AG #13 - Apache Longbow APA - Back to the Shed (garage)!

Monday 1st August 2022

9 years, 4 months and a day after my last brew, I've finally sorted myself out and got another brew on. I wouldn't say it was like starting from scratch, but it was stressy enough to provide a couple of obligatory, over-confidence related cock-ups.

The idea was to replicate my SNPA clone from AG #4. and I think I managed it, possibly. I can't remember what that was like to be honest, so let's say I managed it.

Cock-up number 1 - Forgot the Campden Tablet. Some people throw their brew out so as to not risk it, but being a tight ar5e, I put my tablet in with the mash liquor and used it in the sparge. Testing the wort, with a finger, it tasted fine and there were no hints of chlorine. Here's the recipe and timings

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 (mmm hoppy)

Yeast

Safale US-05

The Mash

Mash was uneventful, thankfully, and I manged to maintain a fairly even 67 degrees agross the tun. I have this picnic rug with a metallic underside which seems to have worked wonders for the heat retention.

Stars, but no stripes. Almost a tribute to the Brew

Cozy

Sparge

A tricky first sparge after a long break. I'd forgotten all the tricks I used to use, and found myself wishing I had a sparge rail and/or a recirculating pump. Messy, sticky business it was. However 20L later, I had a decent wort to boil. .990 gravity was achieved with some to spare so I topped up with the HLT.

DIY sparge distribuition with foil

Boil

I managed to knock my initial targets on the floor, so cock-up #2 resulted in me getting the packet out of the freezer and remeasuring 13g of Targets.

I didn't remember how I used to control the first stage of the boil until I read it later. Apparently I used to squirt the top of the wort with fine spray from the hose pipe. Instead it boiled over a bit, so more sticky mess to clean later - cock up #3 - not the end of the world though.

Oops

The boiler held on to a respectable 99.5 degress for the full 90mins. I can't fault these Electrims. Yes, the prices have gone up a bit recently, and my new controller cost ~£50 after VAT and delivery, but they just do the job and do it well. What more can you ask?

Highest temperature reached today. Gotta love these Electrims.

Yeast Pitch
I ended up with just shy of 17L in the FV today, which is a little lower than I would like. That said, it was a 90 minute boil so you do lose a bit more to boild off than with a shorter one. Safale s-04 pitched at 25'C, with a temperature corrected starting gravity of 1.046. I've no idea what this will drop to but all things being equal we will see a final gravity of  around 1.010 giving us a rather tasty 4.8%. Let's see.

All in all a decent first (13th) brew day. Really enjoyed the process and am already making plans for a sparge rail and a first runnings recycle system. I'm now very much looking forward to the next brew in a month or so.

UPDATE: FG is closer to 1018 so we're looking at a paultry 3.7%. Good for a session ale but not great for an APA. Not sure why the FG was so high but given pitch temperature, fermentation temperature and mash temperature were all fine, it could just be down to the yeast just not taking. I'm going to try to fire it into life with a yeast nutrient, but having only found the high FG when I transferred it to the conditioning keg, it may be too late. It tasted ok though, to be honest. I may just leave it and hope for better luck next time.