If I can remember to get the camera sorted before I start drinking the stuff.
The real interest here was the use of dark crystal instead of the standard Crystal malt which according to GW should impart a more complex flavour profile with hopefully some toffee notes and a nice malty brew. It will also be interesting to see how my HLT and calculated water quantities fare this time around now I think I understand the Fly sparge process and all my losses.
The recipe was the first one that was devised by myself and not straight from a book or post, although the AG#5 Elderflower beer was a departure. But the base of that was a know recipe based on the AG#4 Smiley Sam brew removing the aroma hops and replacing with fresh Elderflowers. Anyway the recipe is as shown.
Recipe: Michael Jackson Commemorative ABC Ale
Brewer: Catfish Brewery
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 31.26 L
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 68.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.30 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK MO (5.0 EBC) Grain 78.18 %
0.50 kg Crystal Malt - Dark (200.0 EBC) Grain 9.09 %
0.30 kg Oats, Malted (2.0 EBC) Grain 5.45 %
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt (1050.0 EBC) Grain 4.55 %
0.15 kg Black Malt (1300.0 EBC) Grain 2.73 %
35.00 gm Boadicea [5.66 %] (90 min) Hops 21.3 IBU
15.00 gm Crystal [4.90 %] (10 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
15.00 gm Amarillo [9.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
1.00 items Protofloc (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
3.86 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
5.00 gm Potassium Metabisulphite (Mash 1.0 min) Misc
6.71 gm Salt (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
30.00 L Porter Water
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 5.50 kg
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Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Mash In Add 14.33 L of water at 74.1 C 66.0 C
So with WT Calcs, Recipe and Crib sheet I'm ready to go.
Checked that I have got all the grains I need
And weighed them out, you can see the Dark Crystal malt on the right hand side of the bin.
HLT water at temp and then I poured 2 ltrs to warm the Mashtun before adding my Mash Liquor.
Took a reading of the temp prior to adding the grain bill, but a poor out of focus picture resulted. Trust me its around 74C so needs a stir to bring it down a little to my strike temp which is 72.7C
In with the grain
And check I have all my hops, Amarillo, Boadicea and Crystal. Simple as ABC
Weigh out my hops with my new Jewellers scales, wonder what else I can use them for
Check my PH, Now that its spot on with GW's great water treatment calculator...WooHOO
Seems the mash liquor was still a little too high temp wise as it was 0.5 degrees out once I had put in and stirred the grain.
should have waited a few minutes more.
Start my fly sparging using my new novel fly sparge diffusion plate. Its stainless steel and has a load of holes in it and should be use on a gas or electric cooker ring to defuse the heat on the saucepan. Looks fine for fly sparging I thought. Although a more permanent solution will have to be found using I guess a built in one under the cooler box lid or something. But its nice to watch the sparge and the grain bed really.
Time for a brew I guess with all this fly sparge watching, it makes one thirsty. Went for a trial seaweed ale that I purchased from the Beers of Europe store when I went and picked up my Beer crates.
The fly sparging is going OK though.
A quick shot of my Elderflower Champagne
which will include the labels stating that this Champagne does not come from France. Let the buggers try to tell me about copyright infringement 
Fly sparge complete and for the first time I did not run out of HTL water and all my quantities added up for the first time so my Mashtun is still full of liquor at a gravity of below 1.006 and my HLT has 2 Ltrs of unused water and my Boiler is at just under 32L ready for the 90 min boil as per the brew sheet. WooHoo
In for the boil
In with the hops
and ready after 75min to sterilise my Immersion chiller
The flavour and aroma hops have been added and I now ready to cool the wort down to pitching temp.
A quick check on the gravity of the wort tells me I have not had as much of a boil off as I expected and I have actually ended up with 26.5L at 1.040 instead of the 25L at 1.043. so I need to adjust my boil off percentages and tweak the figures. This is the first time I have been worried about the boil stages of a brew. I have previously been studying the HLT/mash equations and now that is sorted I can look at the boil stage in more detail to get my software efficiency calculations more in-line with my actual efficiencies. I seriously hoping that when I get a new sack of MO Pale malt that the different crush will throw all these calcs off again
A good brew day all round with a finish in a gentle 6 Hours with no issues or crisis to deal with and a nice frothy FV full of wort for the Yeast to munch on. Now how do I get my lid on that
I promise to post a picture of the final brew almost immediately as I am drinking this fine brew already. The first tastings was in my mind a little too sweet and the hop profiles have merged into the sweet malty and I was concerned that I had used too much Dark Crystal although the flavour profile was a porter I guess. But now that it has had tow to three weeks in the bottles the fizz is now there and a very nice head develops and the sweetness is now more subdued with a good bitter finish offsetting the sweetness and a good complexity of flavours is coming through now. This one is going to be my contribution at the next Cambridge tasting session at the Kingston arms. Although the majority of the boys prefer their light, dry hoppy beers they are currently messing around with I sure this will go down very well.
Cheers
, but here's a picture (A little out of focus) of the brew I have just finished drinking...Hic
