Strong dark beer for Christmas

[JohnnyR]

Based on Graham Wheeler's recipe for Banks & Taylor's "Black Bat".

6500g pale malt
730g dark crystal malt
75g black malt

Mash 90 mins at 66 degrees. Mash pH 5.6, no water treatment. Fly sparge to 30 litres sweet wort.

40g Challenger
60g Fuggles

Boil for 60 minutes.

20g East Kent Goldings
15g Northern Brewer
15g Irish Moss

Boil for last 15 minutes.

4 gallons wort collected, made up to 5 gallons by rinsing hops with boiling water.
OG 1057.
IBU 60.4
Pitched with Safale s-04 English ale yeast.

Let's see how it turns out, and more pertinently, let's see if I can keep my hands off it until Christmas!

 

[MyQul]

4 gallons wort collected, made up to 5 gallons by rinsing hops with boiling water.

I take it you mean grains, as in sparging?

 

[JohnnyR]

No, I always rinse the hops through with boiling water after the boil, just to rescue the last bit of wort trapped in them.

 

[MyQul]

Intererseting. Never heard of that before. I I use leaf hops, I squeeze the wort out between the bottom of the jug and the seive when transfering the wort from my pot to the no chill cube. Dont bother with pellets though