*North Cro Belgian Golden Strong Ale v. 1.0 TWEAK

PRE-BREW DAY PREPARATIONS

MEASURE SALTS
Very carefully measure out salts, put in medicine bottle.

MEASURE GRAINS
Carefully weigh out all grains, putting different grains in different containers.

MEASURE HOPS
Carefully weigh out the hop additions, put in small mason jars. under vacuum.

YEAST STARTER (One week before brew day).
This high gravity beer will need a 4.25 liter starter. 450 billion cells are needed. Prepare 4.25 L of wort in the flask. Add yeast, put on stir plate.

(Actually, a 4.25 L starter is needed so a sample of it can be saved for later culturing.)

DAY BEFORE BREW DAY
Prepare brewing water - with the grain basket in place, add PRECISELY 7.2 gallons of distilled water to the kettle.

Salts/acids - add mineral salts as prescribed, than add 3 ml 85% phosphoric acid. Check pH of water at this time and record.

BREW DAY!
Heat brewing water up to 148 deg F and hold there. Pump must remain off for the mash-in.

Mash-in
Add grains to the the water/basket, and stir in vigorously. Keep stirring as temperature rises back to 148 deg F. After 10 min, check pH. If pH is more than 5.45, acid will be needed.

Saccharification Rest
(90 minutes)
Open valves, allow liquid to enter the recirculation system. Establish recirculation at a moderate flow rate. Conduct the rest at 148 deg F for 90 minutes.

Mash-out/Vorlauf
(15 minutes)
Raise temperature to 168 deg F. Allow recirculation to continue as usual.

Raising the Basket
TURN OFF RECIRCULATION. Raise the basket and hang on side of the kettle, as is usually done.

Rinsing the Grains in the Basket
It's now time to rinse the grains in the hanging basket with recirculating wort. First, SHUT OFF VALVES, then raise the basket. Remove the malt pipe from the end of the Direct Deposit recirculation arm, and remove the hose from the left side of the 3-way valve, making sure the valve is shut off! HAVE A VESSEL TO COLLECT RUNOFF WHEN YOU DISCONNECT THE HOSE, and collect it. Now, attach a hose there. This will be used to recirculate wort through the grains in the raised basket.

Using the mid-way position of the whirlpool 3-way valve, and holding the hose up (WEAR GLOVES!), recirculate wort over the grains, while simultaneously whirlpooling. Continue for 15 minutes, then allow it to drain for 5 minutes.

Remove basket, hang on bucket, and allow it to drain into the bucket for 15 minutes, then add to the kettle. Put basket BACK on kettle for the sparge.

LIGHT SPARGE
Use 0.88 gal of brewing water at 168° F and pour slowly over the grain basket. If kettle volume is less than 6.88 gal, pour more sparge water over the basket. Let the basket drain for 5 minutes.

BOIL
This will be a 90 minute boil. Measure pre-boil gravity; it should be around 1.042. Belgian Candi sugar is added to the fermenting beer at various intervals.

WHIRLPOOL
Reconfigure hoses for the whirlpool, with pump-out going into Therminator plate chiller. Allow hot wort to flow into the hoses/chiller. When bubbling is complete, turn on the pump.

Allow the hot wort to flow into the chiller and recirculate. After 10 min, all is sterilized and chilling may begin.

CHILLING
Turn on hose water. Allow temperature to drop to 185 deg F, then turn off pump. Within 5 minutes, temp should be at 175 deg F. At this time, add the whirlpool hops and allow recirculation to continue for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minute recirculation, turn the hose water back on. Chill to as cold as it will get, then use ice water recirculation if necessary, to bring temp down to 64 deg F or a bit lower. When chilling is complete, turn off the hose water recirculation.


MOVING WORT TO FERMENTOR
Assure oxygenation setup is in place. Allow a little wort to flow into the sanitized fermentor, then pour Yeast Buddy in, and continue the transfer. Assure there is a steady stream of bubbles going into the outflowing wort. Put a cover on the fermentor now. Gently swirl fermentor so that thorough mixing of Yeast Buddy with the wort takes place.

PITCHING THE YEAST
Decant the supernatant from the yeast culture. Save a little of the yeast in a jar for reculturing. Now, add the remainder of the yeast to the fermentor. With the diptube/airlock cap in place, swirl the fermentor gently to evenly distribute yeast.

ADDING BELGIAN CANDI SUGAR
Divide sugar amount into 3 parts. After fermentation begins,

at 24h add 1/3 amount
at 48h add another 1/3
at 72h add the final third of the sugar

TILT HYDROMETER
Drop the calibrated Tilt Hydrometer into the fermenter.

FERMENTATION
Set Inkbird to 77 deg F. Begin fermentation at 65 deg F, then make sure heater is unplugged. When wort is at 65 deg F or a little lower, set the Inkbird to 77 deg F. After 12-18 hours, add oxygen to fermentating wort for 30 seconds.

UNPLUG HEATING BLANKET.
Make sure heating blanked is unplugged. Inkbird should be set for 77 deg F. Allow the temperature to self-rise on its own to reach 77 deg F. When temp reaches 76-77 deg F, have fermentation continue for a week to 10 days, until the Tilt Hydrometer shows the gravity is no longer dropping.

COLD CRASHING THE FINISHED WORT
Gradually lower temperature from 77 deg F to near freezing.

TRANSFER TO KEG
Using oxygen free transfer, move the beer from the fermentor to the keg. When you have determined the weight of the liquid in the keg, you can calculate the amount of Belgian Candi priming sugar needed for 3.3 - 3.5 vol of carbonation. Carefully add this to the racked beer, and swirl keg to make sure sugar is evenly blended. Now, it is time to bottle using a counter-pressure filler, but only to purge the bottles before adding the beer.

BOTTLING
With the primed beer, complete all the bottling process now, making sure the crown caps are secured properly on the bottles. Use thick-walled, Belgian style bottles.