Feb 202314Tue

Started Yeti VII

SG 1.085 19℃ problem started wisdom

Bit of a disjointed brew day. I forgot to update the equipment profile to the latest version when I planned this brew from a previous batch recipe, so my efficiency values are all over the place. Not that this is a huge problem overall since the pump jammed again during transfer and I had to resort to gravity transfer instead. In hindsight perhaps I should have done this from the dip-tube rather than removing the centre column straight away, because I clogged the Bouncer filter after barely a minute on the finest mesh and still ended up with huge losses once I switched to the medium mesh. Oh well, live and learn.

#wisdom: have a plan in place for jammed pump during transfer – fail over to least messy option!

Brew Day Notes

0630 Start dough-in

0642 Dough-in complete. Very full pipe!

0707 Start mashing.

0715 Wow this one’s thick! Barely a trickle brings it to overflow despite stirring. Might have to increase from 60 to 90 minutes in order to compensate.

0807 Sixty minutes mash is up, and I’m going to give it another 30. SG 1.065 (1.050 @ 59℃) against predicted 1.079 – not sure if another 30 minutes plus mash-out will recover those missing 14 points!

0900 Mash done, raising malt pipe. 33 litres before, 23 after. Pre boil gravity 1.072 (1.050 @ 70℃) against predicted 24.69 litres / 1.079 for 8.9% ABV. Adding 400g Extra Dark DME as per suggestion from gravity correction tool.

0930 Going for boil. Gravity after DME addition 1.076 (1.050 @ 76℃) so still 3 points short. Oh well. I can fix that with boil-off, but hopefully all the DME has mixed properly and isn’t hiding in a lump somewhere, turning into toffee.

0935 Just noticed that the batch recipe is using an old hardware profile. Balls. Must get used to checking that when planning! Efficiencies will be all over the shop as I’m not changing it halfway through a brew day.

0940 Start boil tracker, 60 minute additions in.

1025 Boil paused to read values: 21 litres, SG 1.084 (1.054 @ 82℃). Aiming for 1.087 OG so this will do – 9.5% ABV now expected. Cutting in chiller for sanitisation reduces volume to just under 20 litres.

1050 Boil done, start chilling.

1105 Starting transfer @ 21℃ return.

1110 Pump jammed, switching to drained centre with filter.

1220 Clean-up finished, greatly reduced yield due to filter and pump problems. OG 1.085 (1.082 @ 30℃) against predicted 1.087, should get 9.6% ABV.