Dog Days 23/08/09

[adm]

I've not brewed anything for a good few weeks now, having been on holiday, then away with work, then last week we had the In-Laws down to stay a full week, which meant almost all my beer got drunk and so i find myself only a few kegs away from beggaration.

But at last I got a chance to brew and so I made this:

Dog Days

Grain:
UK Pearl Malt 4.500 kg 80.4 %
UK Munich Malt 0.500 kg 8.9 %
UK Crystal Wheat Malt 0.300 kg 5.4 %
UK Wheat Malt 0.200 kg 3.6 %
UK Flaked Barley 0.100 kg 1.8 %

Hops:
UK Golding 4.6 % 70 g 34.0 IBU Loose Whole Hops First Wort Hopped
Czech Saaz 2.8 % 60 g 8.2 IBU Loose Whole Hops 15 Min From End
Czech Saaz 2.8 % 40 g 0.0 IBU Loose Whole Hops At turn off

Yeast was S-04.

This used up lots of left over bags of grain but I'm not sure what kind of beer it will end up being. Should be tasty though - maybe in an almost Belgian Pale Ale kind of way.


Inventing today's recipe....


the grist


First Wort hops. Lovely EKG.


And some Saaz out of the freezer for the flavour and aroma.


pH looks good.


Mash temp is spot on (and only down to 66 after 90 mins)


First wort hops in the boiler


Running off....


Coming to the boil


Here are the money shots!



Anyway. I ended up with 24L at 1053.....a nice smooth brewday that fitted in well around family stuff this afternoon. S04 pitched at 24C. I'm going to leave it to cool overnight, then stick it in the fermentation chamber set for 18C tomorrow morning.

Must order some more crystal malt.....

[simple one]

Very similar to a brew I did ages ago. It was really nice. Quite spicy.

[oblivious]

Nice one adm great brew and pics

[ChrisG]

Good images as always.

It looks to be a really good brew.

[wetdog]

what's the reason behind putting the hops in first as opposed to when the wort is boiling?

[adm]

Good question.......

No real reason other than personally, I think it gives a slightly smoother bitterness - plus it helps to stop any boil overs. I just do it as the beer tastes good and it's easier for me to bung those hops straight into the boiler rather than having them sitting around on the worktop where they might get confused with the 15 minute hops....

There's lots of stuff on the web about First Wort Hopping and although none of it's really conclusive, it seems to point towards a smoother more rounded bitterness.

[adm]

Just a short note to say this is now a cracking beer. I tried it a couple of weeks ago and it was still rough around the edges, but it's really transformed now. Mellowed out and cleared up.

Mmmmm......Goldings and Saaz is a nice combo.