Home Brew Forum

Mash underway...

4kg pale
0.5kg crushed maize
0.2kg crystal

66C

planning on using pacific gem to bitter and a load of styrians at the end.

crouch vale yeast will do the honours.

first time using protofloc (run out of whirlfloc)

so the hop rates:

20g x 60 mins Pacific gem 17.8% AA
50g x 10 mins styrians 4% AA

IBU 40 so BU:GU is to be 1:1

3 things concern me.
Will the strength of the PG hops lead to a harsh bitterness?
Is 50g of styrians enough?
is it half a protofloc for 5 gallons?

Its going to be a late one Gurgeh. Hope it goes well.

Gurgeh wrote:20g x 60 mins Pacific gem 17.8% AA
50g x 10 mins styrians 4% AA4

Will the strength of the PG hops lead to a harsh bitterness?
Is 50g of styrians enough?
is it half a protofloc for 5 gallons?

I use PG in delicate bohemian pilsners, not harsh in any way IMO, I'd love to try it as a single hopped pale . . . . . Now theres an idea

I'd be tempted to steep another 20g during cooling

If its the commercial protofloc the official dosing rate is 1-4g per hectalitre (100L) and a tablet is just around 2g so 1/2 a tablet in 25L is at the top end of the dosage rate . . . . I have used double the official rate with no problems

Cheers Aleman!

I might just have to bung that extra 20 g in at 80C - where's the sense in saving half the pack for later...?

The protoflocs are from Reaper, so I guess they will be the real deal and i'll use half. I read somewhere that too much and the break goes all fluffy so will be cautious!

Thanks for the confirmation about the PG hops. 17.8%AA - Cor Blimey!

Gurgeh wrote:Thanks for the confirmation about the PG hops. 17.8%AA - Cor Blimey!

Mine were 18.3 the biggest problem was weighing them out, it was a coupe of cones in a 25L batch . . . at least I don't have that problem now

Aleman wrote: Mine were 18.3 the biggest problem was weighing them out, it was a coupe of cones in a 25L batch . . . at least I don't have that problem now

one day...

I hope all goes well G

Well the boiler is half full of wort and i'm giving it both elements. will top right up in a little while and put my teaspoon of pacific gem in

Hope it's a good one!

Sounds like a really tasty brew - not read about pg hops before so very interested to hear how they taste.

Hope it's all gone well G

well i'm down to about 24-23L, <30C.

Couldn't resist chucking in some other hops as well in the end - just because the styrians were pellets and i wanted to have a hop bed. so some gold block fuggles went in the bag with the styrians and some progress was let loose in the wort.

a handful of styrians went in at 80c and steeped there for five mins.

i did something a bit daft. nothing to worry about though. I realised that my half protofloc was in the hop bag so worried that it might not work properly and chucked the other half straight in. probably be fine.

IC is off and i'm just letting things settle before draining to FV, pitching and recirculating for aeration.

My fresh batch of CV yeast courtesy of an excellent brewer on here is champing at the bit and in 10 minutes it'll get it's new home.

This is going to be a great pint

thanks for kind wishes gents!

Ha - even managed to keep the missus happy while the boil was going well it is Friday

Gurgeh wrote:
Ha - even managed to keep the missus happy while the boil was going well it is Friday

Hope it went well. The brew, I mean

One of the elements did go pop during the boil - l was looking directly at the gaffer taped mess on the outside of the boiler at the time and there was a bright yellow flash and a bang and the lights went out!

So i'll be getting myself a proper one and not cannibalising another kettle

23L @ 1.043 so all is well and the 2nd element failing didn't stop me getting down to the right brew length