We have brewed!

I'll add a full report at the weekend, but suffice it to say we have brewed two batches of beer, "statement of intent" and "mosaic"!

Both brewdays went pretty well, a few minor things need sorting but we can now make beer.... So, in a few weeks, we will have to start selling it!

Very happy now and relieved it all works... And, more importantly, Hopcraft towers smells like a brewery now.

First brewdate : Tuesday 18th June.

You read it here first.

Barring any last-minute farces we are expecting to brew our first production beer, suitably named "Statement of Intent", on Tuesday.

We've now got the final parts we need to be able to circumvent the loss of our main wort pump (until it's back in a week or two) and so it looks like it's all systems go next week when we'll brew either two or three beers depending how the first one goes; expect to see "Spanish Main" and "Mosaic" following the first brew into FVs 1,2 and 4.

Monday sees us helping friends create a batch of homebrew for a wedding as well as the final preparations for brewday so, if that all goes well and everything checks out, we'll be mashing in early on Tuesday.  Follow @hopcraftGazza on twitter for up-to-the-minute swearing, ranting and general gibberish on the day...

FV3 ready for action & other stories

First off, the reason we didn't brew last week - our leaking wort pump - is now at the pump hospital and undergoing some serious TLC or, in more technical speak, a full refurbishment and seal replacement!  This should hopefully mean that it'll last us a couple of years at least and will therefore be earning it's keep.

In the meantime we've been installing a computer, washing casks and generally getting ready for brewday so once the pump is back we can reconnect it, do a final water test and then - finally - get some beer made!  We're absolutely desperate to get brewing, even more so after visiting Cardiff beer festival last Thursday, so with a bit of good fortune we may get to brew our first batch this week...

One of the jobs we've been putting off was the commissioning and cleaning of FV3 (this was going to be FV4 but Dai the electrician wired it in as FV3 and it was too much hassle to change it!) so, being unable to brew, we instead used the time to install non-return valves on the cooler lines, run up all the chiller units and confirm the cooling coils on the FVs were doing their job; the tests all passed with flying colours (they brought the internal tank temperatures down to below 20c then shut off) and so pleased was Gazza with this he even got into FV3 and scrubbed it out, meaning we now have all fermenters ready for action.  

FV3 is our "reserve" fermenter which will be pressed into service if we need it in the future or at busy times, so to have it ready (apart from the outlet pipe and valve which needs to be made) is a very positive development.  It was previously used as the hot liquor tank at Iceni (hence the circular scratches in the bottom where the paddle once stirred it) but an internal inspection revealed it was in as good condition (apart from some minor scratching) as the others and so the cleaning went ahead!

We're also making a list of parts we want from AB Stainless of Hereford including a kegging connector for the conditioning tanks and level gauges on the CIP tanks; even though we're not quite brewing it's still all systems go down at Hopcraft towers.

FV3 after cleaning.

First pumpclips...

Gazza has just finished the pumpclip proofs for our first beers....

These things come to try us....

Bacchus certainly knows how to twist our melons....

Our first brew is so close yet we'll have to wait another few frustrating days... well, when you build your own brewery things have a habit of unexpectedly packing up on you!

First, the good news; our gas burners are installed and working!  Lighting them at present involves lying on the floor and using all 3 hands to hold a lighting flame, press a button and operate a lever whilst trying to peer at a pilot light through a slitty hole which wouldn't be out of place in the Maginot line... sounds difficult? It is, but until we get our "access hatch" made that's how it will be done!  But they're in and working, that's the main thing after weeks of anguish and frustration which (almost) made us wish we'd gone with electric elements.

The bad news is that, during the first "hot run" with boiling water, our wort pump decided to blow it's main seal and spray Gazza with 95c water which was greatly appreciated, I can tell you; how I laughed as steaming water soaked through my trousers...  The offending contraption will hopefully be fixed earlier this week but, with 20/20 hindsight, we should have got the pumps serviced before use as they'd been sat in a shed for 5 years which looks to have degraded the seals.  Hey ho.

Ah well, better to lose a few gallons of water than it to happen on our first brewday and lose a 9 of wort!

So, with yeast, malt and hops at the ready we're poised and ready to make some great beer!

At last, gas burners under the copper!!!

The offending pump, yesterday.

Testing the FV attemperation modules.

Our first boil!

Ok, so it's only water, but we now have working gas burners! We're testing the hot water path and will be using the water for caustic washing tomorrow... Downside is our wort pump has a leaking seal which can hopefully be fixed quickly.

Steam!

Today is a good day.

Loads done today, including, but not limited, to....

We have 1.25.tons of malt
Our "spot" hop stash is sorted
The copper sight glass is marked up to 3000 litres
Our new gas burners are here!!!
The CO2 installation is complete with all CTs having a supply.
Our sparge arm has been cleaned, refurbished and tested
Almost everything that moves (and stuff that doesn't) has been labelled up
The FVs have been cleaned on the outside (inside tomorrow)
We have lots of new stainless bits and bobs to play with

And some other stuff I've forgotten already! We're hoping to brew this week for sure if the gas burner installation and testing goes to plan, you'll be almost the first to know!

The week of reckoning...

This week is a big week for us.

Theoretically we may be brewing by the end of of the week with a fair wind and good luck, we really hope that's the case!

Tomorrow we should have our new gas burners installed and therefore, once that's done and we have our malt (also tomorrow) we can brew some beer...

We're also having our CO2 installed tomorrow so we can blanket pressure the conditioning tanks and also having a few bits made for us by our mates at AJP stainless of Hereford too!

Updates as it happens on the Facebook page and Twitter and less frequently on here!

Two more testbrews!

We've been beavering away at Hopcraft towers today brewing up two new testbrews.  One is a 4.2%ish pale & hoppy little number called "Auf Wiedersehen Boyos" with Summit, Cascade and Mosaic hops; all very nice, but the other is a little bit more interesting....

Inspired by the sour wheat beers of Berlin and talking to brewers in London last week (cheers guys, huge thanks for the info!) We've had a go at low alcohol (around 4%) half wheat, half pils malt concoction mash-hopped with Bobek then intentionally soured by natural bacteria and yeast from some fresh malt.  After 5 days in the fermenter it'll have mango pulp added then fermented with ale yeast as normal...

As you can imagine there are a million things that can go awry with such a beer style, especially when it's a first try at said style, but armed with knowledge from those who've done it before and a touch of the pioneer spirit we're willing to give it a blast.

Both beers should be available at Tom's "leaving do" at the Wheatsheaf, Llantrisant next weekend (along with beers from Kernel, Alpha State, Brodies, Wild, Steel City and others) so come on down and give them a go!

Pontycluner Weiss in the new FV...

Work continues!

Work on the brewery continues apace here at Hopcraft Towers and we've now got an almost complete electrical system in place thanks to "Grumpy" Dai the electrician; we have power to the HLT elements, sockets to plug things into, wired-in pumps amongst other stuff electric.

We're still working on getting our current nemesis, the gas burners, working (it's almost enough to make us wish we'd gone for electric elements but not quite) which should hopefully be sorted out this week or maybe next; the good news is that once we've got these in place we simply need to do a thorough caustic wash and we're good to go!

We also tested the fermenter cooling coils and, despite a slight problem with the lack of non-return valves on the python ends, we successfully managed to bring the interior tank temperature down below 8°c meaning we can brew no matter what the temperature (although we still need to fix the water baths for optimum cooling performance).

So, the news this week is that gas burners aside we're almost ready for action, so close are we now that we have drawn up a list of ingredients required for our first five brews....

Keep the faith, hopheads, and we shall reward you!

The fermenter chiller units in place and ready for use after the coil test.

Checking the interior temperature of FV2.

Heating element 1 on the HLT all wired in and tested.

We apologise for the delay...

We were hoping to be brewing this week, but it seems as though fate has decided we'll have to wait a little longer....

Our gas burners for the copper have been found to be woefully underpowered (it's not the gas pressure, that's fine, it's the burners) so we're on a mad mission to either upgrade them or replace them with more powerful burners ASAP.

It's also come to light that the water bath in one of our FVs leaks which means we'll have to resort to foam-filling in the hope that'll cure it - or at least make it OK to use.

Apart from that, though, almost everything is in place for us to brew - the electrics are close to being completed and we're finishing off various bits of painting and suchlike.

More news as it happens this week....

Preparing the racking area.

Today we've been mostly painting the floor of the racking area to enable us to get it kitted out, plus Gazza has been getting fluorescent orange paint over everything in a poor attempt to paint the safety railings to the extent he was mistaken for that orange bloke off that tedious antique programme....

Dai the electrician has been wiring up our pumps with fancy buttons and suchlike; it looks like Thornbridge in Hopcraft towers now such is the multitude of buttons and displays!

We've had a slight setback with our gas burners but are confident we can sort it out this week, meaning a brew next week is still a possibility!

That was the week that nearly was.

I'm not going to do the usual and claim we'll be brewing in a couple of weeks this time... no, we might even be brewing this week (although I'm guessing it'll be the week after by the time we get everything ready to go).

The reason for this new-found urgency is that the gas burners have finally been installed under our copper plus the brickwork is done (minus the final "topping off" with fire cement) so all we're really waiting for now is the electrics to be done - and we've got most of the bits and bobs ready for that, too, we're just waiting on "Grumpy" Dai to sort it all out!

So keep the faith, hop lovers, the first brew is getting very close now!

Gas burners and chimney bricks... what's not to like?

Two bits of technical brewing equipment!

Technical? well, kind of...

The first one is our new 4 inch spanner which allows us to "dump" the copper once we've transferred the wort into the FV's; once this has been done the copper contains spent hops and trub (coagulated proteins, since you ask) so we simply unscrew the cap from the big outlet pipe and out it all comes....  hopefully.

Gazza with a rather large spanner.

The second one is a touch more technical!  This is a "John Guest" fitting on one of our conditioning tanks.  We will attach a CO2 gas line to this coupler at around 1.5 atmospheres  (this isn't a lot of pressure) which maintains a layer of sterile gas on top of the maturing beer, keeping it as fresh as possible (oxygen and bacteria are maturing beer's worst enemies) and as a bonus, when we come to cask up the beer, the gas helps to push it out of the tank and into the barrels!

Arty or what?

More fascinating brewing-type stuff next week...

Our new chimney!

Our copper finally has it's chimney fitted.... Very shiny, eh? Next job is to weld the burners underneath, hopefully tomorrow.

The R.A.T.S open day on Saturday.

A few photos from our first open day last Saturday when the R.A.T.S descended to watch us comically attempt brewery tours....  hope we weren't too amateurish!

All photos (c) 2013 Dave R.A.T.S, cheers Dave!

Gazza takes the final tour round... practice makes imperfect!

"See this, right?  This is a big steel bath..."

Tom explaining our elaborate copper lid.

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before...

I know we say it every week, but we really are VERY close to being able to brew some beer now!  In the past week we've accomplished a mammoth amount of work, namely;

• We hosted our first "open day" (the R.A.T.S),
• The Stainless Steel pipework is now complete and looking fantastic thanks to AJP Process Pipework / AB Stainless of Hereford - highly recommended,
• The copper now has it's gas burners fitted and is ready for testing,
• The HLT has been fitted with sockets ready for the immersion heaters,
• We've tidied up! (see photos below...),
• The Temperature control panels have been fitted to the FVs,
• FVs 1, 2 and 3 are now ready for use with new pipework and have been cleaned, FV4 is an ongoing project as it needs a thorough scrub and some "floor rejigging"...
• The pipework and pumps have been tested with only one problem - the heat exchanger needs new gaskets so these are in process of being ordered.  The Lowara vertical pumps are amazing, totally over-specified for what we want but we love 'em!,
• The conditioning room is almost complete,
• The reception / tour area has been built with a window looking into the conditioning room (we really must clean those tanks now...),
• We have a CIP sprayball, cask filler and various adapters/reducers/hoses ready to go.

Plus loads of other stuff I've already forgotten!

Basically, we're now waiting on spares for the heat exchanger and for the electrics to be fitted... and that's it, we can start the antiformin washing (can't wait for that...!) and then, finally, it'll be time to brew some beer!

Keep the faith, people, we're nearly there and we promise you some special stuff once we're up and running...

Here are the customary photos of us doing stuff.

Gazza takes the RATS around the brewery.

Mrs Mop cleaning the Heat Exchanger!

The finished pipework during a water test

From this.... 

... to this!!!

The news at ten.

This week has seen much activity at the unit; the stainless welders are doing a superb job and can seemingly make anything we ask them to, we've part-made a conditioning room with kingspan, the heat exchanger has been fully piped up and is in process of being stripped down and cleaned, we've done a full water run-through on all the pipework and pumps which was an almost complete success and we're painting the floor.

Plus we've picked up the first of our initial batch of plastic casks and very...  Erm... Turquoise they are too.

It all happens down in Tyla Garw!

The new cask filler

The very phallic-looking CIP sprayball.  Honestly, it is.

Pipework!

The installation of stainless pipework is progressing well, here's a view from today with most of the hotside pipes in situ. We've also got the HLT return pipe done and loads of other bits being worked on, really good progress made this week! Gas and electric next then we're almost there.

Shiny shiny....

All happening today!

The guys are here doing the stainless pipework and getting on with it great, and our saccharometers just turned up!

So much money for such thin bits of glass.... !