IainM
Landlord.
After an 18 month brewing hiatus, I'm back in the brew shed. Seeing as my old brew day thread has disappeared, I thought I'd start a new one.
First up, and to get back into the swing of things, I did a boring ale a couple of weeks ago, based on the Jennings Cocker Hoop recipe in the old Graham Wheeler book:
4kg pale malt
75g torrified wheat
120g flaked wheat
25g black malt
37g Challenger 6.1% 90 minutes
15g Styrian golding 5.8% 10 minutes
18L strike at 74C with 0.5tsp lactic acid 80%
10L sparge
Got 17L into the fv, at 1.056.
Pitched MJ new world strong ale.
Kegged it today, and it finished at 1.012, so about 5.8%. Why the MJ new world stong ale? It's not like it fits the style for a bitter. That's because this beer was really a starter for a big imperial stout, which I dumped on to the yeast cake.
So, today I did the big stout using a reiterated mash and an overnight mash, both of which are firsts for me. I'd heard that an overnight mash with dark grains can end up with astringency or excess bitterness, so I only added them in the second mash on the day of the boil.
8kg pale (4kg in mash 1, and 4kg in mash 2)
304g cararye, half in mash, 1 half in mash 2
150g chocolate, mash 2
175g dark munich, half in mash 1 and half in mash 2
356g special w, half in mash 1 and half in mash 2
306g dark crystal, mash 2
176g black malt, mash 2
65g warrior 14.7%, 90 minutes
2x MJ new world strong ale plus, the yeast cake for the previous beer.
This worked really well. I was planning on doing a 17L mash, but my efficiency was through the roof, probably because of the overnight mash, so ended up doing 20L. Mashed the first lot of grain in 15L strike water with an 8L sparge, for 90 minutes in the bulldog brewer, then turned off the heat and left it overnight. In the morning, I brought it back up to 65C with recirculation, sparged and did the second mash. I then sparged up to 25L and boiled down to 21L-ish, of which I got 20L into the fv. The OG was an amazing 1.118, so I think this should end up around the 12% mark. It's bubbling away at 18C. Can't wait to try this one.
First up, and to get back into the swing of things, I did a boring ale a couple of weeks ago, based on the Jennings Cocker Hoop recipe in the old Graham Wheeler book:
4kg pale malt
75g torrified wheat
120g flaked wheat
25g black malt
37g Challenger 6.1% 90 minutes
15g Styrian golding 5.8% 10 minutes
18L strike at 74C with 0.5tsp lactic acid 80%
10L sparge
Got 17L into the fv, at 1.056.
Pitched MJ new world strong ale.
Kegged it today, and it finished at 1.012, so about 5.8%. Why the MJ new world stong ale? It's not like it fits the style for a bitter. That's because this beer was really a starter for a big imperial stout, which I dumped on to the yeast cake.
So, today I did the big stout using a reiterated mash and an overnight mash, both of which are firsts for me. I'd heard that an overnight mash with dark grains can end up with astringency or excess bitterness, so I only added them in the second mash on the day of the boil.
8kg pale (4kg in mash 1, and 4kg in mash 2)
304g cararye, half in mash, 1 half in mash 2
150g chocolate, mash 2
175g dark munich, half in mash 1 and half in mash 2
356g special w, half in mash 1 and half in mash 2
306g dark crystal, mash 2
176g black malt, mash 2
65g warrior 14.7%, 90 minutes
2x MJ new world strong ale plus, the yeast cake for the previous beer.
This worked really well. I was planning on doing a 17L mash, but my efficiency was through the roof, probably because of the overnight mash, so ended up doing 20L. Mashed the first lot of grain in 15L strike water with an 8L sparge, for 90 minutes in the bulldog brewer, then turned off the heat and left it overnight. In the morning, I brought it back up to 65C with recirculation, sparged and did the second mash. I then sparged up to 25L and boiled down to 21L-ish, of which I got 20L into the fv. The OG was an amazing 1.118, so I think this should end up around the 12% mark. It's bubbling away at 18C. Can't wait to try this one.