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21-10-07: Smiles Brewery - Bitter
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:08 am
by spearmint-wino
An early brewday for me today, didn't have too much of a hangover after the game last night either... too nervous to get into my drinking stride.
A bit of a weird selection of ingredients in the store cupboard (and no crystal) meant either a mild (thanks Alton_Bee) or something from BYORAAH that I haven't really paid much attention to before: Smiles Brewery Bitter. "A golden quaffer with ripe malt in the mouth and a long finish with hops, fruit and nuts". Sounds 'the nuts' to me!
Going to try an hour mash and hour boil today - sparging now so might be finished before lunch
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:34 am
by Wez
Nice one SW, finished in time for a few pre-Sunday lunch pints!
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:29 am
by spearmint-wino
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:48 am
by spearmint-wino
I'll give it a go
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:21 pm
by spearmint-wino
After quite a bit of titting around I got 25l at 1046 sitting happily in the fermenter, along with a lot of break material.
I'm gonna stick a large post-it reminder to my spinny sparge or something so I don't forget next time (that's 3 times now
)
Didn't make the intended pre-lunch finish but as long as the beer turns out alright I'll be happy
. How's everyone else getting along with their brewing today?
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:21 pm
by J_P
spearmint-wino wrote:as long as the beer turns out alright I'll be happy
That's the spirit
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:55 pm
by spearmint-wino
DaaB wrote:I leave it in the boiler then it's impossible to forget
I used to, then changed boiler and had to bodge the connection
. I'll have to work on it - and there was me justifying a morebeer stainless FB for myself...
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:03 pm
by Vossy1
Glad to see you overcame the usual brew day challenges
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:06 pm
by spearmint-wino
I kegged this one last night after 9 days in the primary, had the obligatory trial jar tasting as well. Not bad, but definitely not a beer to drink green! I could really taste the amber malt in there, I'd describe it as an over-baked digestive biscuit flavour. It was actually a bit too pronounced for my tastes so not so sure how well I'm going to get on with this brew, I've read a few others on here finding the same thing, we should compare thoughts when they're all ready...
When I rack from the fermenter there's a fantastic hop aroma left in there, although that doesn't seem to get transferred to the final beer so impressively. Would dry-hopping make this back up?
I'll give a few weeks to mature and see how things go.
