Buzzard AG#5&6 - "Hot Spring" Bitter, "Bright Morning Stars"

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Ceejay

Landlord.
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Haven't brewed in what seems like ages and I'm almost out of beer so time to get my @rse in gear on Saturday and brew something. Going to be brewing "Hot Spring" Bitter in reverence to the wonderful Devon spring weather we're having. It's a pale, refreshing session citrus number, hopped with Citra only.

Recipe for 23 litres, 65% efficiency. 90 min mash @ 64 degrees. 90 min boil

Colour: 18 EBC
OG: 1039
FG: 1010
Bitterness: 31 EBU

Pale Malt, Maris Otter - 3981g, 85%
Caramalt - 468g, 10%
Crystal 120l - 234g, 5%

Citra, 9g, 85 mins
Citra, 10g, 15 mins
Citra, 25g, 5 mins
Citra, 25g, flameout

Going to ferment this out using S-04 I think as I don't have time to make a starter and I'm only ordering my ingredients on Thursday.

Roll on Saturday :cheers:
 
Ta! I think I might actually attempt a double brew day and brew the stout I've been meaning to do for ages. So this is AG#6

Recipe: Blaxploitation Stout

3750g Maris Otter Pale Malt
506g Torrefied Wheat
380g Roasted Barley
253g Chocolate Malt
253g Crystal 120l

Styrian Goldings to 35 IBU for the whole boil. OG is 1044

It's meant to be a kind of dry stout with a slightly more complex flavour profile to make it a little less dry. Does this look OK?
 
Cheers. I think that's because I build in 67.5% efficiency in my recipes so I can stop sparging early :thumb:
 
are you getting 65% efficiency with fly sparging? - I get that with batch and would hope to improve on it when I move to fly with new mash tun
 
Nope, when I first started I was regularly getting 80% plus, sparging down to 1008 but what I try to do now is stop sparging early, say at 1012 gravity so as to produce a richer wort, with less risk of tannin extraction. That's the theory anyway! :wha:

I'm deliberately leaving malt sugars behind in the grain, which is why the efficiency is lower. It's a tip I picked up from the Brewing Network podcast on Mash Efficiency,land I believe it's something that Aleman employs for the same reasons.

For the cost of a few hundred extra grams of grain, I reckon it's worth it. :thumb:
 
fair enough :thumb:

I'd like to get higher efficiency than 65% but if my beer suffered, that'd be bad.....
 
More good advice on the sparging! Can't wait to get my Heff going this weekend.

Lovin' the name of your stout :thumb:
 
Hehe, cheers. Well it's 8:25 and my mash water's heating up and all the ingredients are weighed out for the Ho Spring. I may only have time for the one brew today as I just couldn't be @rsed to get up early! Too much beer yesterday :drunk:

Soothing brewday music comes courtesy of "The Wailin' Jennys" and Alison Krauss & Union Station :D

Mash is all tucked up now at 9:00. Hit bang on 64 degrees C after adding about a litre of cold water. Going out now to buy some steak for our dinner :thumb:
 
So, I'm doing a bit of improv on the ingredients, since the postie hasn't been yet and I was taking a gamble on receiving the Citra hops through the post. So now I'm using a fruity combo of Willamette and Cascade. Should be delicious :thumb:

Some pics.

Grain Bill:
30042011207.jpg


Mash temp: 64 degrees for a good, fermentable wort:
30042011214.jpg


Turbid first runnings:
30042011216.jpg


Recirculating:
30042011222.jpg


Hops, yeast and irish moss:
30042011210.jpg


A nice pic of a 3 tier, fly sparge setup with flow rates balanced to about 1 litre a minute:
30042011225.jpg


First wort hops:
30042011226.jpg
 
A quick note on the mash efficiency. Before liquoring back I achieved 21 litres of wort at 1044, giving me a total of 924 gravity points. I have a theoretical laboratory maximum of 1376 pts, so I actually achieved 67% efficiency.

The thing with this, is I stopped sparging at 1014, so i left a good 6 gravity points in there and a good few litres of wort (I had about another 10 litres of sparge water left in the copper). Lets assume the average gravity of the wort left was 1011, then I've left points in the mash tun. Taking this into account, I would have achieved 75% mash efficiency.

So, what I've done now is liquored back, pre-boil so I now have 28 litres of wort with 924 pts in it = 1033 OG. I estimate I will boil off 22.5% of the liquid (at 15% per hour), so I will be left with 21.7 lites of wort, still with 924 pts in it = 1042 OG. I'll then liquor this back by a couple of litres to hit my target gravity of 1039 :thumb:

EDIT: Posty's just turned up with my order of Citra hops and S-04 from The Malt Miller. Top notch service from Rob :thumb:

So, i guess I'll be using the Citra hops in another brew :drink:

"Moor" pics :lol:

Nice rolling boil:
30042011234.jpg


Celebratory beverage, from one of the best breweries in the West, Moor Beer Co. "Somerland Gold". Fantastic.
30042011233.jpg
 
Update: II've done well for time today, so I'm going to try and wing a second brew!

I forgot to order any torrefied wheat so I'm not going to do my stout, but instead I'm going to brew a stupidly hoppy Pale Ale, along the lines of this:

OG 1037

4kg Maris Otter
200g Caramalt
200g Crystal 120

60 minute mash, 75 minute boil

50 IBU of Citra like this:

10g Citra 13.8 IBU first wort (75 mins)
20g Citra 13.8 IBU 10 mins
35g Citra 13.8 IBU 5 mins
35g Citra 13.8 Lights out

Mash is on. Luckily I have a combi boiler that just heats water as it comes through so I've put my mash on at 67 degrees C already, straight from the tap, plus a couple of kettles of boiling water :thumb: I'm hoping the higher mash temp will yeild more unfermentables and leave some sweetness to balance those lovely Citra hops.
 
Hehe! Well, it's a bit manic, but I'm coping! I'm really just trying to be really clean and tidy so the girlfriend doesn't go mental when she gets home in an hour! :D

I kind of just felt like I was in the zone, for the first time ever. Everything was just clicking and I really didn't have to think about what I was doing too much, so I decided to get another brew in.

Boil for the second batch is on now, and I'm only going to boil for 75 mins. Wort came out a lovely golden colour, and the aroma from the Citra hops is just fantastic. Collected 22 litres at 1042 so I liquored back to 28 litres again.

I'd do a double brew day again, but I think I'd plan it a bit better and get up earlier! Still, I'm drinking beer and listening to choons so life is pretty good right now :cheers:
 
12 hours later, and both FVs have a nice "cap" on them and are chuffing along nicely :thumb:

Gotta love S-04 for it's consistant performance.
 
So, the "Hot Spring" has gone into a 20 year old top tap Rotokeg my Dad gave me. Was a bit of a gamble as I pretty much just cleaned and sanitized it really thoroughly, and left the rest to chance. 48 hours later and it's completely airtight. You open the tap and beer comes out without any need to gas it up :thumb: :cheers: It tastes wonderful as well, just how I wanted it too :thumb:

I primed it to 2.2 volumes and it's going to sit in the keg for at least a week before I unleash it. I'm bottling the "Bright Morning Star" today. Feels good to have a bit of a stock again.
 

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