Brew afternoon 28/05/07 SNPA MkII

[Garth]

Giving this another go, had a bottle of my first attempt which has been maturing for a couple of months, it had lost a lot of the Perle bitterness and had become very drinkable, but a lot of the Cascade aroma had gonne too. Hopefully this will rectify that little problem and the problem of the colour will be nearer to the original. Added some Carspils after Mysterios advice.

I'm also using US-05 for the first time after reading good things about it and it's a different yeast for a change rather than good 'ole S-04.

25 litres
OG 1050
IBU 32 EBC 16

Pale 5.2kg
Carapils 300g
Crystal 200g

Magnum 10g 60mins
Perle 9.5g 60mins
Cascade 35g 10mins
Cascade 80g 0mins

Whirlfloc 1unit 15mins

Yeast US-05 (prev US-56)



a few piccies, todays bits and bobs, and todays ingredients (apart from Pale),

poor quality sorry, camera still knackered

[Wez]

Gave a good one!

[louthepoo]

looking at how organised you've got that makes me realise how i make cock ups and am running around like a blue arsed fly during my brews!

[Garth]

I bet that's the only tidy corner, I expect the rest of the kitchen has crap lying around everywhere

hah, that really tickled me, but actually it's quite tidy today, amazing

right then, a quick 20ml of Iodophor intravenously and we're off.....literally

[awalker]

I see you have the hypodermic handy for jacking-up half way through the mash

It is the quickest way to mainline a bottle of beer

[delboy]

Good luck with the Mk II my own mark II has been sitting in the fermentor for about 5 days now.

[Garth]

hey great Delboy, we can compare brews, I've just doughed-in at 67*C, hit the temp bang on, always a good start,

bit late but had to firstly clear the house of obstructions (SWMBO and young apprentice Brewer),

did you go with what Wilbur said about the hops in our little discussion?

[delboy]

Yes, pretty much followed wilburs hop schedule ie backed way off on the perle and added it at 60min not 30, i tweaked wilburs late additions slightly from 30g cascade 10 min and 30g cascade 0 min to 20g 10min and 40g 0min.

[Garth]

All done, 24 litres @ 1.052 just slightly under my planned target but still quite pleased. Used a full acpac of Cascade, 40g @ 15mins then the rest, 100g @ flameout and let it sit for nearly an hour, whilst aerating it even smelt like SN, great.

It says 'approx 125g' on the packet but it's always nearly 140g.

Sparged the hops for the first time, sparge arm tubes jam nicely half way down boiler.

[Vossy1]

Gr8 pics G

I too likr those packets of hops...they hold way more than stated

For my last brew I needed 147g's but the packet held 146g, so I opened a new packet for 1g's worth

[Wez]

Good work Garth! Ace Pic's.

I had been sparging the hops but didn't todat as I thought it may be the reason why i'm getting too much 'break' matter through? How did it work for you.

[Garth]

Cheers Vos,

I now always weigh my hops when I've bought them for my inventory in Promash, because of this.

maybe it's so they can't be done by Weights and Measures...?

Wez, I think I got a lot of break material in the fermenter from doing this but then again, I usually do anyway, it's never seemed to do any harm though, we'll see...

do you think your last batch improved from not doing a hop sparge?

[Wez]

Today is the first time not hop sparging so i'll have to report back, it did seem clearer though? First batch was 74.6 % eff 2nd was 79.1% eff (1st batch old malt / 2nd batch new malt) so don't think eff is altered?

Just been to look at the FV's definetely loads less shite clinging to the sides. Lets compare notes eh! ?

[Garth]

Got a nice yeast head on this within 4-5 hours, not my record but still good,

Wez, there isn't a lot of brown scum either on the top, which is odd as there was quite a bit cold break crap floating in the fermenter before aeration and pitching last night. Maybe US-05 works a bit differently to S-04, Well we'll see and yes, compare notes.

[delboy]

Had my first taste of my own SNPA MK II using wilburs hop schedule which i tweaked the late additions on slightly from 30g cascade 10 min and 30g cascade 0 min to 20g 10min and 40g 0min. Also i used 10g each of cascade and perle to dryhop.

I have to say its a lot more mellow and subdued than my previous attempt (not that it would be difficult to do that) and the perle might be lacking on whats in the real SNPA, that said im supping the uncarbonated dregs of the fermentor and enjoying it, i think this will be a crowd pleaser thats for sure.