AG#3 - Dark Ruby Mild

[Dr Mike]

Doing AG#3 today. Sarah Hughes dark Ruby Mild from GW's book.

Decision still to be made on which yeast to use. Have got both S-04 and Nottingham.

HLT on at 7:30

 

[PD]

That's a fine beer. have made it twice now and enjoyed every pint that I have drunk.

I used S-04 for each brew ( its my standard yeast )

Had no problems brewing the beers apart from silly mistakes caused by me !

 

[Dr Mike]

Doughed in at 8:25. Initial temp of 66.5 C.

Mmmmm, Crystal Malt

I've used S-04 for my first two so fancy a change. A bit worried that Notty might be too attenuative for this style but a beer of the gravity with this much crystal could never taste thin, could it ?

 

[PD]

should be ok with Notty...its a good yeast, sometimes takes a while to drop out of suspension.

 

[joe1002]

Hmmm, I was going to have a brew day today but couldn't crawl out of my pit early enough. I have Friday off work so all will be resolved :thumb:

Looks like you got off to a good start :thumb: keep the pictures coming.

 

[Dr Mike]

Finished run off & sparge. Collected c32L at 1048 so should be on target after boil. Hose from sparge tank kept detaching itself so sparge a bit stressful.

Now just coming back to the boil.

 

[PD]

this brew has a nice coloured wort, and more or less kept that colour to the bottle. Looks the part of a classic Mild. What abv are you reckoning on... Milds should not really be too strong in alcohol but high in taste

 

[Dr Mike]

Should be around 5.5% to 6.0% ABV. This was apparently typical for mild in the 19th century !

Hops ready to go in

Copper Up!

 

[PD]

Yes 18thC Mild Ales were in the region of 5-7.5% abv
but modern Milds are usually around 3-3.5%, so you have some lee way to play with....

Hope you don't damage the nice wooden flooring with your boiler stood directly on it...

 

[joe1002]

Looking good. I was going to do this on next but I don have the right hops. It's definitely going to be on the cards for early next year.

 

[Dr Mike]

Hope you don't damage the nice wooden flooring with your boiler stood directly on it...

The bottom of a Buffalo stays pretty cool as there is quite a big air gap below the vessel & element.

Floor wouldn't look that nice if I showed you some close-ups. It's old laminate and is pretty trashed. The amount of water I spilled today wouldn't have helped !

 

[Dr Mike]

All done and yeast pitched at 10 to 3. Everything on the brewing side seemed to go OK although it was one of those brew days where I seemed to spend most of the time mopping up spills. Also tried to clean up as I went along (emptied out and cleaned the mashtun while the boil was on) so quite hectic.

Some more pics

Running into FV with aeration

Boiler gunk

And final wort - has a lot of break material in it.

Got 23L at 1057 which is within a point of the target.

 

[joe1002]

A successful day :thumb:

What hop filter do you have by the way? I'm wondering whether I need to change mine.

 

[Dr Mike]

Using a bazooka screen. Some pics of it inside my boiler in this thread :

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=30083

 

[Kegged]

This is a great beer. I am down to 15 bottles of this but I would definitely make it again!

 

[TRXnMe]

Nice looking beer, what were the hops?

 

[Dr Mike]

Good ol' fashioned Fuggles & Goldings !

 

[Dr Mike]

Finished up at 1014 so all that Crystal did manage to keep the attenuation reasonable (I make it 75%). ABV should be 5.8%. Now crash cooling ahead of racking to secondary tomorrow.

 

[PD]

using s-04 I found it to be a very clean beer although I still believe in a period in a secondary vessel.

Nicely brewed....

 

[Dr Mike]

Cracked open the first couple of these now after 4 weeks in bottle. Not fully carbed yet (prob due to cold temps) and hasn't fully cleared yet but taste is showing promise.