AG #61 Hoppy Blonde

[BrewerBen]

Tomorrow i will be brewing the big one, 55L of hoppy blonde ale . Its been quite a long time getting here, I bought the 50L BM last year, did a few 25L brews and then while out on a ride in June got side swiped by a old blind guy which shattered my shoulder blade and socket. After having it all screwed back together and quite a lot of physio i slowly got back into brewing (as well as riding) but lifting the 50L malt pipe was going to be a issue. Luckily my dad was renovating the garage so i now have a fixed brewing location with a hoist.

I was going to brew one of my previous favorite recipes to play it safe but i had ordered some UK Cascade and Admiral hops from http://abushelofhops.co.uk for another recipe but they threw in some Pilgrim as well so thought i'd come up with a well hopped blonde session ale as a antidote to the strong rich malty Christmas specials I've done recently. Also the packs are quite big so they are pretty much taking up a drawer in the freezer that will be needed fro Christmas.
I would have liked to use the Gales yeast but the fermentation fridge is occupied with the previous brew so couldn't get a starter going, not a problem though as i want the hops to shine through so have gone with Nottingham.

Target Gravity is 1.043 for 55L
Grain:
5500g Pale Malt, Low Colour 55 %
2250g Pale Malt, Maris Otter 22.5 %
1000g Munich 10%
500gm Cara Blonde 5 %
400g Wheat Malt, Pale 4 %
350g Acid Malt 3.5 %

Hops:
10g Admiral [13.10 %] (60 min) 5.5 IBU
10g Pilgrim [9.80 %] (60 min) 4.1 IBU
10g Cascade [6.00 %] (60 min) 2.8 IBU
10g Cascade [6.00 %] (30 min) 1.9 IBU
10g Admiral [13.10 %] (30 min) 4.2 IBU
10g Pilgrim [9.80 %] (30 min) 3.2 IBU
20g Admiral [13.10 %] (10 min) 4.0 IBU
20g Cascade [6.00 %] (10 min) 1.8 IBU
20g Pilgrim [9.80 %] (10 min) 3.0 IBU
30g Admiral [13.10 %] (0 min)
30g Cascade [6.00 %] (0 min)
30g Pilgrim [9.80 %] (0 min)
30g Admiral [13.10 %] (Dry Hop)
30g Cascade [6.00 %] (Dry Hop)
30g Pilgrim [9.80 %] (Dry Hop)

Yeast:
3x Nottingham 11g packs

Water Treatment:
Aiming for the light and hoppy profile from the brewers friend calculator
11g Gypsum
35ml CRS

Mash profile:
Mash in 55L at 38C
Step 1: 60 Mins @ 67C
Mash Out: 10 Mins @ 78C
Sparge 20.2L @ 78C

[BrewerBen]

Grains from http://getbrewing.uk, buckets a bit fuller than usual:


Lid makes a handy grain funnel:


Mash in, plenty of room in the malt pipe for more grain:


Pumps on:


Hops from http://abushelofhops.co.uk


Hops weighed out and Nottingham yeast.


Ph test:


Mash all done:


Hoist in action:


Spent grain after sparging:


Lid gets pretty hot during the boil which makes it ideal for drying tea towels. First use of extractor fan, a few leaks to sort out and a condensation drap to add but worked ok..


Nice vigorous boil:


Hops Draining:


Cold break forming:


SG reading, lower than expected at 1.041 but had more volume at 60L:


Slight logistic issue of getting wort to fermenter but went with the simple approach of siphoning to a pan and then tipping it in the fermenter:


Yeast re hydrated:


Leftover break material:


60L wort in the fermenter:


New toy put in action for the first time, the cooler dropped the temp to 18C in very little time. Fermenting quite cool at 18C as i want the hope to come through as much as possible. Not quite as hoppy as i expected but i have a 90g dry hop to add and if i don't feel that's enough i have another 100g of uk cascade in the freezer:


Overall i'm very pleased with todays brew day, well i would be i have 60l of beer on its way. New additions to the brewery like the extractor, maxi chiller and hoist all worked out ok. A few tweaks here and there to do and i overshot the volume by 5L but i'll adjust for the next brew. Lifting the malt pipe off the hoist to dispose of the grains was quite difficult but just about manageable. I need to fix the beam the hoist is attached to rather than sit it on blocks of wood so i can then just pull it out to the side and lower it.

[BrewerBen]

This has turned out a very nice beer, if not quite the beer i was aiming for. Its not as hoppy as i was aiming for but i think thats because i packed the hop bags too tightly(i ran out) during the boil and got poor utilisation, i also overshot the volume and when dry hopping again i over packed the bags and they just floated. I've got too used to using pellets. The result though is a very light easy drinking ale, and when i had a curry night the mini keg emptied in no time, even a devout lager drinker enjoyed it so overall i'm pretty pleased, not to mention relieved as i made 60L. Clarity isnt too bad either:

[sbond10]

Looks a nice beer and hopefully goes down well. I did wonder how you got the grain tube from over the bm but I think I understand