Visited Weatherspoons Staple Hill yesterday evening. A few of the usual suspects were missing but a good evening nonetheless. A couple of pints of Golden Bolt 3.8% with my chicken bhuna curry went down a treat. After curry I had a Doombar 4% a very nice ale and finished up with another Golden Bolt. All this rounded off by Pete giving me some lettuces. Ta Pete!
And now to the subject matter. Started Scarecrow IPA today. Dissolved 1.850 kg of light dried malt extract in 17 litres of water at 40C. Added a filter bag containing 275 grams of crushed crystal malt and 22 grams of whole black malt and brought to the boil. Took out the filter bag and added 19 grams of target hops. 45 minutes into the boil added 295 grams of caster sugar. 80 minutes into the boil added 9 grams of styrian golding hops and 3 grams of Irish moss (as opposed to Kate Moss, a little joke there). After a total of 90 minutes boiling turned boiler off and allowed the trub and debris to settle. Meanwhile I sterilised a fermenting vessel (fv) ready for the wort. About an hour later I ran off about 5 litres of cold water (which I had boiled the day before and allowed to cool overnight) into the fv. Then I ran off the hot wort from the boiler and topped up to 23 litres with the remaining cooled water. The fv is now in the fermenting cupboard with the doors open. When the wort is below 30C I will pitch the yeast and leave to ferment, probably for 7 or 10 days depending on the gravity readings, into lovely beer. Just took the gravity (1.035) and temperature (36C) of Scarecrow IPA. Looks like I won't be able to pitch the yeast until later tonight. I will keep a beady eye on the temperature and pitch the yeast as soon as I can. There is a danger, though in my view slight, that the wort will become infected before the yeast has time to start making alcohol and lead to a bad, undrinkable brew. Its not happened to me yet, fingers crossed, but why take chances?
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