AG#15 - Harvest Bitter (Pic Heavy)

[Monkeybrew]

I brewed this on Saturday evening 26.09.15, but just haven't had much time to write things up this week.

Now I use the word 'Harvest' quite loosely, because my Cascade plant didn't yield many grams of cones, but as I wasn't really expecting anything this year, I was happy to end up with a whopping 13g once the hops were dry.

The intial hop aroma of the Cascade, when held in your had, was a faint onion smell, but once a cone was squashed and rubbed a bit, there was a definite citrus thing going on

I'm thinking that First Gold and Cascade should make a nice little hop combination, and even if my homegrown hops don't offer much to this brew, then the malt, First Gold and the yeast will still make for a decent Ordinary Bitter.






Harvest Bitter
Standard/Ordinary Bitter


Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 25.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.194
Total Hops (g): 63.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.038
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 3.75 %
Colour (SRM): 7.4 (EBC): 14.5
Bitterness (IBU): 30.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 71
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.900 kg Maris Otter Malt 5.0 EBC (93%)
0.210 kg Crystal 80 150 EBC (5%)
0.084 kg Amber Malt 100 EBC (2%)

Hop Bill
----------------
25.0 g First Gold Leaf (8.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
25.0 g First Gold Leaf (8.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
13.0 g UK Cascade Leaf (?% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (0.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
0.8 g Calcium Chloride (Mash)
4.25 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash)
4.25 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
Half a Protofloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with WLP002 - English Ale

Notes
----------------
Water Treatment Profile - Graham Wheelers 'Bitter'
Starting Alkalinity - 125ppm
Treated Alkalinity - 22.5ppm
CRS - 0.52ml/L
Mash pH - 5.34

Recipe Generated with BrewMate


Goods points from the brewday -

* Used my own hops in a brew
* Happy with mash pH
* Hit my intended mash temp
* Finally used my Solar pump after owning it for about 1 year!
* Hit my intended OG
* Chilled the brew slighty quicker as a result of some hot wort recirculation
* Initial clarity of the wort into FV was improved
* Rapid start to fermentation
* Happy with FG if it stays at 1.010


Bad points from the brewday -

* Hop stopper soon got blocked with leaf hops (pump?)
* Spent ages faffing around whilst trying to bleed air from pump
* Ended up having to pour the chilled wort into the FV
* Lots of trub ended up in the FV
* Didn't get cleaned up and finished until 1am
* Ended up with 24L instead of 25L in the FV due to blockage issues



























I checked the gravity on day 8 and as you can see, it was down to 1.010 and the clarity and colour are both pleasing.

Aiming to rack on day 15 and then chill to 8C for a few days, also going save the yeast for AG#16 - Jim's Epic ESB.

Cheers

[seymour]

Looks fantastic, how does it taste? Nice big green hop essence? Looks like you actually got about OG 1040, maybe a bit more with temperature correction. If so, even higher than expected, right? Cheers!

[Bunglebrewsbeer]

May I ask. What are you doing with the pump and the big blue bucket thing?

[Monkeybrew]

Looks fantastic, how does it taste? Nice big green hop essence? Looks like you actually got about OG 1040, maybe a bit more with temperature correction. If so, even higher than expected, right? Cheers!

I always think that my gravity pictures look different to how they look in reality, but apparently the camera never lies..........

In answer to your taste question, this bitter is all about the yeast and malt, with just a slight hoppy taste.

On reflection, probably not the best recipe for my own hops to stand out in, but they are all adding to a very tasty Bitter.

I racked off into a clean FV on day 16 in the end, and drank the gravity sample again, and it tastes ready to drink IMO! The aroma is quite estery and malty with just a background hoppiness.

I collected most of the yeast slurry (approx 750ml by the looks of things), and plan to use this in my next brew which is Jim's ESB, but I will ferment slightly cooler at 18-19C.



Cheers

MB

[Monkeybrew]

I had a bit of a wobble with this brew last weekend, as a few of the bottles looked to have a white film developing in the neck of the bottle. I panicked and thought the worst, so didn't want to risk using the yeast slurry for Jim's ESB. I also cracked open one of the bottles, expecting to smell vinegar, but thankfully it smelt and tasted fine.

I tried another bottle last night at 2 weeks old, and still no Sarsons



It isn't exactly full of flavour, but does have good mouthfeel and is very easy to drink, so fit's the bill for an ordinary bitter.

It would be interesting to brew a near identical brew again in the future, but with a different yeast to see if more malt and hops come through in the taste.

Cheers

MB