Brewday 12th April - Old Horlicks

[SteveD]

Update..it's been in secondary since 19th April and has dropped totally clear. Kegged tonight. G13.5 so primed with about 3oz of caster sugar as syrup, as I want it ready by 29th May (North Hants Beer Club meet). 34g of Goldings were stuffed into the hop muslin and weighed down with a spare S/S King Keg float weight and lobbed into the keg where they steadfastly refused to sink. Once beerlogged they might. Just below the surface would be grand.

I've noticed that the three beers so far that I've made with protofloc in the boil and Hog's Back yeast have all cleared superbly, unaided, and in short time.

Cautionary Tale
I've done over 60 mashes plus the kits and extract brews in the early days, spread over 20 years.....so what do I do tonight? Spanner off a pressured up kingkeg cap too quickly. The cap flew off, banging me on the forehead on its way across the room. I have a nice bump to remind me of what I already knew but didn't implement...... release the goddam presure slowly before undoing the goddam cap! If the S30 valve had hit me, or any part of it in the eye, it could have been nasty.

[SteveD]

I now have a black eye....great. It'll look just great for gigs this weekend and Monday's social gathering.

[Seveneer]

Sounds painful Steve but I still can't help but smile

A few years ago I got into a bit of a playful situation after drinking heavilly all weekend. On the Monday I went to Sweden for a week's work.

It wasn't until Wednesday that one of my colleagues pointed out that I had a black eye. It had taken 3 full days to come out. I had to explain to him what had happened and that I hadn't been fighting in sleepy Linkoping.

We still laugh about it today especially as I'm now his boss!

/Phil.

[Seveneer]

I now have a black eye....great. It'll look just great for gigs this weekend and Monday's social gathering.

You could make a feature of it and draw a couple of black lines from either side disappearing round the back of your head to make it look like an eye patch, wear a big hoop earing and pretend you are a new-romantic pirate

Or you could lead a Dead or Alive revival

[SteveD]

I now have a black eye....great. It'll look just great for gigs this weekend and Monday's social gathering.

You could make a feature of it and draw a couple of black lines from either side disappearing round the back of your head to make it look like an eye patch, wear a big hoop earing and pretend you are a new-romantic pirate

What, another big hoop earring?

[SteveD]

I now have a black eye....great. It'll look just great for gigs this weekend and Monday's social gathering.

You could make a feature of it and draw a couple of black lines from either side disappearing round the back of your head to make it look like an eye patch, wear a big hoop earing and pretend you are a new-romantic pirate

Or you could lead a Dead or Alive revival

More dead than alive at the moment.....

[SteveD]

Ok - how did it turn out? North Hants brewers said it was infected - with something, and David Edge said phenols, or an infection. It did taste odd at the meeting, but not how it did when sampled prior to then. My feeling was it just didn't like rush bottling on the day. Out of the wet-towel-wrapped barrel it tastes just fine. A deep gold with very good head formation and retention, and clear. There's a lot of dry hops in this recipe and as a result it's resiny and you can really taste the goldings, even 20 minutes after drinking.