"The Sky At Night" Tripel.... Just... Dont drink on brewdays

[simple one]

Don't drink on a brewday. Mate came round to talk about fishing. He got roped in to brewing and one drink led to another. In my drunk mind I thought it would be a good idea to do a one batch sparge, probably be good for the beer in the long run. Had to concentrate really hard to get to the end and keep it sterile.

But gods of beer must have been smiling as it ended great. Lower starting gravity than I wanted, slightly longer brewlength. But I was happy with the colour and can live with the slightly lower strength.

The final recipe:

Fermentable Colour Grams Ratio
Pilsner Malt 3 EBC 3010 grams 51.7%
Pale Malt 5 EBC 2010 grams 34.5%
Sugar, Household White 0 EBC 300 grams 5.2%
Sugar Invert No. 1 Solid 5 EBC 500 grams 8.6%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Saaz Whole 3.3 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 28.6%
Golding Whole 4.7 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.9 oz 25 grams 23.8%
Saaz Whole 3.3 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 47.6%

Final Volume: 21 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.008
Alcohol Content: 7.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 31.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 67 %
Bitterness: 31.0167398319633 EBU
Colour: about 5 EBC

[simple one]

Well I decided to brew quite late in the day. The whole brew day took about 5 hours. The eff is right down on this one due to a one batch sparge, silly I know, seemed like a good idea at the time.
I went for keeping the recipe simple after all the good advice of the recipe forum. And I am glad I did. It smelt good, and looks great. I have a really good feeling about this one.

Homemade Candy Sugar.... First one was very dark so did it again. Tastes nice. The final colour of the brew was just a bit darker than this.



The grain all measured out... Nice and easy. 3kg of pilsner and 2kg of pale.



The problem... 3 cornies which I got of a good bloke at a great price. He left some cider in the left one. When my nieghbour came round at sparge time we started. Like my camera work... It all got a bit hazy.



First wort hops. During the boil I bottled the bitter that was on top of the 1214 belgian abbey yeast so that it was ready for pitching.



Cold break. It looked good. Its really good light colour. Not sure the camera has done it justice.



Not many pictures due to drinking. Anyway its tucked up in the bath now as I forsee an eruption. I will post more once my head has cleared a bit.

[196osh]

Glad to see this got made.

I look forward to the results.

[simple one]

Same here. Initially it smelt a bit chemically coming out of the fermenter. But its started to settle down a bit to a more pleasant aroma. Its going like the clappers, but I guess thats all the sugar in there.

I am just crossing everything that the starter and yeast cake wasn't contaminated. Even if it tastes gash, I would rather it down to recipe and not infection.

[simple one]

I highly reccomend the cold bath and wet cotton technique. The internal fermenting temp has dropped to 20C with an ambient tepmerature of 24C. Smells nice now.

[196osh]

Good stuff thats what I have been doing for cooling. I get it down to 20C also.

I think I will wait for a fridge and some temperature control before I try a belgian, I am not brave enough not to I would end up with something tasting undrinkable because I would have an insane hot spell or something.....

[simple one]

Well theres a hot spell coming in a few days time, 27c down here. I should be done by then though. If it does bodge up I'll try again this winter.

[simple one]

She is the one in the middle. I have become addicted to pressing the top of the fermenter for a smell. Its like a cross between banana, bubblegum and glue. That sounds bad, but trust me, it isn't. Hope it turns out drinkable and not to hot.

[adm]

I hope you also have a shower in the house

[simple one]

Ha Ha.... Yes.... but Its over the bath! I get so much ear ache of the missus its untrue. Its a pain at shower time. Its like a military operation, and is over quickly. Then the babies are back in the bath.

[mysterio]

I get so much ear ache of the missus its untrue.

I was about to say, you must be getting a hell of a time

[simple one]

Well..... The smell of the yeast and trub stuck to the sides of the fermenter was awful. Which made me happy that I skimmed any trub on the yeast head for the first few days. Which made me think that today it would be better that I stick this in to the secondary fermenter. I feared the worst for the taste, all I could think was either it would be chemically or taste of pineapples. It tasted suprisingly nice, and thats green with yeast in suspension. The sugar really gives the impression that its down at 4%. I'll let more yeast drop out and then bottle.

The mistake of losing some body and ABV may not have been too bad a mistake.

Obviously I would have like to have had my temp fridge set up for the fermentation and have kept in the extra body and ABV. But thats brewing. Lets see what comes of it.

[196osh]

Good stuff man.

I am slighty confused though, do you mean it has the body of a 4% beer or that is at 4% instead of 7%?

[simple one]

No its still up in the 7%. When I had a sneaky sample it tasted like a light hoeggarden, quite refreshing. Then the alcohol came through. Nice. Should be even nicer when it drops clear.
Really light in colour too. I just wish I hadn't drunk and stuck to the recipe to get that 9%.

[196osh]

Sounds lovley.