AG#6 - Summer Pale Ale - "Thunderplump"

[Manx Guy]

Hi

This is my planned brew for tommorow (04/04/11), a nice simple Pale ale for summer drinking...

This is my first 'own recipe' brew, so comments on the recipe are welcome:

Fermentable Colour Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 4160 grams 90.5%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 435 grams 9.5%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time grams
Northdown Whole 8 % 60 mins 38 grams
Golding Whole 4.0% 2 mins 20 grams *
Golding Whole 4.0% 0 mins 14 grams **
*(Bagged, for 2 min ‘sanitising boil’, fished out and bag added to fermenter- after 3-4 days)
** Loose (80c steep)

Final Volume: 23 Litres Original Gravity: 1.045 Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.5% ABV Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Total Liquor: 33.9 Litres Mash Liquor: 11.5 Litres
Bitterness: 30.0 EBU Colour: 7 EBC

I plan to mash 66c for 90mins and boil for 75 mins.
Yeast is WLP 023 'Burton Ale' (1 litre starter @1040, chilled over night and slurry pitched at 20C) I've split it for future use and may repitch the slurry from this to an IPA...
I chose this as I want little fruityness from the yeast...

Updates and hopefully some pics to follow



Guy

[Spud395]

Look good, just have to ask about that "*(Bagged, for 2 min ‘sanitising boil’, fished out and bag added to fermenter- after 3-4 days) "
Never seen it before, are you using those as aroma hops and then also dry hops?

[Manx Guy]

Look good, just have to ask about that "*(Bagged, for 2 min ‘sanitising boil’, fished out and bag added to fermenter- after 3-4 days) "
Never seen it before, are you using those as aroma hops and then also dry hops?

Yes I plan to reuse the 'steeped' aroma hops again as a dry hop after the initial fermentation has died down a bit...
I got the idea from Pantsmachine a user on this forum - so can't/won't take credit for the idea



Guy

[Spud395]

Cool, so how do you keep them sanatised for the few days?

[Beer O'Clock]

Cool, so how do you keep them sanatised for the few days?

I was wondering the same thing. I was thinking, maybe freezing ?

[Spud395]

I'm sure that'd do the job all right.
I'm allways genuinely interested in new approaches and with the amount of reading I do it's pretty rare when I come across something I've not heard of before.
Originally I looked at the post as it's something I've planned soon (a summer pale) but I might have to try out a bit of this craic as well with it!

[Manx Guy]

Hi, yes thats right...

I'll place the hops in a sanitised box and put them in the (cold compartment of the fridge) fridge at 2C for the 3-4 days while the fermentation starts to calm down.

Freezing would work just as well, but you'd need to thaw the hops first to avoid shocking the yeast...

I think quite a few people re used steep hops in a similar manner, and som eof them quite well respected memebers of this forum



Guy

[Manx Guy]

Well I decided to do an overnight mash as I was up late anyway and fancied a lie in....

The mash was on 8 hours and I lost just under 7 degrees C in that time... so not a bad result from the MT
However in my slightly drink addled state I forgot to take a pH reading, So took one this morning and it was a little on the high side at 5.4 - I usually am bang on 5.2-5.3 ...

Boil started a bout 15 mins ago...

I'm off to go check everything is going ok...



Guy

[L2wis]

Ace stuff best of luck with the rest of the brew!

[Manx Guy]

All done!

collected 23l at my target of 1045 so pleased with that!


Here are a few pics :

after cooling the run off into the FV:


And the 'money shot - hit target! (@20C so no correction required!)


Yeast is already getting to work! Pitcehd about 200ml of slurry from a starter @13.30
updates to follow...
Cheers!

Guy

[Manx Guy]

*update*

Yeast is spewing out of air lock...

I think some yeast skimming is in order!

Just off to do it now....



Guy

[Manx Guy]

Update:

After 10 days frmenting at 20C the yeast seems to have slowed right down... a SG sample revealed a reading of 1007, so that quite a low finish!

I make that about 5% abv... a bit more than I expected but it should make it a nice dry beer...

The sample tastes goo dif a bit yeasty and the colour is very pale but cloudy with suspended yeast...
I'll transfer this to a PB for a couple of weeks before bottling ( I plan to put about 10 litres into 2x easy kegs for BBQ's etc.)

final tasting notes to follow


Guy

[Manx Guy]

Hi, just an update on this one...

Its been in the PB for secondary/to settle since the 17th April - It is clearer but not yet clear...

I'm thinking of bottling half and putting 10 litres into 'easy kegs' where hopefully the rest of the yeast will settle out (on the theory that bottles clear quicker than kegs or larger vessels)

I am a little concerned about leaving it longer in secondary as I added some dry hops (in a grain bag) when I kegged...
Could I just fish the bag out in as 'sanitary' fashion as possible? So I can pop it in the lagering fridge at 5C to drop out more yeast?

The beer is tasting good nicely crisp and dry with pleanty of hop character, I would just like it to be clearer...

I could put in the lagering fridge as my Oktoberfest has now had 8 weeks in there and tastes great!

*edit* I used WLP 023 if that helps...



Any suggestions/advice welcome....

Cheers!

Guy