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So two 5 gallon batches, only one dry hopped. Magnum bittering, then Goldings late on. If you want a decent dry-hop aroma I’d go with 30g Goldings and 20g Bramling Cross. Willamette would work really nice in this one too.

Agreed - I got caught in the middle of replying with my (nearly two) son having a meltdown. So... When I make a bitter, let’s say 1.045 OG, 1.010 FG, 35 IBUs, I tend to go with 20 IBUs at the start, then a 30 minute addition (10 IBUs) then flameout (5 IBUs). I don’t normally dry hop this...

If I could make a suggestion. The hopping schedules on English beers are much simpler than modern American ales. For a bitter, you could literally use a bittering addition at the start, then at 30 mins - not all beers used a flameout addition (some historically used a small dry hop addition).

If you’re wanting marlalade, then First Gold is certainly the right move. You’ll need to shift your IBUs more evenly imo if you want to get lots of that marmalade character in your beer from the 10 min (and dry hop) additions. Personally, though I love First Gold, I like to balance it out with...

Regarding water, if you’re wanting a strong bitter, you’ll want at least 1.5:1 sulphite:chloride. I’d suggest 350ppm sulphate and 200ppm chloride. You’ll naturally get decent calcium levels if you’re adding calcium chloride and gypsum (calcium sulphate) to get your brewing liquor right.

Thank you for the compliment - I’m glad to say I get nice clear wort like that all the time. Key is Irish moss, a good strong boil, then a quick chill followed by a rest for around half an hour while the break material falls to the bottom. I then crack the valve very slowly and let the wort run...

That darker crystal (for me) isn’t really necessary. I’d go with 5-7% Crystal 60, plus 10-15% no.3 invert sugar, and 5% torrified wheat, with Maris Otter for the rest. If you really want it brown, adding cold-steeped black malt could work, or try adding it directly to the boil near the end...

‘The Nutcracker’ - my son loves playing it on his keyboard (it’s one of those auto-melody settings). He’s only 20 months.

This is my aeration process that follows what we do at work - the wort is just splashed down the side of the FV wall. In my home setup I just let it run off into the FV from a few feet up (kettle on top of the cooker, and FV on the floor - works a treat).

Here are my notes on yeast health... Magnesium. Important for yeast to grow. With minimal levels the yeast will produce compounds that compensate for this (not good for health or growth). Magnesium improves yeast’s ability to withstand stress and assists in preventing cell death when ethanol...

Ahh, gotcha on the colour thing. Seems a strange move to limit what can/can’t be used to colour beer when caramel has been used for at least 100 years now. According to Ron Pattinson’s blog, many house beers were coloured differently depending on the target market location. Personally, I don’t...

Reading this again, I recall a stout recipe where they put (half I think) the black malt in the boil, which just seems weird. Obviously it’s just to get the colour, but it goes to show that pretty much anything goes if it works. I think it was a Barclay Perkins recipe on Ron Pattinson’s blog. I...

Good decision on the brewers caramel, I don’t know where the trend of using ‘colour’ malts to darken a beer comes from, but colour is/was traditionally adjusted simply with brewers caramel. I personally love Target for bittering and have only recently started using it as my main copper...

I don’t know any more than that, but it’s good news.

I tend to use PBW to clean the hard soiling, then PAA before I brew.

15 mins is pretty standard. I don’t see the point in doing this after 30 or 60 mins as conversion will have mostly been completed by that point. IF your mash pH is too high after 30-60 mins, you’ve lost your opportunity to correct the pH.

Poor yeast handling makes more sense. Think about breweries where they repitched the same yeast for 100 years, the likes of Burton Union. I know from viability tests we do at work that this decreases significantly if the same ‘skim’ is used/kept for a few brews, and also subsequent generations...

It’s fermenting away nicely (just checked tonight). Last night I added 25g each of Fuggles and Goldings, plus 10g of Vic Secret for a bit zing. Hoping for that floral bio transformation flavour by dry hopping during active fermentation. Will also add more on Sunday (day 4).

Thanks for the response, however I deliberately want the boil to have a similar gravity to that of an AG beer brewed to the same recipe. Hop oils also play a part, so simply boiling less hops in water for the optimum utilisation does not give the desired result. The brew went great btw - got...

This thread is well-timed as I’m about to do an extract brew tonight, with a twist. I’m brewing a 20L batch, but only adding around half of the extract during the boil for a gravity of around 1.045 in 10L of water. This ensures good hop utilisation. The remaining extract and invert sugar will...