AG#4 "Chocks Away" Bitter

[matt76]

After an entire week with nothing in the FV this was a bit of a user-upper to make use of leftovers from a black IPA that's conditioning at the moment.

I wanted to venture away from clibit's Simple AG (AG#1 & 2), or recipes I found on the net (AG#3) and this is the first time I've planned a recipe with Brewers Friend so I'm interested to see how it pans out.

For a 12L batch I used:
1650g Maris Otter
250g Munich
250g Carared
200g Flaked Barley
25g chocolate malt (yes, twenty five grams only, added for colour)

7L Tesco Ashbeck water for the mash at 70degC - I've previously mashed in the low 60's so I wanted to experiment with a higher mash temp.
An unexpected work call meant the mash was extended from 60 to 75-90 mins (not 100% sure how long it was in the end). Then I added another 8L for the sparge

10g Simcoe pellets @13.1%AAU added at the start of the boil, plus another 10g Simcoe 5 minutes from the end

Boil started with 13.3L at 1.044 and ended with 10.7L at 1.054 - a little high for what I wanted so I topped up to 12L. Honestly I thought topping up would be the case but as I wasn't 100% certain how much I'd lose in the grain and boil off so I deliberately went a little short on the sparge water.

Finally, I pitched a pack of Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley and tucked the FV into it's corner for the night. If all goes to plan we should end up just shy of 5% - excited already to see how it turns out

 

[matt76]

Update - After some discussion around high FG readings due to high mash temperatures, I bottled this evening with a final yield of 19 x 500ml.

Contrary to impressions from my cheeky tasters / gravity checks over the last few days, I'm now a little concerned it's too sweet - but I guess we'll know for sure in a few weeks.

(I also kept a cupful of sludge from the FV so I can have a go at yeast harvesting)

 

[matt76]

Well, after 3 weeks conditioning at room temperature i couldn't wait any longer. I put a bottle in the garage this morning to chill and I'm enjoying drinking this 3.8% English Bitter now (more below after pics).....

As noted above, i deliberately mashed at 70degC to see what effect this had - with an FG of 1.019 would it be too sweet?

Short answer, no.

My first ever brew, my one and only kit, ended up drinkable but sickly sweet. This bitter isn't like that - it tastes like a bitter, there's a little sweetness (nothing out of the ordinary compared to some bitters), it's malty and has a crisp refreshing finish.

As far as i can tell, the main effect of the high mash temp is to increase the FG and hence keep the ABV lower (would be interesting though to repeat this and mash at 60degC for comparison)

Overall I'm pleased - for my 4th AG brew i think I've made a nice beer.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[MyQul]

MMMmm!! Bitter!

 

[Clint]

Looks lovely!! Have yourself another!

 

[matt76]

Looks lovely!! Have yourself another!

Way ahead of you man - sköl!

 

[Ajhutch]

That looks really good!

 

[Drunkula]

Man, I could sink a few dozen of those. It looks lush.

 

[matt76]

Man, I could sink a few dozen of those. It looks lush.

The second one was equally satisfying - possibly even more so thanks to the surprising *POP* of the Grolsch type bottle!

 

[Drunkula]

even more so thanks to the surprising *POP* of the Grolsch type bottle!

Oh it is a thing of beauty, except when it doesn't pop and you let down your guard and then it pops a fraction later due to friction and you shriek like you've just opened a teapot full of spiders. This has happened to me not days ago.

 

[matt76]

Oh it is a thing of beauty, except when it doesn't pop and you let down your guard and then it pops a fraction later due to friction and you shriek like you've just opened a teapot full of spiders. This has happened to me not days ago.

Which? The bottle thing or the teapot full of spiders?

 

[Zephyr259]

As far as i can tell, the main effect of the high mash temp is to increase the FG and hence keep the ABV lower (would be interesting though to repeat this and mash at 60degC for comparison)

This is my suspicion too, higher mash leads to lower abv for a given OG, and as OG is linked to the quantity of malt used you can get a very malty and flavoursome low abv beer.

Might experiment myself sometime too. Also my saison went all the way down to 1.002 and you would t know it's that dry from drinking it.

 

[matt76]

This is my suspicion too, higher mash leads to lower abv for a given OG, and as OG is linked to the quantity of malt used you can get a very malty and flavoursome low abv beer.

Might experiment myself sometime too. Also my saison went all the way down to 1.002 and you would t know it's that dry from drinking it.

For sure I would encourage you to try like this it as an experiment. Do bear in mind that, based on this single attempt, you do seem to end up with a higher FG then you might otherwise expect.

Honestly, if I did it again I would ease off the mash temp just a touch, maybe 68degC.

It did also wonder in hindsight if it's worth adding a little more bittering hops to counter any residual sweetness - but then again as far as I can tell, high mash temp does not equal sweet beer.

 

[Zephyr259]

For sure I would encourage you to try like this it as an experiment. Do bear in mind that, based on this single attempt, you do seem to end up with a higher FG then you might otherwise expect.

Honestly, if I did it again I would ease off the mash temp just a touch, maybe 68degC.

It did also wonder in hindsight if it's worth adding a little more bittering hops to counter any residual sweetness - but then again as far as I can tell, high mash temp does not equal sweet beer.

The experiment that folks tend to do is the same beer at different temps so you get a very similar beer with a different abv, I'd be more tempted to alter the grain bill to keep the abv equal and see how the flavour changes. Problem there is my brewing practices would probably cause just as much variation as the deliberate changes.