Irish moss

[trisers]

Well....having not brewed for many years i'm ready to start again. Thought I'd re-open my account with a London Pride (David Line), i remember brewing it a few times before and it always ranged from downright drinkable to very tasty indeed.
I've noted all the comments about reducing the hopping rate a bit from the original recipe because of the concentration of hop oils in the hops we get these days so i'll do just that.
Having read a lot of posts on here (extremely helpful thankyou), and re-read David Line's BBLTYB book the old grey cells are recalling the happy hours of stinking the house out on a brew day
The only problem I have is Irish moss!....you see when I brewed those long years ago Irish moss was a white powder, a spoonful of which got flung in with abandon about 15mins before the end of the boil! Now....i have bought some Irish moss and to my amazement it looks like....well....moss!
So...how do I use this?...Do I crumble it up and fling it in 15mins before the end? If so, how much do I use?

[prolix]

chuck in a spoonful with abandon with 10-15 mins to go (but that is another thread entirely )

[trisers]

I tasted some last night and the prominent malt flavours were the same but I could have done with mashing a little lower and increasing the hops a shade 10% maybe?

Thanks for that DaaB i'll give your recipe a go!
When you say you could have done with mashing a little lower do you mean at a slightly lower temperature or with slightly less grains?

[trisers]

Thanks for your advice DaaB....i'm just off to start brewing

I'll report back to let you know how it goes

[Vossy1]

Good luck T

[trisers]

well....mashing over and boil well and truly underway!

I'll post a pic or two in a mo

[Wez]

Nice one, this is a late one isn't it!

[trisers]

yup lol....always been an owl

[trisers]

Here's the mash....

http://tinyurl.com/3xvctv

now at about 65.5C....

http://tinyurl.com/3x5scq

running off the wort...

http://tinyurl.com/36c3zx

....and now boiling merrily

http://tinyurl.com/35n7co

haven't had so much fun in ages!

[trisers]

just finished running off into the fermenter....as I don't possess a wort chiller (yet lol) i'll leave it until the morning now, hopefully it'll be cool enough to pitch the yeast!

[Niall K]

DaaB wrote:

All you do is pour some hot water over a generous teaspoon of moss and allow it to rehydrate for 10 mins+ and add it to the boil around 10 mins from the end.

All I do is just put a spoonfull straight in without rehydrating. Does it make a difference?

Welcome back Trisers. Looks like your brew went well

[trisers]

Well it was at about 28c this morning so i pitched the yeast and the last of the hops. I said i'd try your recipe Daab but i didn't owing to the fact that i only had 3500gm of crystal!

Still....i took your advice and mashed at about 65-65.5c and ended up with a sg. of 1039....hope that's ok?

I also reduced the hops from the original recipe using 25gm fuggles, 50+10+10 goldings. I came home from work this evening and it's fermenting like fury!

http://tinyurl.com/3b3nyy

[ColinKeb]

looks good, fancy the london pride challenge ? drink a pint after 9 days ?

[trisers]

1039 is near enough for me Let us know how it turns out. Fermentation has kicked off nicely, I see you don't use a hop strainer though

Ahhh...just realised the error of my ways...David Line says add the last of the hops when the sg has fallen to 1012 and i've put them in at the start of the ferment Will this make a big difference do you think? (I don't mind if it's not too faithful a reproduction of LP as long as it's tasty!)

[trisers]

looks good, fancy the london pride challenge ? drink a pint after 9 days ?

Well not holding out my hopes comparing my skills to all you on here, but i'll certainly drink some after 9 days....whether it's palatable enough to drink a whole pint remains to be seen!