Courage Directors (Wheeler recipe), AG#13. Likely one of my cheapest brews, as the hop bill is very low, and there is not a great deal of malt either (added dextrose). I'm thinking about ã8 for 23l, and it should be coming out above 5%. Starting to move away from Brun Water for acid addition, as I'm starting to find my own feet with that. Hit my 5.4 pH target. I find I always undershoot mash pH if I follow Brun Water directly; not sure I'll ever know why. Had stuck (batch) sparge but just push on now. I stirred again, pushed the malt up one end, reduced the rest, and reduced the vorlauf. It came through, perhaps not as clear as it otherwise would have, but I nor anyone else will ever know in the final beer. Efficiency won't be hurt with batch sparging either. I calculated a 90% mash efficiency; not quite sure I believe that though. Brewhouse efficiency was 74% and it almost always falls about 10% below mash efficiency, but then dextrose is thrown into the mix to confuse things.
Recent brews have seen me move into more additions such as campden tablet & yeast nutrient. I think it all makes a difference, as my brews are slowly improving. Not sure what has the most influence though, or if I could cut something out completely without any negative impact. Anyway, it's all dirt cheap and the brews are on the up.
I still brew kits, but they are really nowhere close to AG. I brew them only because I don't have time to brew sufficient AGs to keep a steady supply of beer. Kits all have the same salty taste to them; not the killer HB twang of the old days. I'm thinking the IBUs are higher in most kits I get, and that's possibly what I perceive as salty. Not really sure. All I know is, that at 2-3 times the cost, they are half as good, and that shouldn't be.
