I'm posting this here to get some feedback and opinions. I'm entering my first beer into a bjcp certified competition next month so I thought I would post the recipe and my process here just to get a bit of an outside perspective before going into judgement.
Sorry, I'm Canadian, everything's in metric. Oh and I do small batch too. Brew day was Feb 1st.
Mildred's Fun Mild - British Mild
All Grain recipe:
0.8kg - Maris Otter
0.15kg - Crystal 30L
0.2kg - CaraRed (was supposed to just be 0.35kg of Crystal 30 but alas I found myself short on brew day so I substituted some Carared)
0.18kg - Crystal 120L
My Mash:
I use a converted Bubba keg cooler like this one except more like 3 gallons volume. I mashed with 3.8L of water and tried to get a temp close to 67 C. I used a cheap fish tank thermometer and left is sit in the mash during the full hour. It started around 62 but slowly climbed to about 65 over the first 30 minutes which I was pleasantly surprised to see. I do a combination fly/batch sparge type method I made up. This batch I added about 2.5L water @ 75 C post-mash and then start to drain slowly. I put a colander on top of the bubba keg and add a cup of 75 C water at a time to drip in until I reached 9.6L pre-boil.
*A note on water; I use tap water and have suspicions I'm getting chlorine off flavors. Lighter beers definitely have a pool taste/smell. So this time around I added half a campden tablet the night before to all the water I needed. I'm just getting my toes wet on developing my water profile but this is a start.
Boil:
Pretty standard, hour boil.
8grams - East Kent Goldings @ 60min
8grams - Fuggle @ 20min
0.5tsp - Irish Moss @ 15min
I cool it down in an ice bath.
Fermentation
Total volume was estimated 9l
OG was 1.042
I pitched Nottingham yeast (rehydrated).
I used 2 one gallon glass cider jugs and split the volume into each.
Fermented in my SOFC with ambient air at 16 C.
I used the same fish tank thermometer in one of the jugs and it wavered between 18 and 20 C.
On the 23rd I racked to a secondary to fill up one cider jug to the brim (4.75l) and the rest into a jar as a test portion and put it up on a shelf to finish at room temp. SG was 1.016 which seemed a bit high and there was a taste I couldn't put my finger on but I think it's because I had just sampled an IPA of mine just before so my taste buds were a little off.
Today I tested the jar sample and it was 1.015 but tasted fine actually.
I plan on bottling soon but Brewsmith says my target is 1.010 so I'm a bit worried.
Thoughts? BJCP comp worthy? Thanks for the feedback!
Sorry, I'm Canadian, everything's in metric. Oh and I do small batch too. Brew day was Feb 1st.
Mildred's Fun Mild - British Mild
All Grain recipe:
0.8kg - Maris Otter
0.15kg - Crystal 30L
0.2kg - CaraRed (was supposed to just be 0.35kg of Crystal 30 but alas I found myself short on brew day so I substituted some Carared)
0.18kg - Crystal 120L
My Mash:
I use a converted Bubba keg cooler like this one except more like 3 gallons volume. I mashed with 3.8L of water and tried to get a temp close to 67 C. I used a cheap fish tank thermometer and left is sit in the mash during the full hour. It started around 62 but slowly climbed to about 65 over the first 30 minutes which I was pleasantly surprised to see. I do a combination fly/batch sparge type method I made up. This batch I added about 2.5L water @ 75 C post-mash and then start to drain slowly. I put a colander on top of the bubba keg and add a cup of 75 C water at a time to drip in until I reached 9.6L pre-boil.
*A note on water; I use tap water and have suspicions I'm getting chlorine off flavors. Lighter beers definitely have a pool taste/smell. So this time around I added half a campden tablet the night before to all the water I needed. I'm just getting my toes wet on developing my water profile but this is a start.
Boil:
Pretty standard, hour boil.
8grams - East Kent Goldings @ 60min
8grams - Fuggle @ 20min
0.5tsp - Irish Moss @ 15min
I cool it down in an ice bath.
Fermentation
Total volume was estimated 9l
OG was 1.042
I pitched Nottingham yeast (rehydrated).
I used 2 one gallon glass cider jugs and split the volume into each.
Fermented in my SOFC with ambient air at 16 C.
I used the same fish tank thermometer in one of the jugs and it wavered between 18 and 20 C.
On the 23rd I racked to a secondary to fill up one cider jug to the brim (4.75l) and the rest into a jar as a test portion and put it up on a shelf to finish at room temp. SG was 1.016 which seemed a bit high and there was a taste I couldn't put my finger on but I think it's because I had just sampled an IPA of mine just before so my taste buds were a little off.
Today I tested the jar sample and it was 1.015 but tasted fine actually.
I plan on bottling soon but Brewsmith says my target is 1.010 so I'm a bit worried.
Thoughts? BJCP comp worthy? Thanks for the feedback!
