Ordinary Bitter with Wyeast 1335

[coatesg]

I got this one on earlier in the week and never posted up so here goes:

Maris Otter 3.2kg
Crystal 102g
Light Crystal (60EBC) 102g
Amber 85g

Mashed at 67-68C for 75min.

EKG 27g 4.6% 90min
WGV 14g 8% 90min
EKG 14g 4.6% ~15min
EKG 14g 0min

Landed with 21L at 1034 or so. Tinseth gives 31IBU I think.

Pitched Wyeast 1335 from a 1.5l starter and it took off really well forming a foamy 4 inch head in under a day - first time using this yeast and fairly impressed so far. It looked to flocculate well in the starter too. I kept 3 vials of yeast to grow up again to try more with this yeast .

Brew day itself was fairly uneventful, but I still need to sort a better way of keeping the break out of the fermenter as with the IC I seem to get worse filtering by the hops when running out of the kettle (maybe the IC is keeping the hops away from the hop filter preventing them acting as a filter - otherwise, maybe stirring the wort is preventing coagulation of the break after the boil. Something I need to work on anyhow).

Currently it's sitting in my house wrapped up with a thick yeasty head covering the surface of the brew. Hopefully not too long and it'll be all done and dusted.

[simple one]

I get good results by removing the IC and giving it a stir and then leaving for another 10 mins. Then I crank the tap on the lowest setting. This seems to help cement the hops bed to the filter and it comes through clear after the first few drops.

[WishboneBrewery]

does that amount of amber add much to the flavour or is it mainly for colour?

[coatesg]

I get good results by removing the IC and giving it a stir and then leaving for another 10 mins. Then I crank the tap on the lowest setting. This seems to help cement the hops bed to the filter and it comes through clear after the first few drops.

Cheers, that was one of the things I'm gonna try in my next brew - I've been leaving the IC in the boiler up to now which I guess prevents the hops from falling to the strainer properly. I'll give it a go

does that amount of amber add much to the flavour or is it mainly for colour?

Not sure - I'll let you know when it's done! I had a bit floating around which I needed to use up so chucked it in! At ~2.5% of the grist, not sure what kind and how much flavour it will impart, but it must add something (however subtle a biscuity, toasty flavour ) over just the colour - from a quick look, there are a fair few other recipes on the board with ~100g amber in them too. For colour alone, I'd use black/roast barley.

[coatesg]

Dammit. Looks like this one could be heading for the drain. Has an unpleasant acetone taste, so I think I stuffed up the fermentation temps on this one, though I'l give it another week or two before I decide to ditch it or not. Bum.