Home Brew Forum

Threw together this recipe, for a light coloured ale with a simple hop profile:

21L. OG 1048

4.25kg MO Pale Malt
45g Styrian Goldings (3.1% AAU) - 60 min
25g Styrian Goldings (3.1% AAU) - 10 min
Irish Moss
15g Styrian Goldings (3.1% AAU) - Dry hop in cask (not sure I can do this as I only have pellets???)

Safale S04 yeast

Mash at 67C for 60 min.
Batch sparge.

The day was a bit of a disaster! Missed my target mash temp due to not taking into account the lower temp of the grains. 66C dropped to 63C! I think I need to take a close look at my mash tun - probably need to insulate the lid, or even re-insulate the whole tun with expanding foam.

I then got a stuck mash. I had to transfer the mash to my fermenting vessel with a grain bag as a lauter tun. The sparge was on the whole a bit of a cock up. Everything else went ok. My new CFC worked well, and I produced a yeast starter which was going like a good-un when I pitched.

Sorry no pics. I was in too much of a mood to capture the day's events plus my other beer ran out so I'm now dry

Since I moved my brewery to the garage, I've noticed that my mash tun is not holding the temperature - during these cold months anyway. I pre-heat and wrap it in a sleeping bag, but I am still getting losses of the order of 3 to 6C. Oh well, one of the disadvantages of brewing in the frozen north!

I like your style DaaB Your brewdays must be relaxed - mine are always stress-fests! Does it make much difference mashing for 3+ hrs then?

Do you have elements in your tun? I presume you switch these off prior to adding the grist.

Glad it turned out OK eventually

Just transferred this one to the secondary after four days in the primary. Gravity at 1.011 - damn that Safale S04 yeast is fast! I usually use Gervin Ale yeast and I've never had a beer ferment down to that gravity before, and so quickly. Tastes pretty good, so there's proof that a disasterous brewday can yield good beer.

The yeast was three months out of date.

I won't be naturally carbonating - I have discovered the joys of forced carbonation in cornie kegs! Much easier, which I like.

Just racked this to the keg, and the sneaky taster made me a very happy man!

BlightyBrewer wrote:Just racked this to the keg, and the sneaky taster made me a very happy man!

Out of the pain, now you get the gain

Yep, that was me just after racking, clutching the sneaky taster...the wife couldn't work out why I donned a tie and blazer for the occasion though. I told her it was between me and the beer!

I've just been messing about (instead of working ) and have come up with this pump clip design for this ale. All I need now is a pump to clip it to!

That looks great

I'm drinking this ale now (with a vengence!). I'm a little disappointed that it turned out to be not very clear, which prompts me to post this.

I racked this ale to secondary for one week prior to transferring to the corny (I used Safale S-04 yeast for this ale). Shortly after I brewed up the Crouch Vale Best Bitter recipe from Mark Ollossons book (I used Nottingham yeast for this ale), and I left it in the primary for 10 days, moving the primary to a cold location 2 days prior to transferring to the corny (this is as per DaaB's "no hassle" fermenting method ). Result is that the CV Best is crystal clear, and it tastes superb!