Today, I'm brewing the following recipe:
2.5Kg Maris Otter
2.5Kg Lager Malt
500g Munich Malt
150g Torrefied Wheat
20g First Gold 90 mins
20g Northdown 90 mins
15g First Gold 15 mins
15g Northdown 15 mins
15g First Gold 1 min
15g Northdown 1 min
(I decided on Northdown rather than Perle in the end)
Nottingham dry yeast
Protafloc
Tad of Sodium Met in the strike water
23 litres
Target OG 1.054
Target FG 1.014
Bitterness 51.06 IBU
Right now, I'm waiting for the first runnings to fill my buckets. All smells good so far....although the sparge is running slower than normal. Here's hoping it doesn't stick!
I'll post some pics when I'm done with the sparging and it's in the boiler.
AG#4 Crossbreed
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adm
Cheers!
Right now the first runnings are going painfully slowly.....just a trickle, but I don't want to shake it all up yet. It's only got another 2 litres or so left, so I'll just sit tight and then give it all a good stir round with the batch sparge addition.
Here's my modified hop strainer
And here's the grain bill and hops weighed out earlier and ready to go
Dough In
Mash at temp. It dropped a bit at 1 hour, so I topped up with some hot water
Topped up and ready to run off....
First runnings.....lovely
Come on you bugger. An old man with prostate trouble can pee faster than that....
Oh well. I'll have a sandwich while I wait....
Right now the first runnings are going painfully slowly.....just a trickle, but I don't want to shake it all up yet. It's only got another 2 litres or so left, so I'll just sit tight and then give it all a good stir round with the batch sparge addition.
Here's my modified hop strainer
And here's the grain bill and hops weighed out earlier and ready to go
Dough In
Mash at temp. It dropped a bit at 1 hour, so I topped up with some hot water
Topped up and ready to run off....
First runnings.....lovely
Come on you bugger. An old man with prostate trouble can pee faster than that....
Oh well. I'll have a sandwich while I wait....
-
adm
Thanks Ian,
It all went well. The sparge water and a good stir (I batch sparged) got it flowing better, then everything else went off without a hitch.
I hit the exact target of 1.054 OG, so that's looking good. Colour, smell and taste are all good as well.
She's in the bag!
Some more pics below:
This is the gloopy looking grain bed after sparging
Coming nicely to the boil
Chiller ready
Chiller fittings now modified. Had a bit of a problem with this spraying water into the wort when I cranked up the flow, but a quick tighten up of the jubilee clips sorted it right out.
Cooling down nicely.....a bit of a stir every so often to help it along....
Draining nicely into the FV
Looking good. Splash aeration - aided with a good stir.
And finally, nice colour in the sample for what I was after, 1.054 on the hydrometer. All looks sweet....it's time to.....
Relax, don't worry and have a homebrew!
[/img]
It all went well. The sparge water and a good stir (I batch sparged) got it flowing better, then everything else went off without a hitch.
I hit the exact target of 1.054 OG, so that's looking good. Colour, smell and taste are all good as well.
She's in the bag!
Some more pics below:
This is the gloopy looking grain bed after sparging
Coming nicely to the boil
Chiller ready
Chiller fittings now modified. Had a bit of a problem with this spraying water into the wort when I cranked up the flow, but a quick tighten up of the jubilee clips sorted it right out.
Cooling down nicely.....a bit of a stir every so often to help it along....
Draining nicely into the FV
Looking good. Splash aeration - aided with a good stir.
And finally, nice colour in the sample for what I was after, 1.054 on the hydrometer. All looks sweet....it's time to.....
Relax, don't worry and have a homebrew!
[/img]
-
adm
Running the efficiency numbers, I get 83% which seems pretty good to me.
(To be honest, I don't know if I should be chasing efficiency or not - although I presume it's better to convert most of the grain bill if at all possible!)
2.5Kg MO @ 300
2.5Kg Lager @ 300
0.5Kg Munich @ 300
(haven't counted anything for the Torrefied Wheat - is that right or wrong?)
23 litres
Total Potential = 65.2
OG = 1.054
54/65.2 = 0.828 = c.83%
(To be honest, I don't know if I should be chasing efficiency or not - although I presume it's better to convert most of the grain bill if at all possible!)
2.5Kg MO @ 300
2.5Kg Lager @ 300
0.5Kg Munich @ 300
(haven't counted anything for the Torrefied Wheat - is that right or wrong?)
23 litres
Total Potential = 65.2
OG = 1.054
54/65.2 = 0.828 = c.83%
-
adm
-
Grahame
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SiHoltye
-
adm
Quick update on this:
Just moved the secondary onto a high workbench to settle before I keg it tomorrow. Took a little hydro sample and it's down at 1010 from 1054 (1012 when I racked it to secondary) clear as a bell and it tastes......just fantastic. It's clean, but complex if that makes sense. Very smooth with a nice dry finish and far less sharply bitter at this stage than I would have thought for the 51 IBUs - especially as both the Northdown and First Gold are fairly high AA% hops.
This is the first beer I brewed with Nottingham yeast, and it was meant to be somewhere between a pale ale and a strong lager in taste - which it seems to be.
Tomorrow, I'll lock it away in a corny for the next three weeks, but I'm really looking forward to drinking large quantities of this when I get back from my hols. Hopefully it will still be summer by then, as I think this beer might end up being a summer favourite. I might try it again with a dry hop addition of cascade or something citrusy.
Just moved the secondary onto a high workbench to settle before I keg it tomorrow. Took a little hydro sample and it's down at 1010 from 1054 (1012 when I racked it to secondary) clear as a bell and it tastes......just fantastic. It's clean, but complex if that makes sense. Very smooth with a nice dry finish and far less sharply bitter at this stage than I would have thought for the 51 IBUs - especially as both the Northdown and First Gold are fairly high AA% hops.
This is the first beer I brewed with Nottingham yeast, and it was meant to be somewhere between a pale ale and a strong lager in taste - which it seems to be.
Tomorrow, I'll lock it away in a corny for the next three weeks, but I'm really looking forward to drinking large quantities of this when I get back from my hols. Hopefully it will still be summer by then, as I think this beer might end up being a summer favourite. I might try it again with a dry hop addition of cascade or something citrusy.