Home Brew Forum

After my first brew last week went a little wrong I was more determined to get this one right so no pictures today.

HLT on at 9 am, I know late start but I was feeling lazy this morning. took 45 minutes to get to 75°c. Preheated mash tun then added 16lt water.

Mashing started at 10 AM, remembered to top up first batch this time with 6.4Lt @80°c before collecting first batch. Collected 16.2l on first batch.

Added 17lt @80°c to mash tun and stirred, left for 5 minutes.

33lt in boiler for 60 minutes with 60g Northdown hops. Boiling away now.

Also managed to bottle my Bitter and Twisted in between times. Made a label for the bitter and twisted based on the original.

Great label MM. Hope the brews going well

Well I was expecting 23lt at 1.048 but wound up with 25lt at 1.045. I reduced my burner right down until I just had a rolling boil so I wound up not boiling off as much as I expected but my efficiency if I am not mistaken is just over 76% which is much better than my previous attempt.

One worrying thing though is the wort was much darker than I expected and within about 20 minutes of it going into the FV there is a 2 inch layer of what I can only assume is break material at the bottom.

Woke up this morning to a huge head and the airlock bubbling away. I think this time I am going to skim as the last brew had so much trub I must have lost a litre of beer to it. I dont know if skimming will make a difference to this but I'll make up my mind after having tried both leaving it alone and skimming.

MightyMouth wrote: One worrying thing though is the wort was much darker than I expected and within about 20 minutes of it going into the FV there is a 2 inch layer of what I can only assume is break material at the bottom.

Why is the colour a worry, MightyMouth? Has it not been coloured by the grain mix or is it an all pale malt recipe?

Has the sediment been thrown after cooling or was cooling taking place in the FV?

BarrowBoy wrote:
Why is the colour a worry, MightyMouth? Has it not been coloured by the grain mix or is it an all pale malt recipe?

Has the sediment been thrown after cooling or was cooling taking place in the FV?

The color was much darker than I expected. It is supposed to be golden color ale. It uses 5.5kg Maris Otter and 150g Crystal malt, though I cannot be sure how dark the Crystal was it looked more like the color of a nut brown ale.

I don't know what you mean about the sediment being thrown after cooling. I used an IC to cool in the boiler down to 22°c.

MightyMouth wrote:

BarrowBoy wrote:
Why is the colour a worry, MightyMouth? Has it not been coloured by the grain mix or is it an all pale malt recipe?

Has the sediment been thrown after cooling or was cooling taking place in the FV?

I don't know what you mean about the sediment being thrown after cooling. I used an IC to cool in the boiler down to 22°c.

In which case most of the break material should have been left behind in the boiler rather than dropping as a thick sediment in your FV. Curious and I ain't sufficiently accomplished to come up with any other answers

The crystal will obviously have darkened it more than an all MO brew but I bet it'll ultimately look quite golden in the glass.

Regarding break material in the FV, I was left with quite a lot in my last brew too despite cooling well and leaving a lot behind in the boiler. I think a longer settling period to allow a denser filter bed of hops may have helped to be honest. But as you can see from the pictures below it's looking pretty healthy in secondary. I skimmed after a few days when most of the trub was at the top using a slotted spoon, and the rest was left behind in the FV after siphoning. Of course a lot of people just don't worry about skimming at all and still get nice clean beer in the secondary or keg, but I have found with very limited experience it 'uncaps' the ferment.

With break in FV1 - dark and full of matter:


All gone in FV2 - bright and clean:

Thanks FT, Only thing I can do is wait and see, I have decided against skimming this time. Its bubbling away like mad right now so I think leaving it is the best idea.

Yeah! Either way it'll be just fine I'm sure.

Sounds good. Let us know how it works out as when I've made porters using part Northdown I've always thought it should make a good single-hop brew

spearmint-wino wrote:Sounds good. Let us know how it works out as when I've made porters using part Northdown I've always thought it should make a good single-hop brew

I am sure it would make a good single hop brew, sadly this isn't one of those times as the northdown wonder recipe uses styrian golding/bobek hops at 1 minute

5.5kg Maris Otter
150g Crystal malt
60g Northdown 90 min boil
50g Styrian Golding 1 min boil

Ah, looked at the recipe in the first post and only saw the northdown mentioned

Still sounds like a good'un though! Can't beat Styrians as late hops

Yea, i guess i really should have put the full recipe in the first post.

Thats looks like a nice recipe MM, those Northdown are a real nice clean tasting hop and 50g of steeped styrians will come through well.

Glad it's gone well