Is it even worth it? Keep or Bin?

St00 · Oct 17, 2019

I took a break from brewing 'cause when we moved I lost the brew space. As a result when we moved again and I gained some brew space I thought I'd use up the old hops and grain from 2013....

It only cost me some maris otter and a yeast (FM11 Heathery Heights) so I made the following recipe.

Maris Otter Pale 2.25kg
Flaked Barley 300g
Brown Malt 250g
Aromatic Malt 200g
Crystal 15 100g
Amber 100g

FG 1.009

I'm going to give it a few days in the cold, but given the attached figures and the lack of apparent activity; has it fermented enough?

foxbat · Oct 17, 2019

4 days at 1.009? I'd say it's ready. A few more days will allow it to clear some more giving you less sediment in the bottles.

St00 · Oct 17, 2019

Many thanks @foxbat I've never brewed such a low ABV beer before, I'm used to them taking a tad longer to ferment out I guess.

Graz · Oct 17, 2019

It's unlikely to go much lower. The .009 will be from unfermentable sugars and normal for a ale. Beer would be a bit tart otherwise.

jMac · Oct 18, 2019

How have you been storing your grain? I’m just going through the process of feeding old grain to the birds and that’s only from best before 2017, some opened some unopened, that’s just been sitting in a box under the spare bed after a similar break due to moving and having twins(!). It all smells a bit stale so didn’t think it was worth using.

Be interested to hear what you think of your brew. How did the wort taste/smell? Have you taken a sample now fermention is complete?

x

St00 · Oct 18, 2019

They were opened once and then sealed up with tape. They were then stored in a cardboard box in the attic. The attic was pretty dry and relatively warm.

Honestly everything smelt fine and the brew went really well. I think the sparge went a little to quickly due to the small amount of grain which is why the OG was so low.

I've invested in the Grainfather micro pipework so hopefully I won't repeat the same mistakes next time.

I bottled today so update you in a month

foxbat · Oct 19, 2019

Sounds to me like you had an ideal brew day and a perfect fermentation. Nothing to worry about here IMHO. On the subject of grain freshness. It's always worth chewing on a few grains of each one before you use it. Not only can you tell if they taste crunchy and sweet like they should (not the black malts obviously) but you get a really good idea of what flavours each will contribute.