With the summer and a christening coming up I thought I needed to increase stocks somewhat.
The last couple of brews have been at the higher end of the IBU scale for the particular style, so I thought that I would try making something at the lower end of the scale and see if I could get taste of malts etc rather than a large hop hit.
So here is the recipe.
Pale 3200
Amber 120
Crystal ( light) 244
Wheat malt 175
Black 20
Hops
22 g Challenger ( 7.5%) for 60
30 g Goldings (5.1%) for 10
25 Goldings (5.1%) for 1
20 g Goldings (5.1%) for a 25 minute steep.
The starter was Essex ale yeast and this was made up by my eldest daughter ( I couldn’t as the baby decided that she wanted to to be carried. !
Everything went surprisingly well, although I am still struggling a little to get a steady flow out of the tun. I guess it will sort itself, else it is a human error.
Non the less I put the mash on, went to the mother in laws for dinner then came back in time to heat the sparge water and get going.
Here are a few ( lots) of filth for you to drool over ïŠ
Firstly the grist all weighed out and waiting for some nice hot water.
Then the hoppy goodness
Doughing in with the paint mixer and the bosch.. as long as this is done carefully there is very little air in the mash and absolutely NO dough balls.
The temperature was just .1 under at 65.9 so I thought that was good enough as I didn’t want to go much over 66 or thin the mash too uch in this case.
Then tucked up and ready for bed… whilst I go to eat at the inlaws!
The first runnings were extremely rich, sweet and dark. Much darker than I had anticipated and I wondered if I had made something that was going to be more like a dark bitter than an amber coloured ale.
There were however very clear going into the boiler.
And in time it was time to turn on the one element. I always like the site of a glowing light to say that things are ok, as well as the typical noise of a kettle element starting to work.
After I had 20 litres in the boler I switch on the second element and the Hot break came really suddenly with thick foamy head.
My youngest assistant said she wanted to put “ the stuff that stinks “ in so in went to Challenger… it sat on the hot break foam so we stirred it in.
And the rolling boil started so off went one element
After 10 minutes I drew off 500 ml wort and let it cool. Added it to the starter that was still active and in the course of 45 minutes it had gone from this
To this
The 10 minutes hops went in, then at flame out i cooled to 80 and dropped in the rest
And whilst I was cleaning up during the steep it was time for a well earned IPA made in January.. its starting to taste really good and in a month it will be greatïŠ
Cooling went fast this time and the cold break revealed an awful lot of trub and stuff
A slow run off from height ( for a change) gave great aeration and after the first couple of litres were in the wort was crystal clear.
But after draining there was some work to be done in the boiler. This was thick , creamy gunk.
I ended up with 22 litres at 1046 so by my estimet around 82% efficianect, the wort was ( much to my pleasure) around the colour I had hoped for
I tucked it away and sat down to relax when all was cleaned. Much to my amazement within 30 minutes there was airlock action and within 90 minutes I was met with this when I had a peek.
I thought that this was going to be a fast fermentation although it seems to be a steady one . Yesterday evening after 48 hours it had dropped to 1030 so I may end up having to rouse this one.
Non the less, I have already got permission granted to make the next brew at the end of the month!
Sorry for all the pics, I hope you sort of enjoyed them.
