Brewing with the Master Brewer
After programming the controller with the steps for your recipe, it is time to get brewing. We assume you’ve read up on how to make beer, but just to recap, the steps are:
- Mashing
- Lautering
- Sparging
- Boiling
- Cooling
- And of course, fermenting after that.
Mashing - Ensure the bazooka filter is fitted then add your strike water based on your recipe and brewing software calculations (these systems benefit from a wetter than normal mash consistency - for example 5 kgs of grain to 20 litres of water) next insert the malt pipe into the brewer and ensure the plug is placed into the overflow pipe to stop grain from entering. You have already set up your steps for your brew day so you can now press start. The master brewer will now go to your first mash step temperature. Once the temperature has been achieved its time to add your grain, the timer will be counting down but you will have given time on this step to dough in, usually 15 minutes is plenty. Take your time adding the grain and ensure it is stirred well to ensure you have no dough balls (clumps of dry grain) use all the time you have given yourself for doughing in. You can now remove the plug and insert the sparge plate into the malt pipe ensuring you push it all the way down onto the wet grain just so a few mm of fluid cover the plate perforations. With the lid on place the silicone tube from the top inlet through the hole. Next is to open the anti burn valve and the riser tube valve and turn the pump on. The level of flow to the top inlet can be adjusted using the riser tube valve, you want a slow, steady flow ensuring that the wort doesn't rise above the sparge plate and pour over the edge. Recirculate now, periodically checking the rate of flow for your remaining step time.
Lautering - Now your mash has ended it's time to separate the wort from the grain. Turn off the pump, remove the lid, attach the handle and lift the malt pipe to the halfway point. Let the wort drain for a few minutes and then lift to the top position. If you followed the step instructions on page 4 your boiler will now be going to approx 90ºC to wait for you to finish your sparge, this cuts down on waiting/heating time getting to the boil making your brewday more efficient. At 90ºC you can have as much wait time as you see fit. We would suggest a 15 minute step at 90ºC to give you time to sparge, remove the grain basket and get your hops additions ready for the boil.
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Sparging - The wort has now drained from the grains and now you are going to rinse the rest of the sugars from the grain. Place the plug into the overflow pipe. Your brewing software will have told you how much sparge water to use based on your recipe (approximately 14 litres for a 23 litre batch or 10 litres for a 19 litre batch both based on 20 litres strike water - 34 litres total water for 23 litre batch 30 for 19 litre) and you can now start rinsing the grains with your measured amounts of water. If you are using the Bulldog Sparger this step will be nice and easy and your sparge water will now be sat at the perfect sparge temperature. Ensuring that the tap, the anti burn valve and the riser tube valve on the master brewer are turned off disconnect the quick release connector from the master brewer tap and connect to the tap on the Bulldog Sparger. Connect a length of silicone tube to the top inlet and place the other end in the malt pipe on top of the sparge plate. Open the tap on the sparger, open the valve on the riser tube and turn on the pump ensuring that the silicone pipe is secured in the malt pipe. You can now vary the flow using the riser tube valve. . |
Boiling - You’ve sparged, your 90ºC wait step has ended and you are now approaching 100ºC and boiling point. You want a constant rolling boil and to achieve this you should follow boil step instructions on page 4 where you set the boil step as over boiling point at 103ºC. The boiler will always be going to the boil and always on. If you had set it at 100ºC the thermostat on the system would activate and turn the heating coils off constantly interrupting the boil. When you see the boil has started and you are through the hot break (protein build up which causes frothy bubbles on the top of the wort at boiling point) you can then press + and - together and calibrate the system up to 103ºC to start your step timer. As soon as the timer has started press + and - again and calibrate down to 100ºC again. Add your hop additions as your recipe states using the step timer to guide you. With 10 minutes to go submerge your immersion chiller in the boiling wort to sanitise.
Please note the malt pipe is not suitable to be used as a hop spider/filter.
Chilling/Cooling - Your immersion chiller is in the brewer, your water inlet and outlet hoses are attached and the boil is complete. Turn on the cold water and start cooling ensuring the outlet hose is where you want it and not flooding your kitchen. You could now also collect some hot waste water in a bucket for your clean up. Cool to yeast pitching temperature 25c -18c and if you have set this as a step the Bulldog Controller will let you know when it’s there.
That is it... From here it's the yeasts job turning the bittersweet wort into your wonderful beer and that is done without the Master Brewer (so you can start planning your next brew!).