Pliny the Elder Clone - Anvil Foundry - Grain to Glass - Brewed during a flash flood Part 1 of 2

Pliny the Elder Clone - Anvil Foundry - Grain to Glass - Part 1 of 2
#plinytheelder #anvilfoundry #graintoglass

I did my best to reduce the noises from a local weedwack boy and a massive flash flood storm but the brew day had to go on!

Understand I've never actually had the privilege of enjoying a Pliny but I must say this has to be one of the most amazing beers I've ever brewed and it was my first batch on my new Anvil Foundry 10.5 with pump. It is a big beer but the flavors and aromas are absolutely amazing with a bit of floral but a ton of pine and citrus! And yes it was bitter at over 200 IBU like a Double IPA should be with that amount of hops and it is awesome!

The good and the bad, sadly my efficiency was down a bit at 64% but I hit 1.071 OG and finished at 1.006 FG using Mangrove Jack's West Coast IPA yeast putting it at 8.7 abv! The original Pliny the Elder according to their site at Russian River Brewing Company is at 8% abv with an OG of 1.066 but no listed FG.

This was a Pliny the Elder kit from Adventures in Homebrewing that I got a great deal on and based on other Pliny the Elder recipes I modified the starting hops with 2 oz of whole leaf Citra and changed the yeast from the few WLP California ones recommended.

Our version of Pliny the Edler recipe as follows:
8.7% abv at 64% efficiency - 204.4 IBU - 8.1 SRM - 1.071 OG - 1.006 FG
5 Gallon batch (5.15 gallons collected to account for loss) - 19 Liters
12.75 lbs American 2 Row (5.78 Kilograms)
12 oz Cara Pils (.34 Kilograms)
8 oz Crystal 40L (.23 Kilograms)
1 lb Dextrose/Corn Sugar (.45 Kilograms) (added last 10 minutes)
2 oz Citra Whole Leaf (14.3% Alpha) (56.7 grams) at 90 mins
2 oz Magnum (11.6% Alpha) (56.7 grams) at 90 mins
1 oz Simcoe (12.9% Alpha) (28.3 grams) at 30 mins
10 minute additions:
Added 1 heaping tsp of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
Added 4 oz cooled wort with 1/4 tsp of Super Moss HB
1 oz Columbus (14.9% Alpha) (28.3 grams) at 5 mins
Steep/Whirlpool hop additions for 10 minutes at 160 F
1 oz Simcoe (12.9% Alpha) (28.3 grams)
2 oz Centennial (9.3% Alpha) (56.7 grams)

Pitched Mangrove Jack's West Coast M44 dry yeast at 78F and fermented for 2 weeks at 68F

Dry hop for 7 days
1 oz Simcoe (12.9% Alpha) (28.3 grams)
1 oz Simcoe (12.9% Alpha) (28.3 grams)
3 oz Columbus (14.9% Alpha) (85 grams)

Equipment I used to brew this batch of beer:
Anvil Foundry 10.5 Gallon All-in-One brewing system with recirculation pump kit
Awesome propane burner - Great quality.
Pliny the Edler Kit
Five Star Super Moss HB
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
Gelatin - cheap bulk for clarifying
Hop filter for brewing
Glass Carboy
Plastic Carboy for measuring
Tilt Hydrometer during fermentation
Best Hydrometer I've ever used and a great company
Hop filter for dry hopping
Air pumping to help add oxygen to your wort
Grout mixer for whirlpooling

[brentvondra]

After about 15 brews on the system, it is fun to see all the little things you’ll learn to make the brew day easier! Big fan of the foundry

[SteveBenson]

The basket ring is meant to stay on all the time. Not sure what the issue was? When you lift the basket out, as you get near the top, you give it a slight twist to clear the ring, then one past, twist it back and set it down.

[rpavon]

Have a question: I live way down in South Florida... how do you deal with the heat and the fermentation? Did you purchase a freezer to keep your fermenter inside? Thanks

[DaYDaC]

Really enjoying the videos!!! Keep it up!!!

[ceedee]

Great video! I just received my Foundry and I am going to make a Pale Ale this weekend. Got some great tips from you on. Cheers!

[bryand]

How would you describe the boil activity on 110V? I have a Robobrew and it’s a simmer for 5 gal batches.

[andrewbruch]

Love your videos and your humble disposition. Riddle me this, have you still never had a real Pliny? If not I want to solve this problem.

[kcweazle]

I am curious what profiles you used in beersmith. I found the Anvil Foundry equipment profile but no mash profile. Is the equipment profile add on accurate, did you have to make any changes to the profile? What mash profile do you use that works for the system. I just purchased one and waiting on delivery so I want my first brew day to go as smooth as possible.

[weldit]

Hey I just ordered this based on the Homebrew4life review. But your's is a+ thanks for the video. How long did your different stages take to warm up on 110v I will definatly have 220v available (as i already have a 220 induction burner) Just wondering if I can cut down on a 4.5 hr brewday. Thanks again

[michaeljames]

Man, what a down pour, but even so, any day when beer is made is a GREAT day. I enjoyed watching the video. According to the brewing instructions and ingredients Pliny the Elder clone is distillers beer. The single temperature infusion method and high modified, malt are used in grain distillation. The liquid is called distillers beer, the slang term is moonshiners beer. To produce ale and lager with the method, malt would need to contain magical properties in order for low temperature activated enzymes to work at a single, high temperature without denaturing, which is impossible. Strike and target temperature are useless for producing ale due to the way that enzymes work. The homebrew method produces chemically imbalance, sugar imbalanced, and unstable, extract. When yeast is added off flavors develop during fermentation and conditioning. Homebrew is artificially carbonated and pounded down when it is still green because shelf life is short.
A grain distillers soaks malt at 150F because Alpha releases the highest amount of simple sugar, glucose, from simple starch, amylose, within an hour. The more glucose, the more alcohol. Also, the high temperature denatures Beta. The enzyme isn't needed for making whiskey and it gets in the way.
Beta is responsible for conversion. Alpha is responsible for liquefaction, saccharification, dextrinization and gelatinization.
This is the way it works during mashing. Alpha activates and liquefies 1-4 links in the amylose starch chain. When the link is liquefied two chains form. The one chain is called the reducing end and the other chain is the nonreducing end. The reducing end contains 1-4 links which Alpha continues to liquefy until all of the links are liquefied, and when that happens, sweet tasting, nonfermenting types of sugar remain. The higher the rest temperature, the sweeter the beer and lower in ABV. The nonreducing end is simple sugar, glucose. Glucose is responsible for primary fermentation and ABV. The only purpose of Alpha is to release glucose, one of three building blocks of life, from starch.
Our saliva contains amylase and it works quite efficiently at 98.6F.
There's a tribe of headhunters that makes homebrew from some type of root that contains starch. The starch doesn't contain Alpha and for liquefaction and saccharification to occur, the lady headhunters spit into the mash. I have an idea. Contact someone in the homebrew empire and tell them that a new style of beer has been invented. If there's someone with a YouTube/TV show about homebrewing or that has a website that offers a few thousand recipes for ale and a program that allows homebrewers the opportunity to create their own world class brewing recipes, that's the guy to call. Dream up a few screwy names, and create a few dozen recipes that use 10 or 13 different specialty malts, and a dozen or two bags of different hops in each brew. The amount of spit can be varied in recipes to create subcategories. Spit can be flavored with Big Red or Winter Mint gum to produce holiday style beer. Add in that it only takes a week or two to produce the beer and it doesn't require boiling. It will go good with the other one or two hundred other styles of homebrew.
Beta is responsible for conversion at 140F. Beta converts glucose released by Alpha during liquefaction, turning the sugar into complex types of sugar, maltose and maltotriose, which are the types of sugar that produces ale and lager. When conversion occurs, secondary fermentation takes place because yeast works on complex sugar differently than it works on glucose. An enzyme within yeast converts maltose back into glucose during secondary fermentation. When conversion occurs beer doesn't require priming sugar or CO2 to carbonate. Beer naturally carbonates during conditioning due to maltotriose. Natural carbonation is much finer than bubbles made from artificial means.
The reason why homebrew dries and thins out has to do with a type of heat resistant, complex starch contained in malt called amylopectin. Amylopectin makes up the tips of starch and it is the richest starch in malt. The starch contains A and B limit dextrin which are tasteless, nonfermenting types of sugar responsible for body and mouthfeel in beer. The temperatures used to make homebrew aren't high enough to cause the starch to burst before Alpha denatures and the richest starch in malt is thrown out with the spent mash and that's why homebrew dries and thins out. To take advantage of the starch, mash is boiled as in the decoction method. When Alpha liquefies amylopectin, dextrinization and gelatinization occurs. The only time dextrinization occurs in the homebrew method happens when amylose contains a 1-6 link in the starch chain, which is extremely, rare. The finest beer is produced from dextrinous extract, not from extract containing mainly sweet tasting, nonfermenting sugar, and glucose.
When the triple decoction method is used the main mash is step mashed, and many times the decoctions are step mashed, as well. The beer produced doesn't dry and thin out due to dextrinization and gelatinization taking place. A brewer will limit the amount of certain types of sugar to dry out the beer, but it is controlled. Beer brewed with the triple decoction method is chemically balanced, sugar balanced, and stabile. The beer has a much longer shelf life than homebrew.
Step mashing and the decoction method works with under modified, low protein, malt. Weyermann floor malt and Gladfield's, American Malt are under modified. Click on Gladfield's website and find American malt, on the page is the spec sheet for the malt, part way down on the sheet is Kolbach. The Kolbach number determines level of modification. Malt with 40 Kolbach and lower is under modified. Under modified, malt is much richer in enzyme content than high modified, malt. The protein content in malt should be less than 10 percent. The less protein, the more sugar in malt. Homebrew malt is 42 to 46 Kolbach and 12 to 16 percent protein. The higher the Kolbach number and protein content, the less suitable the malt is for producing ale and lager. The malt contains mostly Alpha and it's deficient in enzymes that produce ale and lager. That's why it is less expensive than brewers grade malt. A spec sheet comes with each bag of malt and it's used for determining the quality of malt before purchasing it. A recipe that recommends two row American malt is similar to asking a person to purchase a two door, American car without any specs. Marris Otter, Halcyon and Golden Promise are high quality, distillers malt. Marris Otter is an odd ball. There's a certain malt house, I can't remember which one, that produces eight percent protein, malt. That would be the best malt to use for making high octane, homebrew. The malt is over modified causing low diastatic power. When adjuncts like corn or rice are used, six row malt has to be added.
Skim off hot break as it forms and continue to remove hot break until it drastically reduces before adding hops. Less hops are needed because the extract is cleaner. Skim off second break, as well. Purchase hops that have the percentage of Beta and the percentage of Alpha written on the bag. Without knowing the percentage of Beta the quality of the hop cannot be determined. The Alpha and Beta numbers should be within a decimal point of each other. The closer the numbers, the finer and more balanced the hop.


To learn how to make ale and lager start with deClerks books. The best books are Wulf's 1958 and 1959 journals. Abstracts from the IOB are free, online. The IOB made malt, modern, in the 19th century. In the 20th century a bunch of advertisers invented CAMRA and they renamed distillers beer and Prohibition beer, ale, and profits soared.

[vabchml]

Great video! Hey, I just received my Anvil Foundry 6.5 and want to brew this on a 3 gallon scale. Has anybody done this or can offer advice on scaling this down accurately?
Thanks,
Rob Waddell
Virginia Beach

[davidbeiler]

you forgot to put your top thing on to make the water spray