AG#8: 15.03.09 - GW's Thwaites Dark Mild (With Pics)

[Grahame]

Hi guys,

Currently mashing Thwaites Dark Mild from Graham's new book. This is my first time making anything other than pale ales and bitters so I am looking forward to the result. All the tweaks I have made to my equipment recently seem to be making each brewday easier and shorter. I was aiming for 67C mash temp but ended up at 66C which will do just as nicely.

Pics so far:

Grain Bill:


Hops weighed out (Challenger on left, Fuggles on right) - there are hardly any of them! It was hard to fight the urge not to add more:


Preheated mash tun:


In go the grains:


Mash (pH still a little low at 4.9ish - the water around here is softer than a baby's bum):


Managed to rope SWMBO into helping today too, she is pretending to be interested, bless her

More pics to come.

G.

[Kristoff]

Managed to rope SWMBO into helping today too, she is pretending to be interested, bless her

Well done, mine goes all glassy eyed when I mention brewing - you'll probably be made to help with the shopping next week tho
Good luck with the mild. I'm also doing a 'dark one' for my next AG, going to do 4 shades of stout

[BarryNL]

Looks nice - I can never quite believe how few hops go into a mild...

[Grahame]

All done and tidied up. Had a stuck mash (again...) but blowing up the tube helped and it got there in the end. I got 22L at 1.034, was expecting 21L at 1.033, so my efficiency was up to 75% for the first time ever. I decided to use a sieve at the end for 2 reasons: blowing up the mash tun manifold would have disturbed the grain bed a bit and allowed some husks etc through and because the low amount of hops would not be likely to make much of a filter bed on the bottom of the boiler.

Rest of the pics:

First runnings (looked darker than this, the flash his lightened it a bit):


Spent grain:


Boil starting and challenger in:


Boiling away nicely:


Chiller, last hops, and protafloc in:


Cooling down:


Running into FV:


1.034:


All tucked up:


Have a friend visiting in 2 weeks, so I am hoping this may be ready for then, due to its low gravity.

G.