Beerdroid All Grain Brewing

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

I have some empty kegs again so it's time to get brewing.

These are just recipes picked randomly from the BrewFather library. Style wise there's an ESB, a WC IPA, a Hazy IPA and a hoppy APA.

I have some annual leave in which to get these done and then probably a severe lack of time through until the end of the year so it'll be back to some favourite BrewArt recipes.

@Captain 3 Droids can you please do that thing where you create the free shipping deal? 😙

Ha, will do

[Dustin Frothman]

I got the Hop Chronicles Hoppy APA into the Droid earlier today. My first time using Idaho 7 hops. Some nice aromas there so hopefully I got the hop stand right to take advantage of them. The important numbers were there or thereabouts or as our hero Liam says - “I made sugary water” and I’ll let the yeast do the rest.

At only 5.3% this should be a very sessionable beer.

[Captain 3 Droids]

12 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

My first time using Idaho 7 hops

No bull you’ll enjoy these hops.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Definitely agree with @Captain 3 Droids , Idaho 7 has quickly become one of my favourite hops. Goes well in combination with other similar hops.

Wanted to ask before just posting away, @Dustin Frothman would you mind me posting here my all grain brews?

As you say, better to have a consolidated thread rather than one for each brew but I'm happy to start "my own consolidated" if that's your preference?

Edited August 9, 2022 by Wazza_wantsbeer

[Dustin Frothman]

On 13/5/2022 at 6:35 PM, Dustin Frothman said:

I thought I’d start a thread for anyone that wants to contribute the results of their experiments.

@Wazza_wantsbeer

[Dustin Frothman]

I didn’t post any photos of last week’s brew, a hoppy American Pale Ale, as there wasn’t anything particularly interesting about it but it’s almost done fermenting and smells great.

I thought following @Thagomizer’s posts about getting his wort to temp and into the Droid it could be useful to show my process.

Today’s brew was a West Coast IPA with no hops in the boil, a 30 minute hop stand and 110g of dry hopping on day 10 of fermentation.

So the first photo is the wort being chilled in the kettle down to 30 degrees C in preparation for transfer to the Droid.

The Braumeister has the fancy inbuilt cooling jacket so there is no need to sanitise a coil or use a counter flow chiller which is a nice feature.

Then using gravity to fill the Droid and filter the wort through the paint strainer bag lining a stainless steel strainer.

The second photo is the Droid prior to starting the brew program to achieve the final cooling of the wort down to yeast pitching temperature - 29C down to 21C in this instance.

In future I’d like to get a stand set up so that I don’t need to pick up a full Droid and take it through to the brewing room. It’s not a big deal for now.

Hopefully we’ll have a new “shed” at some stage with a different set up to make this part a bit simpler.

[Captain 3 Droids]

57 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

new “shed”

Look forward to this project, “Dustin 3 Droids”? ha ha

[Dustin Frothman]

2 hours ago, Captain 3 Droids said:

Look forward to this project, “Dustin 3 Droids”? ha ha

More like “Dustin please get your brewing crap outta the house 2 Droids”.

[Captain 3 Droids]

5 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

More like “Dustin please get your brewing crap outta the house 2 Droids”.

Lol ha ha ha😀

[Dustin Frothman]

Just now, Captain 3 Droids said:

Lol ha ha ha😀

“… and pour me beer whilst you’re at it thanks.”

[Thagomizer]

17 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

I didn’t post any photos of last week’s brew, a hoppy American Pale Ale, as there wasn’t anything particularly interesting about it but it’s almost done fermenting and smells great.

I thought following @Thagomizer’s posts about getting his wort to temp and into the Droid it could be useful to show my process.

Today’s brew was a West Coast IPA with no hops in the boil, a 30 minute hop stand and 110g of dry hopping on day 10 of fermentation.

So the first photo is the wort being chilled in the kettle down to 30 degrees C in preparation for transfer to the Droid.

The Braumeister has the fancy inbuilt cooling jacket so there is no need to sanitise a coil or use a counter flow chiller which is a nice feature.

Then using gravity to fill the Droid and filter the wort through the paint strainer bag lining a stainless steel strainer.

The second photo is the Droid prior to starting the brew program to achieve the final cooling of the wort down to yeast pitching temperature - 29C down to 21C in this instance.

In future I’d like to get a stand set up so that I don’t need to pick up a full Droid and take it through to the brewing room. It’s not a big deal for now.

Hopefully we’ll have a new “shed” at some stage with a different set up to make this part a bit simpler.

This is useful information.  You have an excellent piece of equipment with your Braumeister.  I use the Gigawort device witch requires an immersion wort chiller.  As mentioned in previous postings, my summer tap water temperatures are too warm for effective chilling by this procedure.  So my steeping recipes are on hold until winter.

Your gravity transfer method from Braumeister directly to BeerDroid will require lifting a full Droid up to the shelf or cart.  I use a four-quart (sanitized) vessel to catch the flow in stages and then pour it into my Droid (which will be on my rolling cart).  Several years ago, I bought an electric wort pump but have never used it because I can't think of a reliable way to sterilize it after use.  (Maybe I could pump a few gallons of Brewery Wash through it.)

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Thagomizer

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

19 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

 

I didn’t post any photos of last week’s brew, a hoppy American Pale Ale, as there wasn’t anything particularly interesting about it but it’s almost done fermenting and smells great.

I thought following @Thagomizer’s posts about getting his wort to temp and into the Droid it could be useful to show my process.

Today’s brew was a West Coast IPA with no hops in the boil, a 30 minute hop stand and 110g of dry hopping on day 10 of fermentation.

So the first photo is the wort being chilled in the kettle down to 30 degrees C in preparation for transfer to the Droid.

The Braumeister has the fancy inbuilt cooling jacket so there is no need to sanitise a coil or use a counter flow chiller which is a nice feature.

Then using gravity to fill the Droid and filter the wort through the paint strainer bag lining a stainless steel strainer.

The second photo is the Droid prior to starting the brew program to achieve the final cooling of the wort down to yeast pitching temperature - 29C down to 21C in this instance.

In future I’d like to get a stand set up so that I don’t need to pick up a full Droid and take it through to the brewing room. It’s not a big deal for now.

Hopefully we’ll have a new “shed” at some stage with a different set up to make this part a bit simpler.

I also use a similar method to fill the droid. My Nano brewery set up is outside on the balcony and it sits on the BBQ. I let it fill the Droid from a hose with the Droid sitting on the floor of the balcony. What's worse, once full, I then have dead lift it from the floor and carry the Droid filled with 11l of wort about 15 metres to where I normally sit the Droid to do it's thing in the Kitchen.

Get's heavy quickly.

I keep saying to my wife, this apartment is only a stop in our journey to own another house and the next house must have a shed which I will convert to a brew shed/man cave. Whenever I talk about this, you can quite literally hear her eyes rolling in their socks... LOL

Edited August 11, 2022 by Wazza_wantsbeer

[Thagomizer]

1 hour ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

I also use a similar method to fill the droid. My Nano brewery set up is outside on the balcony and it sits on the BBQ. I let it fill the Droid from a hose with the Droid sitting on the floor of the balcony. What's worse, once full, I then have dead lift it from the floor and carry the Droid filled with 11l of wort about 15 metres to where I normally sit the Droid to do it's thing in the Kitchen.

Get's heavy quickly.

I keep saying to my wife, this apartment is only a stop in our journey to own another house and the next house must have a shed which I will convert to a brew shed/man cave. Whenever I talk about this, you can quite literally hear her eyes rolling in their socks... LOL

Edited 1 hour ago by Wazza_wantsbeer

I feel your pain.  First, I would suggest a sturdy rolling cart to carry your droid. 

However, I get the same eye roll from my bride when I insist that our next house must have a laboratory room with an industrial sink and plenty of stainless steel shelf space.

Alas, the sacrifices we must make for our brews. 😉

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Kegged my latest all grain brew yesterday and boy, what a pain in the arse that was. Got about half way thru emptying the droid via the normal closed transfer when it would just slow down then come to a complete stop. I tried everything I could think of to get it to run thru but nothing worked.

At first, I thought it was something stuck in the Liquid (Out ) post which has happened before so I blew CO2 through it and there was no issues. Then I found that if I removed the disconnect and reattached it, it would run again but then would quickly stop.

So I ended up just doing that, disconnecting then reconnecting the liquid disconnect and finally got to the point where I could no longer see any beer thru the viewing port. I could tell the keg wasn't full but frankly, it took about to hours to get to that point and I gave up on trying to get any more into it.

After putting the keg aside, I removed the dry hop filter and tried the tap and barely anything came out, just a dribble.

When I opened the lid of the droid I saw that there was still plenty of beer left in the Droid as the level was just below the viewing port glass and it dawned on me that maybe the tap hole had filled up. So I washed and then sanitised my hand and stuck my hand into the Droid and sure enough, I found that the hole for the tap was completely filled up with sediment.

By moving that out of the way, the remaining beer flowed out of the droid so I took a number of glasses and filled them up to capture and save the beer.

And here are those glasses showing just how much was left in the keg...

Now for the details of this brew. It's a Topical Hazy IIIPA, a 9% monster and boy, does it taste great.

The grain bill for this:
3.2 kg - Gladfield Pilsner Malt 3.2 EBC (67.9%)
600 g - Gladfield Big-O Malted Oats 4 EBC (12.7%)
600 g - Gladfield Wheat Malt 2.9 EBC (12.7%)
200 g - Rice Hulls 0 EBC (4.2%)
115 g - 10 min - Boil - Corn Sugar (Dextrose) 0 EBC (2.4%)

And the Hops used:
Total Hops 275 g
Boil
10 min - 15 g - Warrior - 17.6% (24 IBU)
Hop Stand
15 min hopstand @ 75 °C
15 min 75 °C - 20 g - Amarillo - 9.7% (3 IBU)
15 min 75 °C - 20 g - Citra - 13.8% (4 IBU)
15 min 75 °C - 20 g - Rakau - 8.6% (2 IBU)
Dry Hops
Day 0 - 30 g - Amarillo - 9.7%
Day 0 - 30 g - Citra - 13.8%
Day 0 - 25 g - Moutere - 18%
3 days - 35 g - Rakau - 8%
3 days - 25 g - Amarillo - 9.7%
3 days - 25 g - Citra - 13.8%
3 days - 25 g - El Dorado - 12.4%

Yeast - Omega OLY-200 Tropical IPA

First off, the Omega Tropical IPA was a real beast and this brew got to Dry Hopping at day 5. It was fast and furious for the first 3 days and then settled down. I took a sample to check on the gravity on day 4 when I didn't see much activity and it was already down to 1.012 from and Original Gravity of 1.079. Final Gravity ended at 1.010, just as predicted by Brewfather.

For those interested in the stats:
Pre-boil Gravity:1.060
Original Gravity: 1.078
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV: 8.9%

I am calling this a Hazy rather than a New England IPA (NEIPA) because I wanted this to end up a little drier than a typical NEIPA and I certainly got that with a 1.010 FG. If I didn't use the Dextrose and used another yeast, FG would probably have been around the 1.020 mark so lots of residual sugars. As it stands, this is still very hazy, very juicy and still has a fairly thick mouthfeel but definitely not as thick as your usual NEIPA.

Second point, yes, that's a lot of hops. When planning this brew, it started out as using just Citra and Amarillo hops. But then I went into my freezer and saw that I have so many half or less than half full bags of hops that I thought, why not try to use some of those.

I used the hop comparison Hop Comparison tool on the Beer Maverick website (https://beermaverick.com/hops/hop-comparison-tool/) and selected additional hops that I thought would compliment the base Citra and Amarillo hops. Rakau, Moutere and El Dorado certainly fit that bill and I used what I had remaining of those hops.

Note, for the Day 0 hop addition I used a hop bag and that the second hop addition was 110g just tossed into the droid after removing the Day 0 hop bag and it was this sediment that was blocking the tap hole. Well mostly that as well as some trub.

Interestingly, when I did get all the salvageable beer out, the trub at the bottom was a quite clearly delineated layer of green hop sediment which sat on top of the trub. And combined, this was above the bottom of the tap hole. And then the momentum of the beer going thru the tap hole must have slowly placed enough hop and trub to block or mostly obstruct the hole.

Also, one thing I did forget to check when having the filling issues was the dry hop filter itself and it was pretty chock full of hop debris. Yes I know @Dustin FrothmanI still need to get that better filter insert  😉

So, major lessons learned in this one.

And for those interested, those filled glasses of salvaged beer were put into my fridge where they sat allowing the sediment to settle and I drank every one of them and yes, at 9%, by the time my wife got home from work, I was very heavily sauced... Piss-Head Tuesday!

The flavour of this flat beer was just amazing, so much tropical and citrus flavour. Can't wait to try this on Friday after it's spent a few days on CO2 and it will be nicely carbonated by then.

Cheers

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 11/8/2022 at 9:29 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

What's worse, once full, I then have dead lift it from the floor and carry the Droid filled with 11l of wort about 15 metres to where I normally sit the Droid to do it's thing in the Kitchen.

Get's heavy quick

This may help (I got a circular one from Bunnings but couldn’t find it, anyway) put two milk crates on and you have an ideal heavy/awkward goods mover. I used it for years moving crates of bottle beer from the kitchen. Still use to day, eg 20g if malt at the front door - place on top of the crates and a way you go. Why the two crates, well us older farts can’t bend to much these days so it’s at a good height for pushing/move ability.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/syneco-580-x-290-x-100mm-movers-dolly_p3962033

 

[Dustin Frothman]

On 17/08/2022 at 8:40 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Lots of words

No one would ever suggest that you're anything less than resourceful Wazza! 😂

I'm surprised the 110g blocked the tap. Are you still kegging at cold temps? I understand why you do, but it could be what is causing the sediment to sit around the tap spigot and block it. Perhaps you need to use the bag for your second and third additions too?

In this instance the third party filter insert wouldn't have helped you much. It probably would've made things worse.

A good looking beer anyway. 👏

[Dustin Frothman]

@Wazza_wantsbeerI kegged an IPA today that had 110g dry hopped at 5 degrees for just over 24 hours and then I kegged at that temperature.

I did the usual process with the tap clearing pour, filled a PET bottle, then cleaned the filter before filling the keg.

The keg filling went without issue but the dry hop filter was completely full of hop debris. 

So perhaps the third party filter would assist you as it appears it can keep up with those sorts of volumes at cold temperatures.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Forgot to update the thread. I know @Dustin Frothman has seen this already on FB but to share with others here, the Tropical Hazy IIIPA has turned out brilliantly.

Just what I hoped for, an absolute tropical fruit bomb.

Look: Absolutely stoked with the colour, very tropical fruit breakfast juice like. Super hazy with a almost pure white head that stays for a while and leaves decent lacing. Which is quite surprising as I didn't use anything specifically to improve the head retention such as carapils or dextrine.

Aroma: Not as tropical, more citrus on the nose with underlying hints of tropical fruits, particularly mango.

Mouth Feel: It starts Nice and hazy, mouth feel not as thick and full as a NEIPA but still very smooth and quite thick but finishes drier than your standard NEIPA. Definitely lingers on the palate and at 9% you can't taste the alcohol but you certainly can feel it after a couple of glasses.

Flavour: As above, a real tropical and citrus fruit bomb. Initial flavours that hit the palate are citrus but as you hold it and then move it around in your mouth and finally swallow, the tropical flavours start to shine. The mango and pineapple stand out but there are definite hints of papaya and just "tropical flavours".

Quite possibly my favourite so far of all my 25 odd brews.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Wazza_wantsbeer

[Dustin Frothman]

Happy Friday. 

Drinking the last of the Coopers NEIPA which just happens to be tasting great today.

Cooking up another ESB. It’s very similar to the last recipe I tried with Challenger hops in the boil and a small dry hop.

🍻

[Dustin Frothman]

On 10/8/2022 at 2:04 PM, Dustin Frothman said:

Today’s brew was a West Coast IPA with no hops in the boil, a 30 minute hop stand and 110g of dry hopping on day 10 of fermentation.

Taster bottle at 2 weeks.

Is nice, I like.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Latest all grain is in the Droid and has been for 11 and 1/2 days so far and still waiting on the dry hop notice. This is by far my longest brew and it's pretty crazy that it's taking this long.

It's a single hop - Wai-iti DDH NEIPA using the White Labs WLP066 London Fog Ale yeast again and like @Dustin Frothman's WCIPA, no hops were used in the boil.

I love how this yeast turns out in these Hazy/NEIPAs as it really adds to the flavour profile and juiciness. However, it's a yeast that can take its time, that's for sure. I initially thought this might be because it was a month or so out of "best before date" and didn't have the sufficient number of cells and therefore propagation and therefore fermentation was slow.

In reality, there was signs of vigorous fermentation about 12 hours after pitching and obvious very vigorous activity looking thru the view port on day 2 and thinking it was high krausen, so I did the first dry hop addition of 100g of Wai-iti in a large hop bag.

I have another 115g of Wai-iti for the second dry hop addition waiting on that notification. But when I look thru the viewing port, I'm still seeing plenty of activity, bubbles and small material rising and falling in the wort.

Yesterday, because it had been 8 days since the fist dry hop addition which is way too long, and yes because I was a bit worried, I opened the lid and using a well sanitised set of stainless steel tongs, I took out the bag of hops and did a quick inspection and all looks good with a pretty thick layer of krausen still on the top of the wort. That was 10.5 days into the fermentation and it's still going today, 11.5 days in.

The way it's going, I'm thinking the dry hop notification from the Droid for another 2 or possibly 3 days from today which would be crazy long for an ale like this.

For the nerds, Gravity stats for this beer as follows:

Actual:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.069
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: 1.
ABV:    %

Brewfather predicts:
Pre-Boil Gravity:1.061
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV: 7.5%

So as you can see, my efficiency was way above what Brewfather predicted as I was 8 points above in the pre-boil reading.

To be honest, it was a pretty crazy boil and I ended up with less than 10 litres of wort for the droid so I quickly topped up with RO water and added 50g of Dextrose to compensate for the dilution. As it turned out, if I had just used the RO water to get the wort to the desired ~11 litres, I probably would have ended up with the OG of 1.070 as predicted by Brewfather.

I think there is a post coming soon from me around efficiency and gravity as I get some brews that are pretty spot on and others that vary wildly from what Brewfather predicts and I'm using the same equipment profile for each.

Full recipe is as follows:

Fermentables (4.5 kg)
2 kg - Gladfield Pilsner Malt 3.5 EBC (44.4%)
1.5 kg - Pale Malt, Golden Promise 3.5 EBC (33.3%)
800 g - Gladfield Big-O Malted Oats 4 EBC (17.8%)
200 g - Rice Hulls 0 EBC (4.4%)

Hops (285 g)
Hop Stand
20 min 75 °C - 70 g - Wai-iti - 2% (2 IBU)
Dry Hops
Day 2 - 100 g - Wai-iti - 2%
3 days - 115 g - Wai-iti - 2%

Miscellaneous
Mash - 4 g - Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
Mash - 1.5 g - Canning Salt (NaCl)
Mash - 0.5 g - Epsom Salt (MgSO4)
Mash - 0.5 g - Gypsum (CaSO4)
Mash - 3 ml - Phosphoric Acid 85%
Mash - 2.5 g - Sodium Metabisulfite (Na2S2O5)
10 min - Boil - 5 g - Yeast Nutrients

Yeast
1 pkg - White Labs London Fog Ale WLP066

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

On 06/09/2022 at 9:53 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Gravity stats for this beer as follows:

Actual:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.069
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: 1.
ABV:    %

Brewfather predicts:
Pre-Boil Gravity:1.061
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV: 7.5%

Still fermenting away on day 12 and 1/2 days in and still no dry hop notification.

I did take a sample and checked the gravity last night and it was at 1.019 which is 6 points off from the estimated FG.

Looking thru the viewing port, activity finally seems to be slowing down today with only a few tiny bubbles moving around and looking at the temp graph in the app, it's losing temps and having to be bumped up to 21°C quite regularly now.

Hopefully will get the dry hop notification tonight and it'll only be 4 more days but will be the longest brew day by far at 17 days in total, and that's only if dry hop notification happens today.

Love the results of this yeast, not so happy with how bloody long it takes as I'm now out of beer in my kegerator  😰

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

20 hours ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Still fermenting away on day 12 and 1/2 days in and still no dry hop notification.

I did take a sample and checked the gravity last night and it was at 1.019 which is 6 points off from the estimated FG.

Looking thru the viewing port, activity finally seems to be slowing down today with only a few tiny bubbles moving around and looking at the temp graph in the app, it's losing temps and having to be bumped up to 21°C quite regularly now.

Hopefully will get the dry hop notification tonight and it'll only be 4 more days but will be the longest brew day by far at 17 days in total, and that's only if dry hop notification happens today.

Love the results of this yeast, not so happy with how bloody long it takes as I'm now out of beer in my kegerator  😰

Whew!

Received notification from the Droid to Dry Hop yesterday evening, 13 days from pitching the London Fog yeast. Given the 2 day dry hop and 2 day cold crash schedule, this will be a 17 day brew, longest by far... WOW!!!

Actually added the dry hops this morning 12 hours after the notice as I don't like to do the second dry hop addition for a full 4 days. So this will be a 3.5 day dry hopping of 115g of Wai-iti.

Looks and smells awesome, can't wait to try it.

Used a total of 270g of Wai-iti hops, 100g in the first hop addition, 110.5g in the second.

[Dustin Frothman]

On 06/09/2022 at 9:23 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

I think there is a post coming soon from me around efficiency and gravity as I get some brews that are pretty spot on and others that vary wildly from what Brewfather predicts and I'm using the same equipment profile for each.

The more all grain recipes I brew the more I find this too. I don't really care as I only judge my beers on taste, but it can be a bit frustrating.

From what I understand so far, mash ph has a lot to do with this. So when I have some time I'm going to get more experienced using my ph meter and start refining that aspect of my technique because I've been mostly winging it.

[Hambone]

Yeah it'll probably be in the pH of the water. Towards the end of my all grain brewing I had the water profiles really dialled in and I hit the numbers 99% of the time.

Cheers