Dec 9, 2020 4 min read Balter XPA

Brew # 11 - Balter XPA Clone Mk III

I wasn't happy with Mk II, so I'm giving the Balter XPA clone one last go

Ingredients

Filled basin with hot water and stood the two liquid malt extracts in to soften
Boiled ~300mL (less than previously) of cold filtered water and added to glass flask for yeast rehydration (see below)
Filled Ferm'us with cold filtered water to 4L mark (also less than before)
Boiled 1.7L of filtered water (that's the max my kettle can take) and added to Ferm'us
Boiled another 1L of water
Emptied the wort and liquid malt extract tins into the Ferm'us
Used the boiling water to rinse the tins
Lifted the Ferm'us and gave everything a good shake to mix the wort and LME and give a bit of oxygenation
Added 250g Dextrose (maybe a little bit more than that)
Gave another good shake
Topped up with more cold filtered water to 23L - I didn't need any additional boiling water and hit a final temp around ~27C, which is just about perfect
At this point I noticed a tiny slither of paper that I think must have come off the malt tin

OG: Not measured

Allowed the temperature of the 300mL pre-boiled water (in the flask - see above) to chill to ~26C
Pitched the yeast to rehydrate for ~30 mins
Gently (no splashing) swirled the flask to suspend the yeast in the liquid
Poured the yeast mixture into the Ferm'us
Attached pressure release valve (PRV) to the pressure kit
Placed the Ferm'us into a temp controlled fridge at 20C (lower than normal to align with yeast recommendations)
Monitored every few hours and adjust the PRV to ensure the Ferm'us doesn't become over-pressurised

Increased temp to 21C after ~18hrs as didn't seem to be much activity going on
Left alone for 4 days to ferment
PRV had to be adjusted over a few days to reduce big pressure build up
Seemed to be slower to ramp up fermentation this time - maybe because of slightly cooler temp
After 4 days (Sunday evening), there still seemed to be some good activity happening, so I didn't attach the collection bottle for trub collection

When the primary fermentation appeared done (Monday), I attach a sanitised, empty collection bottle to start collecting the trub
Removed the collection bottle and dumped the trub after ~48 hours - until now, there still seemed to be some activity (nice Krausen still apparent)
Cleaned and sanitised the collection bottle ready for dry hopping

Add ~20g of Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% AA), ~40g of Citra hop pellets (13.9% AA), ~20g of Centennial hop pellets (8.8% AA), and ~20g of Cascade hop pellets (6.2% AA) via a sanitised collection bottle
The Ferm'us is still pressurised to ~10PSI, so need to open the valve slowly
Once open fully, you can see the hops pellets start to soak and expand and travel through the butterfly valve
There was quite a lot of dust from the pellets as I'd finished off four bags, so the Krausen took on a distinct green tinge
Before starting the crash cool I raised the temp on the controller to 22C - I'm going to leave it like this for 24 hours

Using the temperature controller and brew fridge, start a slow crash cool (-0.3C every 2 hours for ~6 days) 24 hours after dry hopping
Still having problems getting most of the hops up into the beer
(Thurs 24th Dec) The beer is now in the 3.5-4C range, but before kegging I wanted to be sure I'd got some of those hop flavours. I released the gas from the Ferm'us, detached the collection bottle and poured the hops into the top. This might be a terrible move, but I don't want another keg of hopless beer.
I left this for ~48 hours, then reattached the collection bottle to pull the trub/hops from the bottom before kegging

Clear the top of the malt tins to ensure no paper shreds ends up in the wort
Dry hop from the top, not the collection bottle -or- rack to another FV with the hops added (I'm thinking maybe a snub-nose Ferm'us this time)
Detected the dreaded "clove" tastes when I tested what was left in the Fermus after transfer. Need to ensure there are no traces of Iodine left in the Fermus before starting a brew.