Pale Ale Brew Day

Brew day had come around again, and I was on my own for a change. This meant I needed to redesign the set up as there was no way I was going to be able to lift the mash tun or boiler by my self once they were full.

So after a bit of thought while cleaning the kit, I decided on a 3 tiered approach. With the hot liquor tank as high as I could get it ( a bit daunting having 40L of hot water and a gas burner 6ft off the ground on shelving I got 15 years ago ), the mash tun sitting on a table, and the boiler sitting on the bottom rung at  the other end of the shelving.

The day proceeded as planned, I was mashing in just after 9am and the set up was working well. I had picked up some food grade reinforced house for $2. This gave me extra hose allowing a bit more space between components making them easier to get to and with the taps I could control the flow of both the water for the mash tun and the wort coming out of it.

With the mash and a short batch sparge done it was on to the boil. With 40L in a 50L keg I was not confident that there would not be a boil over, and there were a few anxious moments as the foam started to rise, but all turned out ok. The wort got 2 doses of Citra hops at 45 and 15mins. I have been looking forward to using Citra they taste great and have a great aroma.

With the boil done and the cooling finished I split the batch into 2 fermenters, the 14L batch will get a 20gm dose of Citra dry hopped after the primary is done; and the 18L batch will get 160gm of our Cascade flowers (  having been stored in the freezer since harvest ).