4 Dog Bitter - Monday, October 14, 2019
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, it doesn't do it all the time, but mostly with UCM. I guess I can go to notch 4, then turn it back to notch 3 with UK and German malts. I am playing around with my stout faucet with these kind of beers to see if I can mimic a bitter with beer gas. Praxair charges way too much to buy beer gas, so fuckem. The wort tasted good, kind of strong though. Very sweet, so the Cascade hops did not come through yet. Last dark amber I am ever going to brew.
DAY 1
Going good at midnight same day. Good seal on the pail the next morning.
Day 2 - Slowing down? Yes it has slowed down a lot. Haven't used this yeast in a long time. Not
sure how fast or slow it is. Doesn't matter as long as it attenuates normally.
Day 6 - Very slow but steady. Still going though.
Day 8 - Still fermenting away slowly. Hopefully I can keg this in a week or so. Will re-use the
yeast if it attenuates well and the taste is good.
Day 12 - Almost done, but still bubbling away every 20 - 30 min. I would say this is a 2 week
brew, but will not keg until it is really done. Keg, clear and carb at 5 psi overnight,
then take it upstairs to serve. Shut off fridge if nothing in there.
Sampled on Oct. 26
I like it. Kind of low on bitterness, but I can fix that. A nice, light caramel/toffee taste. May go higher, but not until this is cleared and aged. Will brew another one close to this, but lighter in colour. Keep brewing this style of beer as I really like it.
KEGGED ON TUESDAY, OCT. 29
Wow! Cleanup using pails is incredibly easy. No krausen ring, just a wash cloth and hot water. No soap, BKF, nothing. Saved yeast. Got around 1200 ml of loose yeast. It will in time compact down to around half this. Either use half and toss the rest, or use it. Time is short around here lately, so I may just toss it and re-use around 300 ml. Looks like I got around 500 ml. It is in my 500 ml mason jar.
TASTE
Not that great. It has a bit of a nasty after taste. Not sure why? I hate to re-use this yeast when this beer tastes like this. Tasted from my upstairs tap on Nov. 6. Better. Tasted on Nov. 10 and it is even better, cleared fine too. I just have to use gelatin with all of my beers for now on.
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, it doesn't do it all the time, but mostly with UCM. I guess I can go to notch 4, then turn it back to notch 3 with UK and German malts. I am playing around with my stout faucet with these kind of beers to see if I can mimic a bitter with beer gas. Praxair charges way too much to buy beer gas, so fuckem. The wort tasted good, kind of strong though. Very sweet, so the Cascade hops did not come through yet. Last dark amber I am ever going to brew.
DAY 1
Going good at midnight same day. Good seal on the pail the next morning.
Day 2 - Slowing down? Yes it has slowed down a lot. Haven't used this yeast in a long time. Not
sure how fast or slow it is. Doesn't matter as long as it attenuates normally.
Day 6 - Very slow but steady. Still going though.
Day 8 - Still fermenting away slowly. Hopefully I can keg this in a week or so. Will re-use the
yeast if it attenuates well and the taste is good.
Day 12 - Almost done, but still bubbling away every 20 - 30 min. I would say this is a 2 week
brew, but will not keg until it is really done. Keg, clear and carb at 5 psi overnight,
then take it upstairs to serve. Shut off fridge if nothing in there.
Sampled on Oct. 26
I like it. Kind of low on bitterness, but I can fix that. A nice, light caramel/toffee taste. May go higher, but not until this is cleared and aged. Will brew another one close to this, but lighter in colour. Keep brewing this style of beer as I really like it.
KEGGED ON TUESDAY, OCT. 29
Wow! Cleanup using pails is incredibly easy. No krausen ring, just a wash cloth and hot water. No soap, BKF, nothing. Saved yeast. Got around 1200 ml of loose yeast. It will in time compact down to around half this. Either use half and toss the rest, or use it. Time is short around here lately, so I may just toss it and re-use around 300 ml. Looks like I got around 500 ml. It is in my 500 ml mason jar.
TASTE
Not that great. It has a bit of a nasty after taste. Not sure why? I hate to re-use this yeast when this beer tastes like this. Tasted from my upstairs tap on Nov. 6. Better. Tasted on Nov. 10 and it is even better, cleared fine too. I just have to use gelatin with all of my beers for now on.
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