Trials and tribulations

I sort of promised myself after my last post that the next one (i.e. this one) would be about something other than the Birmingham Beer Bash.  It seems I’ve failed.  In my defence, one way or another that event is the main thing that takes up my time at the moment.  The past few weeks have been full of some pretty exciting developments – the list of breweries that have recently been announced for example (not to mention the ones we can’t tell you about yet! There’s more excitement to come there, especially after the news I received just today) and of course the tickets going on sale was a big step forward for us too.  It is a real buzz to see the ticket sales going through and it gives a real sense of things coming together.  This week we’ve sent advertising copy off for our first print ad (watch out for the May issue of Brum Notes!) and we’re getting our first posters up around Birmingham now so that should generate even more interest.

There’s more in the pipeline too.  There are meetings coming up next week that should further develop the beer list, and pull together some of the “fringe” activities that will be taking place.  Then, in just over three weeks I’m due to be heading down to the Beer Geek brewery to rustle up a commercial-sized batch of a saison I originally created at home for the Midland Craft Brewers yeast comparison exercise.  All being well that will make its first appearance on the keg bar at the Beer Bash, which is a fantastic prospect for me albeit one balanced by some very wracked nerves!

But, as the title to this post suggests, it isn’t all plain sailing.  It seems that every day that goes by there is a new concern to address.  Something extra that needs to be considered, a problem that needs to be addressed.  And I don’t mind telling you (as long as you keep it between the two of us) some of them have had the capacity to cause real difficulties.  Fortunately despite the potential impacts, the reality has been that they’ve been solved quietly in the background without too much trouble.  In fact, looking back they can be quite amusing, but that certainly wasn’t the case at the time.

So, I’m relieved to say that after discovering the venue’s premises license didn’t cover one of the two rooms we were basing the whole event around, and furthermore wouldn’t permit us to sell bottles to take away, we are now all sorted out with a Temporary Events Notice that solves both these problems.  And after finding out that there was a (pretty low, in the scheme of things, and rapidly being approached) limit to how much money we could collect through Paypal, we now have our account fully enabled*.  There have also been a few cases of the electronic tickets not getting automatically sent out, but the technical boffins at Event Elephant are looking into it and we will shortly be manually resending them if necessary, so the effect is at least minimised.**

So, despite the odd hiccups, we’re all on track, but there is still plenty to do and only three months in which to do it.  Yes, exactly three months today we’ll be throwing wide the doors and letting you all judge whether we’ve delivered to expectations!  Where has all the time gone?  It doesn’t seem that long ago that this was all just a wild idea in a pub, but that was just over a year ago.  So we’ve just 91 days (yes, I am counting) to put all the final details into place, and I suspect as a result there won’t be much else on my mind for a while yet…

* So, no reason to hold back then – buy your tickets now through the website at birminghambeerbash.co.uk!

** If you have booked tickets but have not received an email with PDF tickets attached, please email us at info@birminghamcraftbeer.co.uk and we’ll make sure you get your tickets once the issue is corrected.

Birmingham Beer Bash – a personal view

In exactly four month’s time it will be day 1 of the Birmingham Beer Bash.  Just four months.  Eeek!

It’s fair to say that being involved in the organisation of an event like this sometimes has its perks.  Holding meetings (not just within our group but also with potential suppliers, sponsors, presenters and supporters) in pubs over a pint or two is a pleasure that I don’t get to enjoy in the day job.  Maybe that’s for the best though – if all the meetings I attended were like that then I’d really struggle.  More than that, there’s the occasional chance to visit one of the great breweries we’ll be featuring and taste a few beers with them.  To meet the people behind the beer, and other people who have a role to play in the industry whether it is brewing, marketing, reviewing, promoting or simply enjoying beer.  It reinforces just what a positive and exciting industry this is.

It can also have its downsides of course.  To be honest, it is exhausting.  So much to think about that it becomes nearly impossible to switch off.  Dealing with the fun stuff, such as what beer we’ll have and who we can talk into coming along, is one thing.  The realities of finances, bank accounts, advertising, providing enough toilets, worrying about whether anyone will turn up, have we got enough space, who’ll sponsor this & that, what extra equipment do we need, how much security, can we get it set up in time, will we have too much beer, what if we don’t have enough beer, insurance, first aid, volunteers, ticket prices.  All of these things and more.  They are all somewhat less glamorous than selecting the beer, but without considering them all the beer part simply won’t happy.  It’s a team effort and everyone has their own part to play, their own jobs to do, but at the same time all these things are still there, swilling around in my head, needing to be sorted.  Someone’s dealing with them all.  At least I think someone is.  Are they?  See, there I go again…

So why do it? Why get involved in organising what is perhaps, at least in this country, the first ever beer event quite like this that was born so intrinsically out of social media(*), a beer festival for people who share our vision of bringing as many great beers to Birmingham as we can?  Because no-one else was, and we all wanted to bring something like this here.  Ironically we’ll probably all be so busy over that weekend at the end of July that we won’t get to enjoy it in the way I suspect we all originally envisaged.  However I do know that it is going to be so thoroughly satisfying to make a success of this that I for one am not going to get too bothered about missing out on some of the fantastic beers that have been discussed so far (and news of some of these will be starting to trickle out very soon). Or of the undoubtedly splendid beers that have yet to be finalised.  You, of course, don’t need to miss out.  You’re all cordially invited.  Ok, you’ll have to buy a ticket, but that will be possible very very soon.  I promise.  Watch this space, and perhaps more importantly, watch our twitter feed @birminghamCubed where news about all those lovely beers, and the imminent launch of our tickets, will be coming soon.

* for those who didn’t know, Birmingham Beer Bash was arguably born of Twitter.  Birmingham’s first twissup back at the start of 2012 brought together some (apparently barmy, it now seems) hugely enthusiastic sorts who weren’t going to sit back and wait for someone else to bring an event like this to the Midlands.  Oh no.  We’ll do it ourselves we said.  How hard can it be we said.  Someone’s got to do it we said.  So we did it.

Declaration of Independence?

Lying here on my deathbed* I’ve been thinking about what independence means. At least, given the current focus on arranging the Birmingham Beer Bash, what it means in the context of a beer festival. It’s something that has been on my mind for a whiles we do the deals necessary to bring this event together. It’s only when you start to put together the costs for an event like this that you begin to appreciate just how much money is involved. Obviously the idea is not to make a loss, but with most of the income coming from tickets and beer sales, much of which doesn’t come in until the day itself or a short time before, it is an interesting challenge to cover the up front bills that need to be paid.

Most of the groups that put on festivals have the backing of a larger organisation which can underwrite the costs and take much of the risk of losses out of the equation. Such organisations (and yes, we’re primarily talking CAMRA here) also have plenty of resources to call on in terms of equipment such as cask racking etc. Even so, they still generally need sponsorship in order to make sure they are profitable. For smaller groups some breweries have modest resources that can be called on too, but start planning a large independent festival with no initial financial backing and suddenly it is a daunting challenge. The costs involved go into the tens of thousands and a good portion of this is upfront cost.

So, how are we going to deal with this problem? Well, naturally we’ve been seeking to establish some sponsorship deals and it isn’t long now until we’ll be able to announce our main backer, who will be providing a good portion of the infrastructure we need to set up two keg bars and a cask bar with hand pulls, as well as providing the glassware and giving us other valuable support. And there’ll be other sponsors too helping with the costs of different aspects of the event. To be honest, without this the whole thing simply couldn’t go ahead, as we’d have to raise admission prices to the point at which it would start having an adverse effect on attendance, and that still wouldn’t properly address the issue of paying out all those upfront costs.

I started off talking about independence and what that means in this context. When we announce to the world the sponsors that will be supporting us inevitably that will raise questions about what the influence of those supporters is. We are, to some extent, beholden to them because we can’t operate without the support they provide. But just because we have a major supporter backing us, doesn’t mean we don’t retain our independence. The event is still run in accordance with our own principles, and we’ll be making sure that we have a range of beers there that align with those. Some beers will come from those organisations sponsoring us, or from other breweries that they can help bring into the event, but they’ll represent the kind of things we (and hopefully you) want to see at our event.

What does that independence mean to us then? It is the freedom to choose to serve beers irrespective of dispense method, from breweries that convince us they are offering something in line with our aims. It is the opportunity to create an event that is exactly what we want it to be, made possible by the support of organisations that want to be a part of our vision, not them making us a part of theirs. It is Birmingham Beer Bash.

* I’m a man, I have a winter bug, therefore it is correct to assume that I am dying from a rare and untreatable strain of the flu virus.

Shaken, not stirred: the Birmingham Beer Bash finds a home

A significant sum of money has just changed hands. When I say significant, I mean that in a number of ways, and I don’t use it lightly. It is certainly significant in terms of the amount involved. More importantly, it is significant in what it represents. It is a deposit. A commitment.

This deposit was paid to secure the venue for the Birmingham Beer Bash, a celebration of beer and brewing which, as I’m sure you’ll already know, will take place on 26th and 27th July 2013. For those of us involved in organising this event it is a huge milestone. Finally we have a site on which to put together an event that has been on the cards for more than six months now. Without a venue nothing else could really be done. And by paying a deposit suddenly everything changes. For a start, that deposit is non-refundable, so there really is no looking back. We can no longer afford (quite literally) for this event not to actually happen. We now need to sell enough tickets to cover the costs, as well as to make a little extra for the charity we’ve chosen to support through this event, and so we need to deliver on our commitment to bring some great beer to Birmingham in order to make those tickets an attractive proposition. We’re working on that, and there are some great names being lined up already. We’ll be announcing details as and when we can over the coming weeks and months so keep following our Twitter account (@birminghamcubed), our Facebook page (BirminghamBeerBash) and watch out for the new website coming soon (birminghambeerbash.co.uk).

Of course you all have a part to play too – make sure you have the dates in your diary, keep watching out on Twitter for news of when the tickets will go on sale, and encourage everyone you know who loves great beer to come along.

Want to get involved? Once the website is up you’ll be able to register to become a Beer Bash volunteer. Volunteers are going to be key to the successful running of the event, all the organisers are volunteers too but there simply aren’t enough of us to do everything particularly in the final week as we set up and then operate the event. Watch out for full details on the website.

So where is it going to be then? This has been the question on our own minds for quite some time. Many sites have been considered, and rejected for various reasons. Finally, we settled on The Bond Co, a former canal warehouse on Fazeley Street in the Eastside area of Birmingham, near to Digbeth. It is well situated, probably no more than 20 minutes walk from all three of the main train stations, and only a few minutes from the coach station in Digbeth. Several bus routes are not far away, and a taxi from the city centre is not too costly either. So, it is reasonably accessible, which was a major factor in its selection. It also has some interesting spaces for us to use for the event, and the connection with the canals, such a major feature of the Birmingham landscape, seemed appropriate too. We like it. I hope you do too. See you in July?

Another one bites the dust

Given the rate at which pubs up and down the country continue to close, it doesn’t come as a surprise to see the final demise of The Railway Tavern in Penkridge in the past few weeks, or to hear the news that apparently it is to be converted to become a dentist’s surgery. After all there are still 7 more pubs in what is a moderately-sized village.

I can’t lay claim to it as a regular, or even irregular drinking spot, although I have used it in the past on occasions. In recent years it has gone steadily downhill, and some short-lived tenancies in recent years have each added to the woe with issues of environmental health and licence revocations due to breaches. Beer selection was not to my tastes, and nor as I recall was it in great condition on the more recent occasions I visited. But it st some history, apparently gaining its name from the railway navvies of some 175 years ago who were not welcomed at other pubs in the area, and as a local village pub some amount of charm, despite its run-down appearance. Sad then, but clearly not viable. Or was it?

It’s been niggling me for a while now, particularly since finding out about its supposed fate. It’s recent history has certainly been one of decline, but has this been a natural process? Or a planned outcome to enable the sale of the building for other uses. Why would anyone even want to do that?

Let’s look a bit deeper. A quick check of the local licensing database confirmed my understanding that the Railway was owned by Punch. And wait, because a few hundreds yards down the road there are two more pubs also owned by Punch. So I could envisage a desire to offload one of those three, and I can see the business sense in it, especially for a company as debt-laden as Punch. Now the value is really in the building, and if it is sold to another pub operator (whether a group or individual) there is a chance they will make a success of it, increasing competition on the two other pubs still retained in an area where there are a further three pubs within a very short distance. So if you were thinking purely about your own profit, I guess you’d want to make sure no-one else wants to take it on as a pub, just in case. A few problems with licensing wouldn’t hurt that plan, along with a lack of investment and unsuitable tenants with little or no support. I’m being very cynical here, and I’m not saying this did happen, but it seems plausible.

Now, as has already been noted, Penkridge is still well-populated with pubs, although there’s little to get hugely excited about (the recent introduction of some interesting bottled beers at one of them being an exception to that). So the loss of one is perhaps inevitable. But what does that mean to the consumer? It certainly hasn’t provided an opportunity for someone to open up the local beer market to a bit more variety. Maybe it has maintained the viability of the remaining pubs, which isn’t bad in itself, but does it instead limit competition?

So a cynical viewpoint perhaps, and we’ll never truly know. in this case the impact is relatively low, but if this is the behaviour in other locations it could have a much more significant impact in communities with less choice to start with.

What do you think? Is this an unfortunate effect of market forces or a active mismanagement to force a fire sale and remove another pub from the market altogether? Another failure of the lax planning situation that allows this to happen so easily, or a welcome reprieve for other pubs in the area that will presumably pick up a little extra trade?

So long, 2012

Well here we are, at the start of a new year, and for me that also (roughly) marks the start of my second year of this blog. A perfect opportunity perhaps, to take a look back on the past year, and forward to the next.

I actually started this blog on Dec 23rd 2011 with a little pre-Christmas warm up, but blogging proper began in January first with a look at local pubs, and then I asked the question that led to my most popular post (based on number of views, anyway) of the whole year – where is the Birmingham Tap? So, almost a year later, do we have the answer? Well, things have certainly started to change. December saw the long-awaited opening of the new Brewdog bar in Birmingham, which was quite ironic timing for me – two weeks before it opened a change of job caused me to be London-based almost every day and travelling a route that avoids Birmingham, rather then being in London for just part of the week and travelling through New St to get home even on those days. Of course, one of the inspirations for that post was what is perhaps my truest “local” – the Euston Tap, so there’s still a silver lining…

But is Brewdog Birmingham the answer? Well, no, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful by that. Brewdog bars are great, and when I have the chance I’ll be a regular visitor, but they still lack for me the full breadth that places like Euston and Sheffield Taps or the Craft chain provide. So Brewdog is a start, but only that. Fortunately there is more to come! Further new bars are expected to open in the area later this year that should be the perfect compliment to the Brewdog offering and finally bring the breadth of choice that Birmingham hopefully deserves. It has even been hinted at that the operators of the Euston and Sheffield (and other) Taps have been looking for premises. Whether or not there is a “Birmingham Tap”, there should soon be a great range of beer on offer that finally puts Birmingham on a par with other cities.

As I’ve gone through this first year of writing, I’ve perhaps inevitably been trying my hand, and searching our both a style and a purpose in what I write about. Subject matter has included observations on drinking and the bar scene in Birmingham especially, my own brewing endeavours, beer festivals, and various other subjects as they came up. Naturally I hoped that I could look back at the popularity of various posts and determine what worked best for me in order to focus in the future. Well, that didn’t work. My second most popular post was of a completely different subject to the Birmingham Tap – the Saison brewday that recently took place – while in third place was a review of the inaugural Twissup in Birmingham. Three completely different posts on completely different subjects. I guess I’ll have to find other ways of deciding what to focus on in my blogging for the coming year, or just keep up the random approach I’ve had so far…

Going back to that Twissup post, this was a big event in the past year. It brought together a number of bloggers and tweeters in the region, and as a result I’ve got a number of new friends, more than just acquaintances. Saison a’Trois wouldn’t have happened without that initial meeting, and hopefully 2013 will see further developments that can be traced back to that first meeting. Since then, over the Christmas break, the second Birmingham Twissup attracted an even bigger crowd and I’m sure the next one won’t be far away. Twissup wasn’t the only event I attended in the year, and the European Beer Bloggers Convention was another great opportunity to meet more fellow bloggers, drink some great beers, and learn a bit more about this blogging lark.

The autumn saw one of the real highlights of the year drinking-wise with IndyManBeerCon somewhat redefining the beer festival. Is it too soon to be eagerly anticipating this year’s event which will no doubt be bigger and better? Something to aspire to in the Midlands perhaps? We’ll have to see what can be done…

On the home front, brewing progress has finally picked up following a slightly difficult time as new and larger equipment was put together (a task that is far from complete although now advanced enough to be reaping benefits). An exciting possibility of a commercial opportunity arose part way through the year, although all is quiet on that at the moment. It is still potentially on the cards though, and in the meantime I’m focusing on getting the beers I make right, and keeping an eye out for the right opportunities if they should come up.

So that’s the highlights for me. But what of the year to come? Well I have a few plans and ideas. Firstly on the blogging side of things I know I have to get writing more regularly. It has been tricky this year – work often eats up all the available time and the new job gives no respite from that. Although I’ve averaged about two posts every three weeks there have been some big gaps, and even if I don’t write a greater number of posts I’d like to keep more of a steady momentum. I’ve got to keep up with reading other people’s blogs too – there’s been so much good stuff lately and I know I’m missing more than I’m getting to see.

This year the brewing is going to step up a gear too. I think I’m starting to hit my stride now – I just need to get all those irritating little jobs around the place done to make each brewday go that much easier, and now I’ve made the dual steps to fully temperature-controlled fermentation and liquid yeasts I’ll be expanded the beer repertoire accordingly. I’d like to take the opportunity, if opportunities can be found, to get some hands on experience of a commercial brewday (all offers gratefully considered!), but the real challenge I’ve set myself is to get a recipe made commercially, somehow (again all offers considered!) – both of those should give some fantastic experience as well as valuable blogging material!

It’ll be tough to deliver on the challenges I’ve set myself, but it should be fun trying. Hopefully at least some of you will drop by to keep an eye on progress, and thanks for reading during this past year. Here’s to a fabulous 2013!

Session #70: Don’t Believe the Hype

This month’s Session, hosted by Mr David J, touches on a theme of disappointment – when a much-anticipated beer fails to live up to its hype.  In this modern age of all-pervasive social media it is easier than ever to whip up a frenzy of excitement over just about anything you want, and beer is no exception.  But should we listen?

Well, actually I think yes we should.  But, and this is the important bit for me, we should listen carefully.  There is, as they say, no smoke without fire.  But smoke can cloud your vision.  So, if there is a lot of hype about a beer, there is probably a good reason.  OK, it may be all marketing, but that should be pretty obvious if you pay attention to the actual sources.  On the other hand, lots of different people saying how fantastic a beer is should be a pretty good indication that there is some substance behind that.  Apply a bit of perspective though.  Despite all the hype, the odds are that this isn’t (or at least, isn’t to you) actually the best beer in the world.  If you set your expectations too high you’re bound to be disappointed.  Other people have different experiences against which they compare something, so it might be the best beer they’ve had, or their tastes might be different.

I guess what I’m saying is, by all means let others guide you to what might be good, but don’t take it to seriously and judge what you try on its own merits.

Don’t believe the hype, but don’t ignore it!

Saison a Trois update – primary fermentation

It’s a bit of a techie update this, and to be honest I got bored writing the first draft, so heaven only knows how you’ll get on with this slightly (I think) improved version. I did think there might be someone, somewhere, out there who has followed the brewing of Saison a Trois and is interested in details of the fermentation, but to be honest I couldn’t find any way to make it even remotely exciting! You take your own chances…

Before embarking on this project there was a fair bit of research done into what yeast to use and how to handle its particular quirks, and with various (mostly internet) sources of information not necessarily all entirely agreeing, here’s our experience to add to the mix. We chose Whitelabs WLP565 Saison I. It is widely suggested that this yeast is one of the several strains that together form the house yeast used for Saison Dupont so it seemed a good basis for our own effort – of course it could be that it was only actually suggested once and then widely replicated around the internet, but I haven’t seen anything saying it isn’t true so I’m prepared to go with it. From this choice two themes emerged from the information available – firstly lots of reports of stuck fermentations and failure to attenuate out to the expected level; and secondly a suggestion that the yeast likes temperatures somewhat higher than the typical ale yeast range. Perhaps even as high as 32°C. So we resolved to go for a warm ferment and see what that resulted in.

Before we go on perhaps I should explain more about how my temperature control for fermentation is set up. It all takes place in a large insulated cupboard into which a fermenter (aka a big blue barrel) is placed. In the cupboard is a heater controlled by a PID that switches the heat on whenever the temperature (according to a sensor within the cupboard) falls below a set temperature and off when it rises above the target. Actually there’s a 1 degree buffer either side of the set temperature so that the heater isn’t constantly switching on or off, but you get the idea. So the fermenting beer sits in an environment at or about the desired temperature, and raising the cupboard temperature will allow* the beer temperature to rise too.

* I’ve found this volume of actively-fermenting beer will naturally rise about 2 degrees above the surrounding air temperature in this set-up due to the heat generated by the process itself.

Cooling is a slightly different arrangement – the FV is wrapped in several loops of beer line connected to a reservoir and pump. When the temperature of the beer (this time monitored by a probe in the FV itself) exceeds the target set on a second PID the pump is switched on. This then circulates water from the reservoir, through a beer line chiller unit and round the FV. This direct cooling is quite effective and can be used to drop the beer down to just a couple of degrees after fermentation is over.

Back to the saison then. At first the temperature limit was set to 24°C and after 24 hours the fermentation was going strong. On day 2 the temperature settings were stepped up to 26°C with gravity already down to 50% attenuation by this stage. On day 3 it was time for another step up to 28°C, and the gravity had further dropped with plenty of signs of continuing activity. I was then away for work overnight but once back on day 5 things were clearly slowing down and we were close to the expected final gravity*. Despite setting temperatures up to 32°C by this stage the cold weather was limiting the heating capacity of the cupboard and the slowing fermentation was no longer producing as much heat itself so we peaked at about 28.5°C.

* actually it appeared to go some way below the expected gravity, but a later check for equipment calibration showed that slightly inaccurate readings were being obtained and adjusting for this the gravity was exactly in the right place at about 90% attenuation.

After another day at that level the temperature was dropped right down ready for transfer to a secondary vessel and on day 8 it was transferred across. This is the point at which fruit was added. 2kg of frozen blackberries were heated to pasteurize them and once cooled enough they were added to the secondary FV and the beer added on top of them.

As I write this that FV is sitting in the cupboard at about 16°C, and the remaining yeast is clearly enjoying the small amount of sugar the fruit has provided. Estimates are that no more than one point of gravity has been added by the fruit, so it won’t significantly change the ABV, but the effect on colour is much more significant, and hopefully will add some great flavour too. We’ll find out in a few days when it is racked off to the wooden cask for ageing.

Saison a Trois – the brewday report

I’d be surprised if anyone reading this wasn’t already well aware of what a fabulously sociable thing beer is (notwithstanding all those of us who quite enjoy a solo pint, as The Session a few months back proved!).  Equally it is often remarked that the brewing industry is a pretty friendly world and that seems to be backed up by the various collaborations that seem to be getting more popular these days.  So when an idea began to form (over a few beers, obviously) that myself, @MarbleTim and @ckdsaddlers could brew up a collaboration of our own, well it seemed perfect.

Of course, being a drunken idea, it was never going to be a simple affair.  By the time we parted that evening we’d already settled upon a strong dark saison, which was to be aged in a wooden cask with a helping hand from a little Brettanomyces.  A few days later and we’d added a fruity secondary fermentation on blackberries into the mix and from that point on we never looked back.

It wasn’t without its difficulties though.  For starters we didn’t actually have a wooden cask, and it quickly became apparent that the only way we were going to get one small enough to be any use was to buy new – a second-hand wine or whisky barrel would have added flavour and complexity but at 55 gallons the size just isn’t practical.  Eventually a nice new chestnut (less intensely woody than oak apparently) 30l cask was sourced and so we were well on track.  But to fill a 30l cask you need at least 30l of beer.  Actually you need more, as even over the course of a few months aging there’ll be evaporation – the whisky distiller’s angels’ share – and we really need to top that back up.  And it felt wrong not to have something to bottle when the main batch went into the cask, so we could get an earlier idea of how it would turn out while we were waiting for the aged version to be ready. 

So the target was 50l.  Not a problem in theory, given that I’d already got the makings of a 100l brewery in progress.  But that is the key point – in progress.  Not finished.  Still, nothing like a bit of incentive to get on with a job.  A 60l fermenter complete with a cooling coil, was quickly ready but the real challenge was the mash tun.  There was always the option of mashing twice in my tiny (by comparison) original mash tun, but this wasn’t an ideal solution and even with two mashes it was going to be a tight fit to get enough wort to end up with 50l strong enough to ferment out to around 7% ABV.  Having decided that the only solution was to crack on and get the new mash tun finished, and realising that I needed to get off the fence and either make the last bits I needed or get them bought, I finally put my hand in my pocket and, despite some hiccups along the way, am glad I did.  The insulation may have still been a work in progress on the morning of the brewday, but it did the job and a last minute reconfiguration of the plumbing work didn’t hurt either.  There may have been more satisfaction about making every last bit of it myself, but if I’m really honest, in 12 months time I’d probably still be waiting to get around to it and instead I can now get on with brewing instead.  Or rather, focus on finishing off all the other jobs that are still outstanding…

So, finally, as a result of that slightly drunken conversation back in July, on a cold and frosty morning last weekend we finally got to turn our plans into reality.  By half past 9 the liquor tank was warming up nicely as Chris and Tim turned up raring to go, and so we quickly got underway.

Our planning over the previous months had seen the theme of “three” firmly embedding itself, not least in the chosen name of our brew, “Saison a Trois” (which should explain the regular appearance of that hashtag on Twitter recently!) and so we started off with preparing our grist made up of three different types of grain – barley, wheat and spelt, and before long were mashing in the largest grain bill that the Otherton brewery has faced to date.  The mash was deliberately on the cool side to get a higher than normal level of fermentables – we wanted this to finish on the dry side, while the spelt will hopefully give an increased perception of body to avoid it being too thin. 

The grain bill…

Oooh shiny….

It doesn’t take much reading of the most popular brewing forums to realise that for many home brewers the construction of “stuff” for their brewery is almost as absorbing (and in some cases more so) that the actual brewing.  And that the shinier things are the more appealing they seem to be.  I’ll be honest, at the moment I spend much more time building bits of the brewery than I spend making beer. Mostly this is through necessity – having embarked on an exercise to upscale generally I’ve found more and more things that need to be built or modified or generally tinkered with before I can actually get the benefit of the increase in size.  But sometimes, it is very easy to get distracted by something that is more shiny and pleasing to the eye than actually a true necessity.

And so it was this weekend when, amongst a very productive attack on a number of other outstanding jobs, I had my first go at making a nice shiny spinning sparge arm.  For those of you who don’t know, sparging is the process when the mashed grain are slowly washed through with hot liquor (water) to extract all the sugars prior to the boil.  A common method in commercial breweries is a perforated pipe – the sparge arm – which rotates above the mash tun spraying the hot liquor over the top of the grain.  The rotation helps spread the liquor out across the grain rather than creating channels that cause the liquor to run straight through and miss those sugars that we’re trying to rinse through.  At least, that’s my understanding of it all…

In the home brewing world there are a variety of different approaches adopted to achieve the same end.  Sometimes it’s a mimic of the commercial rotating arm, other times it is a static version with more pipe and more holes to get a wider spread.  Watering can roses have been adapted for the purpose too, and then there’s the cruder but still effective sheet of foil with holes punched through.  And some people just gently run the liquor out onto the top.  It is arguable whether one method is actually significantly better than any other, and therefore questionable whether the extra effort makes the more technical solutions worthwhile or not, especially on this scale, but each to their own.

So armed with almost limitless enthusiasm for spending time potentially failing to achieve the more complicated of the various options, on Saturday night I set about building my own shiny spinny thing.  Here’s how I did it.

Parts list:
2 x 300mm lengths of 8mm diameter brass tube
2 x 8mm compression stop ends
1 x 8mm compression tee
1 x 8mm compression / 1/2″ BSP reducer

I should point out to start with that, when it comes to plumbing, I’ve found I’m much more successful when I don’t try soldering things any more than I absolutely have to.  Therefore, I went with compression fittings throughout.  This was slightly risky – they are of course heavier than soldered fittings and so the force (which comes purely from the flow of water through the sparge arm) required to spin the whole thing needs to be greater, so you might want to consider soldered stop ends if you’re copying this.  The tee needed to be compression though, as we’ll see shortly.

First step was to work out how long to make each arm.  My mash tun is 500mm across, but you need to allow for the size of the fittings too, and there’s no benefit in the end of the arms being too close to the edge of the tun, so in the end I went for about 160mm.  This meant, once the fittings were in place there was a total length of about 350mm, and there was a little over 100mm of tube between the fittings on each side.  This, in the event, worked out perfectly.  A piece of the remaining tube then became the downward feed to the whole thing.

Now for the holes.  Ten were marked out on each tube, 10mm apart, but the positions on one tube were offset at 5mm from those on the other tube to spread the spray out more.  The ten marks were in a straight line except for the outermost one, which was about 45 degrees further round so that it would direct the flow directly outwards whereas the others pointed down at about 45 degrees.  This was intended to provide a bit more of a push at the end to help the spinning.

In a rare display of caution I then drilled *half* of these holes, starting with the outermost and then drilling every other one.  I used a 2mm drill bit – it was that or 1mm and I quickly discovered that the 1mm bit is too small to fit in my drill so the choice was easy!  Two tips here: use a centre punch first so the the tube flattens slightly and the drill can get a good purchase; and then push the drill bit as far into the drill as you can, so you have as short a length exposed as possible.  A combination of these two approaches meant I was able to use the drill hand-held without any issues.

So, with 5 holes on each side, 20mm apart, the holes on one arm offset by about 5mm from those on the other arm, I then fitted and tightened the stop ends and fitted the arms into the tee and tightened up the compression joints there too.  The third branch of the tee needed different treatment though – this is the joint that is to provide the free rotation so if the joint is tight it won’t turn.  Instead, using a tip picked up from one of the forums I first fully tightened the compression fitting but with the piece of tube not actually pushed fully home so there was a slight allowance for movement.  Once tight the nut was removed again, and then I applied PTFE tape generously to the thread and refitted the nut.  The PTFE now prevents the nut being tightened up as much, so that once the joint is tight the tube is still free enough within it to spin.  Again using a recommendation from the forums I had also applied a little PTFE around the olive to help it move more freely, although with things being quite a tight fit this restricted the spinning at first, until the tape had worn away a little. 

So holding the one tube vertically, I could now spin the arms round.  So far, so good.  Adding the final fitting gave me a 1/2″BSP connection which I would then be able to connect up to my supply of water for sparging – obviously a different fitting might be more appropriate for a different setup so you’d have to choose what is most appropriate for your own arrangement.  At this point I tried holding the arm under a running tap.  With some effort , precise positioning and a “just so” speed of flow from the tap, we had movement!  The pressure of the water was just enough to start the arm spinning.  Not fast, but enough.

Next test was to connect up to the hot liquor tank and try it for real.  With 70 litres of water above it the flow rate had to be cut right back to prevent the whole thing spinning too fast.  Success!  It remains to be seen just how low the water level in the tank can drop before there isn’t enough force to keep the arm spinning, but it looks good so far.  Also, for the moment it will be suspended over the mash tun using some of the various bits and pieces of wood I’ve got cluttering up the place, but I guess at some point I’ll get round to doing something more permanent, so next time I need distracting from a more important task maybe I’ll put my mind to that…

So there you have it.  A spinning shiny thing.  It may or may not improve the quality of the beer.  It is, on the other hand, a very satisfying accomplishment and will no doubt be a most distracting piece of shinyness as it spins round doing its thing on a brewday.

It wasn’t all that expensive either.  The various fittings cost about £3.60 from an online plumbing supplier, and because these were ordered as part of a larger order there wasn’t any postage.  The brass tube was just over £8.00 delivered from eBay, and to be fair I spent about another £8.00 in order to connect up to my existing outlet on the hot liquor tank, including a quick disconnect fitting.  Still under £20 in total, and depending how it connects in your own system it can probably still be done for less than £15 even if you have to order things in specifically, as long as you shop around.