21-10-07: Smiles Brewery - Bitter

[spearmint-wino]

An early brewday for me today, didn't have too much of a hangover after the game last night either... too nervous to get into my drinking stride.

A bit of a weird selection of ingredients in the store cupboard (and no crystal) meant either a mild (thanks Alton_Bee) or something from BYORAAH that I haven't really paid much attention to before: Smiles Brewery Bitter. "A golden quaffer with ripe malt in the mouth and a long finish with hops, fruit and nuts". Sounds 'the nuts' to me!

Going to try an hour mash and hour boil today - sparging now so might be finished before lunch

[Wez]

Nice one SW, finished in time for a few pre-Sunday lunch pints!

[spearmint-wino]

Argh, forgot the flinking hop strainer!!

Grrr, fun with hot siphons in about 45 mins for me then

[spearmint-wino]

I'll give it a go

[spearmint-wino]

After quite a bit of titting around I got 25l at 1046 sitting happily in the fermenter, along with a lot of break material.
I'm gonna stick a large post-it reminder to my spinny sparge or something so I don't forget next time (that's 3 times now )

Didn't make the intended pre-lunch finish but as long as the beer turns out alright I'll be happy . How's everyone else getting along with their brewing today?

[J_P]

as long as the beer turns out alright I'll be happy

That's the spirit

[spearmint-wino]

I leave it in the boiler then it's impossible to forget

I used to, then changed boiler and had to bodge the connection . I'll have to work on it - and there was me justifying a morebeer stainless FB for myself...

[Vossy1]

Glad to see you overcame the usual brew day challenges

[spearmint-wino]

I kegged this one last night after 9 days in the primary, had the obligatory trial jar tasting as well. Not bad, but definitely not a beer to drink green! I could really taste the amber malt in there, I'd describe it as an over-baked digestive biscuit flavour. It was actually a bit too pronounced for my tastes so not so sure how well I'm going to get on with this brew, I've read a few others on here finding the same thing, we should compare thoughts when they're all ready...

When I rack from the fermenter there's a fantastic hop aroma left in there, although that doesn't seem to get transferred to the final beer so impressively. Would dry-hopping make this back up?

I'll give a few weeks to mature and see how things go.