AG#11: 12/07/09 - German Ale (With Pics)

[Grahame]

Hi guys,

Just finished brewing a german style ale as I wanted to try something completely different than I have before. Recipe was:

Code: Select all

Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
3907.00 gm    Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)          Grain        88.00 %       
267.00 gm     Munich Malt (17.7 EBC)                    Grain        6.01 %        
133.00 gm     Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC)              Grain        3.00 %        
133.00 gm     Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC)    Grain        3.00 %        
9.00 gm       Northern Brewer [10.50 %]  (90 min)       Hops         11.1 IBU      
12.00 gm      Cascade [7.10 %]  (30 min)                Hops         7.2 IBU       
12.00 gm      Cascade [7.10 %]  (15 min)                Hops         4.6 IBU       
6.00 gm       Cascade [4.80 %]  (0 min)                 Hops          -            
1.11 items    Protafloc (Boil 15.0 min)                 Misc                       
1 Pkgs        SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)      Yeast-Ale                  

I mashed for 90 mins and boiled for 90 mins. Hit my target of 21L at 1.046 spot on and it should have an IBU of 22ish. I was aiming for a mash temp of 68C but it was a wee bit over this - I am sure it will still be ok.

I was hoping for it to be more lager like in colour but it came out quite a bit darker than I expected.

Had one slight mishap, I nearly pulled the boiler over right at the end whilst running off into the FV. As a result, I disturbed the filter bed and quite a bit of crap got through. Still no matter, I will just skim it off the yeast when it gets going.

Used the false bottom tun for the 2nd time today and it was an absolute joy. Ran off both batches in just a few minutes and it really shaved off some time from my brewday.

Anyway pics below. Any comments would be great.

G.












Start of mash:

End of mash:

[WishboneBrewery]

All looking good Looks like you had fun, what did you attach the thermometer through the side of your Mash Tun and are they easily available? Ta.

[Grahame]

I just used a wee blob of silicon, but I was talking to Chris-X1 via pm yesterday about this - he uses a "Wade fitting, 4mm x 1/8 bsp t male stud coupling drilled through to 4mm so the probe passes right through"

I am going to buy one and use that instead (They are listed here http://www.johnsonvalves.co.uk/wade%20metric.htm)

G.

[WishboneBrewery]

ahh yes... I remember reading that now.
I must get my finger out and pop to a local Hydraulic engineers I used to deal with in a former job.

[mysterio]

Looks great! What's German about it though, apart from a dash of Munich!

[simple one]

Looks great, really enjoy cascades.

One question. I know its delibrate, why so high with the mash temp? Its gonna have some mighty body combined with the so4!

[Grahame]

The recipe was supposidly based on a german idea - I thought northern brewer are a german hop too - I guess it is more like american-german

The mash temp was specified in the recipe. Never mashed that high before so it should be an interesting end result. Well I hope so anyway!

G.