Busy week

[bigfrogs]

I have made 2 22.5ltr brews this week which as my system consists of a converted cooler mash tun and a stove top wort pan was a lot of hard work especially as all my equipment is kept in the attic up 2 flights of stairs.
The first brew had a grain bill of 4.3kg maris otter,290g cara red and 230g carapils which had a 70min mash at 69c.I then cocked up the sparge water temp by adding it at too low a temp leaving some of the sugars behind which made me miss my POG by 0.006 and taking my efficiency down to 65%.Boiled for 70mins adding 29g of chinook at the boil,15g of simcoe and centinal at 15min and another 45g of simcoe and centinal at flame out.UI got 22.5lts spot on with a OG of 0.044 which should give me a final ABV of around 4-4.5%.
The second brew has 5kg of maris otter and 2.5g of caragold with centinnal and cascade hops.16g centinnal and 20g of cascade added at the boil,25g cascade at 20mins and 30 cascade added at gas out.I wanted this one to be similar to Saltaire brewerys cascade pale ale but used caragold instead of pale crystal and wheat for a cleaner lighter taste and hopefully a clear golden colour.I used Nottingham yeast on this one as I have never tried it and thought it should compliment the grains and hops,well thats the idea:lol:.
Both are bubbling away ferociously at 19c so I should be able to bottle them in another week or so.

 

[bigfrogs]

I have just done an OG reading on both of these brews and there is a marked differance in the performance of the yeasts used.In the first brew I used US05,the OG was 1.044 with a PFG of 1.011 and after 8 days it has reached 1.014 and is still bubbling but at a very slow rate.
The second brew with Nottingham yeast had a OG of 1.052 and a PFG of 1.012 and is now 1.010 after just 6 days.The FV has no air lock so I had no real indication of fermentation speed.
Initial tasting is very positive,not being a beer connoisseur who's tasting notes consist of thats nice or I don't like that:lol:.