Thinking Bitter: 6pm 26/2/09

[fivetide]

Amazingly this is my first brewday of the year. Lazy huh?

Mash went on at 6pm.

The plan is for a pleasantly hoppy session beer that uses up some remnants of grain in an interesting bill, while making the most of some nice homegrown hop reserves I have in the freezer. My yeast options are limited, and this is a very lightweight mash compared, for example, with the recent APA, but it’ll get the Boxshed up and running again, and that’s the main thing, I feel. It’s also very cost-effective, and will hopefully take my mind of the day job for an evening, with less outlay than a trip to the local.

Anyway, here is the recipe as currently formulated. Any comments more than welcome!


Thinking Bitter
Style: English Ale
Batch Size: 25.50 L
Boil Volume: 36 L
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %

Ingredients
3.75Kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) 92.4%
100g Crystal Malt 40L (78.8 EBC) 2.5%
100g Torrified Wheat (3.3 EBC) 2.5%
60g MunichMalt (17.7 EBC) 1.5%
50g Roasted Barley (591 EBC) 1.2%
Protofloc Tablet (15 min)
1 Pkgs S-04 --- *EDIT - replaced with 20g Nottingham*

Hop profile
Fuggles, 4.5%AA, 50g at 90 min
WGV, 6%AA, 25g at 15 min
East Kent Goldings, 40g at flame out

Batch Sparge
Mash Grain Weight: 4.06kg Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 13.0 C
Mash In Add 10.4L of water at 72.8C (66C) 90 min
Step Add 8.5L of water at 80.2 (72C) 10 min
Step Add 13.67L of water at 81.9C (76C) 10 min

Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.036
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.009
Estimated Color: 14.4 EBC
Bitterness: 35.5 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 2.0 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 3.4%


(more details and ultimately photos, on my blog as and when)

 

[A T]

Have a good one 5 :thumb:

 

[BrewStew]

looks good. hope it goes well :thumb:

 

[Wez]

Nice one five - hope it goes well.

I really enjoy having small amounts of different grains in the mash :thumb:

 

[fivetide]

Thanks everyone. Protofloc and chiller in the boil, just about to kill the boiler and put in the steeping hops.

I realised mid-boil that I only had wheat yeast, so took a trip to see my friend who is a brewer and bought him a pint of Crouch Vale Anchor Street Porter in return for a scoop of Nottingham!

So that's Nottingham rather than S-04 in the recipe then - sounds good to me.

 

[BrewStew]

great recovery

looks like a late finish but worth it :thumb:

 

[A T]

Good save :thumb:

 

[fivetide]

Ok, it's chilling. Better sort out some yeasties... :thumb:

 

[fivetide]

Mash on to fermenter will be about 5.5hrs, that's about normal for me.

I could reduce it by an hour by having 60/60 mash/boil instead of the 90s, but it's always worked for me this way and so I don't want to mess with it for the sake of an hour, really.

 

[BrewStew]

nice one :thumb:

i'm a 90/60 brewer typically but am considering changing to 90/90 for clarity purposes... it's definitely one of those "cant rush it" hobbies

 

[fivetide]

In the fermenter, 25L, 1.036.

Now for bed and dreams of beer.

 

[Wez]

Well done you - blood, sweat & beers :thumb:

 

[fivetide]

Morning. Fermentation barely starting just seven hours in, but the signs are there and the streaks of break around the tub look pretty cool. I'm hoping for some comforting airlock burping later to accompany me through another thankless day slaving away at the screen!

 

[llannige]

Sounds like your late one was worth it

Nice one :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Hope it turns out to be a winner ft :

 

[fivetide]

It's Thinking Bitter. I want it ready in a month or so to idrink fresh and inspire me to greater things.

I had a very limited selection of ingredients available to me, but in one opening of the front door today I received both the new Wheeler, AND a big crate of supplies from Barley Butt. Marvellous!

 

[Vossy1]

AND a big crate of supplies from Barley Butt

:lol:

 

[Frisp]

:lol:

 

[fivetide]

This brew burped all weekend and is now down to 1.010 - good stuff.

The target is only 1.009 and I want to turn this one around relatively quickly, so I will move it into a secondary bucket for that extra point and a few days dropping brighter before kegging.

My back is killing me, so those extra days might get me motivated to clean some kegs.

I hate the cleaning part sooooooo much.

 

[Bru4u]

I'd be very intersted as to what you think of the yeast, I've been using SO4 a lot and want to try others. Cleaning is pants