In action!
This was a Saturday in February 1998, and Vörtens Vänner are having a "clubrewing" - a two step pilsner decoction.



Presentation of gadget no. one - the big shiny thing
in front of the boys are BERTHA, our doublecoated mashtun/
boiler. She contains 75 liters, are using 12.500
watts, and needs 25 Amps - she's a useful girl!

Hasse and Janne at the mashtun/boiler
Hasse is stirring the mash, Janne
make sure he's doing it right.



The recipe:

10 kg (22 lb)
120 gr (4.4 ounce)
110 gr (4.3 ounce)
96 gr (3.5 ounce)
pilsner malt
Saaz, 60 min
Saaz, 15 min
Saaz, as the boil stops

The hops have 4.3 alpha acid.
No watertreatment - mashwater.
Lactic acid in the spargewater - 1 ml (cc)/10 liter.
striketemp 13 C.




Brewing part I

After raising from striketemp to 52 C and rest for 5 min, 2/3 of the mash are removed, and kept at 52 C for 55 min.

Meanwhile the 1/3 is brought up to 75 C for 10 minutes followed by a 15 min heavy boil.

The 1/3 are now merged with the 2/3, wich raises the temperature to about 63 C, let it rest for 10 min.

Janne is filling DORIS up with the mash.
Janne is pouring 2/3 of the mash into
DORIS, our sparging tun.

A pizza and a homebrew is something
we all look forward to!
Brewing part II

Once again you remove 1/3, and do the same thing as with the first 1/3 (meanwhile the 2/3 is resting at 63 C).

After about 55 min you merge the 1/3 with the 2/3 and get a temperature of 75 C, let it rest for 10 min.

At the top you can see our hot liquor tank - GERDA. The spargewater runs by gravity through pipes attached to the wall and ends in DORIS via the SPARGER (see sparge pic.). (equip.pic.)
The guys are gathered
Anders, Janne, Hasse and Peter are gathered in
front of the equipment.
Mike the thirsty dancer!
After lunch some of us starts to dance...

Other keeps calculating... and of course drinking beer!
Brewing part III

The mash is now ready for sparging, and gadget no.2 come in handy - DORIS. Doris is our spargetun, 110 l and diameter of 60 cm makes a proper mashbed for 10 to 20 kilo malt.

How the circulation works:

A. Here comes the spargewater.

B. A hose from the spargesprinkler, connecting to the spargewaterpipe.

C. Here you connect the outlet from the pump when you circulate in the beginning, meanwhile you keep A (spargewaterpipe) closed. And of course the input to the pump is connected to the 44 (see equip. pic.)

D. When you get a clear wort, you switch the pumpoutlet from C to D, and this pipe leads the wort up to the boiler, very handy!

(sparge pic.)

After mashing it's time to remove the used grist.
In the top left corner you can see our wortchiller, it used to be a milkchiller, but it works very efficient with wort also.
About straing hops...not much to say about it (well...Hot Side Aeriation is a suitable word!).

We are pouring the wort from BERTHA through an old hopbag into the 44 (see equip.pic). From here we pump it thorough the chiller and into the fermentationbin.

Hasse is doin all the dirty work today!
Here you can see our stainless falsebottom.
Thats all folks!


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