An Ankoù
Landlord.
Brew day started midday yesterday and all washed up and put away in time for lunch today. Two brews: the first is this legendary Mainline or Foxbat Bitter, references to which crop up in posts all over the forum and all very complimentary so, as my Holy Grail is that imaginary perfect pint that I used to drink many decades ago when I should have been in school, I decied to bite the bullet. I used Foxbat's recipe from 15th Oct 2017 "Mainline Bitter..." following to the letter except for 3 things: I used my tap water treated for chlorine instead of Tesco Ashbeck, but included all his water treatments as my water is soft; I added half a pound of torrified wheat to to ensure a good head; I used Mangrove Jacks M42 as my dry English ale yeast. I understand this derives from a dry Whitbread yeast. 2½ gallon batch, all went according to plan, and what can I say? The fermenting wort smells and tastes like the old kit beers I used to make in the 70s, so maybe I've found the Holy Grail.
Second brew: my good lady loves Duvel Triple Hop- Citra and would drink it by the pint if she could. Decided to tackle a more swiggable version. Following the recipe for Duvel in Jeff Alworth's "The Secret of Master Brewers" (he also wrote the Beer Bible). Recalculated ingredients to give a wort with OG 1060, which, should come out at about 6½% abv. Chateau Pilsner, carapils, sugar, Styrians and Saaz at the appropriate points then a good sub 80C stand with Citra. Will dry hop with Citra, too. Alworth insists the protein step must not be omitted during the mash. Other's agree and others say don't do it. Anyway, I did it. Collected 20 litres in my hitherto unused Speidel fermenter, gravity spot on at 1060. Squeezed another 2-and-a-bit litres of trub and juice out of the hop bed, put it in a demijohn and washed and squeezed the hops again to bring up to four litres and pitched with half a sachet of 12-year-old kit yeast of forgotten provenance and it's already going like the clappers of hell.
Will report back on all when they're done.
That's to say: if I'm capable of reporting then they're not very good and if I'm totally incapable, then they're gorgeous!
The thing that worries me about Jeff Alworth's otherwise excellent book, is that his very first recipe is for Greene King IPA. But that's for another thread.
Second brew: my good lady loves Duvel Triple Hop- Citra and would drink it by the pint if she could. Decided to tackle a more swiggable version. Following the recipe for Duvel in Jeff Alworth's "The Secret of Master Brewers" (he also wrote the Beer Bible). Recalculated ingredients to give a wort with OG 1060, which, should come out at about 6½% abv. Chateau Pilsner, carapils, sugar, Styrians and Saaz at the appropriate points then a good sub 80C stand with Citra. Will dry hop with Citra, too. Alworth insists the protein step must not be omitted during the mash. Other's agree and others say don't do it. Anyway, I did it. Collected 20 litres in my hitherto unused Speidel fermenter, gravity spot on at 1060. Squeezed another 2-and-a-bit litres of trub and juice out of the hop bed, put it in a demijohn and washed and squeezed the hops again to bring up to four litres and pitched with half a sachet of 12-year-old kit yeast of forgotten provenance and it's already going like the clappers of hell.
Will report back on all when they're done.
That's to say: if I'm capable of reporting then they're not very good and if I'm totally incapable, then they're gorgeous!
The thing that worries me about Jeff Alworth's otherwise excellent book, is that his very first recipe is for Greene King IPA. But that's for another thread.
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