4 Dog Brewery

5.5 gallons. Different recipe from the last one as I am using different ingredients. Hard to compare which one I like as this one is lighter than the previous one. I would like to make lighter looking bitters, but still have a good caramel/toffee taste. Thinking on going with 10% Carastan malt like I did 15 years ago using well water. I really should send away a sample of my well water to see if I can figure out how to brew with it. Ingredients 11 lbs. UCM 8 ozs. Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal - 112 L 56.70 g EKG - 60 min. Wyeast 1098 Water Profile - Amber Full O.G. - 1.040 F.G. - % - SRM - 7.4 BU - 31 I checked my records back in 2013 and found a bitter which had almost the same ingredients as this one. I do remember how good it tasted. I did use Epsom salt, just gymsum and cal choride. I am doing that today. I remember reading that is all you need, just half a teaspoon of each and that is it. Maybe I am over doing it with the salts. Will see in 2 weeks ...

5.5 Gallons - Using my wine pail. Still smells a bit like wine, but I will do it anyway. Good seal next morning. I tasted the hydrometer sample and it really didn't taste that great. Had an unpleasant taste which surprised me at this stage of brewing. Nothing to do but wait and see. Hope the dark crystal wasn't stale. Thinking on buying a sack of Carastan malt from UCM. Never had stale malt from them, not ever. Ingredients 11 lbs. UCM 14 ozs. Thomas Fawcett Crystal 85 1 oz. UK Choc Malt - 400 L 42.70 g EKG - 60 min. 14 g EKG - 20 min. 28.35 g Cascade - 0 min. ( tasted a Wellington SPA bitter with a finish of US hops, good. ) Wyeast 1318 London Ale III Water Profile - Amber Balanced O.G. - 1.046 F.G. - % - SRM - 10 BU - 25.8 I seem to have trouble with my efficiency and I know it is my mill not doing the job. Still on notch 3. If I go to notch 4, it has too much powder in it. UCM is smaller than all malts, so my efficiency is going from 81% to 73%. But,...

2 - 15 L Costco White Wine Kits O.G. - 1.092 Racking gravity - 1.000 F.G. - .992 % - 13.5 In pails with the lid on loose with baseboard on 68 F. Temp is a little high - 74 F. Can't get it to go to 72 F, so I quite trying but keeping it from getting to warm. Day 1 - Followed the kit instructions. Added 8 L of spring water to each pail. Day 2 - Bathroom smells like wine. Day 3 - Same. Day 8 - 74 F. Temp strips are reading 2 F apart, either accurate or not, who knows. Rack to               carboys soon. Day 11 - Had a hard time leaving the sediment behind in the pails. Got around 2 inches in each                pail. I will be more careful next time, but I think it doesn't matter anyway because it is                only in these carboys 15 days. Rack and clear after that. Day 26 - Oct. 23 - Rack to a carboy and add/degas all the stuff. Day 27 - Oct. 24 - ...