Wez wrote:DaaB wrote:Sounds like a healthy fermentation and as long as the boil was a continual rolling boil you will be fine. Fuggles aren't an excessively bitter hop, besides flavour and bitterness can change dramatically during a 4 week maturation period...dont panic
I'm pretty sure it was a rolling boil, the hops we're circulating around quite a lot but it didn't look like a....couldron or anything, what happens if it's not a good continuous rolling boil.
Well, you might not get good hop utilisation, ie not as much bitterness as you want. You might not degrade protein enough resulting in less hot and cold break. This leaves too much protein in solution which can cause clarity problems during storage as it hazes out in the cold, or with age. That said some advocate a gentle boil, just enough to keep the hops rolling. I prefer to boil it hard, though my boiler is a bit too vicious on a 25L brew. I have to sparge to 20-25 degrees below OG to hit the target OG at the end of a 90 min boil.
One thing with recipe calcualtion. Do not base your ingredients on your final fermenter volume. If you do you're not allowing for losses to hops, ullage, etc. What happens is you end up diluting your ingredients because you calculated on the basis of say 24L in the fermenter but the ingredients were used in say 26L of beer, you having lost lost two during brewing, and finishing with 24 in the FV, or topped up to 24L. You're about 6% understrength in hops and malt. I always calculate my ingredients upon a 26L brew, and aim to finish with 24L. I almost always get what I want as a result, and if mash efficiency is good, I don't have to sparge the hell out of it.
Home Brew - Get the family involved 
