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.
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.
