foxbat's brewdays

[foxbat]

Today's brew is a bit of a follow-up to my Mainline Bitter, imaginatively titled Mainline Bitter No.2. The malt bill's much the same but the hops are slightly different. I'm aiming again for a classic English easy drinking dark brown bitter with a bit of caramel & toffee to it. Yeast this time will be Omega OYL-052 DIPA which may seem a little out of place but these "Vermont" ale yeasts are reputed to have originated here in England and do give a fruity character that I think will play well with the English hops. Here's the recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Recipe: Mainline Bitter No.2
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 L  
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 25.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 30.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Finished water profile: Ca:57, Mg:10, Na:10, SO4:105, Cl:46

Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          %/IBU
28.31 L      Tesco Ashbeck                                    Water         -      
2.80 g       Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash)                  Water Agent   -      
1.63 g       Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash)                        Water Agent   -      
1.17 g       Calcium Chloride (Mash)                          Water Agent   -      
0.93 ml      Lactic Acid (Mash)                               Water Agent   -      
3.66 kg      IREKS Pale Ale Malt (6.0 EBC)                    Grain         94.2 %  
0.15 kg      Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (240.0 EBC)           Grain         4.0 %  
0.07 kg      Chocolate Wheat Malt (1000.0 EBC)                Grain         1.8 %  
0.60 g       Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge)                Water Agent   -      
0.35 g       Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge)                      Water Agent   -      
0.25 g       Calcium Chloride (Sparge)                        Water Agent   -      
0.17 ml      Lactic Acid (Sparge)                             Water Agent   -      
15.00 g      Challenger [6.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min              Hop           10.8 IBUs
12.00 g      Endeavour [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min               Hop           12.8 IBUs
10.00 g      Challenger [6.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min              Hop           2.6 IBUs
10.00 g      Endeavour [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min               Hop           3.9 IBUs
1.00 Items   Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins)                 Fining        -      
20.00 g      East Kent Goldings (EKG) [4.10 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop           0.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg      DIPA Ale (Omega #OYL-052)                        Yeast         -      

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 3.88 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash In           Add 23.31 L of water at 69.0 C          66.0 C        60 min      

Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5 L of water at 75.0 C

Brewday started this morning at 7:00am. I milled my grains while the mash water heated up:

There were no issues with the mash and I got the expected pre-boil gravity of 1.037, falling a little short on the expected volume by 300ml. The hops for today's brew came from the Malt Miller.

I didn't notice that the Challenger was 2017 when I ordered it but they smelled fresh and floral so I'm not concerned. An hour's boil plus chilling time later and I've got myself about 22.5 litres of lovely looking 1.040 chestnut brown wort.

It's in the brew-fridge chilling from 25C where I stopped with the immersion chiller to a pitching temperature of 20C. I expect I'll be pitching the OYL-052 starter later this evening.

 

[foxbat]

The starter was pitched on Monday evening and by the following morning there was rapid activity through the blowoff tube. I pitched at 19C and will turn it up to 20C when it shows signs of slowing down.

 

[foxbat]

I kegged the Mainline Bitter No.2 today after 13 days in the fermenter. FG was 1.007 for an attenuation of 82% and an ABV of 4.3%. No surprises there, all my brews regardless of yeast seem to attenuate in the mid-80s.

I fined with Kwik-Clear, purged the headspace with CO2 and it's now on gas for a couple of weeks while it carbs and conditions. I think I'll have a cheeky sample next weekend just to see how things are going because often my lower ABV ales are ready surprisingly quickly. The sample jar tasted really promising.

 

[foxbat]

So, I've just finished a weekend entertaining family members and both the Southern Silk IPA and the Mainline Bitter No.2 were very well received (phew, the pressure's off for a while). Mainline Bitter No.2 has been in the keg for 2 weeks and the initial 'it's too early to drink it but I'm going to anyway' flavours have subsided. The taste is of smooth malt, caramel and toffee backed by that classic floral/herbal hit of East Kent Goldings and Challenger. It's very, very similar to the first one I did. There's no winner to choose. It depends on whether I'm more in the mood for the EKG flavours or the more earthy contribution of Fuggle. It's six and two threes to me; I'd take either.

 

[foxbat]

I got my starter on today for this weekend's brew which will be Outback Ale No.2, a re-brew with minor changes of one I did last year featuring Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy. Nelson's a bit of a love it or hate it hop and I love it especially when it's combined with Galaxy and has a decent malt backbone to balance it.

This will be the 3rd use, through overbuilding, of my OYL-052 "DIPA" yeast. I love this Vermont strain and just can't stop using it:

Decanted, swirled around to mix it up and then poured into 1.5 litres of starter DME:

It's swirling away at 20 degrees in the brew fridge. It should take 2 or 3 days after which I'll separate 500ml for the next brew and cold-crash a litre for the brew on Saturday.

 

[foxbat]

Hmm this is at 18 hours and I hope it's high Krausen. I've never had a 1.5 litre starter overflow a 3 litre flask yet. This yeast gets more aggressive on each overbuild.

 

[foxbat]

The OYL-052 starter's done. The krausen managed to reach the foil cap and make a bit of a mess under it around the mouth of the flask but didn't overflow. I've decanted off about 500ml into a sterilised Kilner jar for next time:

That goes in the kitchen fridge for future use and the remaining litre in the flask is cold-crashing in the brew fridge getting ready for brew-day on Saturday.

 

[matt76]

So, what, you just add that 500ml to another 1-1.5L starter wort next time? Or I suppose you would decant the liquor off first actually.....

Interesting idea though, just a slightly different way of doing it that I'd never thought of - you're essentially harvesting yeast from the starter whereas I'd normally pitch the lot and then harvest from the bottom of the FV.

 

[foxbat]

So, what, you just add that 500ml to another 1-1.5L starter wort next time? Or I suppose you would decant the liquor off first actually.....

Yes the 'beer' on top of the jar is decanted off before pitching into the starter wort next time. Overbuilding starters is very common and supported by some of the online starter calculators.

 

[samale]

I am well impressed with your photos your camera is crystal clear

 

[samale]

How many times would you build a starter from one packet of liquid yeast. I am considering getting the equipment to give it a try. How long would the starter keep in the fridge

 

[foxbat]

How many times would you build a starter from one packet of liquid yeast. I am considering getting the equipment to give it a try. How long would the starter keep in the fridge

Wyeast say 7 to 10 re-uses are possible. I'll use this one 4 times in total then I've got a few lagers planned that will need a different strain. I think @MyQul keeps his yeast harvested from bottles going for quite a while.

They'll keep in the fridge as long as any bought pack. I try to calculate a 100bn overbuild to match what you'd get in a wyeast pack. That's normally 500ml extra which nicely fits a kilner jar. Then when I need to use it I enter the date I made it into the calculator as the production date and 100bn as the initial cell count.

 

[foxbat]

Today's brewday features an updated version of Outback Ale that I brewed last year. This brew aims to highlight Nelson Sauvin hops and match them with Galaxy and back it all up with a decent malt backbone. It also served as a user-upper for all the packs of hops featured in this recipe. I've already stocked up with more Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin from the 2019 harvest so I can brew more over the coming year. Galaxy runs out fast so I snap it up as soon as I see it.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Recipe: 026: Outback Ale No.2
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L  
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 11.0 EBC
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Finished water profile: Ca:54, Mg:11, Na:10, SO4:76, Cl:65

Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          #          %/IBU  
29.49 L          Tesco Ashbeck                                    Water         1          -
2.00 g           Calcium Chloride (Mash)                          Water Agent   2          -
2.00 g           Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash)                        Water Agent   3          -
1.70 ml          Lactic Acid (Mash)                               Water Agent   4          -
1.50 g           Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash)                  Water Agent   5          -
3.48 kg          IREKS Pale Ale Malt (6.0 EBC)                    Grain         6          82.0 %  
0.42 kg          IREKS Munich Malt (20.0 EBC)                     Grain         7          10.0 %  
0.21 kg          IREKS Crystal Maple (3.5 EBC)                    Grain         8          5.0 %  
0.13 kg          Melanoidin (Weyermann) (70.0 EBC)                Grain         9          3.0 %  
0.40 g           Calcium Chloride (Sparge)                        Water Agent   10         -
0.40 g           Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge)                      Water Agent   11         -
0.30 g           Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge)                Water Agent   12         -
0.20 ml          Lactic Acid (Sparge)                             Water Agent   13         -
10.00 g          Hallertau Magnum [9.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           14         11.0 IBUs
25.00 g          Nelson Sauvin [10.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop           15         11.7 IBUs
1.00 Items       Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins)                 Fining        16         -
30.00 g          Galaxy [12.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min                  Hop           17         8.8 IBUs
10.00 g          Nelson Sauvin [10.90 %] - Boil 2.0 min           Hop           18         1.1 IBUs
18.00 g          Galaxy [12.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min                  Hop           19         0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg          DIPA Ale (Omega #OYL-052)                        Yeast         19         -      


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.24 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash In           Add 24.49 L of water at 69.1 C          66.0 C        60 min

Brewday went according to plan except I came in a bit high on the pre-boil gravity due to an 87% mash efficiency so I liquored back the boil volume with an extra litre of Ashbeck which did the trick since I ended up with an OG of spot on 1.042. I pitched the OYL-052 starter at 21C and it's now in the brew fridge with a set temperature of 19C. If I get the usual 82% attenuation from this yeast then I'll end up with a 4.6% beer in a couple of weeks.

 

[MyQul]

Wyeast say 7 to 10 re-uses are possible. I'll use this one 4 times in total then I've got a few lagers planned that will need a different strain. I think @MyQul keeps his yeast harvested from bottles going for quite a while.

They'll keep in the fridge as long as any bought pack. I try to calculate a 100bn overbuild to match what you'd get in a wyeast pack. That's normally 500ml extra which nicely fits a kilner jar. Then when I need to use it I enter the date I made it into the calculator as the production date and 100bn as the initial cell count.

Months and months. If I can culture up yeast from a 40 year old bottle of beer, a few months is nothing

 

[MyQul]

How many times would you build a starter from one packet of liquid yeast. I am considering getting the equipment to give it a try. How long would the starter keep in the fridge

This is a bit of a, 'how long is a piece of string' question'. It all depends how long you want to use the strain and how tight your being. For example, I cultured up a strain from a bottle of beer, then harvested the slurry from the bottom and kept it in a jar in the fridge. Every time I needed a starter I just put a couple of spoonfuls from the jar into some starter wort. The jar lasted me months

 

[foxbat]

Here's the latest photo of my Mainline Bitter No.2 . It's been a month or so in the keg now and the flavours have now melded together rather well. The light citrus flavours of Challenger and Endeavour really complement the toffee and caramel that I get from the crystal 240. I think for Christmas I'm going to do an IPA version of this but re-introduce the Fuggle that I had in the first version of this recipe to get some more earthiness in there.

 

[foxbat]

Today was kegging day for the Outback Ale No.2 after 2 weeks in the fermenter. The OYL-052 did its usual reliable job for an FG of 1.006 giving an ABV of 4.7%.

I fined the keg with Kwik-Clear, purged with CO2 and have left it at about 12psi to condition for a couple of weeks in the keezer at 12C. The sample tasted great, all those fantastic Galaxy and Nelson Sauvin flavours are easy to detect. Now I just have one more brew to do before I'm set for Christmas.

 

[BeerCat]

Love the thread, you always have quality beers. I have some wyeast 1335 i am going to do a bitter with something along the line of yours. Would like to do another English IPA as well.

 

[foxbat]

Love the thread, you always have quality beers. I have some wyeast 1335 i am going to do a bitter with something along the line of yours. Would like to do another English IPA as well.

Thanks! I've never used 1335 but I'm sure it'll be perfect for a bitter. My last brew before Christmas will be an English IPA using the OYL-052 for the 4th and last time for this series of overbuilt starters. I've got a lager or two planned for the new year so I'll need a different yeast.

 

[soupdragon]

Here's the latest photo of my Mainline Bitter No.2 . It's been a month or so in the keg now and the flavours have now melded together rather well. The light citrus flavours of Challenger and Endeavour really complement the toffee and caramel that I get from the crystal 240. I think for Christmas I'm going to do an IPA version of this but re-introduce the Fuggle that I had in the first version of this recipe to get some more earthiness in there.

That really is one tasty looking beverage you've got there

Cheers. Tom