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

Vongo said:

no empty kegs yet ... I can just move it to a secondary.

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Meh, just leave it on the cake, less work that way.

Perfect.

Brewed this last night. The mash tun soaked up alot of heat an so it started off at about 152. so i added about 4 quarts of 170 degree water an it still wasn't up to 158. i didnt want to add any more water than that, so i sort of decotioned it the rest of the way to 158 by draining some off, heating it to 170 and adding it back in carefully. I think it'll work out fine, spent most of its time lingering around 154, so i think it may still have enough body. Everything else worked out fantastic, and its OG turned out being 1.039 at 5.5 gallons.
It smells and looks completely amazing, thanks for the recipe!

I had the same problem. I wonder if it has anything to do with being such a lite grain bill. I managed to stay in the 154 degree range. I hit 1.037 and the color was amazing. I can't wait to taste this one.

hmm, thats a thought, i was about to blame my mash tun over the grain bill and either make a new system or wrap it in endless amounts of insulation. Also just preheating the cooler better could help. I guess well just have to wait for the FG to see if it really affected the conversion that much.

How long has your Krausen stayed fluffy. Mine dropped pretty quick. after 3 days.

One thing I am doing now is adding my strike water to the tun about 5 degrees above strike temp put the lid on and let it heat up for about 5 min then take the lid off and stir until strike temp is reached.
Has worked spot in until I did it with this grain bill.

On small grainbill recipes I typically go 15-20° higher than my mashtemp, (I also preheat my mashtun with hot water) when I add the grain I stir the piss out of it to bring the temp down the few degrees to hit my target temp.

Kudos azcoob, My beer turned out great. Just poured my first sample. A refreshing, easy drinking ale. Nice clean taste thats slightly nutty and roasty.

anycrew said:

Kudos azcoob, My beer turned out great. Just poured my first sample. A refreshing, easy drinking ale. Nice clean taste thats slightly nutty and roasty.

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Glad you like it! you have a pic of a pint?

Just got back from a weekend getaway with the family. I am going to rack to the keg and cold crash Monday eve. I opened her up and took a whiff and she smells WONDERFUL!

Glad to hear, you are going to love it! in fact you should be brewing another batch about now

wrong thread sorry

1.037 OG finished at 1.012 for 3.28% abv.
Very very clear hydro sample tastes amazing !

I am cold crashing now alongside a Gose and looking forward to trying the gelatin in a few days. This is my 1st beer to go from primary to keg or bottle without using a secondary. Also the 1st brew where everything was spot on... volume, gravity and so on.
Think I'll be brewing this again next week.

I'm glad you are digging it!

This was also my most spot on brew, gravity came only one small point above the estimated, and finished on the spot, i tasted one a few days in the bottle9 to see how much the taste can age within a week) and i can already see it becoming fantastic, I'm most excited just to be able to taste the aging process in fast forward over the next few weeks, and then days.

Secondary fermentation finished bottling this evening I'll keep ye posted and I'll also post pics in about 3-4 weeks when t pop open my first one

Yaap10 said:

Secondary fermentation finished bottling this evening I'll keep ye posted and I'll also post pics in about 3-4 weeks when t pop open my first one

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I look forward to your thoughts and the pics!

Ok just snuck a little taste from the keg... It is very good ( not ready yet and also at 35 degrees) my only issue I think I can taste the 4 degree temp loss when I mashed. It's just a little thin. The flavor is there no doubt and I love it. I am my worst critic but I want more body. Would 4 degrees make a noticeable diff?

four degrees will make a huge difference in my opinion, but the body will come up a tick once it is properly carbed, I find a week or two after it is fully carbed does wonders for mouthfeel.

Perfect... Again it is the wrong temp and not fully carbed. I'll be brewing this again no doubt, just gotta keep the mash temp in check!

O tasted one after a few days in the bottle, and thought i had also screwed up the body, it seemed a little thin and watery, but even now at a week and one day in the bottle, its changed drastically and is much fuller and even has some good mouthfeel to it. its amazing how much these can age in a short amount of time, and how different that aging can make it. I think we had similar mash problems, and trust me i think youll be pleasantly surprised. Ive also been drinking mine around 60 degrees, and i think you can taste alot more there, than at 30

Ok need some help here. The beer has been in the keg since Sunday at 20 psi ( I wanted it to carb up a little faster) and the beer is completely flat not even a hint of of a single bubble. The one in the keg next to it ,kegged at the same time is about where the brown should be as far as carb goes. Any thoughts? We are having people over on Saturday for my wifes birthday and I really wanted to be able to share the mild brown with everyone. HELP!

Oh it was at 35 degrees for about 3 days then I bumped it up to 41 degrees.

Just did the one thing I swore I would never do .... FC'd my kegs.

Can you hear the gas going into the keg? verify that gas is flowing, set it to the desired pressure you need for the carb level at your temp. at 41 degrees, I would guess 8psi? and shake the **** out of it while connected to the gas, this will force it up to proper pressure without risking overcarbing, shake it every few minutes for 30 min or maybe an hour, try it and see if the carb level is good and let it rest to mellow and settle til you serve it.

Here it is ... It's delicious.

Vongo said:

Here it is ... It's delicious.

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Fantastic looking beer!!:rockin:

Now that you have enjoyed a couple pints, you understand why I said to start making a second batch, it isn't going to last long!

No doubt... I have had 4 pints and I'm not loaded! It's great. I'll brew this again next weekend and make sure I hit my mash temp.

I'm planning on brewing this recipe except with willamette hops and s04 for my next brew.

Is it really as dark as your picture makes it seem? I thought milds were typically more brown then black? I have never made one or even had one though.

And how will this recipe be if I over pitched? I am considering making it back to back to get the pipeline going again, and I would want to just pitch right on the cake. Last time I tried washing yeast I picked up an infection at some point.

It's pretty dark... But it's going down very very smooth.

Wakadaka said:

And how will this recipe be if I over pitched? I am considering making it back to back to get the pipeline going again, and I would want to just pitch right on the cake. Last time I tried washing yeast I picked up an infection at some point.

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you could dump 3/4 of the cake, then pitch onto it. you'll want a few esthers for this beer, and overpitching is going to hinder that.

yeah this being my first mild, now i get worried when i see them being quite light in color.

The color is quite dark, there is a nice crimson hue to it when held up to the light, very appealing if you ask me.

I have swirled the yeast cake, poured a cup or so into a sanitized jar and capped it while the wort was chilling on batch number two, I did this mainly because I couldn't bring myself to rack my new wort into a filthy looking carboy.

Get the volume of yeast cake needed from Mrmalty.com and reserve that amount from your first batch.

I went back to the original post and found I never added the pics, so I have added a couple to the recipe so folks know what to expect.

I am going to try this out this week. Quite a bit of a noob, so here is a question. In ratio for mash you said, 1.25:1

Is that grains to water or water to grains? I know, I know, that is probably obvious to most.

Cheers!

Cbaddad said:

I am going to try this out this week. Quite a bit of a noob, so here is a question. In ratio for mash you said, 1.25:1

Is that grains to water or water to grains? I know, I know, that is probably obvious to most.

Cheers!

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Water to grain.

Okay, second stupid question. If that is water to grains and I have 7.6 pounds of grain, by water are we talking quarts or gallons? Gallons seems to be a lot of water. (9.5 by my calculations which admittedly could be wrong).

Thanks for the help and sorry for being a dunce.

Cbaddad said:

Okay, second stupid question. If that is water to grains and I have 7.6 pounds of grain, by water are we talking quarts or gallons? Gallons seems to be a lot of water. (9.5 by my calculations which admittedly could be wrong).

Thanks for the help and sorry for being a dunce.

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I believe quarts:lbs