AG #13 - Bog Cleaner

[Naich]

Yes, I've totally run out of ideas for brew names. I haven't been able to hang around JBK recently due to family problems taking up most of my spare time, but I managed to get a brew day in Saturday night / Sunday morning. It was windy as hell so I won't be surprised if something nasty was blown into the wort - there were leaves swirling round me as I ran off into the FV. But you never know.

Bog Cleaner by naich -- beerforge.com/recipe.php#177
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Testing out the Amarillo hop.

Volume: 23L, Efficiency: 78%
Alcohol (ABV): 5.1%, Original Gravity: 1.052, Final Gravity: 1.013
Bitterness (IBU): 47, Colour (EBC): 7

Recipe
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Malt/Fermentables:
1. Pale Malt - Marris Otter (5 EBC) : 4871 g (98%)
2. Caramalt (30 EBC) : 99 g (2%)

Hops/flavourings:
1. Amarillo - AA 8 - (90 min) : 25 g (25%)
2. Amarillo - AA 8 - (30 min) : 25 g (25%)
3. Amarillo - AA 8 - (15 min) : 25 g (25%)
4. Amarillo - AA 8 - (1 min) : 25 g (25%)

Yeast: Safale US-05 (Attenuation 75%)

I really took my time getting the hop quantities in the recipe just right Obligatory grain shot -



Up with the lark on Sunday, raring to go with a coffee and plan:



For this brew I'm using .: - .'`: -. hops. Most of the words seemed to have fallen off the label, but I think they were the right ones. I've got some pocket scales of the sort that hop dealers use when they want to weigh out small quantities of hops to sell to their friends.



Don't forget the Whirlfloc this time...



First runnings...



boily boily...



and it's spot on 1.052, not that you can tell from this picture. Nice clear wort though:



And now it's bubbling away like a good'un. Hopefully it's just my yeast eating it and not all the neighbourhood yeasts dining out on my beer. I've got a sneaky suspicion I might be getting a nice 33L stainless pot for my birthday, so the plan is to try to devise a system where the wort is sealed in from the point the chiller goes in, transferred by a sealed pipe to the FV and then bubbled with filtered air through an air stone. That's after I've made the recirculating water TEC chiller. And while I'm doing all this I'm working on the web site too, of course...

Good job there's bugger all worth watching on telly these days.

[WishboneBrewery]

Scales - ha ha ha, yes!

That is going to be lovely, I like Amarillo

[Naich]

They smelled lovely when I chucked them in. Despite they poxy hayfever clogging my head up I could still get a sense of the lovely pungent fruity floweriness. Drool

[Hogarth]

Great pics, Naich. But what is that hideous green thing?

Are you pleased with those gram scales? I see you can buy them on ebay for 99p plus postage.

[Kev888]

Looking good yet again - and thats a very clear sample jar!

Hope it turns out well!

Cheers,
Kev

PS the incompetent ale I made has come out as a decent pint of bitter. Sadly some of my own incompetencies mean that its not really clearing but taste-wise a couple of mates have said they'd be happy to drink it in a pub.

[Naich]

Cheers guys. That hideous green thing is an evil frog that vomits brightly-coloured plastic balls all over the garden whenever one of our kids goes near it. The scales are (I think) these ones - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenex-KX500-Pro ... B000XXZAU4 and at a tenner including postage you can't really go wrong. I haven't tested them for accuracy but the numbers always seem to come out about right.

Glad the Incompetant Ale has come out OK Kev- what went wrong with it to make it not clear? Maybe there is some sort of curse on that recipe?

[Kev888]

I'm envious now - the frivolous frog brewery suddenly seems lacking in the mascot competition

Not sure about the cloudiness, it was the first time I'd done a full brew length in the new setup so there was a bit of amateurishness about proceedings generally (of course, I blame those secretive brewshed gremlins!). I daresay a few more weeks will see it clear anyway, or would if there was any left by then!

Cheers
kev

[Naich]

Kegged this the other day and it's shaping up to be a nice pint. The Amarillo has a lovely subtle flavour to it and the bitterness that I thought might overwhelm the beer is rounding off nicely. No signs of any infection either, which is a relief.

[Kev888]

Good stuff!! It certainly sounds nice from the recipe (if less so from the name!).

Cheers
Kev

PS Just a quick update on my version of the incompetent ale - its beginning to clear now and in fact is still improving; it was already quite a nice pint

[Naich]

Excellent stuff Kev. The name came from a mate who asked me if I'd be taking it to the local beer festival. I told him I would and that they would be using it to flush the chemical toilets. I do find it hard to think of names.

[Kev888]

Haha - inspired! Doing yourself down there I'm sure though; I quite like the idea of such names - suggests the beer can calmly stand up in its own right without having to boast about itself.
Though to be frank after some friends took rather well to the incompetent ale, presumably it was their inevitable trips to offload in the WC that caused them to re-name it incontinent ale.. <sigh>

cheers
kev

[Naich]

This has cleared already. It's lovely and bright, with a bright taste too. Nicely bitter and not harsh, with big gobfuls of spiced orange Amarillo - it's not psychotic like the Citra brew was. There is just enough sweetness to balance the bitterness but not enough to be cloying. Bearing in mind that I paid no thought to the hop quantites and just split the bag into 4, it's come out brilliantly.