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

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azscoob said:
I love the "whoa, that's a really dark beer, I don't like dark beers they are too bitter and heavy"

I tell them to shut up and try it, then they start saying that it tastes great, way lighter than they thought and not bitter.

Then I go on to explain that color of a beer is the least accurate gauge of a beer, you want bitter? Wrap your BMC drinking mouth around a pint of west coast IPA.

Conversely, want something sweeter? try my chocolate mint milk stout, or a pint of my caramelized fig Belgian Dark Strong Ale
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I love it when they say they don't like "dark beers" too. My other favorite is when they taste it and say "that's not bad!" Of course not! It's a great beer!
 
12 days from grain to glass! ImageUploadedByHome Brew1408414832.725307.jpg


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30 psi for 2 days does wonders lol.

I had to rush this one but usually do 1 week ferment. 1 week cold crash then 1 week in the keg. It's best to me after 2 weeks in the keg.


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azscoob said:
I think that time in the keg is magic on a beer, really pulls things together eh?
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Exactly. I think once all the flavors mellow out it's nice. I get a nice slightly smokey flavor from this one. It's great


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I'm in need of a quick grain to glass brew, and I think this one should fit the bill nicely.... I need to get samples to some people
 
azscoob said:
I'm in need of a quick grain to glass brew, and I think this one should fit the bill nicely.... I need to get samples to some people
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This is a great one for turn around Nothing like a good 2 week grain to glass. I've got a great pipeline now so time isn't an issue. I guess I'll rebrew this one when I run out of the other 4 beers!


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royal1911 said:
This is a great one for turn around Nothing like a good 2 week grain to glass. I've got a great pipeline now so time isn't an issue. I guess I'll rebrew this one when I run out of the other 4 beers!


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My pipeline has dwindled to nonexistent, my 3year old son keeps me busy after work, and between work, birthdays, engagement parties, weddings, funerals, etc, I havent had a single day, let alone a whole weekend open since mid-June to brew anything
 
Hit the LHBS a few minutes ago, grabbed 50lb sacks of 2-row, ESB malt, wheat, golden promise, and 10lb bags of c20, c40, c60, c80, rye, and 5lb bags of roasted barley, debittered black, and a couple others, time to fill a pipeline starting with this fine English mild!
 
I brewed this for the first time quite a while ago. I enjoyed it then, but I didn't brew exactly the same recipe. It's better this time, following it to the letter and I've since also started adjusting my water. Thanks for a great beer.

IMG_20141018_190735_899.jpg
 
azscoob said:
Anytime! It's one of my favorites too!
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Sad news.... Just finished off the keg if mild. Damn it was great! Now I'm drinking a Scottish heavy made with the yeast cake for the mild. Looks like I will just have to settle for that now.


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Its always nice to have a mildon tap, some of the issues people seem to have is hitting your mash temp with so small of a grain bill, the easy fix for this is brew 10 gallons at a time! More grain in your tun makes an easier time hitting the temp spot on.
 
Howdy Pat, put an intro thread in the introduction forum. This is a mighty fine lookin beer.
-Cory
 
azscoob said:
Its always nice to have a mildon tap, some of the issues people seem to have is hitting your mash temp with so small of a grain bill, the easy fix for this is brew 10 gallons at a time! More grain in your tun makes an easier time hitting the temp spot on.
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I'm gonna have to brew 10 gallons next time. My neighbor and I drank the last batch already!
 
Brewed this recipe twice and could only get it to ferment down to 1.020 both times. I hit suggested mash temps and gravities both times. I used the recommended Nottingham yeast from Danstar, re-hydrated and active each time. Oxygenated the wort with pure oxygen. My heat/cool ferm chamber can hold temps within a degree up or down of my setpoint and I fermented this at the suggested 65 degrees. Had fairly active starts each time with a decent krausen. Both beers I left in primary for 10 days before checking and both beers came up at 1.020 at 10 days. The first time I brewed it I just racked the 1.020 beer to a keg and it tasted terrible. The second time I brewed it and was at 1.020 at 10 days, I racked it to secondary, roused the yeast from primary to try to get it going again, let it sit for another week and it still ended up at 1.020. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking its the Nottingham yeast. I've brewed several other beers before and after this with US05 and I haven't had any issues with any of my other beers.
 
UofMontanaAlum said:
Brewed this recipe twice and could only get it to ferment down to 1.020 both times. I hit suggested mash temps and gravities both times. I used the recommended Nottingham yeast from Danstar, re-hydrated and active each time. Oxygenated the wort with pure oxygen. My heat/cool ferm chamber can hold temps within a degree up or down of my setpoint and I fermented this at the suggested 65 degrees. Had fairly active starts each time with a decent krausen. Both beers I left in primary for 10 days before checking and both beers came up at 1.020 at 10 days. The first time I brewed it I just racked the 1.020 beer to a keg and it tasted terrible. The second time I brewed it and was at 1.020 at 10 days, I racked it to secondary, roused the yeast from primary to try to get it going again, let it sit for another week and it still ended up at 1.020. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking its the Nottingham yeast. I've brewed several other beers before and after this with US05 and I haven't had any issues with any of my other beers.
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Odd. Is your thermometer calibrated, hydrometer calibrated? Assuming you're not measuring post-fermentation gravity with a refractometer (I have seen a thread on that issue before).
 
Iseneye said:
Odd. Is your thermometer calibrated, hydrometer calibrated? Assuming you're not measuring post-fermentation gravity with a refractometer (I have seen a thread on that issue before).
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I'm going to check my PIDs on my brewery controller with ice water to see if there is a problem but I can't imagine there is due to all of my beers before and after these two batches hitting their numbers perfectly.

I use a refractometer prior to fermentation and a hydrometer during/after fermentation.

Thanks for the input. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.
 
UofMontanaAlum said:
I'm going to check my PIDs on my brewery controller with ice water to see if there is a problem but I can't imagine there is due to all of my beers before and after these two batches hitting their numbers perfectly.

I use a refractometer prior to fermentation and a hydrometer during/after fermentation.

Thanks for the input. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.
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Yes, you do have to calibrate the thermocouple with the PID. While you can check with an ice water bath, you would actually be better off checking with a boiling water bath since that temperature is probably 40F closer to your mashing temperature than the ice water bath. Be sure to figure out what your local boiling point temperature is, since it reduces as your elevation increases.

The very best way to calibrate any of your thermometers or PID is to use a laboratory standard thermometer and check the response at a temperature near your typical mashing temperature.
 
Boiling alcohol on an electric burner will net you a 173 degree set point to calibrate to and is the closest to mash temps I can think of at the moment.
 
PID/thermocouples tested out OK along with all of my other brewery thermometers. I can't think of anything else other than the yeast crapping out early so I'm going to give Wyeast 1098 a shot.

Thanks for the input guys.
 
Double brew day almost half over, 10 gallons of this mild, 10 gallons of biertent lager.

Watching 20 gallons at one time for boilovers, hop additions etc is a chore!
 
So if WLP002 (lower attenuation) is used instead of nottingham (higher attenuation), would you mash at a lower temp to compensate?
 
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but I am using ro water and didn't know if I should target the profile for a British style (4 tsp of calcium chloride and 2 tsp of gypsum for 10 gallons of water) or stout /porter style ( 2 tsp of calcium chloride? Also, I have dry nottingham, windsor and s04 to choose from. Any suggestions?
 
attyindaburgh said:
Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but I am using ro water and didn't know if I should target the profile for a British style (4 tsp of calcium chloride and 2 tsp of gypsum for 10 gallons of water) or stout /porter style ( 2 tsp of calcium chloride? Also, I have dry nottingham, windsor and s04 to choose from. Any suggestions?
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Don't go crazy with additions. 0.4 grams per gallon should do you well. I have 10 gallons on tap using this and it's fantastic.

Notty and 04 I know work well with this beer. I've never used Windsor.
 
I ended up going with the formula given by berths brewing for a "British style" so we shall see. I hit all my numbers during the brew day. I also ended up going with the notty. If I like the beer, I may try going with a double batch and use a different yeast per 5.5 gallons and compare the results.
 
Brewing 10 gallons of this today. Everyone seemed to like it so I went all in! I'll post back a pic of a pint and my thoughts in a few weeks.

 

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