Using WLP 023 yeast makes it a quite frankly stunning drink.

New pump Totton GP 20/12

2009-07-25T00:11:00.002+01:00

My last brew day saw the use of a new pump in the V1 brewery. I've replaced one of my Morebeer March May 809HS pumps, with a Totton GP 20/12. The principal reason behind the change was that the 809 doesn't deal with restrictions very well. Another reason was that I was looking for increased flow rate when I upgrade the brewery chiller from my counter flow chiller to the Sondex unit mentioned previously.
I actually bought a Totton GP 20/18 on E-bay but when it arrived it was a GP 20/12. I thought I'd give it a go, as it was very reasonably priced, and if it was underrated I'd sell it on. So, what do I think. Well, I'd like to replace the impeller housing as I don't like the freedom of movement the 15mm straight ports to speed fit fittings allow, preferring the rigidity 1/2" BSP threaded ports. Apart from that I was very happily surprised. The flow rate, even when restricted is more than adequate. There was some cavitation when re-circing hot liquor at 75 deg c, as the pump's rated to 85 deg c, I wasn't expecting that. There was also some 'pulsing of liquid' at low flow rates. However, I pumped boiling wort through the pump to sanitise it for the last 10 minutes of the boil and there was no cavitation or excessive noise at all. In fact, I have to say that pumping boiling liquids it was quieter that the March may. All in all, very happy with this pump.
Pictures will be inserted into the above text in time

New Copper/Kettle Hop Screen

2009-07-13T18:50:00.009+01:00

Today saw the replacement of the hop screen in my copper. As I'm moving towards using my gasket plate heat exchanger, I want to be able to pump the wort from the kettle at speed, without restriction. This is simply not possible using a bottom take off under the hop bed as shown above. So I've replaced it with a full height vertical screen of 304 stainless
with 1mm perforations. I had to shape the screen to get a tight fit inside the copper due to the curvature where the base meets the side wall.I have used a 1/2" male to female equal elbow as a scrounger directly from the back of the ball valve. I ground the thread of the male end of the elbow as it was bound to harbour bits of hops if left in place The screen is held in place by an M8 x 60mm bolt which is attached to the copper.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works.

Cooling Upgrade

2009-07-12T11:43:00.013+01:00

For some time now I've been unhappy with the length of time it takes to cool wort to the fv. I'm also removing all copper from my system, so a stainless steel option was on the cards. A few months ago I won a Sondex gasket plate heat exchanger on e-bay for a very reasonable price. The first job was to open it up and see what sort of condition the gaskets and plates were in, and also to check what sort of gaskets were fitted. Luckily for me it had been well maintained and the plates are in mint condition. I was lucky with the gaskets as they are sonder-lock which means they attach via small lugs which push through holes in the edges of the plates.

Some GPHE's are fitted with glued gaskets making servicing more 'difficult'. The gaskets are in A1 condition also, though I may replace them anyway. The GPHE has to be mounted vertically for best purging of air and heat exchange, so I am currently working on a way of fitting it into my system. It also needs a pre-filter on both product and coolant inlets to prevent particles larger than 0.5mm from getting into the plate package. It's far easier to stop particles getting into the GPHE in the first place than it is to strip it down. To this end I am fabricating, with the help of a friend, a stainless mesh filters to fit a standard Pentek 10" clear filter housing. Once I am happy with the performance of the design I may well progress to a stainless housing

Bosun Best Bitter Brew Day 07/04/2009

2009-04-08T18:40:00.003+01:00

Today I brewed my first beer outdoors in sunny Manchester. I'm glad that I had an tarpaulin on hand, just in case, as true to form it rained mid way through the brew!
Quite an uneventful brew day, start to finish 7 hours and 60ltr in the fv now

The recipe is from Mark Ollossons book Real Ales for the Home Brewer

Target OG 1.047, IBU 40, Target FG 1.011, ABV 4.7%

Mash temp 66 deg c, 90 min mash and boil. Mash efficiency set at 74%

11.4kg Maris Otter
0.98kg Crystal (120l)
0.64kg Wheat Malt

In the copper (90 min boil)

275g East Kent Goldings (3.62%) 90 mins
2 whirlfloc tablets at 80mins
125g EKG steeped for 15 mins at 80 deg c

Hit OG spot on.

Pitched S04 yeast at 22 deg c in the fv

Quite a delay in initial activity. Bubble starting to form on the blow off tube after 18 hours.
I decided to rehdrate 3 x 12g sachets of S04 to give the yeast in the fv a boost.
Added the new yeast at 12 noon and 3 hours later there's a bubble every 3 seconds from the blow off tube.

New beginnings

2008-07-30T00:00:00.000+01:00

My blog will soon spring to life as the V1 brewery goes back into action after a long lay off.