Mmm, I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends…"
Mmm is right. Yesterday was my birthday, so I took the day off work to FINALLY brew this batch I've been planning. The "help from my friends", we'll call them birthday presents, included: Russian kasha from gregwilsonstl, the new experimental English high-alpha UK Flyer hop variety from timbo41 and the elusive Adnams dual-strain yeast which jmc liberated from a Broadside mini-cask. You guys rock!
Lots going on here. You'll spy some distinctly American ingredients too, as well as my signature steel-cut oats. Is this strange brew a too-strong Dark Mild or too-hoppy Northern English Brown Ale? A Brown IPA? A bastardized old-timey Samuel Webster & Wilsons clone? A too-complex American Vanilla Cream Ale? An adjunct-laden Irish Red Ale or Scottish Heavy? A watered-down Jamaican Dragon Stout? A hoppy Russian kvass?
HELL, I DUNNO! I'm simply gonna call it English Best Bitter, and hope it's tasty.
I'm excited to taste a Flyer single-hop brew, and I'm also excited to compare the Adnams dual-strain fermentation to a familiar Whitbread-B version of the same beer. I don't know how it'll finish out, but so far it seems like the buckwheat added those elusive nutty/bready/biscuity notes that I associate with expensive UK pale barley malts. Thanks again, guys!
6.1 US Gallons = 5.1 Imperial Gallons = 23 Litres
GRAINBILL
61.5% = 7 lbs = 3175 g, Pale Malt (a blend of English Maris Otter and American Six-Row)
10.2% = 1.16 lb = 528 g, Buckwheat/Russian Kasha (thanks gregwilsonstl!)
8.8% = 1 lb = 454 g, Victory Malt 25L
5.7% = .65 lb = 295 g, Crystal Malt 80L
5.7% = .65 lb = 295 g, Steel-Cut Oats
1% = .13 lb = 60 g, Black Malt
7% = .79 lbs = 360 g, Corn Syrup with real vanilla (added to boil)
*did you notice that's only 10 ½ lbs of grain? That left more space than I'm used to in the mash tun. If I enjoy how this turns out, I can easily increase the batch size next time.
STRIKE grain bed with 3.5 US gallons water heated to 165°F/73.8°C.
MASH ≈ 152.6°F/67°C for 90 min, sprinkle-in some calcium carbonate at the beginning.
SPARGE at 170°F/76.7°C. Combine the first-runnings with corn syrup, bring to a hard boil for some kettle caramelization. Meanwhile, continue sparging into another kettle, eventually pouring the contents into the main boil kettle, aiming to collect 8.4 US Gallons/7 Imperial Gallons total pre-boil. In my case, the first-runnings boiled approximately 40 min before the rest was added, at which point I added the hops and started a 60 min countdown.
BOIL for 100 min total. Sprinkle-in some gypsum. Add immersion wort chiller at 15 min remaining.
HOPS (thanks timbo41!)
.6 oz = 17 g, UK Flyer, 60 min remaining
.6 oz = 17 g, UK Flyer, 30 min remaining
.6 oz = 17 g, UK Flyer, 15 min remaining
.88 oz = 25 g, UK Flyer, at flame-out, then steep 30 minutes while immersion-chilled.
*These hops were originally measured at 11% Alpha Acids, but were aged over a year and pulverized in search of seeds (see separate thread), so I'm guessing the bitter resin is much deteriorated. Nonetheless, they smelled great.
YEAST: split the wort into two fermentors with separate yeasts, fermented at 62°F/16.7°C.
1. Adnams dual-strain (thanks jmc!), 2.5 US Gallons/2.1 Imperial Gallons
2. Whitbread-B/Safale S-04, 3.6 US Gallons/3 Imperial Gallons
STATS (73% mash efficiency and 75% yeast attenuation): (Updated)
OG: 1047
FG: Adnams=1012, Whitbread=1013.5
ABV: Adnams=4.6%, Whitbread=4.4%
Apparent Attenuation: Adnams=74%, Whitbread=71%
IBU: ≈35-40?
COLOUR: 14° SRM/27.6° EBC, reddish copper
Morning Roll Call on the dining room table. I recently ran the base malts through the handy electric mill at my local homebrew store, so it just took 20 min or so to manually crack the remaining specialty grains. Fresh is best!
Picnic cooler mashing under way. Sparge water heating-up on the left, hops measured-out on the right.
I like to prep and mash in the kitchen, then boil on the adjoining back porch. It was raining, so I kept the digital camera inside. But there's the keggle, steaming away. P.S. I used that bag of potting soil when transplanting a Northern Brewer hop later in the day, and the little IKEA planter in the lower right contains some Wormwood (Artemis absinthium) which I grew from Chiltern UK seeds.
When I dropped-in my immersion chiller, I realized it wasn't well-suited to my bigger boil keggle. It couldn't reach all the way down, but somehow it still managed to chill the wort to pitching temp in 30 minutes.
Also, I skipped a thermometer when converting my keggle, figuring I could tell by looking whether it's boiling or not. Aren't I a clever boy? Well...now I realize I'd love a built-in thermometer to monitor the chilling process. Until then, I had to stick it way down in there, which you can kinda see through the glass lid. At least I got that cool feature right.
A close-up of the long-awaited Adnams yeast. It might've been a big mistake, but I chose to pitch jmc's vial straight into a smaller batch, as opposed to stepping-up a yeast starter (which I feared might introduce infection and/or genetic drift.) Of course, this means extreme under-pitching, with an extremely long lag-time where any number of other things could go wrong. Am I mad?
Flyer Best One and Flyer Best Two. Sounds like space shuttles. Fermentation Vessels filled, measured, aerated, pitched, wiped-down, and ready to move to the basement. By evening, the bigger Whitbread-B version was bubbling away. The Adnams version…not so much. C'mon boys, YOU CAN DO IT!!!
It rained all day, so the floor and I were a soggy mess, but I didn't encounter any real problems. It's almost like I'm getting this whole thing figured out.
Nah, as usual, I learned several new ways to enhance my equipment and processes next time. Overall, it was a great brewday. Can't wait to taste it!
