Aqua Vitae

My second attempt at the Golden Bitter has been very successful so far. It’s the first batch which I’ve brewed utilizing the many new additions to the brewhouse (BeerAlchemy, magnetic stir plate, cooler mash tun w/ false bottom, pH meter, refractometer, pump aeration system).

• Starting mash temp was exact after calculating the Thermal Mass of the tun
• pH was very close to target (target 5.2, actual 5.28)
• Efficiency was right on target (75%)
• Preboil Gravity was perfect (1.041)

All the tools made things go pretty smoothly. Mashing in the cooler was easy (only had to bring the temp up a few degrees @45min) and the refractometer makes taking reading really quick. BeerAlchemy is super helpful, I love the step by step instructions that you can print after entering your batch info. I only wish it included notes of when to take readings, instead I made a little form to print out and take notes on.

The batch is now happily fermenting in a water bath in the basement and is holding 70º perfectly. I’m monitoring the internal temp with the new thermowell and thermostat (only being used to tell the internal temp, no apparatus hooked up) and am not seeing any major rises in temp. The water bath was just a precaution, the basement right now is a consistent 70º, a little disappointing since I hadn’t ever seen it above 60º and thought it would have been great for long term conditioning, but at least it’s perfect for primary fermenting.

Tags: Golden Bitter