Home Brew Forum

Been meaning to try brewing something out of Ron Pattinson's book ever since the wife bought it for me. Well seeing as it's that time of year and the kegerator is empty tomorrow is gonna be brew day!

I'm trying to follow the recipe as best I can but couldn't get any Cluster for the 90minute addition, so I've gone with fuggles instead. Similarly the recipe specifies 2 row and 6 row pale malt but I'll be using Maris Otter. Hopefully it will still be true to style.

Brew Length 20L
OG 1045
FG 1009
ABV 4.76
IBU 49
EBC 24

MO pale malt 3.12kg
Flaked Maize 0.22kg
No.2 invert sugar 0.22kg
No.3 invert sugar 0.55kg

Fuggles 90mins 30g
Fuggles 60 mins 30g
EKG 30 mins 30g
Irish moss 10 mins

Will ferment with WLP002 and aim to pitch around 16 degrees as mentioned in the book. Reading Ron's blog he says it reached a maximum of 20.3 degrees after a week of primary so will gradually let it increase.

Managed to make the invert sugar earlier and avoided making a mess


Water treatment wise I've gone with the Brown malty profile on Brew'nwater albeit my tap water has a fair bit more calcium. Will adjust the ph using Phosphoric acid and will aim for 5.3.

Will try and update tomorrow...

salts added to the grist and strike liquor now heating up

The mash went well nearly finished sparging

All tucked away in the brew fridge. OG ended up being 1.052 which is quite a bit higher than intended. I'm guessing it's the invert sugar that's thrown beersmith a little but never mind! First time trying clarity ferm, don't know if anyone on here uses it regularly but for a couple of quid got to be worth a go. Despite lagering at 1 degree for a few days my last brew took weeks before the chill haze finally dropped.

I'll add a photo of the finished product (will try and wait till Christmas)

Nice FV, same as mine

How long did you boil the sugar for when inverting it?

alexlark wrote:Nice FV, same as mine

How long did you boil the sugar for when inverting it?

For the number 2 invert it took about an hour and a half I think and the no.3 two and a half hours. Took ages made up a bit extra which is now in the freezer for another day

Not 'too' long then. I'm going to stick invert in my to do book. Cheers

Well this is a first...

I've had no activity from the fermentor (I know that doesn't mean much) so on Sunday I raised the temperature to 18 degrees and roused the wort a few times throughout the day. Still nothing this evening, the air lock wasn't even displaced. Took a gravity reading and it's not even dropped a single point

I can only assume that the yeast has been damaged either through transit or in storage i.e. too hot or if at the back of a fridge, frozen and too cold? I've never had any issues with White Labs before.

I've decided to pitch two rehydrated packets of CML real ale yeast tonight and hopefully that'll get it going. Really annoyed because that's £7 gone but above all it will be quite different from the original. From what I've read this yeast is very malty and doesn't produce the esters that the fullers strain kicks off.

Anyone else had a non starting yeast before?


Edit: checked earlier and after only a couple of hours lag, we finally have lift off with the CML yeast

I have stopped using liquid yeast and switched to CML dried because it is so much easier and very cheap, however when I did use liquid I always made a starter a day or two before the brewday. That way you know if you have viable yeast and should have a pitchable amount for your brew.
I'm guessing you didn't make a starter based on your pictures, so if you did I apologise for the assumption.

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charliemartin wrote:I have stopped using liquid yeast and switched to CML dried because it is so much easier and very cheap, however when I did use liquid I always made a starter a day or two before the brewday. That way you know if you have viable yeast and should have a pitchable amount for your brew.
I'm guessing you didn't make a starter based on your pictures, so if you did I apologise for the assumption.

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Yeah I pitched directly into the wort for a change. I'd normally brew 25-30L but as this was a smaller batch I didn't bother. It's weird how it didn't get going at all. Don't think it's due to any under pitching as there were no signs of fermentation at all

That is a bit weird admittedly. You would expect some signs of fermentation, even if you underpitched significantly. Maybe it was just a dead batch of yeast as you say.

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charliemartin wrote:That is a bit weird admittedly. You would expect some signs of fermentation, even if you underpitched significantly. Maybe it was just a dead batch of yeast as you say.

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At least it's well under way now hopefully no harm done

An early taste from the kegerator tonight and it's not bad not amazing but not bad! Quite fruity which must be due to the invert sugar. Be interesting to try it again after some conditioning