AG #64 Six Hop Session

[BrewerBen]

Time to get another brew on, before the last one is even kegged (trying to get stocks up after christmas). This one is to use up the little packs of hops i had left over from the last couple of brews. I also wanted to use them up soon as they are the more expensive hops so didn't want them to loose their oomph.
After a few strong beers i thought it would be good to get a nice low strength session ale but hopefully full of flavour. The hops schedule is the same as the American Red ale i have done and an initial taste has shown an amazing hop flavour and aroma (very glad i stole it from the Punk IPA clone). This time though its scaled back with added UK Cascade and some more Eldorado.
Yeast will be WLP002 which i know will remove some of the hop aroma but what it takes away from the hops i hope it will add body and aroma of its own. I'm not trying for a hop bomb but i also don't want them to disappear so fingers crossed it works out.

Target Gravity: 1.40
Batch size: 30L
Bitterness: 35.6 IBU

Grains
5000 Maris Otter 94.88%
180 Acid Malt 3.42%
80g Black Malt 1.71%

Mash Schedule
Mash in 30L @ 38C
Step 1 75 mins @66C
Step 2 10 mins @76C
Sparge 12L @76C

Hop Schedule
90 Min 10g ELdorado 15.2% 14.3 IBU

12 Min 34g Chinook 13% 16.3IBU

5 Min 8.5g Galaxy 14.1% 2.1 IBU
5 Min 8.5g Nelson Sauvin 11% 1.6 IBU
5 Min 8.5g Ahtanum 3.3% 0.5 IBU
5 Min 8.5g UK Cascade 6% 0.8 IBU

Steep 8.5g Galaxy 14.1%
Steep 8.5g Nelson Sauvin 11%
Steep 8.5g Ahtanum 3.3%
Steep 8.5g UK Cascade

Dry Hop 8.5g Galaxy 14.1%
Dry Hop 8.5g Nelson Sauvin 11%
Dry Hop 8.5g Ahtanum 3.3%
Dry Hop 8.5g UK Cascade

Yeast
WLP002 - Ferment At 20C

[alexlark]

This sounds really good. What colour will that grain bill give you?

[BrewerBen]

Beersmith says 12 EBC but looks darker and quite brown at the moment. Boils not done yet so will see what the sample comes out as.
Just spotted a typo as the 180g is not mild malt but Acid malt. Colour of the 2 are the same though.

[alexlark]

Good luck for the rest of your brew day. Cracking hop combo!

[BrewerBen]

Colour has turned out nice, and so much for keeping the gravity down as it ended up at 1.045.

[alexlark]

Lovely and clear. Lighter too than what I would have expected. Gonna keep an eye on this, bet it will be a belter.

[BrewerBen]

A few more snaps from the brewday:

Preparing the starter the night before while drinking some of my christmas porter:


Grain shot:


Hop shot. I now have a vacuum sealer so no more taping up opened packs of hops while squeezing out as much air as possible. Also handy for sealing up the pre-weighed dry hops for later:


Looks quite dark at this point:


Re-circ pump and plate chiller set up:


Starter in the brew fridge with Jims ESB (now down to 1.012). I could see lots of bubbles rising and a swirl created lots of foam so hopefully got it at the right time:


Run of into the fermenter:


A pint of AG #61 as the brewers reward in a new glass i got for my birthday:

[Hanglow]

Nice pictures, looks like it'll be a cracking pint

[Matt in Birdham]

Ben - what model/brand of fermentor have you got there, and do you have a (rough) vertical measurement? I am on the lookout for a compact FV so that I can stack two in a larder fridge.

[BrewerBen]

The one in the fridge is a 30l brupaks fermenter, 36cm high and 40cm diameter. The one used for this brew is a Speidel 60l and is 61cm high and 40cm wide.

[Matt in Birdham]

Thanks Ben.

[BrewerBen]

Pic of the finished product:

[seymour]

Looks like a fantastic idea and execution. Very nice work!

[BrewerBen]

Thanks Seymour, i'f i'm honest i'm a little disappointed in the hop aroma considering the hops that went in it but given a swirl you do get a whiff of something interesting. Its is a very drinkable beer though, the bitterness it just right to give it a refreshing zing and the keg is emptying at a alarming rate so i'll call it a success.

[alexlark]

Looks a real nice beer that Ben. I liked the colour in your trial jar but even better in the glass.