Another London Bitter!

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Doglaner

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Tamworth
Hello,

Couldn't wait to have another go at a small AG BIAB brew, so paid a visit to Ye Olde Home Brew Shoppe on Friday for some Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger hops. Plus a bit more pale malt. Keep it traditional this time, thinks I, as opposed to the recent spate of new world hops I've been trying.

This one was for My Father-in-Law who we are spending Christmas week with in Dorset this year. He grew up on Youngs Bitter so I wanted something of that ilk. The other in-laws will be there, too. Mother and brother. Should be fun, said he, with not a hint of sarcasm.

I started with the recipe for 'London Bitter' from Greg Hughes' 'Home Brew Beer' and then tweaked it in Brew Smith 2 App to suit my set up and method. I've just invested in the App and once I'd got used to it, I really took to it. I think, although correct me if I'm wrong, that it works out the effect that a stronger or weaker wort during the boil has on the extraction of the bitterness from the hops. Is that called attenuation?

Anyway, the details are as follows for those who are interested (and if you aren't, what are you doing on this forum? Go and find one that relates to what you ARE interested in. Flowers, perhaps, or online stalking).

Grain Bill :

2kg Maris Otter Pale Malt
100g Caramel Malt 20L
50g Chocolate (in mouth)
50g Chocoalte malt (in mash -don't want to mix those two up)
Mash potato for the fish pie we prepared for dinner at the same time. Yum.

Hop Schedule :

Twice on the right leg, then three times on the left.
Realise hopping when brewing means something else.
28g Challenger, 60mins
7g Fuggles, 10mins
4g Goldings, Flame-out, or hob-off in my case.

Then chilled down to 40c before into FV. 8l was then topped up to 10l for an OG of 1042.

Mash vol. 6l
Boil vol. 12l, split between two 8l pots, only one of which had the hops added to. The other never really got up to a proper boil as it is a rubbish pot for our hob.
Finish boil vol. just under 9l I think. Filled the stockpot, anyway.
Same amount into FV, topped up with cold water to 10l.

Fings wot I have learned:

1) Do lots of sparging. Learned this last time, and this time I did it. Much better.
2) having kids' small plastic bowls to hand makes for easy hop weighing on sensitive scales, but messy mealtimes if they have a scheduling clash.
3) a trivet under the pot when in the sink for cooling aids circulation underneath the vessel and raises it higher so that there is less chance of it floating before the sink overflow kicks in. Or none, in my case.
4) plan in advance and warn the family that it is going to happen, rather than just doing it on the spur of the rest of the afternoon.
5) a watched pot doesn't boil over. Ha!
6) I'm still on Wife 1.0 so this hobby appears acceptable.

I tasted the gravity sample and the bitterness was spot on. Quite dark, though, so may have overdone the choc malt. Oh, and I used some torrified wheat for head retention, too.

I'll keep you updated.

Bed now, got a big couple of days coming up for work.

Dog.
 
Hello again,

Just a quick update.

6 days into the fermentation, and I was a little concerned. Previous brews had gone a bit bonkers for the first couple of days and then settled down for the rest of the 2 weeks. This one did very little and there was no big Krausen, just a thin layer of froth on top initially - no more than 3mm or so - and then it calmed down to the current patches of bubbles with clear brown water in between.

I sterilised the turkey baster and took a sample to measure the gravity, fully expecting a stuck fermentation, and lo and behold, it was down to 1012. So the yeast have evidently done their thing in a subdued and measured way, bless them. ABV 3.94% perfect.

Tasted the sample, as you do, and it is bob-on where I wanted it to be at this point with regards to taste, although it will mellow nicely in the bottle I reckon. So I was much relieved. I'm still going to leave it for the second week in the FV as there are still bubbles coming up.

Will add further update at bottling time next weekend.

Dog.
 
Hello again. Update time.

Bottled on Sunday afternoon.

New learning point : 1×2yo afternoon nap plus 1x4yo and wife at a 5th birthday party = enough time to get stuff sterilising, hoover the house, rinse 20 bottles, decant from FV to bottling bucket primed with brown sugar syrup, bottle and cap 16 pints and clear up. Rather disappointed at the yield, although I did drink about another 2 pints which for one reason or another wouldn't get into the syphon tube when asked. Gravity samples, bucket not tipped over enough, curiosity, that kind of thing.

Thinking about it 2 pints lost to the yeast cake feels about right.

Tasted great, too. Just enough for Father in Law during Christmas week in Dorset.

FG 1010, so I reckon 4.2%. Lovely.
 
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