Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Experiment

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sonnyboybrew

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I'm going to be a little more adventurous with this next brew and i just wondered what your opinions might be.

The ingredients will be:

Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Kit
150g Crystal Malt Steeped
500g Spray Dried Light Malt
1kg Sugar
Dry hopped with 15g Fuggles/ 15g Goldings
Primed with brown sugar

I'm hoping it to be something along the lines of Marstons Pedigree if thats possible to acheive.:pray:

Advice, more than welcome as always.:)
 
I would suggest boiling your hops with the DME and perhaps cooling them a bit by putting the pot in the sink, adding the can (unopened!!) and cold water. This will equalise the temps of the can, the boiled wort and the cooling liquid to about the right sort of range.

Boil the steeped liquid from the Crystal, any more water required and the DME in the largest pan available (Couple of litres is fine) add Fuggles for 15-20 mins and Goldings for another 5. You then cool it by placing it in the sink - with the plug in, laying the can on its side next to the pan and adding water to the outside of the pan.
 
Thanks Slid. Just to clarify as I'm still learning,

I just boil the steeped liquid with the DME and sugar then add the hops. Bung the beer kit in the FV then add the mixture I've boiled up, top up to 20-23 litres, pitch the yeast then that's it?

So does adding the the hops at this stage give a taste of hops whereas dry hopping only gives an aroma or nose of hops?
 
Thanks Slid. Just to clarify as I'm still learning,

I just boil the steeped liquid with the DME and sugar then add the hops. Bung the beer kit in the FV then add the mixture I've boiled up, top up to 20-23 litres, pitch the yeast then that's it?

So does adding the the hops at this stage give a taste of hops whereas dry hopping only gives an aroma or nose of hops?

Good question.

I have had better results, for me, from a short boil of hops than a dry hop. The boil can be as short as 5 mins, but it seems to give better results than a dry hop.

On the other hand, the current "fad" in brewing is for a big hop aroma.
 
Oh, yes, sorry to have forgotten, the point about cooling the boil down is so that you can control more easily the pitching temperature. Ideally 20-22 or there abouts. Much easier to add boiling water before pitching than trying to cool it down when it is ready to go otherwise.
 
Oh, yes, sorry to have forgotten, the point about cooling the boil down is so that you can control more easily the pitching temperature. Ideally 20-22 or there abouts. Much easier to add boiling water before pitching than trying to cool it down when it is ready to go otherwise.

Oh I see. I get it now, cheers.

I was also considering adding oak chips during fermentation to add the effect of being barreled in oak. Maybe pushing it too far as a newb?
 
Oh I see. I get it now, cheers.

I was also considering adding oak chips during fermentation to add the effect of being barreled in oak. Maybe pushing it too far as a newb?

Unlikely to do any harm, given that lots of wine kits come with a little sachet of sawdust labelled "Oak Chips". They tend not be a nuisance as they drop out after fermentation.
 
Unlikely to do any harm, given that lots of wine kits come with a little sachet of sawdust labelled "Oak Chips". They tend not be a nuisance as they drop out after fermentation.

the ones I had in the muntons oaked ale wanted to get in the bottling bucket. :-( I had to use a star san'd sieve to fish them out.

YMMV but i'd be wary of not putting them in a sterilised muslin bag.

still they've added a nice touch to the brew.
 
Well, there you go!

I always rack every brew before bottling and the wine kits come with a finings pack as well, which I add at the racking stage. Of course, with a wine, the finings are added after de-gassing and stabilising, which prevents further CO2 production.

I would guess that any CO2 in the liquid will tend to form bubbles on any wood chips and keep them suspended, in the same way you get bubbles forming around tiny particles in a glass.

So maybe that explains the different advice.
 

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