A Hoppy Best Bitter - 16Oct08 (photos)

[fivetide]

Okay, I'm completely disorganised, I still have to clean various bits and pieces, and my grain stores are now practically nil, but the mash is on!

Fivetide's Hoppy Best

Mashing (90mins, 65c - sparge at 76c)
Pale Malt 3.81Kg, 80.2%
Crystal Malt 500g, 10.5%
Wheat Malt, 250g, 5.3%
Munich Malt, 190g, 4%

Boiling (90mins)
Bobek Goldings 4%AA, 75g, 90mins
Bobek Goldings 4%AA, 25g, 15mins
Styrian Goldings 50g, Flameout steep

Other bits
Campden
Whirlfloc
SafAle S-04 rehydrated

Figures and that
Est. Brew length: 23L
Est. OG: 1.046
Est. FG: 1.012
Est. Bitterness: 38.7 IBU
Est. ABV: 4.5%

[stevezx7r]

Looks like a tasty little number FT, nice one. I've not used wheat malt myself, does it cause you much of a problem with haze?

[fivetide]

Not so far, but I do use a secondary to drop the fermented brew clearer, then condition for at least a month or so - I imagine if i was trying to turn a gold ale around quickly, for example, it wouldn't be ideal. Until recently I always used torrified wheat for head retention, but as I have more wheat malt at hand and Ollosson and others seem to use it frequently in sub 5% quantities, I have been giving it a whirl.

I'd better go and clean an FV and a pyrex jug or two. And a seive. And a paddle... Um.

[fivetide]

Okay, time to check the mash, fill the HLT from the boiler and take some runnings. I probably won't bother with photos as it's the same setup as my last two brews (except with lights and a laptop instead of the lamp and the radio!

[fivetide]

Had the maddest cock-up of all time on this one (happily without any effect on the brew itself).

Mash nearing completion, hot water moved from boiler to HLT and readied for first runnings, I remembered with a smile to put on the hop strainer first --- and simply couldn't find it anywhere.

In exasperation I went to search the garden where I give my equipment its first blast after brewing with the hose. No luck.

And then my eyes fell on the 3/4 full 120L compost bin into which I routinely throw my spent hops and grain. Oh dear fate no!

After standing over the stinking mass of degradation for 20 minutes or so with a wind up torch and a variety of garden implements, I finally bloody found it, covered in, well, compost. Arg.

This is AFTER boiling! (In a saucepan - that's not the boiler.) Got it shiny in the end though.


Boiled it up. Bleached it. Rinsed it. Wire brushed it. Iodophored it and off we went again.

Big chunk of Bobek currently bittering the brew at rolling boil.

[fivetide]

Allright, so after that disaster I had my camera and did take some pics after all:

Sparging went nicely, wort up to temperature pretty early


Lots of copper hops:


Spent grains for a Best

[fivetide]

More Bobek and a Whirlfloc in at 15 mins (bit steamy by this stage)


50g Styrians in at flameout to steep for a while. Smelled great.


Chillin'. Time for a pint.

[fivetide]

Aerating into the FV in time-honoured 'seive-resting-on-a-paddle' fashion. Superb aroma from those Styrians, and what looks like the desired darker colour from the half kilo of Crystal.


Reckon this yeast has hydrated?


Frothy


Hops soaked up a lot of beer


Done - 23L at 1.045 - that'll do. Lots of break material by the looks of it.


Night then!

[ChrisG]

Sounds a good brew and great pics.

I'm just thinking of my next, may be a cally 80.

[awalker]

Looks very nice fivetide.

Glad you found your hop strainer

[fivetide]

I was going mad looking for the thing, but when it dawned on me what might have happened, I wasn't too keen on fishing it out. It was well and truly buried under a lot of rotting kitchen waste. Yuck!

Beer seems to be behaving itself this morning. No spectacular krausen but I think it was a little cold overnight and I only pitched nine hours ago. Bubbling nicely. Lots of break material in there which I'll skim tomorrow or even tonight.

[stevezx7r]

Glad it went well. It wouldn't be a proper brew day if something didn't tits up, for me anyway

[awalker]

Very true stevezx7r I seem to keep leaving the boiler tap open
As I am just starting to fill it with wort :

The kitchen matt is now official ruined and I am once again banned from the house when making beer
A good thing the 10+ gallon brewery is now taking shape in the garage

[fivetide]

I was paranoid about taps this time and even waited for levels to pass tap holes before leaving the room even though I knew I'd turned the taps off. Tooo many people having the same accidents, and I was ready to believe I'd be next.

However, actually it all went very well and the airlock is bubbling away comfortingly behind me. Looking forward to this one very much, as the aroma hops smelled great and gluggable.

[leigh1919]

entertaining post, five - liked it! beer looks great, too.