Bonus Bitter
This was going to be a Black Sheep Ale Clone but it didn't quite go to plan
Batch Size: 23 Litire (Planned)
Grain Bill
3.75KG Maris Otter - (More Like 5kg)
400g Torrified Wheat
300g Crystal
14g Black Malt
Hops
Challenger 20g @ 60 Mins
Progress 20g @ 60 Mins
Fuggle 10g @60 Mins
East Kent Golding 17g @ 10 Mins
Yeast
S-04
I took the recipe from Graham Wheelers book this morning and plugged it into the Grainfather app. Got set up and gather 16 Litres of Water for the Mash and another 16 Litres for the sparge and put half a campden tablet in each.
While the Mash water was boiling I went off and weighed out the malt. I was on the dregs of one sack of Maris in my barrel so I weighed that out and tipped it in the grain bucket. I reckoned there was about 3kg there but there only about 2.1 according to the scales so I then opened up the new sack and weighed out the remainder of the Maris and then weighed the rest of the malt.
I first noticed something was awry when it was incredibly tough mashing in. I always round up the water to the next litre and I only ever have issues when I'm using lots of oats and wheat as you'd expect. This was really stiff so I switched the pump on to get some of the water up and that loosened it all up. I attributed it to the end of the sack been a bit more floury then usual and carried on regardless and gave it an extra stir during the mashing period.
It sparged nicely and I let it stand for 10-15 mins to let it properly finish before starting the boil and took a pre-boil reading which was 1.060 once I'd cooled it down and I noted I only had 25 Litres left in the kettle. I also sit the malt tube in an old brew kettle and I'll add any remaining wort to the boil prior the half way point.
So something was definitely amiss at this point since the post boil gravity was supposed to 1.046. I did a quick dilution calculation at this point and worked out I'd need about 10 Litres of water to achieve the correct gravity post boil, so I quickly scaled up the original recipe and added some additional hops to keep the IBUs balanced for the new volume.
I then poured another 10 litres of water in bucket and popped a crushed campden in. As soon as the boil had finished I took an a gravity reading which came out at 1.067 and noted the volume which was about 19 litres. I redid the dilution calculation to be on the safe side which came out at 10.13.
I turned the heat on and added 5 litres and took another gravity reading and then added the final 5 litres which gave me about 28 and a bit litres of wort at the original planned gravity of 1.046.
What went wrong? Well I think my scales were playing up in the garage or I had a "moment" when I was weighing out the pale malt. I've had a play with the numbers and I think I had closer to 5kg to give me the high pre-boil gravity and adsorb the extra couple of litres of water I was missing at the end.
At the end of the day I've got 28 Litres of nice looking bitter wort under the desk and as soon as its cooled a bit I will pitch the yeast and hopefully end up with a nice beer, maybe not black sheep but certainly a slightly grey one...
This was going to be a Black Sheep Ale Clone but it didn't quite go to plan
Batch Size: 23 Litire (Planned)
Grain Bill
3.75KG Maris Otter - (More Like 5kg)
400g Torrified Wheat
300g Crystal
14g Black Malt
Hops
Challenger 20g @ 60 Mins
Progress 20g @ 60 Mins
Fuggle 10g @60 Mins
East Kent Golding 17g @ 10 Mins
Yeast
S-04
I took the recipe from Graham Wheelers book this morning and plugged it into the Grainfather app. Got set up and gather 16 Litres of Water for the Mash and another 16 Litres for the sparge and put half a campden tablet in each.
While the Mash water was boiling I went off and weighed out the malt. I was on the dregs of one sack of Maris in my barrel so I weighed that out and tipped it in the grain bucket. I reckoned there was about 3kg there but there only about 2.1 according to the scales so I then opened up the new sack and weighed out the remainder of the Maris and then weighed the rest of the malt.
I first noticed something was awry when it was incredibly tough mashing in. I always round up the water to the next litre and I only ever have issues when I'm using lots of oats and wheat as you'd expect. This was really stiff so I switched the pump on to get some of the water up and that loosened it all up. I attributed it to the end of the sack been a bit more floury then usual and carried on regardless and gave it an extra stir during the mashing period.
It sparged nicely and I let it stand for 10-15 mins to let it properly finish before starting the boil and took a pre-boil reading which was 1.060 once I'd cooled it down and I noted I only had 25 Litres left in the kettle. I also sit the malt tube in an old brew kettle and I'll add any remaining wort to the boil prior the half way point.
So something was definitely amiss at this point since the post boil gravity was supposed to 1.046. I did a quick dilution calculation at this point and worked out I'd need about 10 Litres of water to achieve the correct gravity post boil, so I quickly scaled up the original recipe and added some additional hops to keep the IBUs balanced for the new volume.
I then poured another 10 litres of water in bucket and popped a crushed campden in. As soon as the boil had finished I took an a gravity reading which came out at 1.067 and noted the volume which was about 19 litres. I redid the dilution calculation to be on the safe side which came out at 10.13.
I turned the heat on and added 5 litres and took another gravity reading and then added the final 5 litres which gave me about 28 and a bit litres of wort at the original planned gravity of 1.046.
What went wrong? Well I think my scales were playing up in the garage or I had a "moment" when I was weighing out the pale malt. I've had a play with the numbers and I think I had closer to 5kg to give me the high pre-boil gravity and adsorb the extra couple of litres of water I was missing at the end.
At the end of the day I've got 28 Litres of nice looking bitter wort under the desk and as soon as its cooled a bit I will pitch the yeast and hopefully end up with a nice beer, maybe not black sheep but certainly a slightly grey one...
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