AG#26 – Northern Blue

Posted by: pdtnc on: May 8, 2010

• In: Brewing
• 3 Comments

I started out with the Coniston Bluebird recipe but I’ve not got enough Challenger in the Freezer, so Northdown will be taking the place of most of the Challenger and there’s going to be some late Fuggles also as I want to finish a bag off.
The Malts are a bit like this too and I’ve moved away a little from the original, I had a bag of Wheat malt that I have a plan for 2kg’s of (Wheat Beer with WB-06) so the remainder of that Wheat is going in this along with a part bag of Crystal Malt which is near as damn it right for a Bluebird clone 😉
Additions to the above are Crystal Rye & Crystal Wheat.

Malts:
Maris Otter 3450g 84.8%
Wheat Malt 264g 6.5%
Crystal Malt 154g 3.8%
Crystal Rye Malt 100g 2.5%
Crystal Wheat Malt 100g 2.5%

The Malts are weighed out and ready with 1 Tsp of Gypsum for the mash:

Hops are liable to change as I only roughly weighed what hops I’ll be using so anything over these weights will be thrown in at the end of boil.
Hops:
Northdown – 60 mins 25g (FWH)
Northdown – 30 mins 8g
Northdown – 20 mins 15g
Challenger – 0 mins 19g
Fuggle – 0 mins 28g

Mash on @ 7.45am for maybe 60 or 90 mins:

Pretty much hit my choice of Mash temperatures but found I have about a 1.5C variance across my three thermometers, 2 digital and 1 spirit:

Today’s hops all weighed out:

Beer profile:
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34 EBU
Colour: 21 EBC

I’ll be using some Thick Edinburgh Ale Yeast I skimmed off my fermenter the other day, should be raring to go 🙂

Filling the Tun with the 1st batch sparge:

Top-down view of the FWH+Gypsum in thw Copper, Mash Tun and Underback:

Chiller already been in the copper for 15mins to sanitise, Flame Out hops in for a 20 or 30min steep:

Lovely thick skimmed Edinburgh Ale yeast from my last brew:

OG 1042, 2 points more than needed but near enough:

A good colour and very clear wort, tasted pretty good too:

Updates are on my T.watter page as I remember http://twitter.com/pdtnc 🙂

A No Fuss Brewday 🙂

Yeast Action Update, it was off like a rocket!

*Bottled 20th May ’10 with 75g Sugar, dropped to FG 1010 / 1012 tastes to have lots of body and a full robust flavour from the hops.

Tags: beer, bitter, Bluebird, challenger, craft brew, craft brewing, Crystal Malt, crystal rye malt, crystal wheat malt, edinburgh ale, fuggle, grain, grist, gypsum, home brew, home brewing, malt, Maris Otter, northdown, northern blue, pale malt, wheat malt, whitelabs, yeast