Scottish Brew Day & Pics!

Well, finally a friend of mine and I got around to getting into the brewery I work at to brew some homebrew. Today we brewed a Scottish "Export 80", a malty style of beer around 5% abv. See this BJCP Style Guide link for exact details. We were aiming for an initial SG of 1.052, and wound up with an initial gravity of 1.053, so pretty much bang on! However, of efficiency was way high... about 86% compared to the 75% predicted. Sooo... we had about 5 L of extra wort. Luckily, we were making a 40 L batch and fermenting in a 58.8 L keg I had. So I figure we got about 43 L total out of the whole deal after losses, which means that after racking it following primary fermentation we should have 40 L to split between the two of us.
Anyway, on with some pictures:


Here is just a shot of the brewhouse of the brewery I work at. On the right is the mash tun, then hidden to the left of it is the boil kettle, which is hidden by the hot liquor tank. You can see some huge 500 kg bags of pale 2-row malt above.


Of course, since we're brewing at a brewery, there is beer to be sampled :)



This was the mash. We had some weird temperatures going on... we were aiming for a 69 C mash for a dextrinous wort, however we seemed to start at 71 C or so and then at the end it seemed to be down to like 65.



Under the box is the mash, the box is just for insulation.



Heating up ~40 L of water for sparging with. We used phosphoric acid to drop the pH of the water to 6 or there 'bouts.


Starting to recirculate the wort through the grain bed until it runs clear, as the grain acts as a filter for crap in the wort.


We then take the sparge water and sprinkle it over the grain to seep out all the sugar & good stuff from the grains.


The the wort then flows into the boil kettle, which is heating on the propane burner.


After the wort boiled for about 2 hours (quite a long boil!) we cooled it quickly with an immersion chiller. Cold water is pumped through the copper tubing which coils inside the kettle. This robs the heat from the wort and cools it pretty quickly (from boiling to 21 C in about 20 minutes).


Finally, we needed a fermenter, and decided to use a 58.8 L keg I picked up when I was living in Fort St. John. We put it on the brewery keg washer which automatically washes and sanitizes it. We then removed the seal and spear (tube that gets beer from the bottom of the keg), put the beer in, and covered the hole with a sanitized piece of aliminum foil and a cup to keep it on. Its about 18 C in the brewery on regular days, so it should bo ok for the Scottish ale yeast which should be fermented a little colder than normal.

The plan is to let it do primary fermentation for 3 weeks, then just transfer it into two 19 L "corny" kegs which will be stored at 2 C for a few more weeks, carbonated, then served!

Cheers!