No Place Like Home Bitter Mk.2

[simple one]

After several stressfull events.... Moved house, ran out of my pale ale, ran out of my bitter, running low on mild.... I thought I would take advantage of an early start last Saturday and the missus being away to get a brew on.

No Place Like Home Mk.2
MALT
Pale Malt 5 EBC - 6500 grams 92.1%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC - 560 grams 7.9%

HOPS
Brewers Gold Whole - 90 mins - 20 grams 31.7%
Golding Whole - 90 mins - 15 grams 17.2%
Golding Whole - 10 mins - 85 grams 33.1%
Brewers Gold Whole - 10 mins - 35 grams 18.1%
Styrian Goldings Whole - dry hopped - 30 grams 0%

Final Volume: 35 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 50.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 17.7 Litres
Bitterness: 29 EBU
Colour: 23 EBC
Expected Eff: 77%

YEAST - SO4 2 sachets

I had a few dramas on this one.

1. Unusual leak from bottom of mash tun - noticed at 90 mins. Gutted, couldn't work out how it happened. Thought I had lost loads of sugars. Happily I hadn't, it must have just been splashes (i did start at 0530).
2. Sparge filter fell off! Had to spoon the entire contents back and forward twice to carry out a sparge. Didn't achieve a high temp fly sparge due to low grain temp, sort of ran around mash temps.
3. Forgot to treat the sparge water! Added a teaspoon of gypsum and 10ml of CRS to the mash water and a sprinkle of gypsum and calcium chloride to the boil. (I had really started to give up with this brew at this point)
4. Big boil over - at 45 mins in! Hops and sweet wort all over the place. Chucked in a "pinch" of the flavour hops to make up for lost hops. (I just started thinking what next?)

So I was shocked when I ended up with 33L at 1.053, so total eff is up at 83%!

Should have done my prep the night before, may have avoided the majority of errors. But it was a last minute decision to get it on.

I've stuck 19L and 14L in to two 25L fermenters. The 19 is destined for the corny... the rest for bottles. Both will be dry hopped in primaries with some stryians. Thinking a gramme per litre.

Yum.

[WishboneBrewery]

The Night before prep is the way to go, weigh out all your grains and get your Water treatments ready.
I printed out a basic timetable and it work out pretty well

[simple one]

Yes totally agree. Used to do it too, and would have this time. This was one of those last minute brewdays though so planning was out. And I was lucky it didn't spiral in to disaster.

Smells good through the airlocks.

[simple one]

Stryians now dry hopping in primary. Tastes great already!

[simple one]

FV1 now kegged in corny. Dropped to 1012/1011, which gives this a ABV of 5.4%.

Had a half pint of it. It tastes lovely. Like a caramelly hit of EKG, Stryians and the soft taste of oranges too! I'll leave this now for a couple of weeks just to condition a tad more.

The only thing is though I have picked up a haze.... Now this could be one of four things, due to some rather slack procedures.

1. Lack of CRS in sparge water. Had problem before with my untreated water.
2. Introduction of the dry hops? I have heard it can throw a haze.
3. Introduction of oxygen when dealing with the dry hops.
4. Yeast in solution. Doubtful as its SO4, and I left a sample to stand.

Ho hum, never mind. Just one of those things, two steps forward and all that! The main thing is it tastes good, and the haze isn't extreme.

If FV2 (destined for bottles) has a haze to, then it is definitely 1 or 2, as I was more careful with that one.

[simple one]

Its all bottled and kegged up.

Both have a slight haze.... Its the lack of CRS. It hasn't affected the beer to much, unless a side effect is that it makes the beer stink of stryians and tastes like goldings soup.

Hopefully some of that hop taste and aroma will drop out on maturing.

[simple one]

Haze has dropped out on the bottled version, so that means the keg version is either oxidised or still a bit of yeast/particles in suspension.

I am not happy with this recipe, to much sweet orange going on, in both keg (to a lesser extent) and bottle. As I said in the last post, hopefully some can drop out in time.

I think I have made the mistake of only thinking that only biterness really needs to be balanced with OG. But paid lip service to how much flavour late additions would give.... and potentially rob from the beer.

Drinkable, wouldn't complain if served at a pub, but a lesson learned in late hopping.

[mysterio]

Mmmm Goldings soup! I have to say I like the sound of that recipe despite your complaints!

Flavour and aroma definately drop away with time so maybe in a few weeks it will be at a more acceptable level.

[simple one]

Cheers misty... I was shocked to see your picture on here. Your young! I wanted flat cap and dog, as per the avatar. Its odd how you picture people on here just by posts.

Anyhow, the keg version is actually growing on me after a half. Its certianly a different animal to the bottle. The quest for the perfect best bitter continues!

[mysterio]

Yes, i'm the baby of the forum at a tender 24

I don't know if you noticed the Smiths t-shirt in the second photo, it's the single cover to 'Shoplifters of the World Unite'

Check out that hip movement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRbp0ZIehk0

[simple one]

Did I notice the T-Shirt? Yep. I am a bit of a smiths/morrissey nutter.
So, you like the smiths/morrissey and your knowledge of HBing is top notch.... do people say your old before your time?

[mysterio]

Yes, the penchant for 'old man' pubs doesn't help either.

Also i've started buying cheap £10 M&S jeans and own a North Face jacket & fleece, I even play squash sometimes

Before long i'll probably be scanning exchange & mart for a Ford Capri, maybe I should try and regain some youthfulness while i've still got it

[simple one]

Jeez, youve just described most of the forum!

Nah don't change, our way of living is much more fun. Why join the rat race at crap pubs, blokes scrappng, with crap booze, spouting anything but heaven forbid, intelligent conversation.

[WishboneBrewery]

If you wanna go halves on that Capri?? Or would you fancy and Opel Manta?

though +1 for intelligent conversation and no fighting

[simple one]

One of my mates just bought a capri... 1600... stripped out... bucket seats. Its a death trap. Pop the bonnet up, its amazing how small the components and engines where!