AG 2 - Briar's Best *Now with photos*

[Brotherton Lad]

The boiler is on and bringing 8 gallons up to 180F. I've scaled down the Briar's Best Bitter recipe to 5 gallons. Photos to follow.

BRIARS BEST

23 litres OG 1.052 ABV 5.1%
MARIS OTTER PALE MALT 4000gms
CRYSTAL MALT 470gms

HOPS Boil time 90 minutes
CHALLENGER 38gms

19gms of challenger added in the last 15 minutes

Safale S-04 salvaged from Sunday's bobek flavoured golden bitter after kegging it.

One hour in, dropped 3 gallons at 180F into the mash tun. Left to warm through for 5 mins and drop to strike temp of 170F (the grain is a bit cold this morning). Mashed in and hit 155F. Happy with that, wrapped it in a blanket and stood it in the sunshine. Time to do some housework. and have a coffee.

3 hours in. Mash and sparge complete. 6.5 gallons sweet wort on the way to a 90 min boil.

5.5 hours in. Late hops, protofloc and immersion cooler in.

6 hours in. 5 gallons into FV, aereate. Let it stand a while, off to the shop, then take hydrometer reading and pitch yeast.

OG = 1052 Very happy with that as it matches the recipe.

Rest of day, wrestle with photobucket and cook dinner. Leg of lamb out of the fridge to relax.

[Brotherton Lad]

http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx26 ... onLad/AG2/

You should be able to view this as a slideshow.

[WishboneBrewery]

Good stuff Interesting sparging, what are the holes in the sides for?

[Brotherton Lad]

Just experimenting, my first idea was to suspend the ice cream boxes inside the mash tun, but they wouldn't play ball because they're a touch too small and swing around. I'm looking for a single tray that will sit inside the top, but can't bring myself to drill lots of holes in a perfectly serviceable grill pan