Pilot Kit Update
What a strange few weeks it has been! After a hectic start to the year brewing and packaging beer ready for the summer, the last few weeks really have been the eye of the storm and have given us the opportunity to set up and play with our brand new pilot kit!
In short our pilot kit helps us experiment with new brews we wouldn't usually be brave enough to brew a full batch of. We can also brew a beer in almost half the time as it would usually take on the bigger kit. It consists of an all in one brewing vessel called a Grainfather. This is a 70 litre, super intelligent boiler, mash tun, pump and controller unit built into one!
Once the beer has been brewed we transfer it into one of two 60 litre SS Brewtech conical fermenters. These things are incredible. They can heat and cool a brew to within 0.1 degrees and have been fabricated to a ridiculously high standard.
So what have we been brewing?
The first brew was always going to be a challenge. A new kit to get to grips with and a new recipe to boot, this meant only one thing from the start... a looong brew day. I (Mike) put together the recipe for this one, based on the Codename Robin recipe we did at Christmas, but amped up in every way.
It didn't really go to plan, taking 11 hours to brew with various issues along the way. Whilst we did try to save it unfortunately the brew just didn't meet our standards for general release.
Beer number two is a recipe designed by Tim and we're glad to say it went a lot smoother! He's taken a heap of oats and a NEIPA style water profile to amp the creaminess up to the max. He then added a load of experimental UK hops and a lager yeast to create, well, we don't really know what to call it, maybe an Oat Cream Lager? This one was a slow burner in the fermenter but we have now bottled it. It'll now lager for a few weeks before we release it
What's next?
We have so many ideas for the kit but next up is a lager. On a trip to Munich I fell in love with their super clean, malty lagers so I'm excited by the prospect of creating a Cornish version of this...