Was a little bit more precise with this one and made sure i followed some of the golden rules of brewing to see if i ended up with an ale that was significantly better.
I am pleased to say it has. See photo. I am particulary fond of hobgoblin so wanted something of that ilk. Not a clone but simillar.
The recipe is as follows.
1x 1.5kg tin of LME from a brewmaker yorkshire bitter kit.
1kg dark spray malt
0.5kg medium spray malt
100g dextrose
185g roasted black malt
110g crushed crystal malt
60g EKG
20g fuggles pellets
20g challenger pellets
10 challenger pellets for dry hopping
Safale-04 english ale yeast
Sterilised everything at start of brew day. Rinsed off with cold tap water. I have not yet gone to the trouble of rinsing off with boiled water as suggested by John Palmer in how to brew.
Steeped the black and crystal malt for 30 mins in 10ltrs of water.
Bought water to boil. Flame out and stirred in all the LME, the dark and medium spray malt.
Flame on and brought water up to a rolling boil and hot break before adding first hop addition
Added 30g of EKG
Started the timed hour.
30 mins to go added remainder of EKG, 10g of fuggles pellets and 10g of challenger pellets
15 mins to go added the remainder of the pellets bar those which will be used for dry hopping later
Flame out.
Cold break. Stuck the pot in the sink which was filled with ice. Got the wort down to 28 degrees in 40 mins.
Transferred the wort into primary using a jug and through a plastic strainer to get most of the hops out.
Filled pot with 3lts cold water from tap and then used this to swill through hops and stuff to get some more goodness out. Transferred this to primary through plastic strainer.
Put lid on primary which now had about 12 ltrs in it and gave it a damn good shaking to aerate the wort.
Topped up primary with tap water to 23ltrs.
Checked temp then OG and decided to add 100g of dextrose giving me an OG of 1058.
Sprinkled yeast on top straight from packet and left in primary for 3 weeks at 22 degrees.
Dry hopped with 3 days to go.
Made up my priming solution with 85g dextrose in boiled water that was allowed to cool. Put solution into a bottling bucket which has tap and connector for a bottle filler.
Transferred wort to bottling bucket making sure not to splash or add air.
Bottled using bottle filler. One of those great things from wilkos that allows you to fill bottle from bottom up without introducing air. Great device.
Job done.
Cracked open the ale pictured after 10 days just because I couldn’t wait any longer and it tastes great. Really pleased and very smooth with a head that lasted to the bottom of the glass. No hint of that homebrew taste that you can get with some kits.
It isn’t overly hoppy in smell.
One thing I have yet to do with my brews is ensure rinsing water and the water I use to make up the wort quantity has been boiled. This seems like a big faff to me and as yet I have not suffered with infection.
Welcome any comments on my first real brew Galeforce.