I remembered that my birthday is also at the end of March, so a beer is needed for that too.
Hence Old Git Pale Ale
Target OG 1044 there's a clue
Actual OG1047 wishing age upon myself
4.5kg Maris Otter Pale (Warminster)
46g Goldings - copper
42g Styrian G's - copper
30g Styrian G's - last 15 mins
45g Styrian G's - on switchoff
15g Styrian G's - dry
Never used there before - want to see what they taste like
Yeast is 2 packs Nottingham with special care taken during rehydration and working up. Much aeration of bulk wort will happen, and I have yeast nutrient at the ready.....just let the b@stards try it!
Prepped liquor last night with CRS and sodium met -53L knackered and then went to bed.
This morning - OOOOOhhyah! PH bleedin 4.6 ish! Something's gone wrong.
Either... Water company report wrong (water varies - it's an approximation at best) or, my maths was wrong, or my measuring apparatus is wrong.53L nominal vol Alkalinity given as 180 as CaCO3 (220 as HCO3). I calculated on .765ml/L to drop it to 40ish - near enough 41ml CRS. I added 1.5 campden tabs - which would have a negligible effect. Measured using measuring spoons.Anyway, I replaced about half the liquor with fresh, until the PH rose to 5.5 ish. Problem was I'd already added DLS to the grist, so more acidity on the way...
Numbers - Unmeasured volume of Liquor ran into mashtun at 75c, Strike heat 73c, Initial heat 67c, mash time 90 mins, temp at end 65c bulk, 63-64c at edges. Mash fairly thin.
Mash and sparge uneventful, ph low at 4.9-5.0 ish. HTL temp almost boiling gave a mash bed temp between 72-77c. Stopped sparging at 1008. Modified my anti-aeration wort delivery pipe or AAWP as the americans would quickly label it, by shortening it so it points straight down and stepping down the gauge progressively. This completely stopped the problem I was having with air backing up into the manifold.
Boil underway now, outside. 90 mins, irish moss in at 70 mins. Plenty of break.
Boil over, modified recipe to leave me 15g Styrians for dry hopping, so only 45g in postboil.
Cooling outside with IC, Small flies unduly interested...little sods. Cooling seems very fast today, down to 20c in 30 mins. Quick break for dinner and - it's at 10c. COLD break central! Still, it'll make for good aeration. Run off and areated by spraying over paddle to create a fine shower into FV.
Preliminary readings would suggest I'll be 2 or 3 degrees over 1044 at 24L. Ah well. Wort thick and glutinous at 10c, break material held in suspension. Continued aeration indoors spraying from one FV to another. Made up to 24L with lukewarm sparge liquor then 1 L of boiling liquor to 25L brought it to 18c and OG1047 Efficiency 87% - too strong, meaning I didn't stop sparging early enough. A refractometer would make the stop point easier to determine. Must get must get.
25L is a silly volume to have in a 25L FV so I decanted a litre into a sanitised pet bottle to freeze for those 'if only I had a bit of wort' moments.
Yeast prepped closely following danstar instructions, pitched 8.45pm and FV put into Steve's custom attemperator, as per porter brew.
They're under starter's orders...and they're off!
24 hrs later.....a slower start and less massive head. Just getting the rocky head now, and a 2" thickness. Fermenter steady at 18c. That's more like it
Hope the rest of the brew goes well...
Maybe a strong pale ale!
I always kept it simple but, lured by the technochemists, I thought I'd have a go. I'm still trying to work out what went wrong. Biggest problem is being unable to determine that my volumes and weights are accurate. What's a litre? How can I accurately weigh gram weights with what I've got? How accurate are measuring spoons. If I weigh water - are the scales accurate - and so it goes on.