AG#3 - Fuggles Bitter, H.Hillbilly's House Bitter Grain bill

[WishboneBrewery]

AG#3 - Fuggles Bitter, H.Hillbilly's House Bitter Grain bill
Thanks to Horden Hillbilly for answering my PM questions, I've used his grain bill for this recipe and just replaced the Hops with Fuggles

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Fermentable	Colour	lb: oz	Grams	Ratio
Maris Otter	4.25 EBC	4 lbs. 9.2 oz	2080 grams	90%
Crystal Malt	120 EBC	0 lbs. 4.9 oz	135 grams	6%
Torrefied Wheat	4 EBC	0 lbs. 3.3 oz	93 grams	4%

Hop Variety	Type	Alpha	Time	lb: oz	grams	Ratio
Fuggle	Whole	4.9 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 1.0 oz	28 grams	65.9%  ((FWH))
Fuggle	Whole	4.9 %	15 mins	0 lbs. 0.4 oz	10 grams	24.4%
Fuggle	Whole	4.9 %	0 mins	0 lbs. 0.1 oz	4 grams	9.8%
Protafloc Tablet	Pellet	0 %	0 mins	0 lbs. 0.0 oz	0 grams	0%

Final Volume:	12	Litres
Original Gravity:	1.043	
Final Gravity:	1.010	
Alcohol Content:	4.3%	ABV
Total Liquor:	18.5	Litres
Mash Liquor:	5.8	Litres
Mash Efficiency:	75	%
Bitterness:	33	EBU
Colour:	16	EBC

Water Treated to the 'Bitter' profile on the GW calc.

Mash on!
Water Treatment for Keighley Area to the 'Bitter' profile.

The Grains. (I Just sneaked in a little oddment of Crystal Wheat malt)

Mash temp at start.

Mash pH. (Is this a little on the low side? I think its about pH5.7, shouldn't it be more like pH5.2????)

Hops Weighed out, Half a Protafloc Tab in with the 15minute addition.


Sparge!
Mash finished.

FWH in with first batch or wort warming up.

Recycling at second batch sparge, trying not to disturb the grain bed. Had some sticking issues which I think are down to the flexibility of the plastic false bottom something I need to address before the next brewday.

Mash fun! I poked it with the paddle handle which seemed to keep it going.

Boiling.


Boil and Cool!
Last 15 mins and the Cooler going in to Sanitize.

Cold break.

I scooped up a little from the boiler, looks pretty clear once the cold break settles.

Sanitised sieve to catch the occasional hop seed and give the wort a good aerate.

Boiler to FV setup, the long restricted (down to 8mm bore) copper pipe makes for an excellent syphon effect.

Trub left overs.

I was a few points short of my OG, seems I hit about 1036/38 ish @ 22 Deg C, Pitched Safale s-04 dry sprinkled.


I'm pretty sure my excess volume was me overestimating a little while sparging as the last was boiled with the cooler in for the full 90 mins, this time I only had a 60 min boil and put the cooler in for the last 15 mins. I think leaving the IC in for the full boil actually makes for more boil off, hence the overcompensation!
All in all not a bad day, started at 7.40am and finished about 2pm with just a little clearing up left to do.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

That sounds very yummy

[WishboneBrewery]

yep, fingers crossed, and its a nice simple recipe too

[WishboneBrewery]

I'll Just add this:

Good Yeast head this morning, this was getting going well last night less than 8 hours after dry pitching the yeast.

[Cheshire-cheese]

Looking good

[WishboneBrewery]

Just giving this its 'Week in the bottle' taster... and its carbonated!! Yeahhh!!! and Tastes pretty damn smooth, maybe just a little of the sweetness from priming left still to go.
But surprisingly good to say its only 1 week old

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Sound's like you've got a good un there

I still rate beer according to it's glugability. I've just demolished a pint of my OSH clone in about 5 sips without even trying

[WishboneBrewery]

Give it another couple of weeks and I'll give it a better test

First impressions are that it could stand a bit bigger late hopping.... one for next time

[Dr. Dextrin]

I notice you're using one of those aquarium thermometers for the mash. Have you found they continue to work OK if you leave them in for the mash duration? I know people say that some digital thermometers will fail if left in hot liquids, but being designed for an aquarium I'd have thought these might cope. On the other hand, not many fish live in water at 66C do they?

I'd be interested in your experience.

[WishboneBrewery]

The thermometer did 3 Mashes, worked perfectly, but on the 4th mash it never even turned on... maybe the battery or maybe just cheep crap from hongkong!?

[Dr. Dextrin]

The thermometer did 3 Mashes, worked perfectly, but on the 4th mash it never even turned on... maybe the battery or maybe just cheep crap from hongkong!?

Yes, usually cheap Chinese electronics come with almost-flat batteries and a frighteningly high failure rate. Hope you didn't pay too much for it!

[WishboneBrewery]

Yes, usually cheap Chinese electronics come with almost-flat batteries and a frighteningly high failure rate. Hope you didn't pay too much for it!

$3.29 from dealextreme.com Cheap enough to break!

[mysterio]

Looks like a good brew, I agree with the late hopping, I frequently use 20 times that amount

[WishboneBrewery]

So you wack in 80g @ 0mins? or the last 15?

[mysterio]

Whacked in 120g of Cascades at 0 mins for a 10 gallon batch of my last beer. With a few batches of experimentation you'll find the amount that is right for you.

Easier way is to dry hop if you like a hoppy aroma!