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C.C.A.N – Todays little hop-bomb. This actually started out as being an all Chinook idea as I’ve not done a single hop Chinook yet. I think this will be better though bittering comes from 2 additions of Chinook then a big Aroma Steep of Chinook, Citra, Amarillo & Nelson Sauvin.
This is also my National Homebrew Day (a day late ‘cos I had to work n stuff)

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 84%
Wheat Malt – 10%
Caramalt – 4%
Crystal Malt, Extra Dark – 2%

Copper Hops:
Chinook – 12.7 % @ 60 mins – 27g (First Wort Hop)
Chinook – 12.7 % @ 30 mins – 27g
Chinook – 12.7 % @ 0 mins – 30g (80c Steep 30mins)
Citra – 13.8 % @ 0 mins – 34g (80c Steep 30mins)
Amarillo – 9.5 % @ 0 mins – 30g (80c Steep 30mins)
Nelson Sauvin – 11.7 % @ 0 mins – 34g (80c Steep 30mins)

Dry Hops:
Motueka: 28g (pellets, what I had left)
Amarillo: 30g
Chinook: 18g (what was left in the packet)
Citra: 10g (just a touch of Citra, I wasn’t impressed with them dry)
Nelson Sauvin: 30g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.2 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 60 EBU
Colour: 23 EBC
Liquor: Burton Pale Ale profile in GW Calc (should help accentuate the hops and the bitterness)
Mash: 67c for 60mins
Sparge Liquor: 76c
Boil: 60mins
Yeast: Safale US-05

Malt Temp, with Liquor treatments added to the malts before mashing:
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A collection of hops from ThriftyShopper, BarleyBotton, GrimsbyHomebrew and WorcesterHopsShop, Motueka dry hops are from CraftBrewer in Australia:
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Some weighed out hops etc:
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Late 80c Steep hops in for 30min soak:
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Brewsheet notes and Yeast:
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Suppose to be 1051, near enough eh:
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Bit of a cock up, I was recycling my cooling water back to my HLT, watching a mark on my sight glass rather than the water level, showered water all over and wet a socket (eek!) Hopefully no damage done. Other than that a fairly lazy brewday, rehydrated my yeast for the first time in ages (reminded or guilted into it by others on Twitter, I should be nice to my yeast more often rather than the usual Dry Sprinkle on the wort).

*13th May ’11 Dry Hopped with 116g of Hops ;)
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*Bottled 21st May ’11 with 75g White Sugar primings, I filled 20x 500ml bottles and 1x 330ml, there must have been a good litre or so soaked into the Dry hops.

*Taster 28th May ’11 – Mmmmm Dry Hopped lovliness. Tasting this good this early probably means that in a couple of weeks it will be amazing 🙂

*Reviewed 20th Aug ’11 at www.davelozman.co.uk/beer/ag-54/ Dave had the oldest and very last bottle of this Hoppy brew, many thanks for the kind review.

I’ve been pondering on this one for a while, I think this is going to make a good combo of Hops… with hopefully a slightly spicy edge from the Crystal Rye and some good maltiness. Thats the plan at least!

Nelson Brucker

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 2740g – 75% (Actually 3650g as I weighed the total grain amount rather than the Pale malt!)
Crystal Rye Malt – 365g – 10%
Munich Malt – 365g – 10%
Torrefied Wheat – 180g – 5%

Hops:
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 60 mins 15g
Nelson Sauvin @ 60 mins 15g
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 15 mins 40g
Nelson Sauvin @ 15 mins 20g
Nelson Sauvin @ 0 mins 20g
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 0 mins 30g

Final Volume: 23 Litres – I’ve been going against my half batches a bit lately ;)
Original Gravity: 1.040 – (Actually 1.050 due to Pale malt mess up!)
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV – (Actually 5%)
Total Liquor: 32 Litres
Mash Liquor: 9.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 85 % – I’m starting out at 85% now rather than 75% (Actual Efficiency was 86.2%)
Bitterness: 42 EBU – (Actually 39 as I added 5 mins to boil to compensate a little)
Colour: 28 EBC – (Actually 30EBC, though it does look a nice colour)

Today’s malts:
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Weighing out the salts:
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Boring Mash shot:
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Our hops today are…:
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First runnings going into the copper with First Wort hops:
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Copper about Half full, collected a total of 30L @ 10.2Brix = 1.039, 108% Mash Efficiency??!! I think I must have weighed something wrong?! Maybe an extra kilo of Pale if it looks like its going to be a 5.1% after the boil:
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Weirdly I managed to hit 1040!:
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Quite like this colour, its Beer coloured:
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Pitched Safale US-05 at 22-23c
The post boil gravity was 1043 according to the Refractometer’s 11.2brix which should make the 4% beer I was aiming for if it finishes at 1012! (I’m a little confused about all this, should I really stick to 75% mash efficiency in my recipe software?)
1043 – 1012 x 0.129=3.999% ABV

*Bottled 22nd Sept ’10 with 75g White Sugar

Kind of in the vein of the Dogfish 60min IPA, and I have a big bag of Bobek! 🙂

Bobek 60 Minute IPA

Fermentables:
Lager Malt 2.5 3280g 87.1%
Munich Malt 185g 5%
Caramalt 185g 5%
Wheat Malt 110g 3%

Hops:
Bobek @ 60 mins 10g (FWH)
Bobek @ 60 mins 10g
Bobek @ 55 mins 10g
Bobek @ 50 mins 10g
Bobek @ 45 mins 10g
Bobek @ 40 mins 10g
Bobek @ 35 mins 10g
Bobek @ 30 mins 10g
Bobek @ 25 mins 10g
Bobek @ 20 mins 10g
Bobek @ 15 mins 10g
Bobek @ 10 mins 10g
Bobek @ 5 mins 10g
Bobek @ 0 mins 10g (Flame Out Steep for about 5-10mins)
Bobek @ 0 mins 10g (80c Steep for 20mins)

Final Volume: 14 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 6% ABV
Total Liquor: 22.2 Litres
Mash Liquor: 9.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 52 EBU
Colour: 9 EBC

Yeast is Nottingham.
Mash is 90mins @ 66c 1 Tsp Gypsum to mash.
Boil is 60mins.

The malt bill:
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Strike Temp:
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Mash Temp:
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First Runnings:
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FWH and old lager yeast for nutrient:
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The finally complete-ish 3-Tier brewery:
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Hop Soup, 150g of hops in a 14Litre brew length:
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Lovely clear wort, nice and light, with my new refrectometer 16 brix which is apparently OG 1063 which is 3 points over my target:
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Hops & Trub, ran off to FV very slowly to give chance for the hops to drain and I recken I got pretty close to my intended 14L:
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Running to FV, Pitched 11g of Nottingham Yeast dry sprinkled then thrashed with a paddle:
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I had a late start after calibrating my HLT, got the Mash on at 12.30 but the day has gone very smooth. The 3-Tier system has definitely helped and speeded up the cleaning down stages, I piped the IC waste water back up to the HLT and used that for cleaning everything else once the boil was done.
Hops were dumped on the garden and the spent malt is now chicken feed for our neighbour.
My oversight was forgetting to change the Hops AA% in BeerEngine, they were 3.7% rather than 5.2% so I’m having to settle for 52 IBU rather than 66 IBU… ahh well!!
The Temp controlled HLT worked a treat, I’m so glad I added the Solar pump as a HLT stirrer as it saved loads of ladder climbing and physically stirring it, just one minor leak on the intake of the pump while the HLT has about 44L in it.
I’m finally getting to the place I want to be at with the brewery, today felt smooth and logical with the only bind being adding hops every 5 mins! 🙂

*Bottled 10th July ’10

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:
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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:
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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:
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Today’s hops all weighed out:
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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:
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Top-down view of the FWH+Gypsum in thw Copper, Mash Tun and Underback:
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Chiller already been in the copper for 15mins to sanitise, Flame Out hops in for a 20 or 30min steep:
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Lovely thick skimmed Edinburgh Ale yeast from my last brew:
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OG 1042, 2 points more than needed but near enough:
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A good colour and very clear wort, tasted pretty good too:
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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!
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*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.

My Twentieth All Grain…!

This is a tweaked re-brew of my ‘Munich Blauer Vogel‘ which was based around the Coniston Bluebird recipe which drunk very well and I plan to try and keep it in stock as a House Bitter.
This time I’ve done it at a slightly lower ABV and also dropping the bitterness a bit with something I learned at work about blending hops to smooth out any inaccuracies, hence the addition of Bramling Cross for half of the bittering. Adding a bit of Wheat Malt for head retention.
I had some nice fresh acid-washed yeast from work which I will probably have to rouse from time to time as it works well with some added oxygen.

Uber Bluebird mkII

Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3100g – 77.5%
Munich Malt 500g – 12.5%
Wheat Malt 200g – 5%
Crystal Malt 200g – 5%

Hops:
Challenger @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Bramling Cross @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Challenger @ 20 mins 20g
Challenger @ 0 mins 20g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 16 EBC

There aren’t many photos as I had a busy morning, the Mash was on at 8.45am and I had to go out so it is going to be a longer than 90min mash.
Mashing at a planned 66c which turned out to be 66.6c so near enough.

The malts and Gypsum:
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Hops:
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Leftovers:
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Saltaire Brewery Yeast:
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FWH:
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OG pretty damn close to 1039 predicted:
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Trub and cooler with last bit of wort running off:
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The FV was looking a little full so I jugged out a few litres into a plastic demijohn, thought it best as I’m expecting a frothy creamy explosion, I pitched approx 75g of Saltaire yeast:
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I would have been done ages ago if I hadn’t had things to do this morning. Wort tastes good, lots of fizzy challenger bitterness 🙂  I was going to do a yeast comparrison with Nottingham but I really couldn’t be bothered, I’ll do a basic pale with Fuggles & Goldings with 5% crystal for a yeast comparrison… and besides I fancy and nice wholesome earthy F&G hopped ale 🙂

**update for yeast activity, within 4 hours I had good signs of life, this morning I have a deep frothy head 🙂

Yeast head after approx 24 hours from pitching:
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*Bottled 16th Feb ’10

Builders Lager – a lager based on HH’s Lager recipe, but 1000g of Munich and replacing the Saaz with Perle & Hersbrucker hops and no sugar. I’m trying to stick with something simple! 😉

Fermentables:
Lager Malt 3000g
Munich Malt 1000g
Caramalt 400g
Flaked Maize 400g

Hops:
Perle Whole @ 60 mins 20g (FWH)
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 15 mins 20g
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 0 mins 20g (20-30-ish minute steep)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 20 EBU
Colour: 12 EBC

Mash will be at least 90mins at 65c.
Diamond Lager Yeast to be well over pitched as its out of date.

The Grain bill, Lager malt, Caramalt, Crushed flaked Maize and 1 tsp Gypsum (Photo missing the Munich Malt):
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The Munich malt:
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Strike heat:
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Mash Temp, I was aiming for 65c:
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The hops, Perle and hersbrucker:
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I through half the bittering hops in as FWH and half when the boil started:
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Just coming to a good boil:
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the 15minute addition:
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The Hydro reading, 1046 ish:
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A full pudding basin full of rehydrated Diamond lager yeast:
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Running off into FV:
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Went pretty good, mash stuck a little, hit my predicted OG, day took longer to finish up as we had to go and meet with our electrician and plumber in the middle of it all, so the final soak hops got a very long soak!

**Racked to Cornie + 5 Large Swingtop bottles 31st Jan ’10

Pale and Hoppy could be an NPA (New-Zealand Pale Ale)… and a nice NZ film reference for the name :)
After tasting my other recent Nelson Sauvin hopped beer I see there is a good rounded mouth filling full hoppiness to the hops so I’m more than doubling the amount that I put in my last brew and going for a 80c steep for the lates.

Next weekend I may do a mad mix of Nelson+Cascade+Centennial with an almost identical grain bill.

Once Were Warriors

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 2240g – 86%
Wheat Malt 260g – 10%
Crystal Malt 100g – 4%

Hops:
Pacific Gem @ 60 mins – 8g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin @ 15 mins – 26g
Nelson Sauvin @ 0 mins – 26g (Going to let it cool a bit then do a 20 minute steep)
*maybe Dry hop, but probably not, will see…*

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 51 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

Maybe a bit of Burtonisation to the liquor, if I can be arsed, if not just a good helping of Gypsum to the Mash & Boil :)

The Pics…
The grain bill, Golden Promise pale malt, Standard Crystal malt, Wheat malt, 10g of Gypsum 5g of Epsom salt added to my liquor:
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Doughing in:
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Aiming for 67c so not far off:
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pH looks spot on:
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Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem hops weighed out with half a Protafloc tab crushed to the right, if this was a full 23L brew it would have taken a full packet of hops but as I am just doing a 12L I managed to just have enough Nelsons in a part bag from the other week :):
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End of 90 minute Mash:
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Sparge water running into Tun for first batch:
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Collected wort 1022/24 ish @ 55.5c and 17.5 litres collected in boiler makes for up-to 82% Mash efficiency:
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Just coming to the boil:
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Nottingham yeast to rehydrate:
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Big ugly cold break!!:
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Hit the OG right on the nail:
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Aeration:
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Did a 20 min steep @ 80c for those last hops, lovely clear wort running off the boiler which tasted pretty good though not as bitter as hoped.
Pitched rehydrated Notts yeast at about 23c, I’ll expect activity before long 🙂

***Update*** Bottled 22nd Dec ’09 with 50g DSM, the bitterness has come through now should be good 🙂

Its a two Batch day, I’m doing 12 litres a piece and actually taking my time over it. I decided to Mash then Sparge and collect, then Mash then Sparge and collect followed by 2 boils.

AG#13 – Bloody Nelson

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 2090g
Wheat Malt 260g
German Cara Red 260g

Hops:
Nelson Sauvin 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g
Nelson Sauvin 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 20g (I’ve doubled this from 10g as the hops were smelling good)

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.7% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

The Grains, golden promise pale malt, wheat malt, carared malt, 1 tsp gypsum:
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New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 67.7c:
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FWH & 1 Tsp Gypsum:
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Floaters:
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12g of Nottingham Yeast:
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20min steep of flame Out hops:
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Rehydrated Notts yeast within 1 degree of my wort temp:
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All put to bed now, lots of yeast for the 12L length, should get going pretty quick.
I’m not too sure if the CaraRed Malt has done its stuff, looked a bit straw-like in the boiler, will see better at bottling.
Near as damn it hit my OG just a point or two out. 🙂

AG#14 – Black Promise

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 1880g
Wheat Malt 260g
Black Malt 100g
Crystal Malt 100g

Hops:
Northdown 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Fuggle 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 20 mins 20g
Home Grown Fuggle 10 mins 21g

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 5.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 86 EBC

Grain weighed out, golden promise pale malt, black malt, crystal malt, wheat malt, 1 tsp gypsum, 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride:
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New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 66c:
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Good deep colour, though tastes a bit mild I was hoping for more of the Black malt flavours:
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FWH:
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WGV going in!:
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Home grown Fuggles going in:
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Near enough for me:
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All done, I just hope the Black malt comes through with the flavour as well as the colour. 🙂

**Bottled Bloody Nelson 27th Nov ’09 with 50g of DSM

**Black Promise *Bottled 3rd Dec ’09 with 55g of DSM


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