Yesterdays brew - AG#20 - Úber Bluebird mkII

My Twentieth All Grain...!

This is a tweaked re-brew of my 'Munich Blauer Vogel' which was based around the Coniston Bluebird recipe which drunk very well and I plan to try and keep it in stock as a House Bitter.
This time I've done it at a slightly lower ABV and also dropping the bitterness a bit with something I learned at work about blending hops to smooth out any inaccuracies, hence the addition of Bramling Cross for half of the bittering. Adding a bit of Wheat Malt for head retention.
I had some nice fresh acid-washed yeast from work which I will probably have to rouse from time to time as it works well with some added oxygen.

Uber Bluebird mkII

Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3100g - 77.5%
Munich Malt 500g - 12.5%
Wheat Malt 200g - 5%
Crystal Malt 200g - 5%

Hops:
Challenger @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Bramling Cross @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Challenger @ 20 mins 20g
Challenger @ 0 mins 20g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 16 EBC

There aren't many photos today as I had a busy morning, the Mash was on at 8.45am and I had to go out so it is going to be a longer than 90min mash.
Mashing at a planned 66c which turned out to be 66.6c so near enough.

The malts and Gypsum:

Hops:

Leftovers:

Saltaire Brewery Yeast:

FWH:

OG pretty damn close to 1039 predicted:

Trub and cooler with last bit of wort running off:

The FV was looking a little full so I jugged out a few litres into a plastic demijohn, thought it best as I'm expecting a frothy creamy explosion, I pitched approx 75g of Saltaire yeast:


I would have been done ages ago if I hadn't had things to do this morning. Wort tastes good, lots of fizzy challenger bitterness :) I was going to do a yeast comparrison with Nottingham but I really couldn't be bothered, I'll do a basic pale with Fuggles & Goldings with 5% crystal for a yeast comparrison... and besides I fancy and nice wholesome earthy F&G hopped ale :)

**update for yeast activity, within 4 hours I had good signs of life, this morning I have a deep frothy head :)

Yeast head after approx 24 hours from pitching:

Nice looking recipe. I always have liked bluebird.
This will be noted in the to do list :thumb:

Nice pics as usual :thumb:

Here's my original mkI version, this was good to drink in 2 weeks from bottling, the hops mellowed over time but it retained a damn good balance :) Bittering Hops were First Wort so the overall IBU is probably a bit less than stated :)