Helles Bock

This beer is now in primary fermentation at 11-14C (depends on outside temperature)
The brewing went well, except that i only got about 65% efficiency, so got a 1058 OG and aimed for a 1064 OG, but on the other hand, I got 24 liters worth into the carboy ;-) - So, this time it was quantity over quality.. or maybe i can sneak some 100 g dextrose sugar in the beer to krausen it and get some more ABV.


Recipe:
Malts
3600 g, Munich Malt
2800 g, Pilsner malt
700 g, Cara Pils
500 g, sauer malt

Hops
(70 g, 60 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh
(20 g, 15 min) Hallertauer Mittelfruh


Yeast: Hella Bock, from Wyeast.
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Brew stats:
pH: around 5,2 (due to sauer malt, almost added to much)
Mash schedule: i used a double decoction mash: Mash-in (15 min) then took 9 liter for decoction (10 min, 72C and 10 min boiling), put decoction back to pot, raised temperature to 67C (40 min) then took the second 9 liter decoction (10 min boiling), put it backed and raised the temp. to 74C for 20 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2.5 liter/kg malt
OG: 1058 (63% efficiency - it is so low because i added extra water during the boil...)
Color: 16 EBC (likely more due to the double decoction and long boiling times)
IBU: 29
Fermenting temperature: 14C the first day, and likely to be about 12C most of the time. I'm using a cupboard which is cooled by air from the outside

Secondary fermentation
not in secondary yet

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity etc. But i was to eager to get my 24 liter s of worth that i only got a 1058 OG + i added to little sparge water, losing some sugar there.

6th Floor Pilsner

My first pilsner (08.11.09)
The style i am trying to brew is bohemian pilsner. So its going to be rather hoppy and malty :D At the moment the beer is at 2C lagering temperature.

top left: 8 liter decoction mash, hop pellets in kettle, my beer fridge modified to fit a carboy and transfer of the 'beer' to secondary/lagering carboy.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pilsner malt
400 g, Cara Pils

Hops
(80 g, 90 min) Saaz
(25 g, 45 min) Saaz
(20 g, 30 min) Saaz
(25g, KO) Saaz

Yeast: Bohemian lager (Wyeast 2124). Attenuation 73-77%. (Yeast starter, SG: 1040, 2 days)
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Brew stats:
pH: around 6 (too high)
Mash schedule: i used a double decoction mash: Mash-in (15 min) then took 8 liter for decoction (10 min, 72C and 10 min boiling), put decoction back to pot, raised temperature to 67C (40 min) then took the second 8 liter decoction (10 min boiling), put it backed and raised the temp. to 74C for 20 min.
Volume: 25 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2.5 liter/kg malt
OG: 1048
Color: 6 EBC (likely more than 6 EBC due to the double decoction and long boiling times)
IBU: 37
Fermenting temperature: 10C (used temperature regulated fridge) Worth has been around 18C when yeast was pitched and it was put directly to the fridge)

Secondary fermentation / lagering
After 11 days at 10C it got a 2 days deacetyl rest at 15C (13 day total) After that I added it to a new fermenter and slowly lowered the temperature, about 3 C pr. day down to 1C.

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity. I used hop pellets and they created a large green mass inside the pot, which made it difficult to pour of the worth (need to get a filter for my tab)

Import Pale Ale

Bottling
The beer was bottled after two weeks in secondary fermentation together with some cascade dry hops.
This fine colored IPA tastes very good with the bitterness from the chinook hops being right on :-) and the beer is very clean and crisp with a good citrus/fresh flavor and aroma. Now all there is left is some carbonation and to drink it as quick as possible. The ABV is about 5.8%

Amber/light copper colored. Slightly murky due the low flocculating yeast.

The taste is not as hoppy as i had expected, i guess this might be because of all the oxygen that got mixed in the beer when adding it to secondary fermentation. Also the gravity was only 1004 ! so the beer is not very sweet, but it still has a full body.

* After studying more about attenuation and alcohol I found out that what I have quoted the apparent gravity (if one can call it that), but because ethanol has a density <1 g/ml. (0.78 g/ml) the real gravity is actually larger than the measured one (because it is relative to water, 1 g/ml.)
using this webpage, it calculated that my real gravity is 1013 ! exactly as expected! :-)

Lingonberry Pale Ale

Sorsakoski puolukka olut
This beer has a similar malt profile to the American IPA but with less crystal malt, to make the red colour from the lingonberry jam more visible. The reason i name this beer Sorsakoski puolukka olut (Sorsakoski lingonberry beer) is because the lingonberry jam and hops from Sorsaksoki. These home grown hops were rather bitter, but not as much as Chinook and they did not have strong flavor or aroma, if anything it was mildly spicy. As hops i used some leftovers which happened to be Chinook and Cascade - I guess their citrus like taste will suit the lingonberries well :-) also i used the safbrew-33 which is a rather "low" attenuator (70-75%) and should leave the beer rather sweet.

Top left: Lauthering: a few lingonberries and the immersion chiller, reddish stuff covering the top of fermenter, after a few hours the beer was fermenting vigorously.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pale Ale
400 g, Cara Pils
550 g, Munchener
250 g, Crystal

Hops
(35 g, 60 min) Chinook
(25 g, 20 min) Hops from Sorsakoski (very mild spicy flavor)
(24 g, 5 min) Cascade
(KO) 20 table spoons of homemade lingonberry jam

Yeast: Safbrew-33 (made a small yeast starter 5 hours before pitching)
---------------------
Brew stats:
pH: 5-6
Mash temperature and time: 65-68C for 90 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1050
Color: 18 EBC (amber)
IBU: 50
Fermenting temperature: 15-18C (The temperature fluctuates with the outside temperature)

Secondary fermentation
No secondary, beer is already quite clear with very little sediment.

notes: Had a very successful lautering, in regards to beer clarity. Lost about 3 liters when adding the wort to the carboy, because i misjudged how much was left in the pot when i stopped.

Import Pale Ale

Brewing an American IPA
I call this beer Import Pale Ale because it was made from American yeast and hops which were imported from USA to Sweden then to Finland, further more my brother came from Denmark to visit and brew this beer with me.

The hardest part of deciding the recipe was how much chinook hops to add, i used a few hours reading only forums etc. and some LOVED chinook and used a lot of it, while other (quite many) told that one should be very careful not to add to much, because it might ruin the beer. well, i settled with adding a decent amount, 35 g, adding up to about 42 IBU. Tasting the beer when i racket it to secondary fermentation it definitely was not too bitter, it had a strong grape fruit/citrus like taste, just perfect.

I did not get as much sugar out of the malt as i planned for so the OG was ind the lower end of the American IPA style.

Picture from bottom right: Me adding yeast starter to the 'beer', Hanna and Bergur cleaning in the kitchen while the beer cools down, Bergur helping with the brewing and finally, the beer fermenting.

Recipe:
Malts
5000 g, Pale Ale (base malt)
400 g, Cara Pils (fuller body)
250 g, Munchener (malt taste, complexity)
350 g, Crystal (color and slight caramel taste)

Hops
(35 g, 60 min) (4 g, 1 min), Chinook (bittering)
(25 g, 20 min) (20 g, 5 min) and (12 g, dry), Cascade (flavor and aroma)

Yeast: Wyeast, 1056 American Ale (made an OG: 1.040 yeast starter)
-------------------------------
Brew stats:
pH: ~5.5
Mash temperature and time: 65-68C for 90 min.
Volume: 24 liter
Malt/water ratio: 2 liter/kg malt
OG: 1051 (65% efficiency)
Color: 19 EBC (amber/light copper)
IBU: 52
Fermenation Temperature: 18-20C

Secondary fermentation
pH: 4-5
"FG": 1.009

The brew day:
Brew went smoothly except for a few annoying problems:

- After about 1 hour the brew pot became 75C for about 5 min. where after i had to add 2 liters of cold water to cool it down to 68. Happened because the pots temperature regulator does not work well! (not going to use it again!)

- When put the beer in a new carboy for secondary fermentation, the siphon broke and i had to use a funnel, this caused a lot of air to mix with the beer ! + increased the risk of infection. Due to this, i expect the beer to have a very short 'shelf-life' and maybe become stalled.

My new external thermostat

External thermostat
I got the Universal Thermostat (UT200) that I ordered from ELV in Germany last week, and to my surprise it was not assembled! I found out later that it was also possible to order an assembled verison, which only cost 12 euros more.
It took me about 6 hours of soldering, using a German manual as guide - if one does it with out mistakes and using an ENGLISH manual it should not take more than 1 to 2 hours. Against my expectations the thing worked! :-) and on top of being an external thermostat for a freezer, fridge, boiler etc, it can also be used as an accurate thermometer, for example to measure the temperature in the brewing pot or even fever ;) hehe..

The price for the thermostat is 30 euro and it costs 25 euros to get it shipped to Finland :( In hind sight it is worth paying 12 euros extra for the assembled one!

here is the link to the webpage
main page: www.elv.de
link to pre-assembled thermostat, and to not assembled thermostat

Here are some pictures of it, after soldering and wiring, and out of the box.

4 Stout, Bottling and Storage

Stout, bottling and storage (Mai to July '09)
The beer was bottled after 18 days (22 April - 10 May) and stored at ca. 20C.
I achieved a FG of 1012 which was exactly as planned, it means that the beer contains roughly 6.5 %ABV (OG was 1.062.)

Before bottling I added 3-4 g white sugar pr. liter and stored the bottles at about 21C.
Now after 2 months the carbonation of the beer is in the low end. I would assume that 3-4 g/l should be enough for a decent carbonation, usually is. I think the reason for the low carbonation is that during the 18 days in secondary fermentation the beer lost most of the dissolved CO2 and had to start from scratch with the priming sugar - Normally the beer should contain quite a large amount of CO2 even before priming sugar is added...
well, it surely looks good ! and the taste - it has a very good taste to start with, like a proper stout/porter, but the after-taste is quite unpleasant, a bit like wax, and is especially noticeable a few minutes after opening a cold beer, :-( The film on the carboy (mentioned earlier) might have produced some bad aromatic stuff, but it is unlikely an infection, because then I would expect a much lower FG, because the sugars should be consumed by the bacteria/wild yeast. I am therefor starting to suspect that the yeast has created or is the off flavor, as mentioned early, it was very hard to activate the yeast, indicating that it was in a bad condition, therefor the few cells that survied and multiplied have likely had unfavorable characteristics... all in all, the beer is drinkable and has no unpleasant side effects, maybe with a bit of luck the wax'ish taste will disappear with further storage. ! NEXT time it will be better ;) !

3 Stout, possible problem (2ndary fermentation)

Secondary fermentation (27/4-09)
The carboy has been standing for a few days at 20-22C near the window, covered with a jacket (no light got trough) when yesterday i noticed a very thin! oily/bit slimy film covering most of the surface, its rather homogeneous. I wonder if this is due to contamination or just oily residues from the ingredients, e.g. hops, roasted barley and cocoa. I thought the transfer from primary to secondary fermentation went well, but you never know.... well, the beer has nearly 2 more weeks in the fermentation tank and if the film does not grow i assume it is OK - but only the taste will tell ;-) I have now moved the carboy to a 19-20C dark room because i presume that the temperature varies to much in the window, and this might stress the yeast and cause strange agglomerations of the beer proteins.

By the way, i found two good links on "How to spot bad beer" and "How Not to Brew"
http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=462
http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/24.4-nottobrew.html

Update: I think I found the possible source for the thin surface layer - There is a thin transparent film covering the inside of my carboy, but it has only gotten visible now that the yeast and sediments have attached to it. The film has likely come from the secondary fermentation of the previous beer. I can see it has been scratched by the brush (when i washed the carboy) but the brush, caustic soda and iodphor have not been able to remove it ! but hopefully it is sanitized! and will not spoil the brew. Next time i'll use a higher concentration of caustic soda and use really warm water!

2 Stout, brewing and fermentation

Stout, brewing and fermentation (19/4-09) (ingredients are in the previous posting)
The yeast Irish Ale yeast starter was made from 75cl water and 170g malt and some hops, this gave it an OG (original gravity) of about 1.040 and after about 24 hours it was done fermenting. The Wyeast web page said i would get 6 mil. cells/ml using a 1.040 OG starter and that i needed 12 mil. cells/ml. for a >1.060 gravity worth to have a good pitch, therefor i added about 1 tbs. table sugar after 24 hours to further increase the yeast count - after 2 days i set the yeast starter in the fridge overnight so that the yeast would settle and be ready to pitch the next day.

The brewing of the 25L went smoothly, the OG was 1.062 and very nice hot and cold breaks were achieved - I'm not using irish mosh or any finning agents so those breaks were important. My girlfriend helped me during the brew, and she came up with the idea to add some high quality ecological cocoa powder, and so she got to add 1½ tbs. just to give a hint of cocoa (i did not want to risk it ruining the beer). (images: Roaste barley and dusty malt mill.)


The fermentation progressed very well! in less than 10 hours at 20-22C the fermentation was in full progress and after merely 3 days only 1 "blob" pr. min. came from the air lock! So i decided it was time to rack to secondary fermentation while there still was some activity. The Gravity reading at this point was 1.012 which indicates a nearly complete fermentation and the taste was very good, so far so good. Now I'll give it 2-3 weeks in secondary, before bottling.
(image: Worth boiling, and beer set for primary fermentation)

After primary fermentation and transferring to secondary.
(images: yeast and sediments and transfer to new carboy.

1 Stout, about the beer and yeast starter.

Stout, 2 days before brewing (16/4-09)
Now that the outside temperature has risen to over 14C it is no longer suitable for brewing lager type beers, so I have decided to brew a top-fermented Stout (strong porter).
I want this to be a stong classic dry stout with a around 6.5% ABV and with a moderate bitterness of about 55 IBU (international Bitterness Units) and I'll add some Oat flakes to create a fuller body and a better foam. The recipe is the following using a 90 min. single infusion mash.

Malt:

Pale Malt 70%
*Munich malt 17%
*Cara-hell 2%
Flaked oats 4%
Roasted barley 7%
and 1½ tbs. cocoa powder.
* These are leftovers from the last brew.

Hops:
Challenger 5.4% alpha, 130 g.

Yeast:
Irish Ale (smack-pack from Wyeast)

Last night (15/04-09) i activated the Wyeast package, which was supposed to swell in 3+ hours, but in the morning almost nothing had happened! the yeast was about 5 months old, and i guess it has been stored propperly in the shop - it should last for over 6 months. well, i have now added the yeast to a 0.75 L yeast starter with 1.040 OG (made from 140 g malt and a bit of hops) and hopefully it will start fermenting soon!

cheers.

9 Hellesbock / Maibock (Almost there)

Bottle lagering/storage day 42 (09/4-09)
The beer has now been lagered at 9-12C for 12 days and at ~5C for 9 days. The taste has been evolving very much, it has gone from having many distinct tastes especially a relative strong hop and fruity taste to a more balanced hop and malt taste, with the taste of alcohol now being more noticeable - this change has been interesting to follow and i expect that in a months time it will have reached its "mature" state which people normally relate to beer. I really have to stop my self from drinking them already at this stage ;) up till now i have drunk 6 beers.

About the lager process:
This beer should have a minimum of one month lagering and preferentially 2 months at low temperature, up til now it has had 21 days. I gave the beer 12 days at 10C to ensure that the yeast would be able to sufficiently carbonate the beer before putting it to 5C where the yeast metabolism is significantly slowed down. But up to this point there still is not enough carbonation in the beer, although it is still increasing (luckily!), so i hope it will reach the levels i expect for this beer style... if not, well, the beer is still very drinkable ;-) The reason to store the beer at 5c or less is to clarify it and reduce the production of potential off-flavors.

Pictures:

The beer is safely stored in a brown beer bottle, these are the best to protect the beer from light.

The color of the beer has positively surprised me.

A close up. Hopefully there will be more foam later.refreshing ;)

8 Hellesbock / Maibock (Bottling)

Secondary fermentation day 21 (19/3-09)
The beer has now conditioned (been in secondary fermentation) for 14 days and I decided it was time to bottle it. In hindsight it would probably be a good idea to have kept it in the fermentation tank one week extra, but I doubt that it would have an impact on the "final" taste. The alcohol content is between 6.8 - 7.0% alc. vol. % (my measurements were not that exact) and i do not expect there to be more fermentable sugars, so this should be the final alc. vol. %
The taste is a bit "green" by that I mean that the hop bitternes and malt taste are quite separate and the beer has not gotten a smooth equal taste.

The beer bottles 33cl glass, 1.25 litre plastic. and 5 litre kegs were thoroughly cleaned ! by having them soaked in alkaline solution (Caustic soda), Sanitized with Iodophor and washed in boiling water just before bottling. The bottle caps where also boiled before use.
To carbonate the beer i added 100 g sugar to 1 dl water and boiled it - then using a syringe I added about 4 g/l of sugar separately to each bear, but for the 5 litre kegs I added no more than 2.5 g/l because they tend to get over carbonated if the regular amount is used.

The beer has a very nice colour

The beer was bottled in glass bottles, plastic bottles and kegs, and left to stand at about 10C for a week to obtain sufficient carbonation before they are set to lager in the refrigerator at 0-3C.

7 Hellesbock / Maibock (more 2nd fermentation)

Secondary fermentation day 17 (15/3-09)
The beer has now conditioned (been in secondary fermentation) for 10 days and has started to
clear significantly, it was not until after about 7 days that the suspended material really started to sediment. I expect to bottle sometime within the next 4 days.

Today i found out that if your hand is held up against the glass on the other side of the yeast, then after ca. 1½ min. CO2 bobbles start to form and "explode" out of the sediments - quite a cool effect. I think it is because the increasing temperature releases the CO2 from the beer, which must be quite saturated with CO2 now that the effect is so profound, this is good thing because CO2 protects the beer from O2 and aerobic bacteria.

Because the sudden change in heat seems to disturb the sediments, i will have to bottle it quikly before the temperature rises significantly.

The beer looks rather dark, more like a dunkel bock than a hellesbock. But i am sure that as the beer clears more and if it is add to a drinking glass it will look much more amber/copper colored than the dark color seen here.

6 Hellesbock / Maibock (2ndary fermentation)

Secondary fermentation day 7 (5/3-09)
The primary fermentation had slowed significantly down, giving only 1 to 2 "blobs" / min. from the air lock. I decided that this was a good time to start secondary fermentation/The conditioning, because the bit of activity left would help create a protective CO2 atmosphere in the new fermentation tank. To help reactivate the yeast activity i added 2 g sugar/l (disovled in about 2 cl boiled water cooled to 12C)

The reason to do secondary fermentation is to give the beer time to clear, reduces yeast taste, and the leftover yeast will reduce off flavours by consuming heavier sugars, fusel alcohols and its own byproducts produced during the primary fermentation phase. The conditioning phase should last for about two weeks, a good sign that it is about to be done is that the beer has become much clearer. Here after the beer is to be bottled and lagered at 0-4C

The wort after being siphoned into the new container.

5 Hellesbock / Maibock (more fermentation)

Primary fermentation day 4 (2/3-09)
The fermentation has its peak activity between day 3 and 5.
I have attached a video below showing the fermentation activity , and some beautiful swirls of material moving around due to all the CO2 produced by the yeast. The swirls are dynamic and quite coherent, kind of like steam from boiling water or smoke from a cigarette.

4 Hellesbock / Maibock (fermentation)

Primary fermentation (o1/3-09)
The fermentation really kicked of after 24 hours of pitching the yeast, the vessel is kept at 10C so the fermentation was expected
to start a bit later and be slower than when fermenting ales at 18-24C, but at a low temperature less esters (fruity taste) and fusel alcohols develop. But the unwanted diacetyl which is formed by the yeast the first few days, is slowly re-consumed and the beer should therefore be allowed to ferment longer or at higher temperature for a day or two.
Below are some pictures of the fermentation showing how it really makes the whole vessel come alive :-) If you have seen the pictures from the previous blog you might remember that there were unclear chunks of material suspended in the container, but now nearly all of it has sedimented or become nutrient for the yeast.

Surface of the fermentation tank


Sediments and the happily bottom fermenting lager yeast eagerly munching away on sugars and giving alcohol in return. Sometimes it almost looks like "solar flares" when air bobbles erupt from the sediments :-D

3 Hellesbock / Maibock (Brewing day)

Brewing day (26/2-09)
I decided to use a single decoction mashing for the brew, this is done to extract more malt flavor, caramelize some of the sugars and darken the worth a bit.

My mashing schedule is the following:
added 7.3 kg crushed malt to 17 litres 73C water which lowered the temperature down to a comfortable 63C where from the mash was heated to about 67 C which is the temperature where a substantial amount of non fermentable dextrine sugar is formed, this gives the beer a rich and full taste (not dry). after 45 min. i took about 2 liters malt rich mash out for decoction - the decoction schedule is 10 min. at 70C and 20 min. at 100C (boiling) hereafter it is added back to the main wort which now has cooked for 75 min at 67C. The temperature is raised to 72-75C, for 20 min, this is the mash out.

Below is a picture of the mash taken out for decoction mashing at 100C:


After the mashing procedure, the malt was filtered out of the mash and 75-78C sparge water was added to wash out the rest of the sugar from the malt and to increase the volume of the brew so that there is more beer for everyone :-)
Here the wort is seen after lautering and sparge water has been added to achieve about 24 litres.


Below a picture of the lautering/filtering process is seen. The sparge water is poured through the malt which is in the white filter bag and then back into the pot, this process is repeated until the wort is quite clear and the Original Gravity (OG) in my case should be 1068 (equal to about 68 g sugar pr. liter wort) but, due to low efficiency or lack of malt i just got up to an OG of 1060 which can become about 6.4-6.8 % alc. vol. after fermentation, depending on the amount of fermentable sugars.


After this lautering process the wort is set to boiled and hops are added in 3 steps:
first bitter hops, (Hallertauer mittelfruh), after 40 min. aroma hops (Hallertauer mittelfruh) and some Irish moss was added (reduces beer haze) and after 54 min. aroma hops (Hersbrucker and a bit og mittelfruh)


After 60 min. the hops are filtered out of the wort and the wort is cooled using a wort chiller, mine is a homemade spiraled copper tube.


When the wort was about 14C (same as the yeast starter) i poured it into the fermenting vessel, which after it was filled was shaken well to air/oxygenize the worth so that the yeast will have a good start. As you can see, there is a lot of light brown particles floating in the wort, this is both protein, sugars and left overs of malt, but all this will fall to the bottom and some of it might get fermented :-)


Now all that is left is to put the fermentation vessel to the 10C cupboard and leave it there until fermentation slows down enough to start secondary fermentation.

Btw, it requires 2 persons to get that glass carboy all the way up there :-) luckely had my girlfriend to help me. Oh, on the stove the wort chiller/cooler can be seen.

Note: Some of the malt was used to bake bread with, this give you a bit more for the money.

2 Hellesbock / Maibock (Crushing the Malt)

1 day till the brewing day (25/02-09):
Today the malt grains were crushed in a electric stone grinder, because crushed malt has a larger surface area it will be more accessible to enzymatic attack (e.g. α-amylase and β-amylase) which turn the starch into fermentable sugars. It is also important not to crush it to much so that the malt husks get to small, because when the wort is to be filtered from the mash they are effective as a natural filter.
Note: The reason i crused the malt one day before use is to lessen the work burden on the brewing day and because of my schedule.

I used 3 types of malt for this lager type, amber/light copper coloured beer. The types and amounts are: 49% Münchener malt, 41% Pilsner malt and 10% Cara-hell. Of these Cara-hell is the darkest or said in another way, the "least pale" one.

The crushed malt is shown on the image below. What looks like whole grains is in many cases just empty husks, especially from the Cara-hell grains because they were rather hard to grind.

After being crushed, the malt was sealed in paper bags and stored in a dark cold place for the brewing day, tomorrow.

1 Hellesbock / Maibock (Making the yeast starter)

2 days till the brewing day (24/02-09):
Today i prepared the yeast starter containing 700 ml boiled water, cooled to 23C, 1½ table spoon sugar, about 3 tbl. spoons of crushed malt and 1 pack Saflager S-23 (bottom fermenting lager yeast). The yeast starer is to stand at 9-14 degrees Celsius for 2 days so that the yeast has time to multiply and grow used to the temperature and environment it is to be pitched into on the brewing day. Note: it is important to have a lot of yeast for this beer because it is high in alcohol (about 7%) and is fermenting at a low temperature (9-14C).

the image above shows the yeast starter where the water, yeast and malt layers are clearly visible - after some time the yeast will mix with the malt at the bottom. Note: it would likely be smarter to boil the malt with the water and then filter the malt away before adding the water to the jar.

The temperature is around 10-13C. This room has a connection to the outside through the lid seen on the wall in image 1. by opening and closing it, its possible to regulate the temperature quite well. It is also in this cupboard my fermentation tank is going to stand.