Recent content by DBhomebrew

Save the treacle for baking, save the dextrose for bottling. Make some dark invert starting with a rich unrefined cane sugar.

Time. Cooler fermentation temp on the next batch. Time.

In The Secrets of Master Brewers, Jeff Alworth says his chapter on strong Scottish ale and its accompanying recipe were written after correspondence with the Lady of Traquair as a go-between with the brewers themselves. The 98/2 grist above. 148° for 1hr 2hr* boil. Alworth notes Pattinson's...

Notty makes a fine strong Scottish ale. As I understand it, one fairly traditional (read: old) brewery uses it. 98% Golden Promise, 2% roasted. At 1.0[7]0, fairly strong, but very drinkable. Not highly attenuated, but well attenuated. Smooth, full body, not sweet.

That's what I do.

#2 if you want to aim for levels different than your barleywine.

The sparge will dilute whatever's left. You're going to want to get the calcium up for good yeast health and flocculation to say nothing about flavor. Assuming a British beer with a British yeast, I'd aim for overall calcium, figuring the sparge volume along with the water left in the grain...

Load it up with roasted malts, sure. I'm a huge fan of dry Irish stout and milds. Brew a bunch of them. FWIW https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/i-brewed-a-favorite-recipe-today.687986/post-9289240 And results recreated by another brewer...

You didn't miss your OG. You haven't assessed your particular system/process to ascertain its lauter efficiency yet. You hit the side of the barn you were aiming at, well done. Any particular suggestions of how to 'fix' things don't mean much until you gather more information. Your car won't...

Maybe we just trust the OP in post #1 in their wish for a ~4% extract beer with the full flavor exemplified by a UK pub pint, rather than an absurd ABV of 0.5% or the near non-existent flavor of BMC Lite.

One of the ways British brewers get more flavor from less grain is to use more flavorful malt. Pay a bit more, use Muntons DME rather than Briess. Get rid of the 05. Muntons amber to 1.036-40, some EKG, Fuggle, or whatever similar to 30 or so IBUs, a flavorful, low-med attenuating British...

Don't forget the cheddar. Designed for it's low melt point and clean break. Have you even lived if you haven't experienced a glop of 900° cheese stretching, stretching, landing on your chin?

Metro-NYer now living in St Louis. I've lived in many places since NY. I've found some sort of enjoyable cheese & sauce on bread in nearly all of them. Sometimes truly wonderful in their own local way. StL's Provel is the most god awful thing I've come across. The way it coats your teeth, blech...

A lot depends on the water to begin with. An extra 7g of gypsum will matter more in RO than with a water starting with decent alkalinity. Can you use Bru'n Water backwards to estimate the pH of using 18.5x the recommended gypsum?