Brew No.4 of 2009 - Session Beer

[tatlock]

Put this together this am - all went well!
2kg Golden Promise
200g Crystal
5g Black
100g Torrified Whest
75g Sugar

30g Cascade - 90 Mins
20g Cascade - 15 Mins

Used Lidls bottled water,Whirlfloc and Batch Sparged.

Collected 3 Gallons of wort at about 1036

All done,(including tidy up) within 4 hrs.

[stevezx7r]

A very nice, simple looking brew. You should take pics, not many pics of short batches like that. And 4 hours is sharp for any brew day

[smp465]

4 hours!! I doughed in at about half five and i'm still cooling!! In fairness my run off was a bit slow tonight, but that is some benchmark for time tatlock. Whats the secret?

[Invalid Stout]

Half size batches is the secret! Quicker lautering, quicker reaching a boil, quicker cooling!

[tomU]

Yep, the small volumes the secret - I regularly do 2 gall brews - heat my mash and sparge water in a couple of kettles, then it takes 20 mins or so to get to the boil, then 20-30 mins to cool in the bath. I take between 4 and 5 hours every brew....

[smp465]

Might have to consider that for these evening sessions.

[tatlock]

yep these small batches suit me fine now.
i used to do 5-8 gallon batches on a sunday but to be honest they were becoming a bit of a chore.
now i can brew while the kids are at school,do lots of different beers and keep everything small and easy.
i use 1 and 2 gallon demi-johns,2 gallon plastic barrells and everything is easy to clean,sanitize,transfer,etc,(even bottling is not a major task like it used to be.(its all done on the cooker and in the kitchen).
horses for courses i suppose but its small batches for me from now on!