Home Brew Forum

Its a two Batch day, I'm doing 12 litres a piece and actually taking my time over it. I decided to Mash then Sparge and collect, then Mash then Sparge and collect followed by 2 boils.

AG#13 - Bloody Nelson

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 2090g
Wheat Malt 260g
German Cara Red 260g

Hops:
Nelson Sauvin 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g
Nelson Sauvin 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 20g (I've doubled this from 10g as the hops were smelling good)

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.7% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

The Grains, golden promise pale malt, wheat malt, carared malt, 1 tsp gypsum:

New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 67.7c:

FWH & 1 Tsp Gypsum:

Floaters:

12g of Nottingham Yeast:

20min steep of flame Out hops:

Rehydrated Notts yeast within 1 degree of my wort temp:


All put to bed now, lots of yeast for the 12L length, should get going pretty quick.
I'm not too sure if the CaraRed Malt has done its stuff, looked a bit straw-like in the boiler, will see better at bottling.
Near as damn it hit my OG just a point or two out.

AG#14 - Black Promise

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 1880g
Wheat Malt 260g
Black Malt 100g
Crystal Malt 100g

Hops:
Northdown 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Fuggle 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 20g
Home Grown Fuggle 10 mins 21g

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 5.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 86 EBC

Grain weighed out, golden promise pale malt, black malt, crystal malt, wheat malt, 1 tsp gypsum, 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride:

New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 66c:

Good deep colour, though tastes a bit mild I was hoping for more of the Black malt flavours:

FWH:

WGV going in!:

Home grown Fuggles going in:

Near enough for me:


All done, I just hope the Black malt comes through with the flavour as well as the colour.

Looking well good matey. Two batch brew days can be a bugger to handle if you aren't organised but you look to have had it all under control! Knocking the batch size back prob helped did it?

What brewing software is that you are using? I use Brewmath on my iPhone. So much easier having something to hand (not having a laptop) than having to run upstairs and use the imac!

leedsbrew wrote:Looking well good matey. Two batch brew days can be a bugger to handle if you aren't organised but you look to have had it all under control! Knocking the batch size back prob helped did it?

What brewing software is that you are using? I use Brewmath on my iPhone. So much easier having something to hand (not having a laptop) than having to run upstairs and use the imac!

I've never done 2x 23L brews, so I don't know, I dare say it would have added 2-3 hours onto the day if I had the extra wort to heat up and cool.

The Phone software is Nermal's mate it seems http://www.nermal.org/blog/brewing-calc ... r-android/ I had no idea when i was buying it. But its very handy as you say... I usually do loads of running up and down stairs on a brewday.
Computer is Upstairs, I brew in the Kitchen Downstairs, and all my Brewing gear is stored in the cellar!!! I bet I do a couple of miles on a brewday!

Im sure it is obviously working for you but why are you putting the Gypsum in the boil with the hops??

It should be in the mash with the malt to aid enzyme reaction and aid calcium use later on. Putting it in the boil cant really be doing much apart from maybe precipitating out sulphates which you need in the final beer...

My Mash also had 1 Tsp in with the Grist.
I thought Gypsum was a Sulphate (Calcium Sulphate) which apparently aids protein coagulation and clearing (The GW book states there is no harm in adding 5g to the Boil as a matter of course).
Doesn't Gypsum also favour the hops in some way too, as Chloride favours the malts??

pdtnc wrote:I thought Gypsum was a Sulphate (Calcium Sulphate) which apparently aids protein coagulation and clearing (The GW book states there is no harm in adding 5g to the Boil as a matter of course).
Doesn't Gypsum also favour the hops in some way too, as Chloride favours the malts??

That was my understanding of it as well!

The Notts yeast in the first Brew looks to have practically finished!
The Edinburgh Ale yeast in the second brew is still chugging away.

Both batches are down to their predicted FG's
Black Promise - has a liquorice flavour to it at the moment, which I bet goes after conditioning, its not got the burnt flavours I wanted.

Bloody Nelson - tastes very nice and hoppy Mmm

Sneaky taste of the Bloody Nelson, the hoppiness has subdued a little, still has a good bite and very refreshing.
Needs a re-run with a bigger hit of late hops Malty balance is just right Colour... isn't red!!

First taste of Black Promise... This ain't bad Lovely smooth and rounded bitterness, not a hint of the burnt Black malt flavours, loads of body and deep brown colour so not as dark as a stout.

None of the 'greenfly and caterpillar' from the home grown hops either

Had a bottle of each of these last night...
The Bloody Nelson is now turning out to be very nice, a good bitterness and a fruity flavour.... the Once Were Warriors with NS hops is going to be a winner if this is anything to go by
The Black Promise is easy drinking, nice dark ale

I am sure I had a pint of something called Bloody Nelson, it had a few shots of rum in the cask. Or was it Nelsons blood?
Is this based around it or just a coincidence?

Both look spot on BTW.

total coincidence.
I Just named them both around what went into them, CaraRed = Bloody, Nelson = Nelson Sauvin hops, Black = Black Malt, Promise = Golden Promise malt...
Its all very Catch Phrase - "Say what you see"

simple one wrote:I am sure I had a pint of something called Bloody Nelson, it had a few shots of rum in the cask. Or was it Nelsons blood?
Is this based around it or just a coincidence?

Both look spot on BTW.

Nelson's Blood is a brew made by Farmer's Ales based in Maldon. I vaguely remember being told that it did have rum in...

Edit: Having now read the site, it seems it is made with brandy, not rum. Read here: http://www.maldonbrewing.co.uk/7001.html

Thats the one. It wasn't bad.... but it wasn't to great either!