AG#36 - Promenade Ale (with pics)

[floydmeddler]

Did a brew a load of months ago using Fuggles and First Gold. Turned out fantastic. However, an infection quickly set it after bottling so I only got to enjoy around 3 of them. Anyway, tweaked the recipe by deciding to steep some First Gold at the end. Also wanted something maltier so added a kg of Munich malt. Went for WLP005 too as it is a 'lowish' attenuator.

Brewed it up on Friday night and here's what I ended up with.

Recipe:
Promenade Ale

Size: 25.0 L
Efficiency: 79.0%
Attenuation: 73.0%

Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.048 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.016)
Color: 11.57 (6.0 - 18.0)
Alcohol: 4.6% (4.6% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 42.3 (30.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
4 kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
1 kg Munich Malt
200 g Crystal Malt 60°L
40.0 g First Gold (7.25%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
25.0 g Fuggles (3.8%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
25.0 g Fuggles (3.8%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
25.0 g First Gold (7.25%) - steeped after boil
1.0 ea White Labs WLP005 British Ale

The brewery



Filling up the HLT



Mashing in. Used a Paint stirrer attached to a drill to mix it. Takes a few seconds to do and eliminates the risk of dough balls.



The lovely mash. Temp was bang on 67c





Recirculating. Did this for 1 hr until the wort was running very clear.



Fly sparging



Wort collection into boiler



Adding the bittering hops



Lovely rolling boil



Stopped taking photos at this point. Great brew evening and look forward to the finished result as it is my first time using WLP005.

[Bobba]

Wow you've really got your brew day absolutely nailed!
First gold's a hop I haven't tested out yet, will have to get some in.
Got a quick question about your recirculation....do you mash it for 90mins and then recirculate for another 60 mins after that and then sparge for lets say 60 mins?
How much does the clarity improve over the hour circulation? I've got myself one of those small solar pumps and was planning on recirculating for something like 10 mins until it cleared up - will it not be long enough?

[floydmeddler]

Wow you've really got your brew day absolutely nailed!
First gold's a hop I haven't tested out yet, will have to get some in.
Got a quick question about your recirculation....do you mash it for 90mins and then recirculate for another 60 mins after that and then sparge for lets say 60 mins?
How much does the clarity improve over the hour circulation? I've got myself one of those small solar pumps and was planning on recirculating for something like 10 mins until it cleared up - will it not be long enough?

Get a brew going with First Gold man. They are a superb hop!

I mash for 60 mins then begin the recirculation for an hr. It really improves the finished beer. My beers are crystal since I started doing this. I also recirculate for around 30 mins (sometimes 1hr) after I crash cool. The hops make a great filter and it isn't unusual for the wort to be nearly crystal clear going into the fermenter. I then use gelatin to drop the yeast out around 1 week before bottling.

Those little solar pumps do the job perfectly too. My mate uses one and recirculates for 1hr no probs. As for 10 mins? I personally think it isn't long enough. Maybe go for 30 mins? Have a go at recirculating after the crash cool too. Really makes a difference IMO.

[Bobba]

Get a brew going with First Gold man. They are a superb hop!

Well I tried! Planted some in the garden, but pretty disappointed that they still haven't come up, so will prob have to wait till next year to get my own crop.

I mash for 60 mins then begin the recirculation for an hr. It really improves the finished beer. My beers are crystal since I started doing this.

I'll give that a go on the next batch. I'm new to AG and am hoping to see some improvements in my mash temperature compared to last time. Any idea on how recirculating will effect the temp as it will obviously drop a fair amount during that, and more importantly does that actually matter at that stage?

Have a go at recirculating after the crash cool too. Really makes a difference IMO.

That's an excellent idea - I'll definitely try that. There'll also be some benefits in that I can really churn the wort up to get it nicely aerated before dropping it in the fv.
This little pump is going to find itself pretty damn busy on its first day!!

Got much Krausen going yet?

[floydmeddler]

Get a brew going with First Gold man. They are a superb hop!

Well I tried! Planted some in the garden, but pretty disappointed that they still haven't come up, so will prob have to wait till next year to get my own crop.

I mash for 60 mins then begin the recirculation for an hr. It really improves the finished beer. My beers are crystal since I started doing this.

I'll give that a go on the next batch. I'm new to AG and am hoping to see some improvements in my mash temperature compared to last time. Any idea on how recirculating will effect the temp as it will obviously drop a fair amount during that, and more importantly does that actually matter at that stage?

Have a go at recirculating after the crash cool too. Really makes a difference IMO.

That's an excellent idea - I'll definitely try that. There'll also be some benefits in that I can really churn the wort up to get it nicely aerated before dropping it in the fv.
This little pump is going to find itself pretty damn busy on its first day!!

Got much Krausen going yet?

Yup, it has actually started subsiding now. Fermenting away nicely. With regards to churning the wort up, you'll actually want to be gentle when recirculating. The idea is for the hop bed to really stabilize in order for it to become an effective filter. Can you change the voltage on your pump's power adapter? Pretty important that you can control the flow if you want to use it for recirculating.

Cheers

[Bobba]

Yup, it has actually started subsiding now. Fermenting away nicely. With regards to churning the wort up, you'll actually want to be gentle when recirculating. The idea is for the hop bed to really stabilize in order for it to become an effective filter. Can you change the voltage on your pump's power adapter? Pretty important that you can control the flow if you want to use it for recirculating.

Cheers

Ahhhh right! ok. Yes I do have voltage control
Cheers floyd

[floydmeddler]

Cool! Keep it down low and you should get a nice gentle flow. Good luck with your brew!

[Bobba]

I'm raring to go on this one. Been too busy recently to contemplate getting a brewday under way (esp as I'll be culturing up some yeast beforehand for this one), but things should clear up in the next week or to and I'll get cracking
Cheers for the tips. Keep us updated on this beer, very interested to hear how that yeast performs

[floydmeddler]

OK, so this is down to 1010 which is quite surprising. Was under the impression that this yeast would give me a malty profiled beer.

Anyone else have WLP005 ferment down to 1010? My program is showing that as an 80% attenuation.

[Bigveees]

Just a quick question? How did you work out the IBUs and come up with 42.3?

[floydmeddler]

I use this program:

https://www.beertools.com/login.php

Highly recommend it!

[pantsmachine]

Nice set of photos and reading the recipe i'd happily drink a pint of that.

[floydmeddler]

Nice set of photos and reading the recipe i'd happily drink a pint of that.

Cheers PM. Tastes superb already. Will leave it for one more week in primary then rack it to secondary with gelatine for a week.

[Bigveees]

Will leave it for one more week in primary then rack it to secondary with gelatine for a week.

Aha, is that your bottling technique in action? If so how much sugar in secondary with gelatine and is there any in the bottle to cabonate it?

AndyB
'Learning as I brew'

[trucker5774]

Not so sure about those strawberries going in with the hops