Undecided Blonde Ale

[pantsmachine]

This recipe started off in my head as a Styrian stunner type beer and turned into this instead. There was a thought process to get from 1 to the other but i can't remember what it was hence the name. I have done a decent run of dark beers and also a fair number of weissens both belgian and german so i thought it was time to have a crack at a lowish ABV blonde with plenty of hop character. I went for a 1 hour mash and a 1 hour boil and decided to see how much debris i could keep from being transfered into the FV. SO i recirculated 15 ltrs of the first runnings as you will see in 2 of the pictures and i also put a nylon strainer bag inline for transfer to FV. Oh and i let the chiller run for about 10 minutes more than normal. I will know at the end of fermentation if these additions to my brew cycle have made any difference.

2.00 kg Wheat Malt, Ger
0.50 kg Vienna Malt
0.50 kg Wheat, Torrified
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L
1.50 oz Northdown [8.50 %] (60 min)
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (10 min)
0.75 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham
1 Protafloc tablet

The grain

The Hops

1st runnings

15ltrs recirc later

Start of boil

Final minutes of boil

Transfer to FV through nylon bag and funnel

Debris that would have went into FV

Yeast pitched and waiting for activity


This one has a SG of 1.032, i am hoping to get down to about 1.005 which will put me at 3.5%ABV which is the weakest beer i have ever brewed. 4 hours start to finish including lunch, enjoyed myself Hugely!

[Damfoose]

Looks like you had a good brew day mate hope it tastes as good as it looks, Incidently one of my recent brews was cloudy going into the boiler and just as cloudy comming out of the boiler after the boil but has cleared up a treat.
On little point dont you think the cement mixer is a little over kill to mix the grains together..

[pantsmachine]

Right enough but i thought i'd trial it for a big batch! In between batches of beer and my trips offshore i have had a wee project on the go, hence the mixer, which is a proper blokes bit of kit hand built by my mates father in law an old retired engineer(he's 82 now). Exposed finger shredding drive belts and everything dodgy in the best tradition. The project can be seen on the link below if interested.

http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=161582

I hear you on the cloudy brews Damfoose, i have been doing that many weissens and darks that i really want to do a crystal clear beer just to prove to myself that i can still do it!

[WishboneBrewery]

I actually quite like that mixer shot, it has a surrealist feel to it

[adm]

Good work on the beer - and also on the patio/deck/hot tub adventure (I followed the link!)

Did you get the hot tub shipped over from the US and all installed in the end?

[pantsmachine]

The beers going great guns this morning, i had forgotten what a nice smell Nottigham throws off during fermentation


The hot tub is still ongoing, i am hoping it will arrive at Aberdeen port around the start of June, its been a great project and SWMBO is slowly coming round to the idea of it! As i said in the thread direct import of these things is the way to go. In fact its the only way to go as the supplier i am getting it from is tied into their UK agents so he can only supply direct to an end user in the UK otherwise i would have to go through a uk agent and they supply inferior moving parts systems with the tubs at ripoff prices!

P.S thanks pdtnc,me and Salvador we're like that you know....

[pantsmachine]

Femrented down to 1.007 so around about a 3.2%ABV. Cleared fast, not much of a trub layer and its bottle conditioning as a type as of 2 days ago. Its is the fastest cycle i have ever done, brewed on Sunday and bottled on Thursday! Thin yeast layer on bottom of bottles and i have had a sample bottle, all priming sugars not fully converted but taste was fine and getting the citrus flavour i was aiming for, clear as a bell as well. Looking forward to next weekend and i will try another and it should be ready.