Decided to have a go at one of the DIYDog recipes and needed a sessionable beer so though it'd try Dead Pony. Recipe taken from DIYDog and upscaled to 23l.
3.20 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK
0.73 kg Caramalt
0.22 kg Crystal low colour
10 g Simcoe - Boil 60.0 min
8 g Citra - Boil 60.0 min
8 g Simcoe - Boil 10.0 min
8 g Citra - Boil 10.0 min
1.0 pkg American Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1056)
57 g Simcoe - Dry Hop
84 g Citra - Dry Hop
72 g Mosaic - Dry Hop
I had a number of blunders with the brew. Mash seemed to go ok but when when sparged it only took about 10 mins and I struggled to keep the water level above the grain bed! Not sure exactly why that was, maybe just because of the small grain bill? Seemed to take ages for the boil to get going but once it was I added the hops as above and protofloc with 15 mins remaining. All the hops were pellet but I decided to use my hop spider anyway and to my surprise it managed to contain a load of the debris so I'm pleased with that.
When I attached the chiller and turned on the pump nothing happened so it was pretty obvious that it was blocked...removed the chiller and took off the wotsit from the top of the recirc pipe thing and it was clogged so cleaned that and while putting it back together I managed to chuck the little metal ball in to the boiler!
Anyway, finally got to chilling and as I was pumping out to the fermenter took a gravity reading and only got 1.036 when I was aiming for 1.040, not sure if this is because I mashed at 62c (like DIYDog said), because the grain isn't fresh or because the sparge went so quickly...probably a combination of all 3! As long as it tastes alright I don't really care if it is even weaker than 3.9%! I used my wort aerator for the first time as well, boy that's easier than shaking a full FV!!!! Pitched a 1.3l starter made the night before.
Fermentation was well underway when I checked yesterday morning. Will check how it's getting on next Wednesday and dry hop if it has fermented out.
3.20 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK
0.73 kg Caramalt
0.22 kg Crystal low colour
10 g Simcoe - Boil 60.0 min
8 g Citra - Boil 60.0 min
8 g Simcoe - Boil 10.0 min
8 g Citra - Boil 10.0 min
1.0 pkg American Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1056)
57 g Simcoe - Dry Hop
84 g Citra - Dry Hop
72 g Mosaic - Dry Hop
I had a number of blunders with the brew. Mash seemed to go ok but when when sparged it only took about 10 mins and I struggled to keep the water level above the grain bed! Not sure exactly why that was, maybe just because of the small grain bill? Seemed to take ages for the boil to get going but once it was I added the hops as above and protofloc with 15 mins remaining. All the hops were pellet but I decided to use my hop spider anyway and to my surprise it managed to contain a load of the debris so I'm pleased with that.
When I attached the chiller and turned on the pump nothing happened so it was pretty obvious that it was blocked...removed the chiller and took off the wotsit from the top of the recirc pipe thing and it was clogged so cleaned that and while putting it back together I managed to chuck the little metal ball in to the boiler!
Anyway, finally got to chilling and as I was pumping out to the fermenter took a gravity reading and only got 1.036 when I was aiming for 1.040, not sure if this is because I mashed at 62c (like DIYDog said), because the grain isn't fresh or because the sparge went so quickly...probably a combination of all 3! As long as it tastes alright I don't really care if it is even weaker than 3.9%! I used my wort aerator for the first time as well, boy that's easier than shaking a full FV!!!! Pitched a 1.3l starter made the night before.Fermentation was well underway when I checked yesterday morning. Will check how it's getting on next Wednesday and dry hop if it has fermented out.
A little thin but that's to be expected given I missed targets and it is so weak but I'm very pleased nonetheless.
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