Cat On The Tap Porter

[SiHoltye]

I'm surprised at my self restraint - the cat is still in one piece, not only did she empty a keg but all my gas too.

Am mashing & sparging this tonight, plan to boil tomorrow (possibly with added cat...grrrr).

Ingredients
25L, 90min Mash, 90min Boil
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.03 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 89.05 %
0.35 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC) Grain 6.19 %
0.17 kg Black (Patent) Malt (1160.0 EBC) Grain 2.99 %
0.10 kg Special B Malt (250.0 EBC) Grain 1.77 %
61.84 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 25.3 IBU
14.96 gm First Gold [5.60 %] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
25.00 L London, England Water
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.64 %
Bitterness: 28.9 IBU
Est Color: 41.3 EBC

[Aleman]

now she is adorable

[Damfoose]

Is that a small bundlw of lots of trouble I see........ Cats so much fun but they do have a habbit of managing to cause mayhem

Good luck with your brew hopefully it will stay in the keg this time

[SiHoltye]

All done last night, mountainous krausen today so all good so far. It reminds me I don't make enough dark beers, smells great.

[SiHoltye]

Down to 1.015 today (3½ days in). Smells great in the sample jar, but don't they all!

[SiHoltye]

Looked over my figures again and this is under bittered for what I wanted, 29IBU's for a 50OG Porter. I should have made it more like 35IBU's. Bugger.
Down to 1.012 now.
Is there a formula and resulting scale of bitterness that takes into account the residual sweetness after fermentation (final gravity)? The usual BU:GU doesn't reflect the effect of residual sweetness has on the bitterness of ae beer, and so the overall balance of Bitter/Sweet.

[SiHoltye]

1.011 now and temp turned down to 5°C. Will bottle on Sunday perhaps, and do a 2 stage Mash/Boil over Mon/Tues next week. Getting the stocks up after 2 drainers from infections.

[SiHoltye]

Am sampling now and it's everything I wanted but not enough of it. It's a 1.050 mild. To do again I'd up the roast to 5%, special B to 3% and hop to 35 IBU's. That said the water treatment has been a sensation. A clean fresh tasting beer without the mild astringent note I'm used to. Thanks GW & Aleman for the assistance.