AG#1 (Hopefully!) - Best Bitter

[Hops_and_Dreams]

After the balls up of the last attempt, it was now time for another go at an all grain brew.

After getting a fair bit of earache for keeping brewing gear and beer in the spare room, I finally ordered another shed to keep it all in. As a reward for myself, I also ordered a thermo pot from Bergland to make mashing a bit easier (plus they look pretty cool and I can pretend to SWMBO that I know what I'm doing). They told me they were out of stock and would be despatched 2nd week of January. I duly paid for it and then got a despatch notification, so it would arrive before the new shed - oops!

Anyway, it arrived yesterday in time for today's planned brew. Had a bit of grain to use up and thought it would suit a nice bitter, plus the father-in-law (who doesn't like hoppy beers) is after some beer and I feel bad about only giving him the Wherry I've just bottled.

Brewed as follows:-

Best Bitter
20ltr
Target OG 1044
Target FG 1011
ABV 4.3%
IBU 30
SRM 12

3750g Maris Otter
250g Dark Crystal
250g Torrified Wheat
50g Carafa III

30g EKG 60min
10g EKG 15min
10g Styrian Celeia 15min
10g EKG 0min
10g Styrian Celeia 0min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Rehydrate 11g Safale S-04 and pitch at 20c

It's currently boiling away after the first hop addition, so remains to be seen if I've hit targets ok. Did a dunk sparge, but need to make some sort of device to let the grain bag drop into as I reckon there was at least a pint of wort in the washing up bowl after I'd left it for a while, even after a good squeeze.

Also looking forward to fitting a second element to my pot, seemed to take forever to get from 60c to boiling.

I'm hoping to get some fruitiness from the Celeia, similar to TT Landlord, although I suspect it's from the yeast.

Will update shortly...

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Argh! Must have added too much water this time. Started with 32ltr and ended up with 24ltr. Used the same amount to start with last time and ended up with 18.5, although used more hops and grain.

OG 1032 and added a bit of sugar to bump it up to 1036. Will adjust the figures to work out efficiency - if it's close to 65% then I'm not so worried. If it's nowhere near then I don't no what I'm doing wrong. The grain was a couple of months old which probably didn't help.

All a learning curve eh?

EDIT - I started with 30 last time, hence the extra 2ltr this time.

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Just mini kegged this, what a pleasure that was compared to bottling!

I'd not had a taste up until now as I'd lost interest in it a bit as it didn't go to plan. Although a bit watery, it tasted pretty good. Shame as I think it would have been really nice at full strength.