Belly Buster

[Maltmaniac]

Just did this one yesterday and would welcome any comments. Looks nice and red in the boiler so hoping for a nice red glow in the glass. Just an experiment cause I ordered the wrong grain and used up what I had.

Went well but brewed outside in a near gale force wind. Hope there weren't too many trees blown into the boil.

Pale Malt 5 EBC 10 lbs. 3.3 oz 4630 grams 88.3%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 12 grams 0.2%
Cara Munich III 150 EBC 1 lbs. 1.6 oz 500 grams 9.5%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 0 lbs. 3.6 oz 100 grams 2%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Fuggle Whole 5.2 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.4 oz 40 grams 51.3%
Challenger Whole 6.6 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.6 oz 18 grams 23.1%
Fuggle Whole 5.2 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.7 oz 20 grams 25.6%

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 13.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34.875037236494 EBU
Colour: 36 EBC

I'll maybe remember to update with a taste summary in a few weeks.

[Maltmaniac]

Well 4 days in a keg and I am now sampling, purely for a nice whisky chaser, and find it nice with a hop bitter smokeyness. Not quite sure if it's the challenger or the fuggle that shows the most but it is, even this early, a fine glass hugging ale which has cleared well. I am enjoying with a nice single malt whisky and the flavours of the beer are pronounced even against the whisky. I need to lock it down for a month or it will be gone in days and I won't get the true brew taste. What an utter pain this beer brewing is

[Jim]

Nice to hear it turned out OK.

Nice name as well.

[Maltmaniac]

It's one I'll try again with some higher alpha hops for bittering along with the fuggles and challenger. It's too early to say how the taste will be once it's conditioned and to whether it will be tweeked. I wonder if it's changed much since this morning? Temptation, I can hear my Belly Buster shouting 'drink me'.

[Maltmaniac]

Well the pressure barrel has survived quite well and I reckon I maybe have 2 gallon left of this particular brew. Been nice easy drinking and just had a couple of pints this afternoon and it tastes very similar to Pedigree Best Bitter (bottled). That's 5 weeks in the barrell and for me the difference in a couple of days is huge, so I'll leave it untweeked and condition for 5 weeks before sampling next time. Nice drinking to this point but just the right balance now and head retention has improved as well. Chuffed to have such a nice beer with a 'shot in the dark'.