Macclesfield Homebrew

Compared to Sadfield my brew days are a lot more random, generally brews are made of a mix of what’s in the cupboard and other than improving my brewing it’s hindering a bit, so this weekend rather than having a convoluted complex brew day I thought i’d simplify.  Having stumbled across some interesting sounding hops Experimental 105/220 on geterbrewed.com described as Black current, citrus, tropical fruits, pineapple I thought it would be a nice change to go for Single Malt, Single Hop (SMaSH) brew, something simple and straight forward.

A SMaSH is a really useful way to learn what an ingredient does, swapping out one for element each time, or maybe changing process stepping a mash or decoction. My first recipe creation (if you can call it that) was a SMaSH using Halcyon Malt, Ella Hops and Safely US-05  and it tasted pretty good. With so little to it, it would be hard to go wrong.

This time I’m trying to create a low IBU Lager with a big aroma, we’ll see how this turns out, at the moment I’m planning on using 27g for dry hopping but i may adjust this at a later date.

Thoughts/comments post away below.

Because of the cold fermentation temperatures it’s a good idea to make a starter before hand which is detailed within the instructions.

American Lager (1B)

 Type: All Grain Batch Size: 23.00 l Boil Size: 27.41 l Boil Time: 60 min

End of Boil Vol: 25.52 l

Final Bottling Vol: 23.00 l

Fermentation: Lager 3 stage

ABV: 4.5%

Equipment: 

• 40l Mash tun with false bottom (helps stop grain flowing into kettle)
• 32l Kettle
• 10l Pan
• Sieve
• Measuring Jug.
• Digital Thermometer.
• Coiling Coil
• Hydrometer (optional).
• Assorted receptacles for ingredients.
• Fermenting Bucket and Airlock.

Ingredients

* also planning on adding water additions to turn adjust my water to something more suitable to a lager water profile this is optional and not listed as it’s Macc specific.

Prepare for Brewing

Create a yeast starter with 1.00 l of wort – typically this means adding 100gs of DME to 1l of water, bring to boil simmer for 15 mins, cool to pitching temperature, around 21c then pitch yeast. a good vessel for this is a 2l Erlenmeyer flask they come in a variety of sizes but are very handy. Cover the top with sanitised tin foil and aerate over a few days either with a stir plate, or by shaking when you remember to.

Brew time.

The first step with any brewing is to make sure your kit (and work area) is clean and free from any cleaning product residue.

Measure out all ingredients, splitting the ingredients into Mash and Boil

14.58 l Strike water that we add to the grain to create the mash. heated to 69.9c to create a mash temp of 64.4c

7.81 l 98.8c water to raise the temperature of the Mash after 75 mins to raise the mash temp to 75.6c (i generally boil a few kettles and use a small pot for this part)

12.8l Sparge water heated to 75.6c to sparge the mash.

Mash or Steep Grains

Mash Ingredients

Mash Steps

Fly sparge with 12.8 l water at 75.6 C

As you are fly sparging place your first hops into the kettle and run off directly onto the hops. The first 13g of hops will add aroma as well as IBU as well as saving on the amount of hops you use.

Add water to achieve boil volume of 27.41 l

Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.040 SG

Boil Ingredients

For the last 15mins of the boil add in protofloc and copper coil

Estimated Post Boil Vol: 25.52 l and Est Post Boil Gravity: 1.045 SG

Cool and Transfer Wort

Cool wort to fermentation temperature

Transfer wort to fermenter

Add water if needed to achieve final volume of 23.00 l

Pitch Yeast and Measure Gravity and Volume

Fermentation Ingredients

Target: 1.045 SG)

(Target: 23.00 l)

Fermentation

Primary Fermentation (10.00 days at 10 c)

Add 27g Hops after 10 days

Secondary Fermentation (5.00 days at 13c)

Cold Crash (15days 1c)

Bottling or kegging

Typically I add 1/3 teaspoon of sugar to 330ml bottle or 1/2 teaspoon to 500ml bottles.

Kegging is done at around 14psi and 7c