Bitter Brewing Day

Well, we had a pretty damn nice brew day yesterday. Got to help a friend brew his first beer (and all-grain at that). Then we brewed 11 gallons of English Bitter. That's straight up bitter, not an ESB or any other nicety. It's one of the lightest in color we have done, as well as the lowest abv wise. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

As usual, we had a few complications... We had only one pack of the correct yeast, which under normal circumstances wouldn't be and issue with the stir plate and such... Except we put the sir bars away somewhere safe and (you've probably guessed it) now no one can remember where that safe place was... We also snapped the board that forms the base of our grain mill... And broke a 6gl carboy while sanitizing it.. And split a hose... And the beer is coming out a bit stronger than it was designed for (oh well).

This is what happens when we make a light colored, lower abv beer... Fate smacks us on the ass... On the upside, we were a helluva lot more efficient about brewing this one. Two back to back all-grain beers, 60 min mashs, 90min boils, etc.. and cleanup done in 11hrs. Which is still a bit long, but considering we screwed around a bit, ran out of propane, and weathered (pun intended) a rain storm, I think we did pretty good. Especially since cleanup time is included in that number. We also managed to keep some pretty decent notes and actually keep track of our gravities and whatnot. Quite proud of ourselves if I do say so! In any event, we made a helluva pretty beer. It has a nice golden color and smells awesome. Hopefully the yeast does its thing and we end up with 10+ gallons of tasty bitter.

On a side note, we got to attend a cask event at Bearden Beer Market brought to us by the lovely folks from Yazoo Brewing.  Hop Project #63 triple dry hopped with Galaxy was out of this world good.  Aroma was amazing!  The Sly Rye Porter dry hopped with cocoa was also pretty tasty, but the Hop Project was just amazingly good.  Both beers gave us some neat ideas to think about from projects of our own.

Anyways, here is the current brewing sheet for the Bitter.  Take a look and feel free to comment!

{Matt} Bitter (3-22-2012)

Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 3/22/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal	Brewer: R&D Brewing
Boil Size: 14.90 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Pot (18.5 Gal/70 L) and Cooler (9.5 Gal/40 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 12.22 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 11.08 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 80.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 2.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 - 13 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 81.8 % 2 lbs Caramunich II (Weyermann) (63.0 SRM) Grain 3 12.1 % 1 lbs Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.1 % 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.60 %] - First Wort 90.0 min Hop 5 19.1 IBUs 1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop 6 10.7 IBUs 2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 - 2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 8.0 IBUs 2.00 Items Servomyces (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 9 - 1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 - 1.0 pkg Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [124.21 ml] Yeast 11 - 2.00 Items Oxygen (Primary 0.0 mins) Other 12 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.041 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %
Bitterness: 37.8 IBUs	Calories: 144.4 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.8 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 16 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 8.64 gal	Grain Temperature: 80.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 80.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 36.18 qt of water at 159.1 F 153.0 F 90 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.79gal, 7.85gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
1. Ran out of gas, so the mash went about 30mins longer.
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