North Cro Belgian Golden Strong Ale Snapshot

PRE-BREW DAY PREPARATIONS

MEASURE SALTS
Very carefully measure out salts, put in medicine bottle.

MEASURE GRAINS
Carefully weigh out 12# of Dingemann's Pilsener malt and 4 oz Briess Pilsen 1L.

MEASURE HOPS
Carefully weigh out the hop additions, put in small mason jars. under vacuum.

YEAST STARTER (One week before brew day).
This high gravity beer will need a 4 liter starter. 400 billion cells are needed. Prepare 4L of wort in the flask. Add yeast, put on stir plate.

(Actually, a 4.25 L starter is needed, so a sample of it can be saved for later culturing.)

DAY BEFORE BREW DAY
Prepare brewing water - with the grain basket in place, add PRECISELY 8.4 gallons water to the kettle.

Salts/acids - add mineral salts as prescribed, than add 3 ml 85% phosphoric acid. Check pH of water at this time and record.

BREW DAY!
Heat brewing water up to 148 deg F and hold there. Pump must remain off for the mash-in.

Mash-in
Add grains to the the water/basket, and stir in vigorously. Keep stirring as temperature rises back to 148 deg F. After 10 min, check pH. If pH is more than 5.45, more acid will be needed.

First Saccharification Rest
(45 minutes)
Open valves, allow liquid to enter the recirculation system. Establish recirculation at a moderate flow rate. Conduct the rest at 148 deg F for 45 minutes.

Second Saccharification Rest
(30 minutes)
Conduct this rest at 158 deg F for 30 minutes. Stir as needed,.

Mash-out/Vorlauf
(15 minutes)
Raise temperature to 168 deg F. Allow recirculation to continue as usual.

Raising the Basket
TURN OFF RECIRCULATION. Raise the basket and hang on side of the kettle, as is usually done.

Rinsing the Grains in the Basket
It's now time to rinse the grains in the hanging basket with recirculating wort. First, SHUT OFF VALVES, then raise the basket. Remove the malt pipe from the end of the Direct Deposit recirculation arm, and remove the hose from the bottom end of the Direct Deposit recirculation assembly. Now, attach a hose there. This will be used to recirculate wort through the grains in the raised basket.

Using the mid-way position of the whirlpool 3-way valve, and holding the hose up (WEAR GLOVES!), recirculate wort over the grains, while simultaneously whirlpooling. Continue for 15 minutes. Remove basket and allow to drain into bucket.

WHIRLPOOL
Reconfigure hoses for the whirlpool, with pump-out going into Therminator plate chiller. Allow hot wort to flow into the hoses/chiller. When bubbling is complete, turn on the pump.

Allow the hot wort to flow into the chiller and recirculate. After 10 min, all is sterilized and chilling may begin.

CHILLING
Turn on hose water. Allow temperature to drop to 185 deg F, then turn off pump. Within 5 minutes, temp should be at 175 deg F. At this time, add the whirlpool hops and allow recirculation to continue for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minute recirculation, turn the hose water back on. Chill to as cold as it will get, then use ice water recirculation if necessary, to bring temp down to 64 deg F or a bit lower. When chilling is complete, turn off the hose water recirculation.


MOVING WORT TO FERMENTER
Assure oxygenation setup is in place. Pour Yeast Buddy into the sanitized fermentor first, then start the transfer. Assure there is a steady stream of bubbles going into the outflowing wort. When the fermentor is about 1/2 full, add the Brewzyme-D and continue filling until wort stops flowing. Put a cover on the fermentor now. Gently swirl fermentor so that thorough mixing of Yeast Buddy and BrewZyme-D solutions occurs.

PITCHING THE YEAST
Decant the supernatant from the yeast culture. Save a little of the yeast in a jar for reculturing. Now, add the remainder of the yeast to the fermentor. With the diptube/airlock cap in place, swirl the fermentor gently to evenly distribute yeast.

FERMENTATION
Begin fermentation at 65 deg F. After 12-18 hours, add oxygen to fermentating wort for 30 seconds.

Unplug heating blanket. Allow the temperature to self rise on its own over several days, but not warmer than 82 deg F. When temperature has reached 82 deg F, When temp reaches 82 deg F, set temp at 75 deg F. Have fermentation continue for a week to 10 days, until the Tilt Hydrometer shows the gravity is no longer dropping.