AG#4 Follys Best Bitter

[stevela]

It's sunday, the girlfriend is at work, sounds like time for a brew. As I've recently done an APA, Wit and Porter I figured it was time I tried to make a house Best Bitter, something that would be good in a dimpled glass :)

A quick look through the freezer to see what I had in stock and I've decided on the following recipe:

Recipe: AG#4 Follys Best Bitter
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 18.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 33.4 IBUs

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
4.25 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (5.5 EBC)
0.05 kg Black (Crisp) (1300.0 EBC)
20.00 g Fuggles [4.30 %] - First Wort 90 min
20.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.00 %] - First Wort 90 min
10.00 g Fuggles [4.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min
10.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.00 %] - Boil 15.0
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)
10.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.00 %] - Dry Hop 3 Days

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge, Drain
Total Grain Weight: 4.30 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 19.44 l of water at 72.0 C 66.7 C 90 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 15.20l) of 75.6 C water

Stike water is on and grain is weighed and sat in the mash tun ready to go.

 

[stevela]

Mash is on so time for quick fry up :)

This I decided to add the water to the grain rather than my usual dumping the grain on top of the water, it seems to have reduced the number of doughballs dramatically.

Missed temp by 0.7 of a degree, overshot on the intial temp then corrected with too much cold. but 66 is close enough for me :) One thing I have discovered is that my stem thermometer is not very accurate, definitely going to look at getting a PID when I pick up the new HLT.

 

[stevela]

A few images whilst I wait for the mash to finish:

Grain shot, nice and simple:

Fridge set to 19C and the porter removed to sit on the side for a bit whilst I wait for my cacao and vanilla to turn up for secondary:

Transferring strike water:

Unfortunately my tap wasn't sealed properly so when I attached the hose I'm getting a small leak (really need this new HLT :))

First Wort Hops waiting:

15 minute additions ready to go:

 

[stevela]

It's one of those brewdays, everything going swimmingly until suddenly the pump stops working. Took the hose out of the mashtun and checked the fuse, everything seemed fine so I put the fuse back in and plugged the pump in to check the 12v when suddenly it started working again...with the hose out of the mash tun...

I then went to connect the hose back to the HLT to transfer the sparge water and forgot to close the valve on the mash tun before disconnecting...hot wort all over my feet I haven't even had a beer yet.

In spite of these mistakes I now have 32 litres at 1.036 starting to slowly boil.

Now time to clean the mess!

 

[stevela]

Preparing to recirculate:

Transferring into kettle:

Lunchtime treat, one of my AG#1 straight from the fridge:

 

[Tomcat]

looks good, got to love those 'oops' moments

not sure there is anyone on here that does all grain that has not done one or all of those at least once - guess the trick is not to do them twice :thumb:

look forward to hearing how this turns out

 

[stevela]

looks good, got to love those 'oops' moments

not sure there is anyone on here that does all grain that has not done one or all of those at least once - guess the trick is not to do them twice :thumb:

look forward to hearing how this turns out

Wouldn't say I love them but they do make a brew day interesting :)

Getting close to needing the chiller now so hung the cables behind the sight-glass for 60 seconds to warm up and make easier to attach

 

[stevela]

All done and cleaned up 22 litres at 1.043

My final mishap of the day was the degassing stick falling off my dril when stirring the wort before adding the yeast!

Seems this one is eager to get fermenting as I can hear airlock sounds and it's only been 45 minutes since I pitched.

 

[stevela]

Just had a quick check of the SG, currently down to 1.015 and sounds of fermentation still going on so will leave this one another week before adding the dry hops (may have to take it out of my fridge though to crash chill the porter in the next week)

Looks superb in the trial jar and tastes fantastic, this may be one of my best ones yet when it is finished:

 

[stevela]

Bottled this today, 62 x 330ml bottles in total after chilling to 5C for a few days.

Now to wait a few weeks for it to carb up.

 

[PD]

nice one....... :thumb:

 

[Jeff Brewjubbly]

Nice job - that arsenal of bottles makes the stressful mistakes worth it eh? :)