Many have jumped in to help out since my coming back recently. I wanted to thank you (too many to name entirely - but grateful for all).
This is a strong bitter, with hopping somewhat patterned after Fuller's paradigm, except I'm using First Gold instead of EKG. In particular I wanted more of the orange marmalade quality with the stronger bitter, v. my best bitter (higher perceived bitterness, lower and "cleaner," more streamlined late hop character).
Pre-Boil: 7.44 gallons
Boil Length: 90 minutes
Batch volume: 5 gallons
Water: Guided by @cire, a bitter profile. RO + salts to get 181 Ca, 16 Mg, 11 Na, 253 SO4, 178 Cl, 28 HCO3. Lactic added to sparge water to get pH 5.6.
Still working on late hop/WP/HS bittering; BS3 has a default for including WP and HS's in with late hopping, but at times so far it seems by sensory impressions BS overstates the utilization factor. Member @dmtaylor kindly provided his calculator and thoughts in this regard.
It is very close. I was looking for a lower perceived bitterness with this strong bitter vis-a-vis the best bitter I've been working on; also, a somewhat more present hop character, flavor and aroma, particularly as I'm using First Gold here (the best bitter is getting 60-40 EKG-Bramling Cross in 3 late hop additions - 15 minutes, flameout/30 min. WP& HS, and dry hopping. Thanks goes to @Northern_Brewer for his input on this. It works brilliantly well, great starting point).
Interesting that on paper this strong has a higher BU:GU than the best, but the perceived bitterness is less. The actual on the strong is OG 1.058, FG 1.010 and 6.4% abv, so it's not about crystal or residual sugar. As you can see, the crystal amounts to 4.6% here - by design, slightly more than my best bitter at 3.8%, but still moderate. I believe it has something to do with the marmalade and muted resin of the First Gold and Northdown in late hopping.
Fermentation with the Wyeast 1469 "West Yorkshire" was open. Roused vigorously over first 72 hours, with rousing ceasing at about that point. Left at 68F through 2 weeks (I would have brought it down a few days sooner - away for Christmas). Guided by some great thoughts by member @day_trippr , and by reviewing notes by member @McKnuckle re Black Sheep, as well as Timothy Taylor, did a slow cool-down to 50 F over 3 days, a stay at 50 for an additional 3, then a crash to 39 for 24 hours. Bottled with corn sugar at 1.9 vCO2.
Bad pour by design - still midway in conditioning, so wasn't afraid of pouring from on high with lots of air. But developing really, really well.
This is a strong bitter, with hopping somewhat patterned after Fuller's paradigm, except I'm using First Gold instead of EKG. In particular I wanted more of the orange marmalade quality with the stronger bitter, v. my best bitter (higher perceived bitterness, lower and "cleaner," more streamlined late hop character).
Pre-Boil: 7.44 gallons
Boil Length: 90 minutes
Batch volume: 5 gallons
Water: Guided by @cire, a bitter profile. RO + salts to get 181 Ca, 16 Mg, 11 Na, 253 SO4, 178 Cl, 28 HCO3. Lactic added to sparge water to get pH 5.6.
Still working on late hop/WP/HS bittering; BS3 has a default for including WP and HS's in with late hopping, but at times so far it seems by sensory impressions BS overstates the utilization factor. Member @dmtaylor kindly provided his calculator and thoughts in this regard.
It is very close. I was looking for a lower perceived bitterness with this strong bitter vis-a-vis the best bitter I've been working on; also, a somewhat more present hop character, flavor and aroma, particularly as I'm using First Gold here (the best bitter is getting 60-40 EKG-Bramling Cross in 3 late hop additions - 15 minutes, flameout/30 min. WP& HS, and dry hopping. Thanks goes to @Northern_Brewer for his input on this. It works brilliantly well, great starting point).
Interesting that on paper this strong has a higher BU:GU than the best, but the perceived bitterness is less. The actual on the strong is OG 1.058, FG 1.010 and 6.4% abv, so it's not about crystal or residual sugar. As you can see, the crystal amounts to 4.6% here - by design, slightly more than my best bitter at 3.8%, but still moderate. I believe it has something to do with the marmalade and muted resin of the First Gold and Northdown in late hopping.
Fermentation with the Wyeast 1469 "West Yorkshire" was open. Roused vigorously over first 72 hours, with rousing ceasing at about that point. Left at 68F through 2 weeks (I would have brought it down a few days sooner - away for Christmas). Guided by some great thoughts by member @day_trippr , and by reviewing notes by member @McKnuckle re Black Sheep, as well as Timothy Taylor, did a slow cool-down to 50 F over 3 days, a stay at 50 for an additional 3, then a crash to 39 for 24 hours. Bottled with corn sugar at 1.9 vCO2.
Bad pour by design - still midway in conditioning, so wasn't afraid of pouring from on high with lots of air. But developing really, really well.
