What's brewing for New Year?

[RichardG]

So, for no good reason I thought I'd let you know what I plan for my first two brews of 2011. In each case the brew length is 25Ltrs, efficiency 75%, and I've used Beer Engine for recipe formulation. Mash and boil time are 90mins each.

First up we have Tranquillity Bitter; I'm aiming for a mid-brown quaffing ale. Target OG is 1042.

Grist:-
Pale malt 4240g 90%
Crystal malt 329g 7%
Chocolate malt 23g 0.5%
Flaked barley 117g 2.5%

Hops:-
Fuggles 3.8% AA 90mins for 25IBU's 60g
EKG 4.6%AA 10mins for 11IBU's 63g

Yeast is Brewlabs Somerset 1

Second we have Summer Solstice; A light, heavily late hopped ale for the returning sunny weather (!?). Target OG is 1044.

Grist:-
Pale malt 4625g 95%
Wheat malt 243g 5%

Hops:-
Challenger 7.6%AA 90mins for 27IBU's 33g
EKG 4.6%AA 15mins for 10IBU's 45g
EKG 4.6%AA 5mins for 3IBU's 33g

I also plan to steep and dry hop. I'm just deciding on whether to use more EKG, or go for styrians/bobek. Any thoughts?

Yeast will be Brewlabs F40.

So there we go. I'll be brewing Tranquillity today, and Summer Solstice in a fortnight when my FV's become available. I got Grahams book for Christmas (WHOO HOO!) and have picked up a KK bottom tap, so I'm going to have a go at bottling some of the first brew to see how that compares with bottling directly from secondary. Actually, I'd also be interested if there's anyone out there who has done this, and what they thought.

Cheers!

Richard Gibson