Marital Bliss

[tubby_shaw]

Today is our wedding anniversary :grin:
I have for the want of a better word "bribed" swmbo with the worlds biggest box of chocs and she has agreed to let me brew today :party:
Mash liquor is on and 40L of mild is planned.

MB Mild
OG 1.036 IBU 15 a.b.v 3.5%

4.5kg pale malt
1kg crystal malt
250g black malt
200g chocolate malt
250g soft brown sugar

34g Northdown hops 7.5% aa 90 minute boil

 

[A T]

Well done TS, i hope it turns out a good one :thumb:

 

[llannige]

Congrats.

Hope all goes well :thumb:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Hmm, think I need a bigger mash tun :hmm:
Or I need to reduce my liquor to grist ratio as I think 2.8 is a bit much, 10mm from the top of the mash tun :shock:
Still you live and learn :lol:

 

[tubby_shaw]

This is how I have gone about today's brewing.
As most of you are aware I am limited to my boil size until I get my finger out and convert my 50L stock pot :whistle:
So to get a 40 L brew length in one go I have mashed as usual, sparged to fill my boiler, continued sparging down to an sg of 1.011 into a second a second vessel added 75% of the hops to the rich wort which will boil for 90 minutes and transfered the weaker wort into my HLT which has by default become my second boiler along with the remaining hops and sugar, which will be boiled for 90 min also.
There is a 20 min delay between the 2 worts boiling which should give me time to cool one whilst waiting for the other :grin:
The two worts will be combined at the end and fermented as one 40L brew :pray:
No pics so far as I am busy juggling equipment

 

[tubby_shaw]

First pic, two worts boiling :party:

I've opened the garage door a bit more now :thumb:

Runnings from first boiler at a gravity of 1.080 :shock:

Wort from second boiler was added to the first boiler to make use of the hop strainer, allowed to settle and then run into Shiny FV at a gravity of 1.044 You can see the colour difference between the two :thumb:

Nicely aerated and waiting for the SO4

I had to add 5L of dechlorinated water to bring it to 39L at 1.038 SG.
If it tastes good it was a worthwhile day

 

[A T]

Looking good TS Two boilers at once must create a lot of steam :shock:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Looking good TS Two boilers at once must create a lot of steam :shock:

Yup Beer sauna :whistle:

 

[Neil09]

LOL happy anniversary! Brews looking good :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Congrats Mr and Mrs t_s :party:

Glad to see the brewday went well

 

[Wez]

Congratulations :thumb: Looks like a good brewday :thumb:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Don't you just love SO4 :clap: It never fails :party:

 

[tubby_shaw]

God I love mild

Started on 01/04
Drinking on 07/04 (just)

Lovely malty flavour with a touch of coffee and cola and just enough bitterness to follow :party:
It's got to be black malt in dark beers for me :thumb: none of that nasty burnt barley :nono:

 

[Vossy1]

Started on 01/04
Drinking on 07/04 (just)

:twisted:

A man after my own heart :drink:

 

[Wez]

Wow, that is a fast turn-around!

 

[A T]

Fast :shock: I thought i was fast :shock:

 

[MEB]

Don't you just love SO4 :clap: It never fails :party:

No, i hate the stuff.

Nice looking recipe though. :thumb:

 

[MEB]

Hmm, think I need a bigger mash tun :hmm:
Or I need to reduce my liquor to grist ratio as I think 2.8 is a bit much, 10mm from the top of the mash tun :shock:
Still you live and learn :lol:

I've been there lots TS. Bit annoying-especially if your doing a DP recipe and a 3hr mash plus raising the temp to 77C for half hour mash out. Which normally requires 4-6L boiling water to raise the temp from 66C-77C (in my system).
I use a 2.2L per Kg ratio now. It results in a reasonably stiff mash but that shouldn't be a problem in itself, especially if you mash for 90 mins.

But then you DO need a bigger mash tun, so do I

Think I might give this recipe a go tonight as the last Mild i done was terrific and this recipe is quite close to mine... Off to see if i have the ingredients. I WON'T be using S04 though. I reckon Ringwood would work well with this recipe myself.