SS Minnow Mild Ale

[SiHoltye]

Hello,

Am brewing tomorrow. It's a brew from the American's Big Brew - National Homebrew Day Clicky The local club is brewing it for comparison.

Ingredients
23L @ 75% efficiency, 180min mash (got to work AM ) starting @ 69°C, 90min boil, alkalinity = 125, additions = mild
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.81 kg Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 76.27 %
0.41 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (120.0 EBC) Grain 11.15 %
0.23 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 6.11 %
0.12 kg Brown Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 3.24 %
0.12 kg Chocolate Malt (Pale) (500.0 EBC) Grain 3.24 %
37.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [3.75 %] (90 min) Hops 15.8 IBU
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.037 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.55 %
Bitterness: 15.8 IBU
Est Color: 34.5 EBC

Looks a tasty recipe I think, and quaffable after a 3 weeks once the Fullers twang has subsided ,

[SiHoltye]

All tucked up and spot on the numbers

[edit1now]

[mixbrewery]

Well done Si - good to see you got your efficiency calc sorted.

[Hogarth]

Nice work SiHoltye. That looks good and malty.

What do you mean by the 'Fuller's twang'? Is that from the yeast?

[SiHoltye]

Twang is misunderstood word For my money often London Pride, Porter and ESB, but Pride especially have a diacetyl flavour in them that's noticeable. Not a flaw but a characteristic due to their yeast I think. I think it mellows a bit over time in the cask, so that's what I meant. I also notice Harvey's yeast has a very definate and valuable flavour contibution to their beers. Yum.

[mb]

I made (much) the same beer today - couldn't resist a bit of tweaking

for 19L
--------
2500g MO
300g 60L crystal
200g 120L crystal
200g chocolate
200g biscuit
(recipe suggested 85g of the last two, but i thought i'd up it to get a bit more flavour)

40g of goldings (2007 crop, originally 4.7% AA, probably less now) - roughly 20 IBUs (recipe was 15, but i like a touch of hop in a mild).

s-04 yeast.

i ended up a touch over on gravity at 1038 - you do seem to get much better efficiency with lower gravity beers when batch sparging, i'm usually around 65% with a 1050 beer, i make that 73% today at 1038.

should be an interesting comparison at June LAB.

[SiHoltye]

Anyone drinking theirs yet? I've cracked mine tonight and it's nice. I find myself searching the flavour out a bit though, perhaps that's me.

[mb]

i've tried mine, even with the extra roast grains and hops it's still pretty insipid. drinkable enough, i reckon a couple of pints later on after an afternoon's gardening will hit the spot, but not an exciting beer.

[SiHoltye]

Ah, it's not just me then

[SiHoltye]

Drinking now, tasty beer and difficult to fall over when on a session of, handy sometimes

[Parp]

Mmmmm... Beer!

The photo's have done a funny resolution thing on my screen - where the reflections go around the glass - looks odd.

[Barley Water]

I agree, Fuller's yeast does have a diacetyl component to it which, by the way, I like alot. It is very important not to rack the beer off the yeast too soon otherwise the yeast will not have time to clean up after itself and you will end up with more than just a little left in the glass. Anyway, starting this weekend, I plan to brew one beer each week, the SS Minnow recipie you used, a Fuller's London Pride clone and finally a Fuller's London Porter clone as I am getting ready for a contest. Since I am using the same yeast in all three, I'll save some money and not have to bother growing up a starter. I really think that Fuller's is the official brewer in heaven (which is the only reason I at least try to be good) and I just love using their yeast strain because it produces really nice tasting, very clear beer quickly. Also, because it does not attenuate all that well, it makes the beer seem much bigger than it really is. The only problem with having any diacetyl in beers entered in contests is that inexperienced judges taste it and want to right away lower your scores. Because I like the stuff so much I just cop an attitude and say "to hell with them" and make what I like.

[SiHoltye]

I share your sentiments on the yeast and use the 3 brews concurrent routine too! Currenty with WLP005, then my first Wyeast - London Ale III. If I could only pick one yeast to use from now on it'd be WLP002. It's great IMO.

[Barley Water]

I find I use just a few strains over and over. For lagers, I like Wyeast 2006, Belgian stuff uses WLP500, wheat beers WLP300 and of couse the afore mentioned WLP002. The advantage is that you can do more than one batch per purchase and you can avoid making up alot of starters. After using one strain for awhile, you get the added advantage of knowing what you will get out of it and how to handle the fermenatation so your beers get better and better. I also have experience with Saison yeast which can get a little wierd and I just recently did an Alt with 1007 (I will be very interested to see how this comes out since you can ferment pretty cold with that stuff and it supposidly attenuates really well).