Attempted a clone of McMullon Country Best Bitter. Went the usual route and dissolved 3000 grams (instead of 2540 grams) of light dried malt extract in 10 litres of water at 40C then made the volume up to 20 litres with warm water. Brought this to the boil and added 22 grams of Bramling Cross Hops and 22 grams of Progress Hops and stirred in. This was then left to boil for 45 minutes when 250 grams (instead of 215 grams) of caster sugar was added and stirred in. Again left to boil for a further 35 minutes when 15 grams of Fuggle Hops and 3 grams of Irish moss was added and stirred in. Left to boil for a further 10 minutes and then the boiler was turned off for 90 minutes to allow the trub to settle to the bottom of the boiler. Four litres of cold bottled mineral water was added to the fermenting vessel and the wort run off into this. After giving the wort a good stir the volume was made up to 23 litres with cold mineral water. The wort was still too hot at the bottom of the fv to allow the pitching of the yeast. So I ran off about 6 litres from the bottom of the fv and poured it back in to the top. This seemed to do the trick and I pitched the re-hydrated yeast into the wort and gave it another jolly good stir. I adjusted the quantities of dried malt extract and white sugar because the original gravity of the last 3 or 4 brews have been too low. I took a hydrometer reading and found the OG to be 1.044. If the final gravity turns out, as planned, to be 1.008 the brew will have an ABV of about 4.7% instead of 4.2%.
Fermentation has started so it seems that the goblins were not present this time. My goblins traps probably frightened them off. However, I will have to keep my eyes, ears, nose and throat open in case they return. I hope that the Hobgoblins don't gang up on me again.
No comments:
Post a Comment