Like many folk I have a fascination for the weather that borders on a fixation. On brewing days I tune in to the Shipping Forecast at 5.20am and eagerly await the weather report from Valentia in Western Ireland. Why there? Well it’s because invariably what is happening in Valentia will happen in these parts within 24 hours. It’s the way cyclonic weather systems work I am told, so if you hear “Valentia, 998 falling rapidly” then hang on to your hat because there’s every probability that we’ll be in for a storm too.
Anyway, told you that to tell you this. Weather forecasts inform temperatures and as we all know, brewing is temperature critical at just about every point of the process, so if you know that it is going to freeze on the night time of the day you are brewing you might choose, as I would to collect at a slightly higher temperature – say 19C to offset the colder overnight ambient temperatures – especially if your brewery is an old rural grade 2 listed building as ours is! It gives your yeast the best chance to establish quickly and get going. Alternatively in the hot balmy months of summer (remember them?) I would choose to collect at a lower temperature – 16.5 - 17C otherwise there is a strong possibility that the fermentation will race and you will spend much of your time trying to control the temperature and stop the yeast from overheating. We do this manually at Uley Brewery – of course we do! and I suppose that we wouldn’t have it any other way. We stay in touch with the process!
Another critical temperature moment happens at the very start of the brewing day. The mash temperature needs to be 67C give or take a degree or two. Outside this narrow band the magic of the mash-in does not really happen and definitely takes a turn for the worse on the final product. The grain is at an ambient storage temperature which will clearly be lower in the winter and higher in the summer, so the ‘strike temperature’ – the temperature at which your liquor (water) is in the hot liquor tank is critical and you alter it according the prevailing weather conditions.
As I write this, it is early morning. It is cold and raining outside. I am in the brew house and the burners under the copper are going full bore and the temperature in the brew house is 35C. That’s critical for me and I feel safe and snug. Just the tonic on a winter February morning!
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