Todays brew.

A day of so it's gotta be brew day.

I'm limited on the stores front but I always have:

Maris otter
Crystal
Chocolate
Black

I have a few types of hops
and I've run out of yeast but I do have an ale ready to move from primary.

Pictures as I go.


15L of water in the kettle ready for the mash.
Now to formulate a recipe, set up the mash tun and weight the ingredients.

What do you reckon I should brew?

Looks like you've got what you need for a nice English brown ale. I'll be brewing this weekend with some friends, so I'm only a little jealous.

Sounds like a stout, but you could turn it into an IPA.

What yeast do you have?

Please excuse my ignorance here - something I've been confused about.

Does black = black patent or roasted? When I think stout, I always think roasted barley. Can you substitute black for roasted in a stout? I wouldn't think you would get that signature roasted flavor if you didn't use roasted barley.

I'm going for a robust porter. The yeast was has just done an IPA but I'm not bothered about that. I'm keeping the IBU of the porter lowish so I don't mind something from the IPA coming through.

The last Porter I did only lasted a couple of weeks because everyone loved it. Not to roasty or bitter. This one is for me. Something to go along the Goblin, the BIGIPA, and cider

Lil' Sparky said:

Please excuse my ignorance here - something I've been confused about.

Does black = black patent or roasted? When I think stout, I always think roasted barley. Can you substitute black for roasted in a stout? I wouldn't think you would get that signature roasted flavor if you didn't use roasted barley.

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This is a Porter.

Malted black barley adds a strong burnt coffee flavor - suitable for stouts and porters.

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But when I brew I don't worry too much about giudlines. I brew towards the style of rather than trying to stick to GABF or BJCP guides.

The Recipe



Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 30.50 L
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 33.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.80 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 65.5 %
1.00 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 17.2 %
0.60 kg Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
0.30 kg Chocolate Malt (456.9 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
0.10 kg Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (660.0 SRM) Grain 1.7 %
55.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 26.3 IBU
15.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (15 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
0.30 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
Yeast : yeast cake.

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 5.80 kg
----------------------------
Mash In
Add 15.14 L of water at 76.9 C 68.0 C 45 min

Sparge.
Batch sparge to volume or unit running are <1010

My Ghetto set up.



I've still not fixed (replaced) my HLT so I'm using the keggle.

I've just tasted the mash and after 15 minutes it's already tasting sweet.

I think I need to up my strike temp for the new set up. I used to dump straight into the mash tun through a large tap. Now I'm double handling and I missed my strike temp by 2°C so I added an extra 2L of boiling water to increase it.

I like the recipe. Looks like the weather there is about the same as here.

Looks good. I'm off today too so I'm brewing a nice quick wheat ale since my kegged supply is running low

The weather is grey and around 55°f and just about to go dark.

I'm doing other things and chilling so there is no rush on this. I let the mash sit well over an hour. I normally open it up after 45 minutes.

orfy said:

The weather is grey and around 55°f and just about to go dark.

I'm doing other things and chilling so there is no rush on this. I let the mash sit well over an hour. I normally open it up after 45 minutes.

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Same here, grey and dark, and last night it rained a TON and brought in a cold front, was around 55 this morning, probably up to 65 by now though. That's normal weather for the UK though, no? It was at least everytime I've been there.

It is.

It's been bright an clear for the last few days, all thought cold.



recirculating the first runnings, and chilling the sample for gravity reading and 30L in the keggle.

Wort chiller ready to go.
Brewing by lamp light.
The Aerator doing it's thing.

orfy, some of your pics crack me up. I'm afraid you "just might be a (British) redneck."

Lil' Sparky said:

orfy, some of your pics crack me up. I'm afraid you "just might be a (British) redneck."

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I think I just might be. I Brew my own beer. I grow my own food, I live off the land when I can. I build my own junk. I drive a 4x4, I have dogs. (I just don't interbreed)

KISS all the way.

This is what counts.




People say this hobby costs money.... I'm way in front on the $$$£££ thing..
Cost of this brew. £10 - $20 including propane and sundries and it's not a cheap brew.
That's a saving of £1 a pint on store bought or £1.50 a pint at the pub. Lets say I did half store and half pub that's a saving of £50 a batch

The saving on 3 batches has paid for my brewing equipment.
The saving on 4 batches has paid for my kegging equipment.


I will actually get round to building a proper brew stand. (But it won't be like anything you've seen.)

sounds more like a hippie...

Sounds more like a resurrected thread, haha.

You Brits are lucky to have 55F and cloudy weather all the time! Perfect Ale making temps....It's like 75F and sunny by me right now.

TeleTwanger said:

You Brits are lucky to have 55F and cloudy weather all the time! Perfect Ale making temps

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<IRONY>Oh what luck! What a wonderful coincidence!</IRONY>

TeleTwanger said:

You Brits are lucky to have 55F and cloudy weather all the time! Perfect Ale making temps....It's like 75F and sunny by me right now.

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"I think I hate you right now"

orfy said:

"I think I hate you right now"

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LOL I've been there...I lived in SFCA for about 8 years where the average temps were around 65F and foggy all the time (out by the beach at least) but man, I would make PAs with SF Lager yeast and they freakin' loved those ambient temps!