Beautiful day to brew! |
As you would expect, the archived beer never lasts the summer. So its time for a brew day - and today I'm brewing a beer that is fit for both cooling down on a warm summers eve, and is fit for those early fall days. Crisp, refreshing and modestly bodied, with a bracing but not overpowering bitterness, an extra special bitter is just the beer for the dog days of summer.
HOPS!!!! |
Mash outs are a classical part of brewing, but something that many batch-spargers have done away with. My mash efficiencies are consistently low (65%-ish), so I'm going to try adding adding the first sparge water (5L) at boiling (update: this upped my efficiency to 72%, bu I under-collected the sparge water by ~3L, so this could have been better). This may improve the liquefaction of the mash, thus improving efficiency.
Recipe and notes below the fold...
First Wort Hopping (FWH):
First wort hopping is actually an old brewing process - hops were traditionally added to the brew kettle before the mash was sparged. This leads to the hops soaking in the hot wort, and being present throughout the heat-up part. Exactly what this does is somewhat controversial - with people arguing it improves the character of the bitterness, to improving/increasing hop flavour & aroma, through to increasing or even decreasing bitterness. Denney has provided the only real analysis, both chemical & test-panel, of FWH. He found that about 10% more alpha acids (IBUs) were extracted from the hops, but some (not all!) of the taste panel perceived that bitterness to be less and/or more smooth. Lots of brewers swear by FWH, so I'm going to give it a go!
The Recipe
Note: A small amount of Columbus hops was added to increase the IBUs, as the Goldings had a lower-than-expected alpha-acid content (4.5% instead of 5%).
Dog Days ESB |
Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) |
Type: All Grain | Date: 13-08-25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l | Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Boil Size: 25.49 l | Est Mash Efficiency 75.6 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Boil Time: 60 min | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ingredients
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Beer Profile
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Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG | Measured Original Gravity: 1.056 SG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG | Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Est Color: 11.2 SRM | Bitterness: 35.3 IBUs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Profile
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Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge | Total Grain Weight: 4.98 kg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sparge Water: 17.49 l | Grain Temperature: 21.2 C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C | Tun Temperature: 20.0 C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE |
Mash PH: 5.20 |
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Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (4.62l, 12.87l) of 100C, 75.6 C water |
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Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time). Used 100C water for first sparge step, to mimic a mash-out. |
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Carbonation and Storage
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Carbonation Type: Keg | Volumes of CO2: 2.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C | Age for: 30.00 days | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage |
Storage Temperature: 18.3 C |
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Notes
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Mash: -Hit 68.5C; slightly high -Stirred until cooled (~1 min) -Conversion complete in ~40 min Sparge: -New method (pseudo-mashout): -Batch sparge 1: Added 5L @ 100C -> est. temp of 75.8C/168.5F -Batch sparge 2: ~12L @ normal temp (75.6C) -Pre-boil gravity was 1.044 (est. 1.046) Boil: -%AA of goldings was low; added 2g of Collumbus (14%, FWH) to hit 35IBU -OG ended up being 1.062, volume to fermenter was 19L. Diluted to 21L to hit OG of 1.056 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Output from Beersmith
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