AG #4 - Apache Longbow APA

Sun Aug 07, 2011

I've munged together a recipe I found online for SNPA with what I had in my cupboard to hopefully come up with something APAish.

Qbrew tells me I should expect OG of 1052 and an FG of 1013. I came in at 1050 which I am really quite pleased with as my last few have been quite a way off.

Brew length 19L

Grain
3800g Maris Otter
600g Crystal (60L)

Hops
13g Target @ 90mins
13g Cascade @ 30 mins
28g Cascade @ 10 mins (along with Irish moss)
50g Cascade @ 0 (I know, it seemed a ****load of hops to me but I thought I'd go with it as per this recipe I found)

Yeast I used was Safale US-05

Post boil hopping is not something I've done before  so I did what I had look on The Home Brew Forum for the post boil hops, which said to chill to 80'C, pop the hops in for 20 mins, then chill down the rest of the way. Not sure how it will turn out but it currently smells great ! :D

In all a thoroughly enjoyable brew day. No pics unfortunately as my camera batteries needed charging but here's one of the yeast that's got going already:



Some additional pics of this one in the bottle. Still very cloudy but hopefully only a result of the priming DME.

AG #3 - Oldfort Brown Ale

Sun Jun 19, 2011

A Brown Ale on Father's Day Sunday (NBA from a clone book) for AG#3:

Brew length 19L
4200g Maris Otter
60g Crystal malt
60g Chocolate malt
30g Black malt

25g Target @ 90mins
15g EKG @ 45mins

Yeast S-04

OG 1051
FG 1013
IBU 26
ABV 4.7%


Found a distinct lack of Target hops existing in my brew cupboard so used my only alternative, Northern Brewer. Hope this will be ok, apparently its a similar AA level?!

Also forgot the campden tablet whilst being sidetracked by the The Boy (who also managed to sneak into some photo's as you will see). I put it in pre-boild wort instead, as I saw this can be done online somewhere. Again hope it will be ok

OG was 6pts below target, maybe because I liquored back too much despite only reaching 19L. I wonder if too quick a sparge may also have contributed? Anyway, wound up at 1042@29.5'C, which corrects to 1045. Maybe I'll get it below 1010 in the ferment and make it up at the other end. No huge shame if not, 4.5% is perfectly adequate for my general needs

At least the hoses stayed attached to my chiller this time.

Grain:



The camera steadfastly refused to focus on the thermometer whilst trying to capture the mash temp, but it was 67'C which is just about right according to the book. On to the boil:



Hoses on the chiller, where they belong:



A good day really, but a little disappointed with the low OG at the end

AG #2 - "London Bitter" mash kit

Sun May 29, 2011

I got this London Bitter mahskit free with my equipment so thought I'd better use it up. Contents unknown but I've heard good things about it.

 All done and dusted by half 3 despite a repeat of the hose popping off the chiller again ffs

This is my new setup, 4 tiers using 2 Electrim boilers to save lugging wort around the place:



Grain bill unknown, as it came pre-mixed in the bag but there was 3.8kg of it. Spent grain looked like this anyway :



Boiling merrily:



Hop schmutz:



Hit about 1042 - no idea if this is right or wrong as there's no guideline in the instructions, but guess this will go down to about 1012-1010 ?



May be the lighting in the brew shed but it looked a bit lighter than I was expecting. That said it's a nice colour though:



And that was that! AG#2 in the can - yeast pitched at 22'C and now sat under my dining table for 14 days (or as long as I can get away with it before SWMBO has enough of it being there:) )

AG #1 - Blackwell Stout

 Sat Apr 09, 2011

Finally pulled my finger out and cracked on with my first AG. Great day, despite a lot to think about and the odd mishap

Recipe used was a clone stout and was very similar to:

3700g Maris Otter
225g Munich
225g Crystal
200g Chocolate
115g Flaked barley
60g Roast barley

28g Northern Brewer (-90 mins)
7g Cascade (-15 mins)

Wyeasts 1098 British Ale Yeast

which looked something like this (a pre-mix shot which, I'm led to believe, is necessary in order to appease the brew gods). Excuse the randomness of the pics, I was concentrating on getting the brew right and forgot to take pics a lot of the time



HLT heated the liquor to 78'C and achieved 68.0 at dough in (67.7 advised by clone book so close as can be without faffing). Mash bin covered in duvets to preserve heat:



Mash out temp was 67.6'C ! lost less than half a degree so pleased as punch with that as a first effort. Let the sparge commence!



Fat bloke sparging



Boiling away merrily. In went the Northerns at -90 mins, and Irish Moss and Cascades at -15 mins as per recipe.



Chiller - British engineering at it's finest. Shame the hose clips were seemingly tightened up by a four year old child



Yeast pitched at 22'C with an OG of 1055. The recipe said 1051-1052 so we were a little off but not too bad for a first effort.

A few hairy moments. The FV under the mash tun got stuck under the tap and freed itself violently over brew buddy Rich's shoes. Lost very little though thankfully. Second "oh ****" moment occured when the hose popped of the chiller at about 45'C, pouring about half a litre of cold dirty hose water into the wort. Fingers crossed there will be no ill effects

Only concern is that I misjudged a few quantities and wound up with closer to 17.5L as opposed to 19L. Will need to work on the boil I think and try and squeeze more out of my 25L FV's ...