AG #10 Felinfoel Double Dragon

[Jeltz]

Based on GW's recipe but I use wheat malt rather than torrified, and my efficiency tends to be about 85% rather than the 70% that the recipes are based on so I left out the sugar ad scaled back the MO and Wheat. Also as I'm using dark crystal I left out the black malt and rounded up the crystal. Hops I left unchanged.

Anyway the final recipe is

Double Dragon

Recipe specifics:

Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
Batch size: 23.0 l
Boil volume: 33.0 l
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.010
Bitterness (IBU): 31.1
Color (SRM): 7.8
ABV: 3.9%

Grain/Sugars:

3.00 kg Maris Otter Malt, 87.7%
0.30 kg Wheat Malt, 8.8%
0.12 kg Crystal 135-165L (British), 3.5%

Hops:

7.00 g Bramling Cross (AA 6.5%, Whole) 60 min, 5.0 IBU
22.00 g Challenger (AA 7.3%, Whole) 60 min, 17.7 IBU
7.00 g Whitbread Goldings Variety (AA 6.9%, Whole) 60 min, 5.3 IBU
11.00 g Whitbread Goldings Variety (AA 6.9%, Whole) 10 min, 3.0 IBU

Yeast/Misc:

Gervin English Ale Yeast, 1.0 unit(s), Other
Irish Moss, 1.0 unit(s), Fining A teaspoon, boil 10 min

Mashed over night the mash started at 67°C @ 11:30 and dropped to 61.8°C by 10am. The temperature controller on my Electrim died while heatig the water to strike temperature so I've had to just use a kettle lead instead. I mash with 20L of water a mix of 50:50 tap and RO

MaxiBIAB and I dunk the bag in 10L of water @ 78°C for 10 minutes.

All the wort is then put in the boiler and mixed so that I can get a pre-boil gravity reading, although I also remove about 3 or 4L so that it doesn't boil over which gets added back to the boil in 2 stages. Temperature corrected the pre-boil gravity is about 1.035.

A nice rolling boil.

First hop addition; 22g Challenger, 7g of both Bramling Cross and WGV. I use a hop sock hung from the pulley I use to lift the grain sack, weighed down with a large marble.

Final Gravity after correction was 1.040, the sample was taken before letting the break material settle as I agitated the water while chilling so what went into the FV was a lot clearer. Collected 23l On the nail.

Yeast pitched at 25°C and placed in the fermentation fridge where its already down to 22.5°C. It will be fermented @19°C, next Sunday I'll rack it into a secondary then give it a week then on Saturday week I'll start crash cooling to drop out the yeast and on Wednesday 11th put it in a polypin (and a couple of bottles) to condition.

 

[PD]

nice one nic

 

[biggtime]

Very nice! Tempted to give something similar a go myself!

 

[the-erl]

Looks like a lovely brew! How do you find using the grain bag for your hops? Obviously it's easier transfering to your FV, but do you find any loss in flavour/aroma?

erl :drink:

 

[Jeltz]

I don't notice any difference really I did have a hop filter but it was a pain so I just use the hop bag and let it drain into the wort as it cool. I do have a spare piece of net curtain material that I put over the FV so that any break material which makes it from the boiler gets caught, not that I think it makes a big difference if some break material gets in.

 

[Jeltz]

Plan changed!

Having read up about polypins a bit more I see that many people don't prime, and that they transfer from the primary to the polypin after 7/8 days and let the residual un-fermented sugars do the job.

Having fermented for 7 days I checked the SG and found it to be about 1.011 so I turned the brewfridge down to halt fermentation and crash cool which its been doing for a few days.

Today I attached the polypin (via PVC tube) to the tap on my bucket (its a little bottler tap) and filled the thing. No mess simples! Squeezed out the excess air and popped the polypin in a "bag for life" to make it easier to carry. The one tip I would give is to place the tap downward so that the beer comes in from below which minimises foaming.

I'm hopeful that it will work out well as this is fantastically easy, apparently 3-4 weeks is OK for conditioning then I'll connect it to the beer engine. :thumb:

 

[Jeff Brewjubbly]

Very nice Jeltz - will be great to see the final product pics and hear about the taste test.

 

[Pearlfisher]

Hope it tastes better than the commercial Felinfoul. :drink:

 

[Jeltz]

Well this was the "leftovers" (seems as though the polypin took more than 20L) since it was poured off the trub I'm not surprised about the clarity.

As a very green beer it already tastes great, there is a little residual sweetness which will ferment but I can taste the hops and a nice malty after-taste already.

I need to find a bottle of the "real beer" to see if mine compares!

 

[Jeltz]

Well my 1st attempt with a polypin went a bit wrong and I had to re-prime the bag as the beer was flatter than a hedgehog on the motorway.

The pint is certainly drinkable but lacks body and might be a little oxidised too due to the polypin issue. Its not one I shall be doing again, nothing nasty just not inspiring.

 

[PD]

shame that...I enjoyed my double dragon

 

[Jeltz]

Well its not nasty just not my kind of beer, I've had a lot worse in pubs. I'll work my way through it though, if I disliked it then I wouldn't.