Another Bitter! - with Piccies

[Parp]

Did this today ;

Recipe: Best Bitter 2
Style: 8B-English Pale Ale-Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 1.000 kg
UK Munich Malt 1.000 kg
UK Medium Crystal 0.250 kg
UK Torrified Wheat 0.200 kg
UK Roasted Barley 0.015 kg
Dextrose (Dry) 0.065 kg

Hops
NZ Cascade (8.0 % alpha) 4 g Loose Whole Hops In Mash
Slovenian Bobek (5.2 % alpha) 4 g Loose Whole Hops In Mash
NZ Cascade (8.0 % alpha) 4 g Loose Whole Hops 90 Min From End
Slovenian Bobek (5.2 % alpha) 4 g Loose Whole Hops 90 Min From End
NZ Cascade (8.0 % alpha) 7 g Loose Whole Hops 20 Min From End
Slovenian Bobek (5.2 % alpha) 7 g Loose Whole Hops 20 Min From End
NZ Cascade (8.0 % alpha) 15 g Loose Whole Hops - 80deg C steep
Slovenian Bobek (5.2 % alpha) 15 g Loose Whole Hops - 80deg C steep
Australian Summer Saaz (4.7 % alpha) 15 g Loose Pellet Hops - 80deg C steep

Other Ingredients
Protafloc 2 g used In Boil

Yeast: Danstar-Nottingham

A non-standard selection of pics coming up...

Here's my uber messy three tier kitchen brewery '




Yeast rehydration ;


and;



and;


An IC shot ;



The leftover hops - quite a lot for what'll turn out to be 10L of beer (15g were pellets);



More Hoppage ;



And more ;



Runoff/tap closeup action ;



And finished up in here!!!
With a few pints of Hophead

[WishboneBrewery]

Liking your closeups

[Parp]

Liking your closeups

Cheers!

One more pic - reversing the DOF here, did a straight one but it was crap. The sample jar (hydrometer package) is opaque anyways.

[Parp]

This bugger appeared to have finished fermenting after about 40+ hours.

That's bloody quick.

I had it in my brew fridge to keep the initial fermentation exothermic explosion down, which I managed to keep below 23deg C.
Fermentation had kicked off, presumably in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

By Wednesday Evening, at around 8pm, the ambient fridge air temp had dropped to 12 degrees - meaning that the fermentation was no longer kicking out any heat and was probably down to a slow simmer.

I'm moved it out of the fridge so I can condition another earlier batch.

I popped an airlock in an there's no activity.

Great performance from the Nottingham yeast - from the last batch, around 85% attenuation I reckon, and that was quick enough.
This batch has flown!

It could be a stuck fermentation, but I doubt it.
I'm not taking the lid off til Thursday, if the Hydrometer says 'yes' its getting bottled.

It's also left all of my hard fought for hop volatiles intact. Both recent Nottingham brews are still ringing of hops.

This could be due to either my change to the use of tap/water/campden tab/Cal Chlor and in the 2nd of the two also the use of gypsum (previously I was using either bottled water or filtered tap water with a touch of Cal Chlor ;

or

Mash Hopping.

Either way, I'm happy

[Parp]

I bottled/kegged this on thursday just gone.

Today I cracked open the 200ml clear glass QC bottle as it had dropped bright.

Tasted amazing! Uber fruit on nose and palate.

The hops haven't given quite the normal Cascade effect, but more a fresh "Summer Fruits" style affair.
I presume this must have something to do with the malt combination.

I've now named the Brew ;



After the band 'Grand Funk Railroad', the Simpson's tie in is due to them being Homer's fave band

[adm]

Good stuff Parp.

i love the label!

[arturobandini]

Last brew I did with Danstar Nottingham also got the job done in record time. Fermented some what on the cool side and it attenuated down to 1.006 from 1.040 in two days. All I did was rehydrate and pitch at 20c and it guzzled up the sugar. It's good for single hop pale brews I think as it really gives a taste and smell of the hops you use. I prefer it to US-05 which without finings can be a slow finisher , if excellent end product regardless, and if you drink your beer quickly it can make you get the Beer shakes.

[Parp]

Good stuff Parp.

i love the label!

Cheers

it attenuated down to 1.006 from 1.040 in two days

I brewed again on Friday and managed to balls it up on the boiler runoff.
That's what I get for using too many pellets I suppose

But anyways, I only managed to get maybe 7 litres instead of the planned 12 - I pitched a full 11g of rehydrated S-04 at about 6pm.

By teatime yesterday, the airlock had stopped.

S-04 can be a bit of a mentalist.

I'm not going to bother checking gravities, I'm just going to bottle it next weekend.

[WishboneBrewery]

My other half says thats whats in my head all the time!

... Dunno what she means!!!

[Parp]

My other half says thats whats in my head all the time!

... Dunno what she means!!!

Hehe!

Mmmm, Beer...

Keighley eh?

Am suppin a Landlord as I type - watching the footie scores come in.

Will Newcastle go down?... who knows!?

[WishboneBrewery]

T'is a fine pint that TTL

[arturobandini]

It's not looking good for the Geordies Parp but Hull are doing themselves no favours against Man Utd reserves. Unlucky deflection for the Villa goal and you only need to get one back as things stand!

[Parp]

It's not looking good for the Geordies Parp but Hull are doing themselves no favours against Man Utd reserves. Unlucky deflection for the Villa goal and you only need to get one back as things stand!

Aye,

I've got the Boro match on Setanta, and pressing 'refresh' constantly for the toon/Hull scores.

I honestly don't think Newcastle deserve to stay up.

I can see them saying up by the skin of their teeth though, and my reaction will be "Travesty"

I lost proper interest in football on the whole, a long time back.

I would however, be bothered if the "Toon Gannin Doon" had financial implications for the area.

True fans will follow them anywhere.

[arturobandini]

As a Mancunian Man Utd fan I was priced out back in the early Premiership days but it hasn't stopped me supporting the team and getting to the stadium when tickets and cash presents itself. It's something I miss but then that's the way of the world and if there are people willing to put that amount of money into 90 minutes of a Saturday afternoon then good luck to them. I'll be in the local watching it on dodgy Sky with a pint!

Always had a lot of time for Newcastle mostly because of their attacking football and that every fan I've ever met has been pretty affable and up for a pint. That could be said for the entire region though...friendly lot.

[Parp]

My last "Happy Toon" times were back when Keegan was manager first time around, and probably a bit of excited anticipation when he came back just recently.

Since then though, their attacking days were numbered under the likes of Dalglish and Gullit.

It's all a business now though, same with most clubs. I even went to see North Shields play a couple of times for that local feel again.