My new sack of grain arrived the other day so a brewday was arranged for sunday. I planned to get up early but didn't
I felt a bit rusty after my lay off but soon got into the swing of it all again. Tried a new yeast starter method too
courtesy of Jim and DaaB.RECIPE. Easy Ale V.1.:a drunken name for a beer.
30ltr batch. Roughly based on my previous experience of my system.
6916 MO
294 CRYSTAL
150 Malted Wheat
500g sugar-just to see.
HOPS boil 90 mins
Challenger 35g
Northdown 15g
Add 40g Styrian Goldings last 15 mins.
1968 ESB yeast.
I have really enjoyed my beers that i have added a good handfull of hops right at the end of the boil. My last brew is without doubt my favourite. I don't have any problems with mouthfeel or head retention in any of my beers now. But i've added the wheat just to see if it makes a difference to me.
The addition of styrians at the end is down to Ross at craftbrewer. Great guy, great service. Otherwise these would have been destroyed by nZ customs. I'm looking forward to this brew
I plan a 2hr mash at 68C and a 90 min boil.
No pic's this time i'm afraid
It all went pretty much straightforward.
Which i was happy about. I am getting a bit worried about my flimsy plastic HLT and Boiler now though. They are looking decidedly dodgy after only 8 brews-time for some shiny Except i spent that allocated money on my honeymoon drinking and fishing 
I'll have to start saving my pennies(cents) again.
Weighed out my grain and got two 1968 ESB cultures out of the fridge. I planned on pouring out the sterilised water once i had collected and cooled a pint of the boiled wort. 10 mins into boiling i took a pint and mixed with the slurry. Gave a good shake and cracked the lid of the PET to allow the CO2 to escape. Repeated the procedure with the other culture.
I used some sugar to see what the result is like-Tanglefoot has sugar in the recipe as do a few others so i decideded to try some. I used demerera. Only had 500g so thats all i used.
I got mash temp to 68C. Checked PH and mine is 6 so i could probably get that down a bit and improve my efficiency more. After an hour the mash temp was 66C so i adjusted up to 68C with boiling water from the kettle. After 2 hrs the temp was at 68C still. I fly sparged and used 30 ltr's hot liquor at 85C. Sparging took 1hr 15mins. I collected 2 x 20ltr wort @ 1040. After the boil and cool i ended up with 32 litres @ 1052.
This was then transfered-by grunting and moaning and struggling, to my fermenting room and then into this i pitched the two pint starters of 1968 ESB.
Today as i type this the krausen is up another 5 ltrs over the 32ltrs or so of beer i have in the FV. And in a room thats kept at 16C the temp on FV is 22C.
I'm really impressed with this style of yeast and i really like the fruity notes it gives to my beers in addition of the late hopping. It always seems to pull up to 22C no matter what the starting or room temp is.I put all my hops into a grain bag that i then tied up with copper wire and dangled into the boiler. My hop strainer is rubbish. I also put a sieve into the boil for last ten mins along with my IC. I then used the sieve to strain the sweet wort before it went into FV. My AG#6 which is now over a month bottle conditioning is still slightly hazy. This was down to getting too much 'stuff' in the FV i think. Due to my crap hop strainer.
Another AG under my belt and i feel more at ease each time i brew. Still run around like a headless chicken when it comes to the recipes though.
This recipe is ringwood 49er grains, adjusted to 30 ltr batch plus 20% added to alleviate my poor effiency. Hops are Tanglefoot and i added sugar as per tanglefoot recipe but threw in the styrians as i have them and want to taste what they are like. So a bit of a mish mash really.
Just like my other brews. My 007 Ale(AG#7) is a delight to drink already.
I love AG brewing. Even if it goes wrong or doesn't taste like you thought it always comes good if you just give it more time to condition. As long as you got your sterilising right
