AG#4 Fuller's London Porter Clone

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The Goatreich

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Looking at potentially doing my fourth AG brewday next Sunday and thought I'd run the recipe by the forum. I won't post the amounts up as they're straight from Graham Wheeler's book and then adjusted for my equipment using the great man's Beer Engine.

Maris Otter
Brown Malt
Crystal Malt
Chocolate Malt

Fuggles 90 mins
Fuggles 10 mins

I'm aiming for 23 litres at an OG of 1053, but have been short on every brew so far. Last time only by two litres, so I'll use the same calculations this time and see whether I fall short by the same amount and if needed add boiled water at the end.

The recipe doesn't mention any Irish moss additions, I presume this is because it's a dark beer? Is it worth putting in half a tablet anyway?

Also, I have a SO4 yeast set aside for this, but if I was to grab a bottle of Fuller's Bengal Lancer tomorrow would I have time to get this up to a decent size if I harvest it with some dry malt extract over the next few days?
 
Irish moss doesn't do any harm.

You'd need at least 24hrs for each propagation step. I don't know how many steps are required when harvesting yeast from bottles, but i guess it's more than 3.
 
I would have thought it will take you about 5 days to get a pitchable volume.

+1 for Irish moss if you don't you wont get a cold break.

:thumb:
 
Ah damn it, I think I only have around 500g DME so probably not enough for different stages. I've never propagated yeast before and sort of imagined I'd pitch it with the solution, leave several days, then pour off the wort and pitch the remaining yeast. I didn't realise there were lots of different stages.
 
500g DME should be enough, you need 1.040 wort so this amount will be sufficient for 5 litres.
 
I see, so do I add the dregs of the bottle to a 5 litre DJ with 500g DME dissolved in, then after around 5 days drain it off and add to the brew come brew day?
 
Great stuff, cheers. I've got 2 litres of water mixed with 200g DME boiled for 10 minutes and now cooling to room temperature. The Bengal Lancer is in the fridge to settle the yeast, and I'll be enjoying that later and pitching into the cooled wort. Fingers crossed it'll be good by Sunday, if not I have a S04 to fall back on.
 
I've given this a good swoosh around at least once a day to get some oxygen in since I set it going on Tuesday, and I do seem to be getting some sediment in the bottom which I hope is yeast. However the latest swooshing smelled a little like sour milk, I do hope that's not a sign of infection.
 
Don't panic yet. I have just bottled a brew that decided to climb out the FV during fermentation and I had a similar smell, what I hadn't noticed was the spill behind the FV and I think it was this giving off the smell, going into bottle it smelled fine. If it is infected then it sounds like aceto bacter, which can be caused by fruit flies and they are coming into season. Don't pour it down the sink until you are sure. Take a sample and isolate it from the brew area, pour it into a small glass, then take a deep sniff and a small taste, that should tell you what you need to know.

You could just kid on you've made a Lambic style beer ;)
 
Sorry, I should've explained better. I've not brewed the beer yet, the smell is from the DJ that I'm trying to culture some yeast from a bottle of Fuller's Bengal Lancer. It's no hardship to me to pour it down the sink as I have a backup packet of yeast for brewday, but it will be a disappointment as it's my first time attempting to grab brewer's yeast from a bottle.
 
Should the yeast actually be fermenting the wort? I thought that we just wanted the initial stage, where the yeast uses oxygen to breed, which is why I keep sloshing it around to introduce more oxygen to the mix. Is this a mistake?

There is a small amount of foam on the surface, and the odd bubble through the airlock so there is something going on.
 
That seems Ok then, it will actually ferment the wort and produce alcohol. One thing you can do is taste the wort/beer when it has stopped. This is a good way to check that the yeast is not infected and that it is healthy, if the wort/beer tastes ok then the starter will be ok. I had one which tasted very meaty :sick: I hasten to say I chucked it. :lol: :lol: and resorted to a back up yeast.
 
Right, the time is now(in a minute). I'm brewing this tomorrow.

I've not tasted the wort from the yeast starter yet, but can anyone tell me definitively that a sour smell from the starter is a good/bad thing? I know yeast gives off all kinds of smells so I don't necessarily want to be too hasty by chucking it down the sink.

I've got approximately 5mm round the bottom of a 1 gallon demijohn of what I hope is yeast, and hope that's enough to chuck in with my brew tomorrow, after siphoning off the starter wort.
 
What I would do is go with what you're confident about. If you don't like the look of your harvested yeast go with SO4. You know that it won't let you down. You could always brew a demijohn of your porter wort with your harvested yeast to see what happens.
 
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