My first Wet Hop brew, Best Bitter

[sifty]

Harvest time here, mid March, so gathered some hops on the weekend. I have 3 plants, 2 Fuggles flanking Cascade in the middle. Last year the cones were noticably different so was easy to separate varieties, but this year I wasn't so diligent in training the bines (ie did nothing) and for some reason the cones look very similar, so just separated as much as possible.
I wasn't prepared for a brew on the day so placed 260g in a sealed Tupperware container in the fridge while I ordered some ingredients...

Not ideal to leave them a couple of days I know, but it lets the critters escape...

(just a few tiny spiders and ladybirds)

 

[sifty]

I decided on a simple Best Bitter to suit the hops (mainly Fuggle with a few rogue Cascade cones). Recipe is for a 21 litre batch, all Gladfield malts...

Ale 3200g 80.4%
Flaked Barley 350g 8.8%
Shepherd's Delight 220g 5.5% (Caraaroma)
Gladiator 100g 2.5% (Dextrin)
Toffee 100g 2.5% (Caramalt)
Black malt 10g 0.3%

18.7 litres mash water
9.4 litres sparge water
66 degs C, 60 mins mash
75 degs C, 10 mins mash out
60 min boil

Wet hops
138g 60 mins
60g 15 mins
60g 5 mins

Comes in at 4.1% ABV and 23 EBC
At 5:1 this is the equivalent of around 52g dried hops, so guess the IBU is around 19/20...?

Yeast
Lallemand London English Ale

 

[sifty]

Brewed this last night after work, a nice simple recipe for a weeknight. Went well, excellent flow through the grain and my tank water has cooled down so an easy chill to 20 degs through a chiller plate. FG came in at 1.043 just as predicted.

I rehydrated one packet of yeast and pitched while I was transferring so it was well aerated, and it took off like a rocket. Pitched at 8:40pm and by 6:00 this morning it was bubbling away merrily with 30mm foam on top, and around 24% thru fermentation according to my iSpindel (pic below is immediately after pitching).

Smelled pretty good too...

Around 20 litres collected as I pump from the BZ through the chiller and leave a bit behind, plus the hops took out a bit of fluid. I'll update as things progress...

 

[sifty]

Home from work and it's belting along, 90% done apparently in less than 24 hrs. Really interesting yeast...

And checked the sample I took last night that was too hot to drop the hydrometer in, agrees with the refractometer reading of 1.043 OG...

Nice colour in the sun too...

 

[sifty]

Gravity had flatlined for several days so started my cold crash, and took a sample. FG is 1.013, giving an ABV of 3.9%, which will be around 4.2% once bottle conditioned. Right on the money, but the taste is disappointing...

I initially thought the fresh hops had imparted an undesirable flavour, then realised it has the same unpleasant taste I get when using SO4.

No idea if Lallemand London Ale and SO4 are related, the fermentation characteristics seem different enough to suggest not, but I can detect that same 'off' flavour in early taste tests for both.

The good news is it usually clears itself up with time, indeed some of my better received beers have used SO4. I just can't bring myself to use it as it tastes bad (to me) every time during the process.

A shame as I really enjoyed the fruity aromas given off during active fermentation. Hopefully it will sort itself out, I'll bottle in a day or so and we'll see how things go...

 

[Pennine]

Gravity had flatlined for several days so started my cold crash, and took a sample. FG is 1.013, giving an ABV of 3.9%, which will be around 4.2% once bottle conditioned. Right on the money, but the taste is disappointing...

I initially thought the fresh hops had imparted an undesirable flavour, then realised it has the same unpleasant taste I get when using SO4.

No idea if Lallemand London Ale and SO4 are related, the fermentation characteristics seem different enough to suggest not, but I can detect that same 'off' flavour in early taste tests for both.

The good news is it usually clears itself up with time, indeed some of my better received beers have used SO4. I just can't bring myself to use it as it tastes bad (to me) every time during the process.

A shame as I really enjoyed the fruity aromas given off during active fermentation. Hopefully it will sort itself out, I'll bottle in a day or so and we'll see how things go...

I'm curious what S-04 tastes like early on that you don't like? I find it one of the best to drink early.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Interesting.

This year my yield a lot better. Think I had 480 grammes of Wellington Kent Goldings.
Didn't get a great suggestion of lupulin with them. I divided between flameout in the hop spider and the rest in the hop rocket and a hop bag. Initially I recirculated through the hop back and into top of the hop spider. After a bit of time whirlpooling as there were pellet hops at the beginning of the boil I then turned on the CFC and transferred.
WLP013 yeast went well. I'll update on whether it's a garlic bomb!

 

[sifty]

I'm curious what S-04 tastes like early on that you don't like? I find it one of the best to drink early.

It's hard to describe. I pick up a sort of funky, home-brew taste that I find unpleasant. I have asked on here and others have experienced this too. Consensus was that some people are susceptible to whatever it is, while others do not notice it.

It's not overwhelming, more a background tang that lingers. As I said, after 3-4 weeks in the bottle it comes right, so a weird one. (I've only ever bottled SO4 brews).

Frustrating, as although I know the beer will improve, it ruins the early taste testing, and clouds my perceptions of the beer...

 

[foxy]

Brewed this last night after work, a nice simple recipe for a weeknight. Went well, excellent flow through the grain and my tank water has cooled down so an easy chill to 20 degs through a chiller plate. FG came in at 1.043 just as predicted.

I rehydrated one packet of yeast and pitched while I was transferring so it was well aerated, and it took off like a rocket. Pitched at 8:40pm and by 6:00 this morning it was bubbling away merrily with 30mm foam on top, and around 24% thru fermentation according to my iSpindel (pic below is immediately after pitching).

Smelled pretty good too...
View attachment 83403



Around 20 litres collected as I pump from the BZ through the chiller and leave a bit behind, plus the hops took out a bit of fluid. I'll update as things progress...

One question are you actually milling the flaked barley?

 

[sifty]

Yeah I did throw it through the mill with everything else. Wondered about that afterwards...

 

[foxy]

Yeah I did throw it through the mill with everything else. Wondered about that afterwards...

No need to mill the unmalted adjuncts.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

No need to mill the unmalted adjuncts.

Not sure it will have any detriment though.

 

[sifty]

Yeah I'm guessing a portion of the flakes slipped through the mill intact anyway.

In other mistakes, just bottled this. Went OK but forgot to stir the priming sugar.

Will prob be ok as I siphoned the beer onto the (cooled) boiled dextrose solution, so it will have had a bit of natural mixing. Smelled pretty good, but another taste test confirmed my worries about an aftertaste.

So now we wait...

 

[sifty]

So an update on a cold, wet autumn night.
It's quite good...

Gentle carbonation is spot on for the style, nice, clean aroma and (most importantly) the worrying aftertaste is gone. Served in a dimpled glass with a meal that's been in the slow cooker all day (seared blade steak, wild venison salami, winter veg, sauces and spices) I'm pretty happy with it...

Not exactly sure what effect the wet hops give it, but the bitterness is about right. I'd say it's a subtle, sweet and slightly fruity beer, so a success...

Update: poured almost completely out without yeast entering the glass so seems to settle out well, esp as only been in the fridge overnight.

(I did let it warm from fridge temp before drinking)

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Mines pouring and drinking well.