1420

[MEB]

I'm making an early start in the morning to brew. I'm quite happy with my Pale Ale now. So i'm on to my Best bitter. I was pleased with how my Green Bullet Best turned out so i thought i'd stick to the same grain bill but adjust the hops. I'm not going to hop this as heavily as GBB and i'm using different hops.

RECIPE
3573g 50/50 Golden Promise, Maris Otter
571 Crystal
58g Choc

90 min mash @ 66C

HOPS boil 90 mins
23g Styrians
28g Fuggles
20g Styrians 15 mins

1 tsp Irish Moss 10 mins

Ringwood Yeast

I'm aiming at 1.042 OG. 33 IBU's.

I'll get pic's of the Valentine Arm at work. Everyone should use one of these.

 

[BrewStew]

have a goodun MEB :thumb:

 

[MEB]

Well it's a bright and sunny morning over here. A lovely day to brew. HLT is filled and heating up. Should be mashing in half hour.

 

[Wez]

Go an ya Dancer!

 

[A T]

Have a good one MEB

 

[MEB]

Thanks A T. How's your brew going?

 

[A T]

Thanks A T. How's your brew going?

Still cooling, time for a drink me thinks

 

[MEB]

I've had a fun day. The brew went ok-ish. Took some piccies. Went out and got v drunk. :drunk:

 

[A T]

Well come on then lets have the piccies

 

[MEB]

Nope, i got ******. Starting to feel a bit ill now and not so ******. Off to beddies :sick:

 

[Vossy1]

I hope it turns out to be a great brew MEB

 

[MEB]

It turned out to be a weird brewday really. The sparge liquor was really high gravity for 15L then plummeted very quickly. I had let the sparge liquor get too hot and the grain bed got to 80C. Oh well. Something learned i suppose. :|

I'm not going to bother with ringwood yeast after i've finished off the supplies i've got. I can't be arsed with rousing everyday to get the stuff to ferment down to a decent level. I don't think it add's anything to my brews anyway. Rather disappointed with Ringwood actually. I find it bland and a poor performer. I also cannot get my beers to clear with it. So for me, i've tried it and don't like it.

Some pic's of my brewday to follow...

 

[MEB]

Here's the grains all weighed out

 

[MEB]

The mash...

My sparge 'device'. A bit heath robinson but it cost me nothing and it works.

Not a great shot but this is the level that i set the V arm to.

The V arm working. While i have a beer and take some pic's.

A pic of my 3 tier system. I love the V arm. Very simple, very easy to use and very effective. What more could you want in a bit of kit? I urge everyone to utilise this brilliant little device.

 

[MEB]

I only recirculate a litre, with the really slow flow rate i run i find i've no need to recirc more.

I'm surprised how stained my boiler has become in 9 month's. I plan to give it a clean soon. :whistle:

 

[MEB]

I took a gravity reading at the point where i'd collected 5L of wort. This is at 60C. It tasted wonderful. :thumb: Still quite dark but clear.

 

[MEB]

This was the last reading i took before ending sparging. The wort is beautifully clear here. Unlike my beer :lol:

 

[MEB]

Here are the hops. The little tub has 10g Sticklebract cones in and will be the first wort hop addition. I would not like to brew now without adding first wort hops. I'm not sure it does that much for taste or the like but it really, really helps with controlling the amount of foam produced when the wort first comes to the boil. Which means i can boil a greater volume in my boiler without fear of boiling over.
I always weigh out my hops into these bags and label them thus. I had a 'blonde' moment when i put the wrong hops in the boil. This helps avoid that.

 

[MEB]

Here's the boil. Which is quite fierce. If i turn off one of the elements it goes down to a very low simmer. So if I do a 90 min boil i lose 8L. From 28L down to 20L. I often turn one of the elements off and then when it gets a bit slow turn it on till it gets going then turn it off etc. But it gets dull so mostly i just leave them both on.

I'd like to get a 50L bucket for boiling and for my HLT but they seem impossible to get hold off in NZ. Combined with my new coolbox aquisition i could comfortably do 40L batches without having to do two boils. Or much extra expense.

 

[MEB]

Here's the wort cooling down. It felt a bit weird not throwing in 40g hops to steep. :lol:
As you can see i lost at least 8L during the boil. Plus whatever i lose to the hops-although i do give the bag a good squeeze. It pisses me off that i can only manage a 20-25L batch without doing two boils. Especially as i'm getting into my busy period and therefore will have less time for brewing. :cry:

Notice the dodgy looking white 'stressed' bit of the FV to the left of the tap. I'm getting nervous every time i use this now.

I think i'm going back to doing two boils and 40L batches. It makes it a full day brewing but it's better than two days.