Beach Brew

I have been a bit slack with these beers but I checked on them today.

Both the APA and ESB are tasting sensational. Almost two weeks in the fermenter. Unfortunately they both have a couple more points to shave off which is unusual with this yeast as it has normally finished it’s work by now. This one is a couple of generations old so that may have slowed it down. On Wednesday, which is a couple of days behind schedule, I will rack them into secondary and onto some dry hops for a week or so. Then it will be into the bottle.

I am looking forward to getting these beers done as what I have available at the moment is limited. Just have the steam beer which I over carbonated and an American IPA which is great but at about 10% you don’t want to have too many of them. Now I have to decide what to make next. I am thinking about a couple of lagers including a bock.

Finally got another brew day done. I did a double brew day today as I don’t seem to be getting the opportunity to brew as often as I would like lately. Today I brewed an Extra Special Bitter and an American Pale Ale. The recipes for these are in the previous post.

Both brews went pretty much to plan. I missed my numbers a little on the APA but only by a little and only because I made a mistake in my recipe. Other than that the brew day could not have gone smoother. The brew day started at about 0615 and finished up with everything put away and all cleaning done at 1400. Not too bad for a double brew day. I couldn’t do without my electric urn now. The urn makes brew day so much easier.

The ESB is looking to be a great beer. The wort tasted wonderful out of the mash tun and also out of the kettle. I do find tasting the beer straight from the kettle a bit difficult though. I find grassy hop flavours and bitterness tend to dominate the flavour at this point. Plenty of nice malt in this beer though. I am still tossing up whether or not to dry hop this beer. I think I will taste it when transferring to secondary and make the decision then. I used a reasonable quantity of finishing hops so this shouldn’t be required but I do like beers that tend toward hoppiness.

The APA is pretty close to my standard recipe with a few modifications to the grist. I decided to drop the Munich malt back a little in this one to attempt to dry the beer out a little. I also didn’t have as much Wheat malt as I thought I had. So I added a little extra carrapils to help with body and head retention that the wheat could have provided. Other than that it was pretty much my standard APA. When I was writing up the recipe I made a couple of mistakes with volumes so I missed my targets on this one but only by a couple of points and the beer is still well within the range of what I want.

I just can’t wait until they are ready to drink.

I had intended to brew my Belgian Pale and a Northern English Brown this weekend. However, I don ‘t actually feel like either of these beers at the moment. I may make the Belgian but the brown is out. I am going to do a double brew this weekend so have to come up with a final decision.

The other recipes I am considering is a new recipe I have created for an ESB. I have made many bitters before but have not made and ESB in the past so I thought this time of year is pretty good for an ESB too. The other one I am thinking about is doing my American Pale. However, this time I am going to back off on the Munich malt and replace some of it with Marris Otter. I want to dry it out a little but not too musch as I like it with a bit of body and malt. Recipes below.

Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
————————–
Batch Size: 25.00 L
Boil Size: 28.94 L
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 13.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 38.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC) Grain 54.5 %
2.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 36.4 %
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 EBGrain 9.1 %
25.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 19.5 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (20 min) Hops 9.5 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (10 min) Hops 5.7 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (5 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (1 min) Hops 0.7 IBU
20.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.00%] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops –
1.22 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) [StarteYeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 5.50 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Step Add 14.30 L of water at 72.4 C 66.0 C 60 min

Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 25.50 L
Boil Size: 31.62 L
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 30.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 50.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 94.0 %
0.30 kg Crystal (Joe White) (141.8 EBC) Grain 4.5 %
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 EBGrain 1.5 %
35.00 gm Magnum [12.00%] (60 min) Hops 38.7 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (20 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (10 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (0 min) Hops –
0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) [StarteYeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 6.65 kg
—————————-
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Step Add 16.62 L of water at 72.7 C 66.0 C 90 min