805 Clone

The second of three beers to be entered in the brewing competition is an 805 clone. I grabbed the recipe from the internets.

9lbs 2-row
0.75lbs Honey Malt
0.75lbs Torrified Wheat

1oz Willamette 4.7%AA @60mins
2oz Willamette 4.7%AA @5mins

WLP 002 x2 MFG: Apr 18, 2017 LOT#: 1037085

servomyces
whirlfloc

Distilled water with the following additions in the mash only:
2g Gypsum
6g Calcium Chloride
2g Epsom Salt
2g Canning Salt
3g Lactic acid

So I'm trying something new today. I'm adding the brewing salts to the mash only. I will then sparge with distilled. I'll be sure to measure the pH of the mash and sparge to be sure that we are still at an acceptable range.

11:25 - Just mashed in. Had some trouble with the ball valve. Once it was all put together and I put the strike water in, it started to leak. I had to empty the mash tun and then tighten it up. It may be time to replace the plastic in them.

No problems today with the crusher.

Once I added the grain and salts I measured the pH and it measured in at 5.2 (which is what I want). But I already measured out the lactic so I said what the hell and added it anyway. The mash now measures 5.08. We'll see if it matters. I intend to sparge with just distilled so we will see what the final pH is after all is said and done.

1:14 - Things are going well. Mom and Dad rolled in with Bugsy so I halted for a little bit to say hi them and feed baby a little. Sparge pH was well under 5.6 (I think it was 5.35) and the final pH before I started heating up the wort was 5.25. We will see how that all comes out. The pre-boil gravity is 1.036 which means I should have a 1.046 beer. My mash scooper is starting to break. Perhaps I should get a new one. I'm about 10 minutes into the boil now.

3:52 - All done. Things went ok. The beer ended up with a gravity of 1.045. It got cooled to 73F which is higher than I would have wanted. The plate chiller makes it rough to know what temp we are dialed in for. There is an inline thermometer from more beer that tells you the temp of the beer on it's way out of the chiller. I think I need to get that for the next brew. Also, I have no idea how to cool wort to lager temps using the plate chiller. Regardless, the wort tasted good and I'm excited to see the results.

Redemption

I don't know why I didn't post this until now but after my horrible brew day I woke up and I decided I was going to brew that beer again. And I was going to do it now. I drove myself to the bearded brewer and got the ingredients. I then heated up some boiling tap water and tried to cool it with the plate chiller via ice water and that seemed to work.

In that new setup I filled the basin with ice water and pumped it into the plate chiller. The beer ended up chilling great. The starting beer temp was around 64F. The gravity was different. It came in at around 1.065 and the previous batch was closer to 1.070. I added three packets of yeast with no starter.

I went to bed that night tired and happy. I haven't sampled the beer yet but I did note that the fermentation didn't seem very aggressive. I heard almost no noise from the airlock like I normally do. I'll keg it tomorrow and we will see how it turned out.

Edit: Kegged this beer today on May 19. Final Gravity was 1.025. The beer was a little more roasty than I was hoping for but it seems ok. I will enter it and we will see. It's not going to win an award but hopefully I get some good feedback.