Dark Mild Reaper's Mild, 1st place 2011 HBT Competition

CornyKegs 728
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I noticed in Orfy's original posting that he recommends topping off in the fermenter, if necessary, to reach 5 gallons. I wasn't even aware that this was something all-grain brewers did! Is the purpose to keep the sparge volume down, to avoid extracting tannins? Or is it to keep the batch size at 5 gallons, so the OG stays true to style?

I'm going to do a 3.5 gallon batch BIAB for this recipe (my maris otter should arrive by mail today!) with a mash in one kettle and a dunk sparge in a separate kettle. My plan to avoid over-sparging was to mash at 1.5 qts/lb, a bit thinner than your recommended 1.25 qts/lb. I then planned to sparge to reach my full boil volume.

How important is mash thickness to this delicious-sounding beer? Would you recommend that I stick with 1.25 qts/lb, keep the sparge volume low, and top off to my batch volume?

Hopefully the above is not too confusing.
 
Oversparging to the point of extracting tannins is pretty tough to do when batch sparging, I wouldnt sweat it and just sparge to the point that your preboil volume and gravity are on target.

In regards to the ratio, I wouldnt worry too much about it, try it using your planned process and give it a whirl, on your second batch maybe try it at 1.25:1 and see if you can detect a difference.

I have done many English ales at 1.00:1 as is traditional, and also done it at 1.25:1 without a drastic difference, less notable in darker ales like this recipe.
 
Personally I would hold off, Notty and S-05 are quite different, you want the flavors that notty can offer in this one, the S-05 has too clean of a flavor profile in my opinon.
 
I do also have a WLP002 yeast cake I could pitch onto (would just need to bottle the contents of the fermenter first). Any better, or should I still hold out for the Nottingham?
Thanks!
 
NWMushroom said:
I do also have a WLP002 yeast cake I could pitch onto (would just need to bottle the contents of the fermenter first). Any better, or should I still hold out for the Nottingham?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would rock that cake over getting a packet of notty, it should turn out to be a fantastic beer with the 002.
 
Thanks for the fast response! I got all the ingredients yesterday from my HBS that's an hour away, but picked up US-05 by mistake. I have never used a yeast cake to pitch before; should I just pitch directly onto the cake, or would you recommend yeast washing (not sure I have all the equipment for that - no mason jars, for example).

I'd appreciate your advice. I've ordered some Notty online just to have on hand for the future, will probably arrive by the end of the week.
 
NWMushroom said:
Thanks for the fast response! I got all the ingredients yesterday from my HBS that's an hour away, but picked up US-05 by mistake. I have never used a yeast cake to pitch before; should I just pitch directly onto the cake, or would you recommend yeast washing (not sure I have all the equipment for that - no mason jars, for example).

I'd appreciate your advice. I've ordered some Notty online just to have on hand for the future, will probably arrive by the end of the week.
Click to expand...

Not to rudely interrupt, but I think that with such a low gravity beer it would be a mistake to pitch onto an entire yeast cake. I wouldn't bother with washing either--I'd just decant about a cup of yeast slurry from your fermenter, clean and sanitize the fermenter, rack your mild in there, aerate, and then pitch the cup of slurry on top.

What do others say? Would a cup do it?
 
tonyolympia said:
Not to rudely interrupt, but I think that with such a low gravity beer it would be a mistake to pitch onto an entire yeast cake. I wouldn't bother with washing either--I'd just decant about a cup of yeast slurry from your fermenter, clean and sanitize the fermenter, rack your mild in there, aerate, and then pitch the cup of slurry on top.

What do others say? Would a cup do it?
Click to expand...

I agree with this suggestion, a whole cake would be waaay overkill, depending on when the cake is from, I would pitch a 1/2 to 1 cup of slurry.

how old is the cake?
 
I'm actually brewing this mild recipe because 1) it sounds delicious, but also 2) to grow a yeast cake on which to pitch my winter warmer. The mild will be ~1.033 OG, and the winter warmer will be 1.090 OG. As I understand it, that's the direction you need to go: small beer --> big beer.

People caution against pitching onto a yeast cake, but I gotta do it at least once to see how it works. I hope that it will provide some insurance against under-attenuation for such a big beer.
 
azscoob said:
how old is the cake?
Click to expand...

The cake is currently sitting under an English pale ale; OG 1.046, FG 1.013. It's been in the fermenter for two and a half weeks. Normally I like to leave the beer in there for a month before bottling, but fermentation is done now, so I could bottle and harvest from the yeast cake. The WLP002 had a best before date of Nov 20, 2011 when pitched.

I use Mr Malty all the time for yeast starter calculation, but the yeast cake calculations aren't making much sense to me at all.
 
Rack off the cake into your keg or bottling bucket, then syphon off as much beer from the top of the cake and give it a swirl, pour a half cup of the thick yeast cake and use it to pitch into your mild, it isnt quite to the level of washing the cake and saving it, you can do this with no issues.

I have done this several times when making similar beers with no ill effect.
 
Just finished brewing this up. I used my brand new barley crusher which was fun - got my first doughballs in the mash and had to stir them out. Never had that before when I've bought pre-crushed malt online. Interesting. I also used hop plugs for the first time (normally use pellets). They create more work come clean up, that's for sure!

Anyway, all went well, although I think I need to buy another cooler to use as a mash tun; the priming tank just isn't keeping the temperature for the duration of the sparge.

Ended up with exactly 5 gallons after the boil; I lose a lot of water through evaporation - originally had 6.5 gallons in the kettle. Poured onto half a cup of the yeast cake (WLP002 ) from my English ale that I bottled today.

Got an opening gravity of 1.039 at 66 degrees, so I figure I am close enough. Now, let's see how that yeast cake gets on!
 
NWMushroom said:
Just finished brewing this up. I used my brand new barley crusher which was fun - got my first doughballs in the mash and had to stir them out. Never had that before when I've bought pre-crushed malt online. Interesting. I also used hop plugs for the first time (normally use pellets). They create more work come clean up, that's for sure!

Anyway, all went well, although I think I need to buy another cooler to use as a mash tun; the priming tank just isn't keeping the temperature for the duration of the sparge.

Ended up with exactly 5 gallons after the boil; I lose a lot of water through evaporation - originally had 6.5 gallons in the kettle. Poured onto half a cup of the yeast cake (WLP002 ) from my English ale that I bottled today.

Got an opening gravity of 1.039 at 66 degrees, so I figure I am close enough. Now, let's see how that yeast cake gets on!
Click to expand...

Congrats! I look forward to updates on the brew, and pics when it is ready!!
 
I have been planning on brewing this for quite a while (relatively speaking, I have only been brewing for 2 months :) ) and finally got around to it today. This was my second all grain. For my first all-grain batch I got 80% efficiency. I didn't take that into account for this batch since 1 result is hardly proof. Well, on this batch I got an sg of 1.037 into the boil! Some .007 higher than the Beersmith prediction at 75% efficiency. Unfortunately, right after that I broke my hydrometer. This lead to entirely too much math for a brew day. Using Beersmith's boil of tool, 1.037 into the boil ends up at 1.044 into the fermenter. A tad high. So, again using a Beersmith calculator, I added 1.25 gallons of water to take the calculated og down to 1.035. I ended up splitting it into two fermenters, luckily I had some more Nottingham on hand. I have no way of checking on Beersmith's math at this point but I think it should be pretty close . Time will tell.
 
MichaelBrock said:
I have been planning on brewing this for quite a while (relatively speaking, I have only been brewing for 2 months :) ) and finally got around to it today. This was my second all grain. For my first all-grain batch I got 80% efficiency. I didn't take that into account for this batch since 1 result is hardly proof. Well, on this batch I got an sg of 1.037 into the boil! Some .007 higher than the Beersmith prediction at 75% efficiency. Unfortunately, right after that I broke my hydrometer. This lead to entirely too much math for a brew day. Using Beersmith's boil of tool, 1.037 into the boil ends up at 1.044 into the fermenter. A tad high. So, again using a Beersmith calculator, I added 1.25 gallons of water to take the calculated og down to 1.035. I ended up splitting it into two fermenters, luckily I had some more Nottingham on hand. I have no way of checking on Beersmith's math at this point but I think it should be pretty close . Time will tell.
Click to expand...

Pretty good on the fly adjustments, I commend you for not panicking! this is a pretty forgiving recipe, just be sure to keep the fermentation in check!!
 
Help!

I just doughed in, and realized that my LHBS may have made a mistake when weighing and milling my grains. For the mild, I asked for .2 lbs chocolate malt, or 3.2 ounces. (I'm doing a ~3.5 gallon batch.) At the same time, they were measuring out a different grain bill for me, a winter warmer that asked for 2 ounces of black patent malt.

I think I may have gotten 3.2 oz of black patent malt in with the grains for the mild, and 2 oz of chocolate in the winter warmer grain bill. I tasted a dark grain stuck to the mash spoon after beginning the mild mash, and it tasted stronger than I expected chocolate malt to taste. I then tasted a dark grain from the bag of combined winter warmer grains, and it tasted mellow in comparison.

Worst case scenario: what's a mild with 3.2 oz black patent malt instead of chocolate malt going to taste like? Would it be more like a low-gravity stout than a mild? Will it be too burnt to drink?
 
I would think it would be a bit darker, but not too burnt, I guess it would be a mild porter of sorts, ride it out and report back!
 
NWMushroom said:
Thanks, I'll keep you updated. Here's my summary of the brew process for your beer: http://www.onemansbrew.com/northern...from-the-yeast-cake-and-milling-my-own-grain/
Click to expand...

From your blog:

I was surprised just how easy it was to crush the grain until I looked in the bucket and saw all the grain sitting there looking exactly as it did before milling. It turns out that I was turning the handle in the wrong direction(!)
Click to expand...

Now that's funny.

Back on topic, I think I'll give this one a go soon. Thanks Grim (and Orfy).
 
I do amuse myself sometimes!

Just took a gravity reading and I'm sitting pretty at 1.012. I'll wait until next week to bottle, though. Took a little taste and let's just say I can't wait for this to be ready! Nice biscuit taste with a hint of chocolate.
 
How do I go about getting mine to have a head like the one in your pic? Do i need to have it carb slightly in the bottle? I just moves it to a secondary as I thought it was done but its sat at 1.02 currently...
 
Insomniac said:
How do I go about getting mine to have a head like the one in your pic? Do i need to have it carb slightly in the bottle? I just moves it to a secondary as I thought it was done but its sat at 1.02 currently...
Click to expand...

If you are bottling it add enough priming sugar to carbonate it to 1.8 volumes. (I would look up a priming sugar calculator online to help there)

If kegging you would need to set your regulator to the correct pressure for your temperature, as an example my kegerator is set to 50°F, so I set the regulator to 9 PSI to get me to 1.82 volumes.

Here is a good force carbonation chart for kegging
 
This looks great! I've been looking for a darker beer that was quick from grain to glass (relatively, cuz I still bottle). This is gonna be it. A couple questions:

What is the IBU, I didn't see one?

I've got a Irish ale (1084) cake right now, would that be a good choice? The other option is 04 as the LBHS doesn't have Notty.
 
bjl110 said:
This looks great! I've been looking for a darker beer that was quick from grain to glass (relatively, cuz I still bottle). This is gonna be it. A couple questions:

What is the IBU, I didn't see one?

I've got a Irish ale (1084) cake right now, would that be a good choice? The other option is 04 as the LBHS doesn't have Notty.
Click to expand...

The IBU is in the bold print just above the recipe, it is 20.4 IBU, as for the yeast I would opt for the S-04 instead of the Irish yeast cake. You want some of the esters that come from an English ale yeast, and with a cake there would be too much yeast to drive the esters.
 
Wow! Fast reply! Regarding the IBU, I must be blind or something. Maybe it is just cuz I'm on my phone though...

I wouldn't pitch it on the whole cake, just to be clear, as I figured esters were right for the style but didn't know if 1084 had the "right" (or enough) esters. I'll probably take the advice though and go with S04, if nothing else just because I haven't used it yet.
 
I'm 30 min into my mash on this recipe right now. Brewing outside for the first time ever on possibly the last 80+ degree day of the summer. This is great.
 
Brewed 10 gallons One with Notty and one with S04 bot got stuck around 1.2 To top that off they are both shooting plenty of astringency. So much for using Mash 5.2
 
SwampassJ said:
I hear you, we had our first cool day Friday at 89 with 60% humidity.
Click to expand...

I get a kick out of people who can actually use their hose or cold tap on the sink for chilling down wort with an IC, my cold water most of the year is above 100 degrees, no such thing as a cold shower in AZ.


Many have also never enjoyed outdoor brewing here in the summer, the mash temps can go up if you aren't careful, I have resorted to a wet towel and a fan to make a swamp cooler to keep my mash at 149 degrees on a saison this past summer. :D
 
not sure what happened, not used to working with such a small grist I guess, but I added 164 degree water and only mashed in at 150. my basement is 73 degrees....anyway, i don't have any lactose lying around, but i was wondering if a little bit of dme to the boil might help in replacing some of the reduced maltiness i'm going to get from the reduced temps in the mash.
 
Settign up my equipment to brew tomorrow and I just discovered my smaller cooler is missing so all I have is a 52quart rectangle available. How much of a pita will it be to keep the mash temp in range with a 1:1 on such a small grain bill in my larger cooler?
 
You could mash at 1.25:1 and heat a bit higher you can always stir it down to the right temp.

Easier to lower the temp than trying to raise the temp.
 

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