Brewday 10-06-2007 Crouch Vale Best Bitter

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:39 am

Finally, another spearmint-wino brewday - this one's been a long time coming. Thought I'd go for a more traditional style rather than my usual pale cascade/styrian experiments.

Courtesy of Marc Ollosson's excellent 'Real Ales for the Home Brewer'...

Crouch Vale Best Bitter
8-B Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Size: 23 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 183.92 per 1 pt

Original Gravity: 1.042
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 29.4
Alcohol: 4.08%
Bitterness: 35.39

Ingredients:
4 kg Maris Otter Pale
305 g British Dark Crystal

33.0 g Challenger (8.6%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
15.0 g Goldings (5.8%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
15 g Goldings (5.8%) - steeped after boil
1g Danstar Nottingham yeast

J_P · Post by **J_P** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:45 am

Hope it all runs smoothly for you Spearmint

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:50 am

Thanks J_P, starting fly sparge in 10 mins

Scooby · Post by **Scooby** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:50 am

Excellent choice

I rarely brew the same brew twice but looking back through my notes I made the comment 'Brew again'

Good luck, hope the brewing Gods shine on you as brightly as the sun is shining here

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:55 am

Scooby wrote:Excellent choice I rarely brew the same brew twice but looking back through my notes I made the comment 'Brew again'
Good luck, hope the brewing Gods shine on you as brightly as the sun is shining here

Ah good, felt like doing something that will be more of an easy summer drinker and a bit more malty than my usual to keep my 'tasting circle' happy

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:28 pm

After sparge I got 30 litres at 1042 for a 23l batch

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:33 pm

Hope all is going well SW

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:51 pm

doh, had to drain the boiler then re-fill as I forgot to put the hop strainer in...

Horden Hillbilly · Post by **Horden Hillbilly** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:46 pm

spearmint-wino wrote:doh, had to drain the boiler then re-fill as I forgot to put the hop strainer in...

We have all been there, don't worry about it, at least you noticed and was able to sort it.

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:48 pm

yeah it wasn't too much trouble, only added an extra 5 minutes to the day

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:11 am

After 4 hours there were a few isalnds of yeast floating around on the surface and now 12 hours after pitching there's a full covering of chunky yeast icebergs and the airlock is bubbling every minute or so, but no high krausen as yet.

prodigal2 · Post by **prodigal2** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:15 am

Sounds like you had a good day of it

Nothing quite like checking your yeast and seeing activity

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:09 pm

Ah bollocks, this has been in the keg about a month now and has a really harsh 'varnish'-like bitterness to it that seems to be getting stronger with time. If it continues to worsen the only place for it will be down the sink

Lesson learnt I suppose, the temp strips were reading pretty high when it was in the fermenter. Underneath the nastiness I can imagine a nice beer. Ah well, next time...

Vossy1 · Post by **Vossy1** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:32 pm

Not good SW

spearmint-wino · Post by **spearmint-wino** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:39 pm

Serves me right for being a bit blasÃƒÂ© about it I guess.

I've been more careful with the Styrian Stunner that's due to come out of the fermenter in the next couple of days - the wet towel trick brought the temp down by several degrees so hopefully this one will be ok

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Brewday 10-06-2007 Crouch Vale Best Bitter

Brewday 10-06-2007 Crouch Vale Best Bitter