Tony1951
Bungling Amateur
Been thinking a little while about doing a Golden Ale from a recipe in the Hughes book. I was going to do it on Sunday when the lady is in York with her friends so as not to be in the way in the kitchen, then today, I thought about making a little bit of space in a corner of the shed. In fact it is quite big enough to make a decent little brewery in there if I could be bothered to clean it out and get rid of loads of old bikes and junk from when my sons were lads.
Given the working model sub on the wall behind the boiler, maybe I'll call this 'Unterseeboot Bier'.
So I put the ACE boiler in there and plugged it in, using the garden hose for water supply and the already wired up mains. Worked pretty well and went without any problems. Quite a nice afternoon too and seems almost rural at the bottom of the garden and no scowls either when wort got sloshed about... :)
I filled the boiler more than the last time (first boil then) and I boiled with about 24 litres, BUT... at a couple of points there was a near boil over condition. Right at the start and at about 45 minutes and again a moment later when the wirfloc went in.... I had to switch off for a moment then to control the rising froth which I am sure would have come over and made a mess.
I also topped up a couple of times with kettles of boiling water to keep the liquor level right for my recipe.
I slightly misjudged the amount as I only had 22l rather than 23l by the end, but this isn't a problem. The wort achieved an OG of 1040sg so it should come out about 4% ABV when the recipe aims at 3.8%. I also messed about slightly with the amount of crystal malt, the recipe calling for 300grms while I put in the whole 450 grams I had from the local brew shop. I compensated with slightly less pale malt to the same degree as the extra crystal, so the beer may be slightly darker than Hughes' recipe. I used the last two packets of Cooper's Ale yeast I had in stock which is another departure.
I'm really glad I was encouraged by Clibit's thread to start on what he calls, 'the dark side'. :) Lots of fun to be had mucking about with different balance of hops and malt and speciality grains. A jolly afternoon in the sunshine.
Recipe as carried out with Hughes' recommendations in square brackets:
Pale Malt (MO) 3.160KG [Hughes recipe 3.4kg]
Crystal Malt 0.450KG [Hughes recipe 0.3kg]
Goldings 20g 60 mins [Hughes EKG 60mins]
Progress 15g 60 mins [Hughes 60 mins]
Goldings 15g 10 mins [Hughes EKG 30 mins]
Progress 10g 10 mins [Hughes 30 mins]
Goldings 15g 0 mins [Hughes EKG 1min]
Hop addition times altered because I have an extended chill which takes about two hours because I don't have a chiller and I chilled it in 11 litre lots in my old stove top pan in the sink..... A bit weird I know, but you have to use what kit you have as best you can. I added the late additions later than the recipe said to try and counteract the long cool down effect of my naff chilling arrangements.
Those who can subtract better than me will notice that I was 100g light on the total grain bill, but my OG comes out almost exactly where it should have done.
Actual OG 1040. Wort tastes quite good - nice bitterness.
Given the working model sub on the wall behind the boiler, maybe I'll call this 'Unterseeboot Bier'.
So I put the ACE boiler in there and plugged it in, using the garden hose for water supply and the already wired up mains. Worked pretty well and went without any problems. Quite a nice afternoon too and seems almost rural at the bottom of the garden and no scowls either when wort got sloshed about... :)
I filled the boiler more than the last time (first boil then) and I boiled with about 24 litres, BUT... at a couple of points there was a near boil over condition. Right at the start and at about 45 minutes and again a moment later when the wirfloc went in.... I had to switch off for a moment then to control the rising froth which I am sure would have come over and made a mess.
I also topped up a couple of times with kettles of boiling water to keep the liquor level right for my recipe.
I slightly misjudged the amount as I only had 22l rather than 23l by the end, but this isn't a problem. The wort achieved an OG of 1040sg so it should come out about 4% ABV when the recipe aims at 3.8%. I also messed about slightly with the amount of crystal malt, the recipe calling for 300grms while I put in the whole 450 grams I had from the local brew shop. I compensated with slightly less pale malt to the same degree as the extra crystal, so the beer may be slightly darker than Hughes' recipe. I used the last two packets of Cooper's Ale yeast I had in stock which is another departure.
I'm really glad I was encouraged by Clibit's thread to start on what he calls, 'the dark side'. :) Lots of fun to be had mucking about with different balance of hops and malt and speciality grains. A jolly afternoon in the sunshine.
Recipe as carried out with Hughes' recommendations in square brackets:
Pale Malt (MO) 3.160KG [Hughes recipe 3.4kg]
Crystal Malt 0.450KG [Hughes recipe 0.3kg]
Goldings 20g 60 mins [Hughes EKG 60mins]
Progress 15g 60 mins [Hughes 60 mins]
Goldings 15g 10 mins [Hughes EKG 30 mins]
Progress 10g 10 mins [Hughes 30 mins]
Goldings 15g 0 mins [Hughes EKG 1min]
Hop addition times altered because I have an extended chill which takes about two hours because I don't have a chiller and I chilled it in 11 litre lots in my old stove top pan in the sink..... A bit weird I know, but you have to use what kit you have as best you can. I added the late additions later than the recipe said to try and counteract the long cool down effect of my naff chilling arrangements.
Those who can subtract better than me will notice that I was 100g light on the total grain bill, but my OG comes out almost exactly where it should have done.
Actual OG 1040. Wort tastes quite good - nice bitterness.
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