Baptiste Lake Bitter - Saturday, October 12 , 2024 ( tossed because of too much crystal malt )
I bought a lot of ingredients in small amounts so I can easily switch them out to see which one
I like and go with that. Not sure about the times using EKG hops. May do a 60 minute boil
only, but most if not all go with these times. That is being cheap on my part. Since I bought
my grains at Defalco's, they are metric. 250 grams, 500 grams etc. Cut in half it came out to
8.8 ozs.
Ingredients
11 lbs. Crisp Maris Otter
8.8 ozs. Simpsons CM
8.8 ozs. Biscuit
1.60 ozs. CaraFa III
30 grams EKG at 60 min.
18 grams EKG at 30 min.
20 grams EKG at 5 min.
Wyeast British Ale 1098 - Pitched at 10 AM
O.G. - 1.040 - 67% - why so low? Wort tastes good so go with it I guess.
F.G. -
% -
SRM - 10.6
BU - 30
Water Profile - Amber Dry
CA - 50
MG - 15
S04 - 110
CI - 51
PH - 5.49
MASH
Gyp - 2 g
Cal Chloride - 1.7 g
Eps - 3.3 g
Baking Soda - 1.2 g
BOIL
Gyp - 1.8 g
Cal Chloride - 1.5 g
Eps - 2.9 g
SPARGE
Lactic Acid - .2 ml
I of course forgot my yeast I bought in Ottawa in the fridge, so I had to buy more. Dam, Mr. no memory. I have always liked this yeast so hopefully it will turn out fine. It may be the size of
the malt. It may be small and my mill is used to other malt which was bigger. I will have to
take a look at my next milled barley and adjust my mill if it is needed.
Starter made on Oct. 3
BREW DAY
Brewing this in the laundry room. Weather is cool so it should not be a problem. I am going to
test Mr. Robobrew with some water to check the temperature and compare it to my thermopen.
Just making sure the PC board is not acting up since it was kind of slow to start the last time I
brewed with it. Mr. Robobrew is acting up. It heats up water but doesn't show a pause button
when it gets to temp. It does shut off though, but shows it is still heating the water. It needs
calibration. It says the temp is say 100F when Mr. Thermopen says 104F. It doesn't kick back
in until 94F. That window is kind of wide - 6F. I have to mash at 4F lower than I want. So, if
I want to mash at 150F, I have to set it at 146F which in reality is 150F.
I calibrated Mr. Robobrew. It was off around 7F. I had to do it 4 times to get it right. Seems to
be working okay. No, the pause button does not go on when you reach the set temps. I think
this is the way it should be. After multiple brew day delays I think I can get this one in on
Oct. 12. Thanksgiving supper on Oct. 13, so this seems like a good day to brew.
Brew Day - Mr. Robobrew really didn't get to a rolling boil unless I put the lid on. I can't
do that because of it has to boil off all of the diacetyl, and that other thing I
can't pronounce. Is it on it's last leg? No idea. Will brew another bitter on
Halloween. Wait and see. Going good later in the evening. Turned off fridge
to get it to rise a couple degrees. 62F.
Day 1 - Still going good. 64F. Fridge still off.
Day 2 - Went downstairs to check it at midmight. 70F. Turned fridge on and went to bed.
Checked it again the next morning and it was 60F. Having a hard time
regulating the temp. STC1000 needs calibration. Fridge off now. Will check it
time to time but big temp changes can no longer happen. It is almost done and
that means I may get suck back due to temp changes and inactivity. That can
not happen. If I do make changes, it has to be subtle. I can put ice in a glass
and fill it with water to see where the temp is and use that as a temp base until
Les can calibrate it. I did it. It was off just a bit below 1C which isn't that bad.
Carboy is in the beer room. Wall heater on. At midnight it was 66F.
Day 3 - Not much activity today. 66F. Letting it stay at that temp until done then shut
off heat until day 14 - 17.
Day 4 - Same
Day 5 - Almost done. The odd bubble coming up from the bottom. Keg in 10 days or so.
Day 8 - Done now.
KEG ON DAY 16 OR LATER
I punched it up after supper on Oct. 29.
TASTE
As expected. Way too malty. I over did the Crystal malts. Will sip on it until my next beer is ready to drink and then over the fence into the swamp it goes.
Comments