Best Bitter - with Piccies

[Parp]

Hi All,

Did this today with the nippers about, but managed to get some pics.

Best Bitter - Not named.

Fermentables

UK Pale Ale Malt 1.321 kg
UK Mild Ale Malt 1.000 kg
UK Torrified Wheat 0.273 kg
UK Medium Crystal 0.137 kg


Hops

Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When

Slovenian Bobek 5.2 % 10 g 6.6 Loose Whole Hops In Mash
Slovenian Bobek 5.2 % 10 g 8.8 Loose Whole Hops 60 Min From End
Slovenian Bobek 5.2 % 19 g 10.7 Loose Whole Hops 20 Min From End
Slovenian Bobek 5.2 % 29 g 0.0 Loose Whole Hops At turn off
Slovenian Bobek 5.2 % 10 g 0.0 Loose Whole Hops In Fermenter


Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Protafloc 3 g In Boil


Yeast
Danstar-Nottingham

Steve's Beer alchemy came up with a figure of 99.1% for my mash efficiency on this.
I nearly shat. It must be a bug, hehe!

got 12 litres and not 10 - so well pleased.

Anyways, og 1042, abv 4.2%


Mash time - after I drained the first batch I was left with a pretty robust grain "flapjack" ;



And leftover after B2 ;


Boiling pics - I didn't add any hops til 30 mins after the roll started.
This is because whenever i've FWH'd, I never got the foamy build up - and I wanted to see it
As it happened it foamed pretty quickly.



and...



Now the break shots ;









Tada!

[jonnyhop]

Mash time - after I drained the first batch I was left with a pretty robust grain "flapjack" ;

That is the most solid set of spent grains I have ever seen! Did it pop straight out of the mash tun in the manner of corn beef getting out of the tin?

[kevthebootboy]

why did you mash some hops?? ive never seen that befor.

[Parva]

Yeah, putting hops into the mash is just wrong. When you get say 90 minute and 10 minute hop additions these mean that the 90 minute goes into the boiling wort once a vigorous boil is achieved and the 10 minute hops go in 10 minutes from the end of the 90 minute boil.

[Parp]

Mash time - after I drained the first batch I was left with a pretty robust grain "flapjack" ;

That is the most solid set of spent grains I have ever seen! Did it pop straight out of the mash tun in the manner of corn beef getting out of the tin?

It did - i was surprised!

I was over confident at it staying that way though - it broke as it hit the lip of the mash tun and some hit the cooker.

The wife found the bit I forgot to clean.

Yep Parva,

My normal regime is FWH/20/flameout.

I've done one previous brew using mash hops and it turned out pretty well.
I know it's technically similar to FWH'ing, but...

...this way also means that i can get bitterness whilst also saving "hop space" in the boiler for the relatively massive chuck in at flameout.
Thus the hops will not "steal" as much wort destined for the fermenter.

Where it says "in fermenter" that will be secondary dry hops.

Not putting any in til T -60 is just a bit of experimentation.

why did you mash some hops?? ive never seen that befor.

At one point in time that might have read "Hops?? I've never seen that done before!"
(albeit before the advent of internet forums!)



PARP!!

[kevthebootboy]

ah, i see what your saying, id imagen that the alpha acids would really mess up the PH of the mash.have you tested the ph of the mash with the hops in? good brew day pics by the way!

kev

[Parp]

ah, i see what your saying, id imagen that the alpha acids would really mess up the PH of the mash.have you tested the ph of the mash with the hops in? good brew day pics by the way!

kev

Not all that sure Kev,

I'm not water tinkering/pH metering at the moment. I may get around to doing it, but at the moment I'm lucky to get time to brew.

I don't think the amount I used will muck things up too much though

Some of the Elders may chip in on this

[kevthebootboy]

ah, i see what your saying, id imagen that the alpha acids would really mess up the PH of the mash.have you tested the ph of the mash with the hops in? good brew day pics by the way!

kev

Not all that sure Kev,

I'm not water tinkering/pH metering at the moment. I may get around to doing it, but at the moment I'm lucky to get time to brew.

I don't think the amount I used will muck things up too much though

Some of the Elders may chip in on this

i just fail too see what you will get out of mashing hops, you wont get any bitterness from them without the boil and the aroma and taste you get from steeping will be driven off from the boil,
trust me mate im not getting at you and i may even be wrong! but if its doing no damage...crack on sunshine!

[Parp]

you wont get any bitterness from them without the boil

According to Steve Flack's excellent BeerAlchemy for the Mac, I will get 6.6 IBU's from the mash hops.

I'll hunt down some other info once I've had me tea

[WishboneBrewery]

Can I ask what effect Mild Ale malt has on the brew?

cheers

[Parp]

Can I ask what effect Mild Ale malt has on the brew?

cheers

The science behind my usage of the Mild Malt is as follows ;

Mild and pale 85% - Torrified wheat 10% - Crystal 5%.

The Mild was in a pre-weighed 1kg bag.
The pale malt came from a previously split bag and was near enough on weight.

And I couldnt be arsed to split a 3kg "lump"!!!

Hehe

In the past (about 2002-3ish) I've brewed best bitters with all of the pale malt bill replaced with Mild Malt.

To be honest, the difference wasnt that drastic. A very slight change in colour. And mebbys a bit more mouthfeel, probably from the extra dextrins that this malt apparently supplies.

It was as clear as a bell also.

[WishboneBrewery]

Cheers for that
Good pictures btw, your boiler in the semi-transparent bucket looks a bit funky being able to see whats going on!

[Parp]

Cheers for that
Good pictures btw, your boiler in the semi-transparent bucket looks a bit funky being able to see whats going on!

I'm fermenting in the same brand of bucket.

The 1 pack of Nottingham in 12 Litres has raced trough it's task and is now starting to settle out, with the airlock having slowed dramatically.

[WishboneBrewery]

Safety first eh with the 'BrewDom' - stops nasties infecting your tap

[Parp]

Hehe!

Yep, nitrile exam glove.