Brew Day Is Looming

The next brew day will be Friday 17 Sep 10. I know, you may be thinking that this man drinks a lot. However, the beer festival at the end of July depleted my stocks a little even though I brewed an extra barrel. The next brew will be called Autumn Glory though it probably won't get drunk until after Christmas. Hopefully it will be a best bitter full of autumn flavours and aromas. I am aiming for an ABV of about 4.5% although I won't be too disappointed if it comes in lower than that. I have all the ingredients except for about 2kg of light spray malt and yeast which I will order on Wednesday from the Thrifty Shopper. I shall follow the same procedure as last time but with a check list to make sure there are no hiccups.

Day Action Wednesday Order necessary ingredients etc from Thrifty Shopper Thursday Boil 20 litres of water and leave to cool. Friday Dissolve light spray malt in 10 litres of warm (40C) water Transfer water into boiler and top up to 20 litres and bring to boil Add hops at start of boil Continue boiling for 80 minutes Add additional hops and Irish moss for last 10 minutes of boil Continue boiling for 10 minutes Turn off boiler Leave boiler for 30-40 minutes for dross to settle Transfer 15 litres of cooled water to fermentation vessel Run off wort from boiler into fermentation vessel Top up fermentation vessel to 23 litres with cooled water Seal and leave fermentation vessel to cool When wort is below 30C check original gravity and pitch yeast Place fermentation vessel in cupboard and leave at 22C for 7-10 days I'm still looking for a practical and cheap way to rapidly cool the wort. Some sort of immersion coil made from copper tubing seems to be the way to go. Or I could get a large water proof container, fill with cold water and place the fermentation vessel in that. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this subject please leave in comment box. Ta!