AG#3 - Hop Back Mild

I decided to try another mild from Graham Wheeler's BYOBRA, this time Hop Back Mild. 90 min mash, 60 mins boil - but I forgot to allow for a shorter (than the recipe) boil time and thus had a couple of more litres of wort into the FV with the subsequent decrease in OG. Even if this brews out to 1007, it's still going to only be 3% ABV ~ a proper session ale, lol. Here is a pic of the first runnings;

Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell yeast again. Not much more to say really, as I can't post the recipe for copyright reasons.

* update - I've just realised I didn't correct the hydrometer reading for temperature. Onve I did, the OG was actually a little over target, it anything. Good news!

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning update

The 3x combo Cooper yeast took off very quickly and a healthy yeast head was formed after less than 12 hours. All seemed to be going well...

Then, we have a perfect example of 'a little bit of knowledge' being a dangerous thing. I opened the brew fridge on day 3 and was met with a pungent, rotton egg smell. Now, I've had this before once or twice in the past with Coopers kits to no ill effect, but I made the mistake of searching the internet, and found a quote apparently from a John Palmer ( i.e. a beer god) book. Apparently, this meant one of two things; its normal for some lager yeasts, otherwise you have an infection.

Yikes. Panic set in....

However, I decided to ride it out, as there was nothing I could do, and a couple of days later it has gone. I think it's the yeast.

Today, I needed to move the brew fridge from the conservatory to the garage, and as I had to disturb the FV anyway I took the opportunity to take a sample and test it. It has dropped to 1007, so I assume it has done, and it tastes fine. I'm going to leave it for the usual 10 days - 2 weeks anyway to clean up after itself, cold crash it for a couple of days then bottle it, I think, although I may put it in a King Keg if it isn't very interesting. Either way, its  a success so far!

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning

Today's brewday was Graham Wheeler's Hop Back Summer Lightning clone.

Bit if a calamity at mash time; after 90 mins I turned the tap on to get a rush of wort then... nothing. I didn't think I could have a stick mash at 3L per Kg, so I investigated and found the bazooka filter had come off the inner barb of the tap, and the tap had blocked. So, it was a case of taking all the grain and wort out into an FV, unblocking the tap, refitting the filter, putting it all back in, then proceeding as normal. I need to look at that to try and stop that happening again. Anyway, the sparge went fin, but I was so anxious to get the bloomin wort out I didn't lauter that well, so we will have to see if that effects final clarity / taste. Cooling took longer than in colder weather, obviously, but other than that, all went well. Oh, apart from me touching the cooled wort with the tip of my unsanitised finger....

I used a crazy combo of 3x Coopers kit yeasts that I had hanging about in the fridge, one was a normal coopers yeast, one came with the ruby porter, and one with the IPA. That was because I realised I didn't have any Nottingham in stock, and didn't want to risk using the CML yeast I had in stock. I had a Mangrove Jacks that I could have used (Liberty Bell) but I need that for my next mild, and anyway, wanted to try the crazy coopers yeast combo. It will either work or it won't (this appears to be a reoccurring brewing theme of mine  )

Final gravity was 1046, and I got 17.5 L into the FV, which if it drops to 1009 would mean an ABV of 4.86. That less than I should have got into the FV, and subsequently a higher FG, but I suspect that was due to messing about with the mash extending the mash time and me loosing some wort while transferring it into the FV temporarily.

Brewing update

The mild is down to 1009ish after 4 days, and almost clear. Tastes good already, even though it's really young, but I'll leave it for the usual 2 weeks before packaging even though the gravity suggests I could get away with one. This is pretty standard, it seams, for Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell yeast; starts quickly, smells nice, finishes promptly. It adds a mild (no pun intended) amount of esters and fruity tastes to a brew, but nothing totally dominating. 

Can't wait to get going with my next AG brew, not sure what it is going to be yet, possibly another mild. Or a golden ale. Or an IPA (traditional English one, of course). We'll see.

I've also finally bottled my two WOWs that took an age to clear. They have some promise, but am not yet convinced they will be suitable to keep us in wine. We'll see on that one as well.

Oh, and some happy news; I've won something! Inkbird were giving away some stuff and I was the very greatful winner of an ITC 306. In fact, when the package came, it contained two. Yippee!  I plan to build a brew cupboard with one and use the other to control the water temp on my Burco.