Page 1 of 1

AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:46 am
by Monkeybrew
Nearly 4 months have passed since my last brew, due to work, Christmas and just not having the motivation to get my backside in gear to get organised!

My late Dad would have been 70 years old this week, so what better motivation than to brew a beer that I think he would have enjoyed, as even though he mainly drank English Bitters when he fancied a beer, he was also partial to hoppier styles, so I decided to brew a strong bitter, but with an international blend of hops.

The aim behind my mix of hops is to end up with a beer that has a good grapefruit/orange citrus flavour and aroma.

I brewed this last night outside in my brew shed, in the middle of a very wet and windy storm, roll on the warm and light sunny evenings where the whole experience is far more pleasurable.

This is the 7th brew on my Grainfather, and probably my most successful with regards to every aspect of the brew, nearly hit all my numbers (actually over shot my OG by 2 points), the mash was trouble free, the sparge went well and the clarity of the finished wort that went into my FV was the best so far. The only near disaster was the damage sustained to my malt pipe, when I was in the middle of cleaning it, I stupidly had it balanced on top of a 10 litre bucket outside in the wind and rain and when I turned my back for 2 minutes, the wind did it's thing and blew it off and onto the concrete below.

The malt pipe took a hit on the top flange, that put it out of round! After a few tears and a bit of tweaking, I think it has been rectified [-o<

I think the finally clarity was helped by allowing more time at the end of the brew to follow a slightly improved procedure for me.

At the end of the boil, I gave the wort a good whirlpool with my cordless drill and GF paddle for 3-4 minutes and then recirculated the brew through the CFC for 20-30 minutes while I went inside the clean and sanitise my FV and other bits of equipment for rehydrating my yeast.

First time using Mangrove Jacks New World Strong Ale M42 yeast, so will be interesting to see how this performs during fermentation and in the finished beer.

Cheers

MB

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Special 70
Strong Bitter

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.640
Total Hops (g): 160.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.056 (°P): 13.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.72 %
Colour (SRM): 9.7 (EBC): 19.1
Bitterness (IBU): 37.2 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 79 (GF Calc.)
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
4.400 kg Crisp Maris Otter Malt (78.01%)
0.550 kg Weyermann Vienna Malt (9.75%)
0.290 kg Dingemans Wheat Malt (5.14%)
0.200 kg Crisp Caramalt (3.55%)
0.200 kg Crystal 120 (3.55%)

Hop Bill
----------------
25.0 g NZ Cascade Leaf (9.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
30.0 g First Gold Pellet (9.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)
30.0 g NZ Cascade Leaf (9.4% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)
25.0 g Chinook Pellet (13% Alpha) @ 12 Days (Dry Hop) (1.1 g/L)
50.0 g First Gold Pellet (9.2% Alpha) @ 12 Days (Dry Hop) (2.2 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
3.6 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 75 Minutes (Mash)
3.6 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.5 Protafloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Mash Out at 75°C for 10 Minutes.
Fermented at 19°C with M42 - Mangrove Jacks New World Strong Ale (Rehydrated)

Notes
----------------
Water Profile - Graham Wheelers 'Bitter'
Starting Alkalinity - 142.5ppm
Treated Alkalinity - 25ppm
AMS @0.61ml/L

20190316_073915.jpg
20190316_173433.jpg
20190316_185204.jpg
20190316_203501.jpg
20190316_215514.jpg
20190316_221101.jpg

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:57 am
by Monkeybrew
Still haven't got the hang of attaching pics, only seem to have one showing?

*Edit* - Sorted now!

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:19 am
by steviebobs83
I did exactly the same thing with my malt pipe & it's never been quite the same since. The top seal is so tight, even the miniscule amount off circular causes havoc.

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:27 pm
by Kingfisher4
I balance my malt pipe on a 10 L bucket, for the last drainings after sparging.
I then transfer it into a 65 L trug, Catches any remaining drips well, for cleaning outside in the garden. The spent grains either go in the compost or feed the ducks!
With some water in the trug, it might reduce the chance of wind turning it over?
Works brilliantly for a swift clean.

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:49 am
by Monkeybrew
I checked the gravity on day 13 and again today on day 16 and it seems constant @1.014 giving me approximately 5.60%.

I have now added the 75g blend of dry hops and will leave @18C for another couple of days before crash cooling at 2C for the rest of the week.

Cheers

MB

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:38 am
by Monkeybrew
steviebobs83 wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:19 am
I did exactly the same thing with my malt pipe & it's never been quite the same since. The top seal is so tight, even the miniscule amount off circular causes havoc.
I'm planning to brew tomorrow, so will find out how awkward I've made things for myself #-o

Cheers

MB

Re: AG#37 - Special 70

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:52 pm
by steviebobs83
Monkeybrew wrote:
steviebobs83 wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2019 11:19 am
I did exactly the same thing with my malt pipe & it's never been quite the same since. The top seal is so tight, even the miniscule amount off circular causes havoc.
I'm planning to brew tomorrow, so will find out how awkward I've made things for myself #-o

Cheers

MB
Depending on what I'm making (and my level of patience) I sometimes mash a bit thick and leave the top plate off. The recirculating tends to level off before it overflows and you can get away without the top plate. Then I'll just sparge a bit more to get my full boil volume. I know there can be disadvantages of over sparging but I've never noticed any issues and it saves me tearing my hair out trying to get the seal right.