Home Brew Forum

Having the double glazing replaced today, so took the day off to do some garden tidying etc. and well you know how it goes

I was going to do a Boddingtons but all the recipes I can find use sugar..and I just cant bring myself to put sugar in a brew anymore...so I'm going to do a Black Sheep (if you'll pardon the expression)

I've brewed HHs Bitter (Black Sheep) before (My first AG in fact) and it came out very well. So this is my second lot (Third actually, I also did it with Fuggles...It wasn't as good...but OK) ..adjusted slightly to reduce the IBUs from about 40IBU to about 33.

20L Brew length.
3.40 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt
0.15 kg Wheat, Torrified
Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (60 min)
Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (15 min)
Goldings, East Kent [4.50 %] (0 min)
Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
Ringwood Ale yeast.
90 min Mash
60 min Boil.

Hopefully be finished for 9pm

I love Black Sheep.

All the ticker types slate it for some reason.

The BB, Special, Riggwelter. And the others that only seem to be bottled.
(In skinny glass-lite, boo )

Bugger...cocked up somewhere..Had to add 7 litres of boiling water to hit the strike temperature...Never had this problem before. Ended up with a very wet mash Is this likely to ruin it??

Plodding on anyway.

Might have to knock up a HERMS...to make up for my lack of good technique

Oh yes...This is going to be a Bramah....First failed to get the strike temp...Now a boil-over and one of the elements has failed...or maybe both...sockets drowned in wort

Had to add 7 litres of boiling water to hit the strike temperature...Never had this problem before. Ended up with a very wet mash Is this likely to ruin it??

Nah...it'll be fine
Hope all's going well

Oggy' Bar wrote:Oh yes...This is going to be a Bramah....First failed to get the strike temp...Now a boil-over and one of the elements has failed...or maybe both...sockets drowned in wort

Oh dear!

I'd forgotten how challenge-ridden AG could be - I have it all to look forward to again!

But I'll be loving it!

You'll win. Brewing equipment is inanimate, and the grain is dead by the time you heat it for that long. Just mind that rake...

Well its 10 o clock and finally I have put this brew to bed.

Final straw was the Ringwood yeast. It's never failed me before, I know it and love it...but it just sat there in the Demijohn and refused to stir...The bubbles in the airlock even went the other way...So I sprinkled some SO4 directly into the wort....5hit...forgot to measure the temperature...
23C that was lucky.

SG turned out at 1040 (10.2 brix) should have been 1043.

Guess what though...the wort was clear

I have got to ask......where are you getting the ringwood yeast from?

Bandit, afraid its not direct from the brewery. Its Wyeast Ringwood Ale yeast in the smack pack. I got the last lot from Leyland Home brew.

After the first time I used it I collected the yeast cake from the bottom of the fermenter, washed it with cooled boiled water, kept both the flocculent and settled fractions, disposed of the iffy stuff, then divided it into 8. (which I keep in the fridge, 3 left) They are about 3 months old now.

I then use these as starters. I usually leave them for 24-48 hours to start before pitching. In this case I intended using it about an hour or two after adding to some wort. Usually the yeast becomes active within the hour..or so I thought.

It hasn't let me down though..at 07:30 this morning it was fermenting like a goodun....just got to think of something to brew with it now.

I know they may well be reaching the end of their life and I know that Ringwood consists of several yeast strains and that I may no longer have the pure form...But It still smells good and it produces good ale and I just like the way it ferments Day 1-3 fast fermentation, Day 4 slows to a standstill, predictable attenuation and by day 10 fully settled and beer crystal clear....everytime..