Effin Summer Ale - 15 Jun 2008

[Aleman]

No, there was a moment of concern last night when I couldn't find one of the hopstoppers but that resolved itself when I got the fermenter out Now what I did wrong was after cooling one of the Kettles, I moved onto the second , but left the feed to the first kettle open . . . . Yeah It filled up and p*ssed wort every where . . . I have got to simplify things at that end thats the second time its happened, and having got the wort down to 25C its now back up at 35 Oh well soon have it in the fermenter, and will dilute back to gravity (its 10 Plato and I want 8.35) so I should still end up with the vol at gravity I want in the FV This time its fingers crossed though . . .Wort tastes a bit bitter though

[Aleman]

Is it for this or next summer ?

Hopefully drinking it in two weeks . . . Although there is a lot of hops given the short duration of the boil the bitterness should be fairly low (Aiming for ~75% of the gravity)

Ended up with 79.5L at 1.035 following diultion which means that even with batch sparging and various wort losses I exceeded my estimated 75% efficiency by quite a bit

Nice looking wort though

[Aleman]

Looks almost good enough to drink

Who and when will it be judged whether you've met the challenge ?

I think it's the July meeting . . . . I might also put some into Sutton this year.

We basically divide into 6 groups and each group gets one bottle of each beer (anonymous of course) we then score it according to the NGWABJ sheets . . . it helps that we have a couple of qualified judges as members.

Of course samples may be posted to JBK members as well

[mysterio]

Good colour, for some reason I was expecting a darkish amber beer with the choco malt in it.

[Aleman]

Good colour, for some reason I was expecting a darkish amber beer with the choco malt in it.

125g of Chocolate malt in 11Kg of pale doesn't add that much colour . . . especially in 71L

[brewzone]

Looks delicious Aleman!

I'm thinking of diluting some of My IRS to make a Dark Mild I can drink in around two weeks.

I used Bobek as finishing hops Myself. I tasted the fermenting beer today and although a bit green it promises to be a very nice brew.

/BZ

[Aleman]

Good fermentation is underway, and it now smells like beer . . . rather than hops Was fun to watch the beer in the sight glass turn cloudy yesterday as the yeast took hold, currently fermenting at 22C, but will turn it down a notch to 20C tonight.

Yest was Nottingham, as I don't want a big contribution from the yeast, and want it to attenuate well . . . although I mashed warm at 68C, so I should end up with a crisp beer with a bit of body, and a real hop flavour wallop

[stevezx7r]

Drinking it in two weeks, I thought I was impatient in drinking mine after 24 days

[Aleman]

Drinking it in two weeks, I thought I was impatient in drinking mine after 24 days

Its going in the keg(s) a week on Saturday . . . I will probably not drink it for a while after that, but consider that it is a 'running beer' at 1.035 its not going to take a long time to come into its best

Plus I'm running short on beer

9L will go into my mini corny along with some priming sugar (probably LME) and get bottled (I'll need 12, 6 for NCBA, and 6 For Sutton, the rest . . . who knows )

Plus the benefit of having 79L means that once I've finished the first keg the rest have come into condition

[ashbyp]

that's an "Effin" lot of beer there!

[Aleman]

Well less than 4 days since pitching and the gravity is stable at 4.9 Brix which should be somewhere in the region of ~1.010 (for 3.5% abv) about where I was aiming. Head has cleared from the surface of the brew, and looking at the sight glass it is certainly clearing from the top so I would say fermentation is over. . . . Time to start cranking the temperature lower now, probably drop it to 10C, for a period and then down to 5C (Hopefully).

[Aleman]

Clearing quite Nicely I think . . . Not sure this is going to go the full 14 Days before kegging/bottling now



Smelling good though

[Aleman]

I transferred my beer to corny today . . . Filled the Baby 9, which has had 45g priming sugar in 200ml of water added to it. . . . Filled nicely, Got the first of 4 grown up corni and start filling that, move the second into place and hear something sloshing about . . . Oh yeah I left a couple of litres of peracetic in the big ones to keep them sweet after cleaning them . . . . . SHIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! forgot to drain them from the cask I'm just filling . . . 1/3 of a keg down the drain end up with 3 full corny casks (did ya see what I did there ) a baby corny that I'm going to bottle from, and about 4L in the 4th corny cask

Its going to be better when fully clear and carbonated . . . but its a nice pint. . . Golden colour . . . but not lager like, Nice aroma . . not massive, but a bit of dry hopping will sort that, Nice hop flavour, and a lingering bitterness to finish . . .and moreish . . . Glad its a session beer Off to bottle now