Hoppelganger Ordinary Bitter

[Clibit]

Got a window to brew this aft so cobbled up a 9 litre ordinary bitter recipe to use some old hops up and got milling & mashing, Looking to make a low ABV bitter with an experimental hop mix, using biscuit for the first time, along with Munich and dark crystal to create some body:

Hoppleganger Ordinary Bitter

Batch Size (L): 9.0
Total Grain (kg): 1.330
Total Hops (g): 58.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.037
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 3.64 %
Colour (SRM): 9.0 (EBC): 17.7
Bitterness (IBU): 29.5 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 80
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

1.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (75.19%)
0.140 kg Munich (10.53%)
0.070 kg Biscuit (5.26%)
0.070 kg Dark Crystal (5.26%)
0.050 kg Flaked Maize(3.76%)

10.0 g Simcoe Leaf (10% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
12.0 g Cascade Leaf (9.2% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes
12.0 g Challenger Leaf (9.3% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes
12.0 g Progress Leaf (7.5% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes
12.0 g Summer Leaf (6.4% Alpha) @ 2 Minutes
10.0g Summer Leaf Hop Tea steeped overnight, added at Bottling time.

Mashed in full volume (13L) at 67°C for 35 Minutes then raised temp to 76C on stove, stirred well and lifted out the grains.
Ferment with Safbrew S-33, out of date, and a sachet of Young's Harvest lager yeast. Ghetto.

[McMullan]

Looks nice, celibate, as ever. The only thing I'd change is the yeast, but that's down to personal preferences, of course. You've got simcoe leaf? I thought there was a shorted of that lovely stuff? I have some in the freezer... address not available

[Clibit]

It's 2013 I've had a for a while. I wouldn't use S-33 as first choice either, that's the price for brewing off the cuff. But it's a pretty good dry yeast.

Celibate in what sense?!

[Monkeybrew]

Certainly nothing 'Ordinary' about this recipe

I like the look of it though and will be interested to hear how it pans out.

Cheers

MB

[Notlaw]

How do you maintain efficiency mashing full volume Clibit? Is that because it was a "thinner" mash, as opposed to one which would give a higher OG?

[Clibit]

How do you maintain efficiency mashing full volume Clibit? Is that because it was a "thinner" mash, as opposed to one which would give a higher OG?

Good question, which I can sort of answer but not fully. I know that many home brewers now are doing BIAB brewing where all the water goes in the mash, and are reporting very high consistent efficiency. And this is what i did yesterday, in a small 9 litre batch. Why do you get high efficiency without a sparge? I believe that's because I grind the grain really fine, which you can do with BIAB, cos you can't get a stuck sparge when the grain is held in a bag. Using a mash tun requires a coarser milled grain, to aid filtering and reduce the risk of a stuck mash, But also, having a much thinner mash (more water to grain) like 6:1 instead of maybe 2.5:1) means that sparging is much less necessary, in fact not necessary at all. And by raising the temp of the mash at the end on the stove to 76ish, called a mash out, you make the removal of sugars more effective.

So I basically get 80% efficiency whether I split the water between mash and sparge or do a full volume mash. The crush is the main reason for the good efficiency i believe.

[Notlaw]

Hmmm, ok that makes sense. I hadn't ever considered the coarseness of the mill.

That's set me away thinking about my "speccing up" options. It's also got me thinking; if you wanted a higher OG, could you use a reduced quantity of base malt, but use all of your specialist grains in a mash with the full amount of water, then increase the gravity with DME. Not saying this is something I'd want to do on a regular basis, it's just for my own knowledge really. Could be an option for a brewday with a limited time frame.

[Clibit]

Hmmm, ok that makes sense. I hadn't ever considered the coarseness of the mill.

That's set me away thinking about my "speccing up" options. It's also got me thinking; if you wanted a higher OG, could you use a reduced quantity of base malt, but use all of your specialist grains in a mash with the full amount of water, then increase the gravity with DME. Not saying this is something I'd want to do on a regular basis, it's just for my own knowledge really. Could be an option for a brewday with a limited time frame.

Yes and I do it, though haven't for a year or so. It's called a partial mash - you simply replace some of the base malt with light DME. Or LME, but I prefer DME. I did one last April for a party, made a 12 litre AG brew with enough specialty grain and hops for 23 litres, and added DME and water to make up 23 litres. I have a 19 litre cooler mash tun but I don't use it much these days, cos I like the quick stove top small brews - I don't drink huge quantities, and I like variety, experimenting, and I like brewing. The stove top brews take me 2.5 hours up to flame out. If I use the mash tun it's 5 hours minimum. So I just do that occasionally. Horses for courses.

[Notlaw]

Hmmm, ok that makes sense. I hadn't ever considered the coarseness of the mill.

That's set me away thinking about my "speccing up" options. It's also got me thinking; if you wanted a higher OG, could you use a reduced quantity of base malt, but use all of your specialist grains in a mash with the full amount of water, then increase the gravity with DME. Not saying this is something I'd want to do on a regular basis, it's just for my own knowledge really. Could be an option for a brewday with a limited time frame.

Yes and I do it, though haven't for a year or so. It's called a partial mash - you simply replace some of the base malt with light DME. Or LME, but I prefer DME. I did one last April for a party, made a 12 litre AG brew with enough specialty grain and hops for 23 litres, and added DME and water to make up 23 litres. I have a 19 litre cooler mash tun but I don't use it much these days, cos I like the quick stove top small brews - I don't drink huge quantities, and I like variety, experimenting, and I like brewing. The stove top brews take me 2.5 hours up to flame out. If I use the mash tun it's 5 hours minimum. So I just do that occasionally. Horses for courses.

Aaah, I'd never looked into what partial mash was, even though I'd heard the term.

[Clibit]

Bit disgruntled. This has only got down to 1020 despite all my efforts to get it lower. Don't understand it. Now cold crashing, it's going to be very low ABV. The wort tastes really good however. So not lost hope.

[Clibit]

Well I've bottled this brew this afternoon, and its turning into a bit of a madness. Finished at 1020 and I decided to make a hop tea as a way of combating residual sweetness. Used 15g of Summer hops. And I made the tea last night and left it overnight, experimental super long infusion. Added DME for priming. Bottled 9.5 litres, thanks to 500ml hop tea and over shooting slightly, so ABV must be 2.0% ish. I was aiming low, but not that low...

I drank the dregs and its very hoppy, pretty bitter and grapefruity, but other fruit too, stone fruit perhaps. The hop tea made it quite murky but that'll improve. Just wondering how drinkable it's going to be! Just the 20 bottles mind. It may be great. And low ABV brewing is new to me, it's a learning curve.

[GarethHW]

Out of date yeast probably to blame?

[Clibit]

Out of date yeast probably to blame?

Well yeah. I ordered the yeast in December and when I went to use it realised the date on it was September 2015. Last straw with that particular supplier. But after less than 24 hours I rehydrated half a pack of Gervin and added that. I did mash high and I did a short mash, seems both will have contributed to high FG, but my attenuation was below 50%. Worst ever by a long way - in a very low gravity ale.

I actually think the beer might be ok. Very hoppy table beer. I'm flexible.

[WalesAles]

I'm flexible.

And me!
I can touch my toes and do 50 sit-ups.

WA

[Clibit]

OK I'm not THAT flexible.