This years second and final Christmas beer was brewed on Saturday. For me it held a load of firsts.
It was the first time I have used any of the hops I used,
It was the first time I have use a yeast cultivated from a bottle
It was the first time I have used Aroma malt
It was the first time I have used sugar in a brew.
I guess the idea started when I looked for a recipe for youngs winter warmer, but then played with the recipe and ended up with what I ended up with.
22 litre brew length based on 75% eficiency.
4500 Pale
400 Aromatic
340 Dark crystal
225 wheat
500 brown sugar
The hoppy things
25 g centennial ( 11.45) @60
20 g cascade (6.7) @15
10 g Chinook (10,4)@15
25 g cascade @ 5
yeast harvested from a bottle of youngs special ale-
this should give me the following according to beersmith
Estimated OG of 1067
Estimated FG of 1017 ( this is debatable as i do not know the attenuation or strain of yeast youngs use in their bottle conditioning. of the yeast, although 1017 sounds rather high)
I should end up with something around 6.5% and with an IBU of 39 ish
The grain all fited into a bucket just about and I bought it in Friday afternoon in order for it to warm a litle. The garage is getting cold at this time of the year and although this is ok for storage, it means I need to bring it in in order to keep the strike temperature down ( whilst taking over the kitchen it is great to keep time use to a minimum.
SO.
Using my trusty and hi tech ( not) mash paddle I doughed in and hit 66.9 degrees. This was slightly more than I had wanted but I decided to leave it as it was and see if this would help enhanse the malt character I wanted.
I packed a cushion on top of the MT on top and 90 minutes later the temperature had dropped .2 degrees which was great.
First runnings were a nice deep amber colur, after the boil this turned into a nice dark reddish brown colour and is just about what I was after.
The centennial went in, and the boil continued as per the norm. The chinook and cascades went in with 15 minutes and the aroma was great. The chinook giving a great grapefruit type aroma off.
With 5 minutes to go the last of the cascades went in and all went as planned.
In the meantime I added some boiled cooled wort to the yeast slurry cultivated from a bottle of youngs special
and after about 50 minutes it looked like this.
I ended up with 23 litres as opposed to the 22 I had planned but was 5 points ddown on gravity. I think that I need to adjust the boil off. I had to change the elements on the boiler a short while ago and although these are more than capable of maintaining a rollingboil they are slightly weaker than the older ones. I did a bit of maths and found out that had I hit my target and wanted to water back to the ( actual ) Og I got I would have needed to add just over 1 litre of water.. so this is where the adjustment lies.
Yesterday morning the living room smelt amazing although during the course of the day the airlock had the top blown off and there was yeast visible through the FV walls whizzing around all over the place. This morning there is still a huge amount of action, but a lot less tha yeasterday. Iâll take a gravity around Wednesday but need to decide as to whether I shall add some dry hops 8 cascades and chinook) or if I should add all three cascade, centenial and chinnok to the FV as a dry hop for say 5 days before bottling.
Thoughts appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
It was the first time I have used any of the hops I used,
It was the first time I have use a yeast cultivated from a bottle
It was the first time I have used Aroma malt
It was the first time I have used sugar in a brew.
I guess the idea started when I looked for a recipe for youngs winter warmer, but then played with the recipe and ended up with what I ended up with.
22 litre brew length based on 75% eficiency.
4500 Pale
400 Aromatic
340 Dark crystal
225 wheat
500 brown sugar
The hoppy things
25 g centennial ( 11.45) @60
20 g cascade (6.7) @15
10 g Chinook (10,4)@15
25 g cascade @ 5
yeast harvested from a bottle of youngs special ale-
this should give me the following according to beersmith
Estimated OG of 1067
Estimated FG of 1017 ( this is debatable as i do not know the attenuation or strain of yeast youngs use in their bottle conditioning. of the yeast, although 1017 sounds rather high)
I should end up with something around 6.5% and with an IBU of 39 ish
The grain all fited into a bucket just about and I bought it in Friday afternoon in order for it to warm a litle. The garage is getting cold at this time of the year and although this is ok for storage, it means I need to bring it in in order to keep the strike temperature down ( whilst taking over the kitchen it is great to keep time use to a minimum.
SO.
Using my trusty and hi tech ( not) mash paddle I doughed in and hit 66.9 degrees. This was slightly more than I had wanted but I decided to leave it as it was and see if this would help enhanse the malt character I wanted.
I packed a cushion on top of the MT on top and 90 minutes later the temperature had dropped .2 degrees which was great.
First runnings were a nice deep amber colur, after the boil this turned into a nice dark reddish brown colour and is just about what I was after.
The centennial went in, and the boil continued as per the norm. The chinook and cascades went in with 15 minutes and the aroma was great. The chinook giving a great grapefruit type aroma off.
With 5 minutes to go the last of the cascades went in and all went as planned.
In the meantime I added some boiled cooled wort to the yeast slurry cultivated from a bottle of youngs special
and after about 50 minutes it looked like this.
I ended up with 23 litres as opposed to the 22 I had planned but was 5 points ddown on gravity. I think that I need to adjust the boil off. I had to change the elements on the boiler a short while ago and although these are more than capable of maintaining a rollingboil they are slightly weaker than the older ones. I did a bit of maths and found out that had I hit my target and wanted to water back to the ( actual ) Og I got I would have needed to add just over 1 litre of water.. so this is where the adjustment lies.
Yesterday morning the living room smelt amazing although during the course of the day the airlock had the top blown off and there was yeast visible through the FV walls whizzing around all over the place. This morning there is still a huge amount of action, but a lot less tha yeasterday. Iâll take a gravity around Wednesday but need to decide as to whether I shall add some dry hops 8 cascades and chinook) or if I should add all three cascade, centenial and chinnok to the FV as a dry hop for say 5 days before bottling.
Thoughts appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
