AG#3 - Hop Back Mild update

Packaged this in a King Keg today; it had finished at 1004 which was very low. The temperature corrected reading for the OG was 1030, so that gives a respectable 3.41 before priming for conditioning and about 3.6-3.7 after. I didn't have any white table sugar to hand, so I boiled up 90g of unrefined cane brown sugar. I think ~that works out about right for 19l of British Ale.

It tasted good, a bit thin, but I'm finding that all beers are tasting a bit 'thin' before conditioning, I think its really the lack of dissolved CO2 I'm tasting, as they all seem to come good after priming and conditioning.

Its now sat at 19C in an Inkbird controlled water bath.

I really like the MJ Liberty Bell yeast, but I'm wondering if I should give a yeast a try that doesn't attenuate so much, or perhaps mash at a different temperature to get more non-fermentable sugars? I need to do some research...

GW Hopback Summer Lightning clone update

Bottled this yesterday. Gosh, how I dislike bottling, all the washing, rinsing, sanitizer, etc etc. Give me packaging in a King Keg any day.

I got 30 bottles, and it's finished at 1007. Thats knocking on the door of 5.2% abv when it's finished carbonating. For such a strong beer, it's very easy drinking; in fact there's not much to it. Hoping for a nice summer quencher.

I need to get a King Keg back from a friend then I'll package the hop back mild that's in the 2nd FV.

I'm split between doing a bitter (Timmy Taylor's Boltmaker clone) or a historic recipe from Ron Pattinsons blog next; watch this space.

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning update #2

Tested this yesterday; its finished, so I've turned off the water bath it was in to cool it and get as much yeast as possible to drop out. It tastes pretty good; not complex, but light , dry and with a nice level of bitterness. There is a hint of Goldings citrus coming through, but it isn't modern US Pale Ale levels ~ this is an English beer from the late 1980's after all.

I'm going to bottle this weekend.

Then next up will be a classic 1920's IPA from Ron Patterson, and then a bitter of some sort from Graham Wheeler.