Do not include the water under the false bottom in your calculations; instead, calculate the volume of your mash above the false bottom. This will help keep your grain bed from being to dry.

Lastly, salts must be added directly to the mash tun and not the hot liquor tank

Salt Calculation: Do include the water under the false bottom for your salt additions. Although the volume of water under the false bottom stays the same, the wort is still re-circulated to the top of the mash and filtered through the mash

Salt in the Kettle: Sparge water should not be treated with salts, yet instead the salts are added directly to the kettle. However, I am still trying to understand adjusting on taste in the kettle.

Connect the gas to the black beverage disconnect so that the CO2 bubbles up through the beer. Place a .5 micron stainless steel air-stone at the bottom of the keg to introduce the CO2 as a very fine mist that will rise through the keg and absorb much faster.

You cannot carbonate at room temperature so you will need to reduce temp to approx 4 deg C. This would most liekly depend on the style.

Grist to Water Ratio

A thin mash of say 4 litres per kilo results in a more fermentable wort.

A thick mash of say 2.5 litres per kilo results in a less fermentable wort and will result in a more maltier beer.
Look at the sytle and decide what taste you want.
Then comes in mash temps and water that all have an effect on the end product.

Step Mashing

Start increasing the mash temp well before the end of the first step. This is because it takes time to heat it past where it has been resting. 

If mash schedule is for 90 minutes at 65 deg and then step to 77 deg for mash out then start increasing temp at 60 minutes. (to increase temp at a more increased rate, prepare water on the side at 80+ deg and then mix with mash water

Boil for 90 minutes with pilsner or lightly kilned malts to reduce DMS.

HOT BREAK

 Periodically examine samples of the boiling wort to asses protien/polyphenol flocculation. Remove a glassful of wort. The tannin/protiens that mist the wort early in the boil should coagulate into a much smaller number of larger flakes, 3mm long or longer as th boil progresses. Check the PH. It should drop during the boil to 5 to 5.3

 COLD BREAK

As the boil draws near, a hot smaple should precipitate an leave the wort clear. Force cool the sample, it should slowly cloud again as it cools. The cold break should then settle out of the wort, leaving it clear and bright.

On many trials of different ways the quickest for my set up is as follows

1. Stop Boil and let whirl pool come to an end.
2. Run Wort through counter-flow chiller directly into settling tank (HLT). Have immersion chiller already placed in HLT.
3. One wort is transferred to HLT then turn on immersion chiller, Immersion chiller will work best when recycling iced water from a large bucket or fermenter. By usind iced water you can reduce the wort further down to below 7 deg which is perfect for lagers. 

By using the counter-flow chiller first you can reduce the hot wort much faster than just using an immersion chiller. You also get all the hot temp out of the wort prior to using just iced cold water (this way saving the ice for when you need it most)

Need to ensure all the old break drops out of the wort leaving it clear and bright.

When sparging it is important to keep the temperature at 77 deg C. A drop below this will result in DMS. Mix the Sparge water in if batch sparging and let it sit for 10 minutes while the filter bed forms undisturbed.

Sparge until the the density of the runoff drops below SG 1012.

Boils of up to and over 90 minutes helps to reduce DMS but the boil needs to be a rolling boil.

6 row variety malt contains excessive levels of DMS

When sparging, keep sparge temp at 77 deg c

Ensure sufficient qty of yeast to pitch (at least 1/2 to 1 ltr starter/19 litres.

After boil reduce wort to below 80 deg C as quick as possible. JZ recommends wort chiller with recirculation arm.

Fill the keg to no more than 1/2 to 1 inch from under the CO2 inlet dip tube. Use the release valve to release the air. This is called burping the keg and is done best in 3 short bursts.

CO2 will absorb faster if the beer is cold (the beer will not absorb gas at room temp) so apply 32PSI (230KPa) continually for 2 days at 4degC. (check promash for pressure calculations)

To test the carbonation, reduce the pressure to the dispensing pressure of 10 psi (70 kpa)

Note: to reduce the pressure in the keg, turn down the pressure on the regulator by unscrewing the adjuster. Vent the keg to reduce excess pressure then slowly screw the adjuster in until the new pressure is achieved.

If the beer is over carbonated, turn the gas bottle off and vent the gas from the ehadspace by releasing the pressure valve. Leave the gas bottle off and let stand for 1 hour while you repeatedly release any gas from the headspace.

CLEANING THE BARREL

1. Half fill the barrel in a vertical position with warm water and cover the bunghole (do not seal it, just cover). The interior of the barrel will fill with steam/vapour and will help avoid leaking. The water component is not for sterilizing the barrel (bearing in mind it is impossible to fully sterilize oak due to it’s porosity).
2. Drain the barrel thoroughly after 5-10 minutes by leaving it bungside down.
3. After half an hour or so you can either burn a Sulfur ring (no more than 0.5/gram) or mix up 10grams of PMS (Potassium MetabiSulphite) in 5 litres of cool water. Pour this into the barrel, seal the bung and roll the barrel around so as to rinse the entire interior. This should only take a couple of minutes.
4. After this has drained, half fill the barrel again with fresh warm water as per stage one and shake the barrel around so as to rinse all interior surface. You may need a couple of fresh water rinses after the Sulphur depending on the barrel uptake.
5. Once any overt Sulphur aroma has been rinsed out, fill with beer. You shouldn’t have much of an airlock (we don’t have any with our wine barrels). The barrel will absorb some beer over time so will need to be regularly topped to avoid oxidation.

PREPARING EQUIPMENT

1. Sanitize; blow off tube, bottle, racking tube, bung
2. Have a bottle sterile water ready

RACKING THE BEER TO THE BARREL

1. In regards racking, best to find a siphon hose and rack from the top using gravity into a clean vessel under CO2 cover. A tap on the keg is a breeding ground for spoilage yeast/bacteria. To sample you could use a simple 20ml plastic syringe (without the needle…..).

Preparing for Racking

Clean and prepare the following;

1. Hose for side tap
2. Blow off tube, Bung and bottle for Barrel
3. 2 liter pourer (half fill 1 with sterilize solution)
4. 1 cap (to sit items on when removed from equipment)
5. CO2 bottle
6. Sterilized water
7. 1 Glass for sampling

Procedure to Rack

1. Attach tube to side valve of conical
2. Remove blow off tube from Fermenter
3. Place a cover of CO2 in fermenter
4. Purge barrel with CO2.
5. Add beer from Conical and then attach bung and blow off tube (lots of activity in initial rack)
6. Take sample from conical
7. Replace blow off tube on conical with air lock.

MONITORING THE PROCESS

1. Every 2-3 days check the beer for taste and top up with beer under CO2 cover.

Preparing to monitor

Clean and prepare the following;

1. Sample Syringe
2. Hose for side tap
3. Air lock for Fermenter and Barrel
4. 1 liter pourer (half fill with sterilize solution)
5. 1 cap (to sit items on when removed from equipment)
6. CO2 bottle
7. Sterilized water
8. 2 Glass’s for sampling

 Procedure to monitor

1. Attach tube to side valve of conical
2. Remove air lock from conical and place in sterile solution
3. Place a cover of CO2 in fermenter
4. Remove Blow off tube from barrel and purge with CO2. Then remove Bung from Barrel and place in solution incl air lock.
5. Take sample from fermenter (or top up beer source) and check for taste quality. “ENSURE YOU DO NOT ADD RANCID BEER TO YOU BARREL”  You never know when a beer may be infected.
6. Take sample from barrel
7. Add beer from Conical and then cover with barrel bung and add some CO2
8. Replace bung and add air lock with sterile water
9. Replace blow off tube on conical with air lock.

Aroma: Roasted grain aromas moderate to high, and can have coffee, chocolate and/or lightly burnt notes. Fruitiness medium to high. Some versions may have a sweet aroma, or molasses, licorice, dried fruit, and/or vinous aromatics. Stronger versions can have the aroma of alcohol. Hop aroma low to none. Diacetyl low to none.

Appearance: Very deep brown to black in color. Clarity usually obscured by deep color (if not opaque, should be clear). Large tan to brown head with good retention.

Flavor: Tropical versions can be quite sweet, while export versions can be moderately dry (reflecting impression of a scaled-up version of either sweet stout or dry stout). Roasted grain and malt character can be moderate to high, although sharpness of dry stout will not be present in any example. Tropical versions can have high fruity esters, smooth dark grain flavors, and moderate bitterness. Export versions tend to have lower esters, more assertive roast flavors, and higher bitterness. The roasted flavors of either version may taste of coffee, chocolate, or lightly burnt grain. Little to no hop flavor. Very low to no diacetyl.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full to full body, often with a smooth, creamy character. May give a warming impression from alcohol presence. Moderate to moderately-high carbonation.

Overall Impression: A very dark, moderately strong, roasty ale. Tropical varieties can be quite sweet, while export versions can be drier and fairly robust.

History: Originally high-gravity stouts brewed for tropical markets (and hence, sometimes known as “Tropical Stouts”). Some bottled export (i.e. stronger) versions of dry or sweet stout also fit this profile. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout has been made since the early 1800s.

Comments: A rather broad class of stouts, these can be either fruity and sweet, dry and bitter, or even tinged with Brettanomyces (e.g., Guinness Foreign Extra Stout; this type of beer is best entered as a Specialty or Experimental beer). Think of the style as either a scaled-up dry and/or sweet stout, or a scaled-down Imperial stout without the late hops. Highly bitter and hoppy versions are best entered as American-style Stouts.

Ingredients: Similar to dry or sweet stout, but with more gravity. Pale and dark roasted malts and grains. Hops mostly for bitterness. May use adjuncts and sugar to boost gravity. Ale yeast (although some tropical stouts are brewed with lager yeast).

Vital Statistics:

Commercial Examples: Lion Stout (Sri Lanka), ABC Stout, Dragon Stout, Royal Extra “The Lion Stout” (Trinidad), Jamaica Stout, Guinness Extra Stout (bottled US product), Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (bottled, not sold in the US), Coopers Best Extra Stout, Freeminer Deep Shaft Stout, Sheaf Stout, Bell’s Double Cream Stout