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Archive for November 2013

AG#108 – Vienna Blonde

Posted by: pdtnc on: November 24, 2013

In: Brewing
4 Comments

Vienna Blonde – fair enough, this is not a Vienna lager recipe but I’m after an easy drinking beer for Christmas which anyone can drink. All German hops and done with subtlety, used the Mild Water profile from THBF Liquor Treatment Calculator to give it a healthy dose of Chloride.

Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 80%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 10%
Vienna Malt – 10%

Hops:
Magnum – 12.7 % @ 60 mins – 13g (FWH)
Hallertauer Hersbrucker – 3.0 % @ 5 mins – 23g
Tettnang – 3.8 % @ 5 mins – 23g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 20 EBU
Colour: 4 EBC
Mash: 60mins, Aimed for 69°c and got 68°c
Yeast: Safale us-05

The tiny amount of First wort hops:

This was the Mash pH:

A restrained amount of late hops:

The OG pre-liquorback:

After liquoring back I had around 24 litres, which will probably escape the FV once things start fermenting!

*30th Nov ’13 – Gravity at 1011.5, tasting those lageresque flavours with hints of honey, not bad at all its a nice little hop combo.

*Bottled 8th Dec ’13 – with 127g White sugar, hopefully be nice and crisp once its carbonated up.

*14th Dec ’13 – Early taster, a bready nose with some sweetness, woody with some floral in the mouth, a subtle decaying woodiness goes nicely with the smooth balanced bitterness, carbonation is a nice full pallet tingle, body is enough, just a hint of greenness. Maybe a slightly hotter mash and a lower percentage of Carapils.

Tags: beer, blonde, blonde ale, Carapils, garage brewer, Hersbrucker, homebrew, homebrewing, hops, lager malt, magnum, malt, safale us-05, tettnang, THBF Liquor Treatment Calculator, vienna, Vienna Blonde, vienna malt, yeast

AG#107 – iFuggle

Posted by: pdtnc on: November 9, 2013

In: Brewing
2 Comments

iFuggle – I’ve been threatening doing this for a while, a big-ass Fuggle IPA, its an experiment and I may not like it but thats no reason not to try! And its a while since I made a British IPA.
The Dextrose will go in with the Protafloc in the last 10 minutes so as not to effect the hop utilisation, I’m using a couple of @MagicRockStu’s tips too.

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 80%
Dextrose – 12.4%
Vienna Malt – 5.5%
Amber Malt – 2%

Hops:
Cluster Pellet – 7.9 % @ 75 mins – 150g (Start of boil)
Fuggle Whole – 5.1 % @ 5 mins – 150g
Fuggle Pellet – 4.3 % @ 0 mins – 100g (Dry Hop in FV)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.083
Final Gravity: 1.019
Alcohol Content: 8.4% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 137 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC
Mash: 60-90mins @ 63°c (I actually hit 64°c)
Boil: 75mins
Yeast: Safale us-05 – 2 packs

The malts, a fairly full bucket with just over 7kg:

150g Cluster T90 pellets:

Second batch sparge running in:

In go the pellets at the start of boil:

The late whole fuggles go in at 5mins left:

I liquored back from 1085.5 to 1083, and ended up with 22.3L in the FV:

Yeast pitched at 20°c, in the fermenting fridge set to 20°c too, cleaned up, no fuss as usual 🙂

*16th Nov ’13 – Gravity at 1021, tasting rather sweet, could that 1°c higher than my planned 63°c mash temp be to blame? I was hoping for nearer to 1010 by now. I have dry hopped with with 100g Fuggles pellets and given it a good rouse, hopefully it will drop a few more points.

*18th Nov ’13 – Gravity at 1013 this is more like it, a couple more points and I’ll be happy.

*20th Nov ’13 – Gravity at 1008! Makes this 10% which is quite a big beer and about 2% stronger than planned 😀

*Bottled 30th Nov ’13 – with about 75g white sugar, my scales were messing me around, tastes strong and traditional, good dark straw colour. It actually finished fermenting at 1006.5 making it 10.2%!