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clibit

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I have just chucked the first lot of hops into my brews, I mashed a batch of grain and have split it four ways to make 4 one gallon/4.5 litre brews. I'm going to adapt one later by steeping choc and dark crystal malts, probably!

Batch Size (L): 18.0
Total Grain (kg): 3.350
Original Gravity (OG): 1.044
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.32 %
Colour (SRM): 10.5 (EBC): 20.7
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75

Grain Bill
----------------
3.000 kg Munich Lager Malt (89.55%)
0.150 kg Crystal 40 (4.48%)
0.150 kg Wheat Malt (4.48%)
0.050 kg Carafa III malt (1.49%)

I decided to add the Carafa at the last minute, just to darken the beer.

I'm hopping them differently:

1. 7g Amarillo @45 and 14g Amarillo @ 5 = 45 IBUs

2. 5g Citra @ 45 and 14g Citra at Flame out = 36 IBUs

3. 7g First Gold @ 45 and 7g each of First Gold, EKG and Northdown @ 5 = 46 IBUs.

4. 7g Cluster @ 45 and 14g Cluster @ 5 = 45 IBUs (will add Choc and Dark Crystal to this later to make a brown ale I think)

Work out what yeasts to use later!
 
3.5 hours from starting to flame out, now cooling. Been half asleep all day and forgeot the gypsum. Just remembered to put Irish moss in! Otherwise all gone well. So far.

Need to sterilise 4 demijohns and get the yeast pitched asap!
 
Why is it Irish moss is so hard to remember??

Which yeast did you go for? I quite like the sound of the English hopped one, fruity and a bit sweet and earthy-spicy type.
 
Pitched yeast when I got home at about 11.30 last night. Ended up sticking US05 slurry in them all cos I've no temp control and 05 was my least temperature sensitive option. Bugger all activity yet though...
 
Interesting experiment. Hope it gets started soon.

I hate that lag at the start when you wonder if it might not work. Pitched two packets of Cooper's Ale yeast into my Summer Ale last night at about 2100. Rehydrated it in cool water while I was waiting for my wort to cool down. Going like a train this morning when I woke up. One bubble a second ever since. Hoping it gets no warmer as it is 23c now.
 
No krausen yet but things are under way.

You can have the second one on my Gales bitter if you like.

The MJ workhorse yeastI'm using has thrown up another krausen. It did this the last time I used it back in Jan, so I don't think it's got anthing to do with the warm weather. I'm not sure I like this yeast. I think this will be the last time I use it, I think I prefer Mauribrew 514.
 
Did the adaptation to the Cluster brew today. Steeped 40g of Crystal Rye and 30g of pale chocolate malt in 700ml water, and boiled the wort, adding 60 of dark brown sugar. Cooled it and added it to the demijohn, increasing the volume from about 4.5L to about 5L. It's more a brown ale now, and the ABV has increased. I think these hops and malts are going to work well together.

Had a quick taste of the Citra batch, very promising. :thumb:

Fingers crossed too for the Amarillo batch, and the batch with 3 English hops (First Gold/EKG/Northdown)
 
I like the idea of splitting, I mostly do small batches to give more room for experimenting but might try what you've done :)
Did you leave the wort sitting after the mash/sparge and boil them one after the other? Can you do this without side effects?
Also, I did think about doing your separate steeping to add some character after fermenting, sort of like dry-hopping with grain? I assume that a boil is necessary to remove the break? Or is this not such an issue with steeped grains?
Another question- I've been adding far less aroma hops than yourself (maybe 5g at flameout) following other recipes, and just dry-hopped beers that I wanted to bear more hop character. Am I missing something good in big last-minute additions?

Sorry, most people fall asleep when I start going on about brewing. I think this is some sort of outlet haha.
 
I have four pans big enough to boil 6 litres of wort! I generally only split in two though. You could boil one after another with no problem. Time consuming though.

You need to boil after steeping, 15 minutes is enough. But it needs to be added before or during fermentation so that the sugars it provides are fermented out.

I add a lot of aroma hops. That's me. I love hops. But I'm realising I should make some beers with fewer hops, in the English style, the Graham Wheeler British ales recipes show that English ales are generally lightly hopped and they are designed to be easily drinkable. Mine are more intense!
 
I have four pans big enough to boil 6 litres of wort! I generally only split in two though. You could boil one after another with no problem. Time consuming though.

You need to boil after steeping, 15 minutes is enough. But it needs to be added before or during fermentation so that the sugars it provides are fermented out.

I add a lot of aroma hops. That's me. I love hops. But I'm realising I should make some beers with fewer hops, in the English style, the Graham Wheeler British ales recipes show that English ales are generally lightly hopped and they are designed to be easily drinkable. Mine are more intense!

Would you swap the yeast out for more "English" styles? I like US05 I think it makes great results. I get the feeling you are not the biggest fan of 04 which I have never tried actually.
 
I think using US05 for English styles is fine. There are commercial English breweries that use neutral, high attenuating yeasts. And US05 didn't originate in the USA, it's a misnomer. I like more estery English yeasts, but I'm not mad about 04.
 
Yep, hoppy beers make me happy. I think I steer towards clean, lightly hopped beers to try and please my BMC buddies, though most of them are pretty adept beer drinkers now :D I'm planning to try and bump up the hops in the next few brews.

I always use WLP005 British ale yeast for my english ales, but I always ferment at around 18C for a cleaner beer. Maybe I should be fermenting a bit warmer to bring out more estery flavours?
 
You sound American?

I think the answer is to try out a warmer fermentation and see what you think. Maybe 21C.
 

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