pretty ordinary bitter (australian bitter)
brewed: 13/01/14
pitched: 13/01/14
bottled: 23/01/14
subsequent batch info: definitely. substituting in a liquid yeast strain and increasing the carbonation.
ingredients:
3.38kg joe white pale ale malt
220gm joe white wheat malt
200gm simpsons crystal 60
48gm pride of ringwood (pellets, 5.6 aa%, 60 mins)
11gm - danstar windsor british ale yeast
1 tablet whirlfloc
0.5 tsp yeast nutrient
process:
20L batch, single infusion, no sparge, mash in 65C for 90 mins, chilled, 16C fermentation, 2C cold crash
OG: 1.044 (1.040 expected)
FG: 1.014 (1.008 expected)
%AbV: 4% and 4.5% bottled (4.7-8% expected - bottled)
australian standard drinks (1 x 340mL glass): 1.3
ibu: 32
brewing notes:
12/01/14 - writing this the night before. i was all keen first to do american beers, then a mexican lager, and now i'm doing an australian ale! i'm so all over the place but who cares!? main reason for doing this was because i could use all ingredients from home and didn't have to head to the home brew shop which would have eaten into my day and just made it a lot longer. so, with all that said, i'll be making an australian ale (bitter) with an english yeast i've had sitting here for a while. this yeast is notorious for finishing early and not properly fermenting, so i have some back up us-05 yeast to help finish fermenting if this is the case.
the name is just there because i'm using a yeast that i have NO idea about (regarding its taste). it might turn out to be ordinary in that case! if not though, hooray!
13/01/14 - great brew day. hit all my figures and even got higher which was odd, but kind of nice for a change. good day, done in quite a fast record time too! managed to whirlpool which worked really well with getting my trub and losses down too.
tasting notes:
18/01/14 - took a sample of this and had a taste before crash chilling, and while still young and very yeasty, i think this one is a definite goodun'. so far, while quite 'bready', the windsor yeast has worked a treat. i could have used some US-05 and got it down further, to about 1.010 but i didn't want it to be that strong considering i was over my initial gravity at 1.044. very happy in fact. added 4 gravity points to my post boil, and gained them post-ferment. this just means the beer retained a touch more sweetness than was planned but this is so minimal that you wouldn't be able to tell. that and the taste was great so i'm very happy.
09/02/14 - took a taste test of this one tonight. not the best as yet. not sure if i drank it too cold or it just wasn't ready yet. this yeast, as well as the s-04 i used for the mini minor esb were the first yeasts i've used that weren't a clean-tasting, non-estery yeast (woops, also the weihenstephan wheat yeast and coopers) so if they are anything to go by, the beer won't be really drinkable until about 5 weeks. so far it's been about 17 days. might try one next week to see, and hopefully keep the rest bottle conditioning a little longer. taste-wise it was very sharp, perhaps even acidic, and i think this was just the yeast not cleaning up after itself after the secondary bottle ferment. i also placed a small amount of dextrose into each bottle to aid in more carbonation and am hoping this isn't causing any off flavours. at this stage i just think it needs more time.
16/02/14 - WOW! this beer has done a complete u-turn and is absolutely amazing. a lovely mellow bitterness from the pride of ringwood paired with a very subtle english yeast ester. has a lovely carbonic bite to it due to the higher carbonation which really assists the light and refreshing taste and mouthfeel. i'm VERY proud of this little gem. looking forward to getting into these bad boys and seeing how they age also. very happy with how this yeast has turned out compared to how it was a few weeks ago. it's cleaned up beautifully. couldn't be happier!
21/02/14 - still killing it. have had a few people say it was too bitter but i think 30 odd IBU is where it should be to keep in style. very happy with it.
11/03/14 - had the last of this last night. first bottle was beautiful but the second had an alcoholic warmth off flavour. i think i need to clean my bottles a bit better before bottling the beers (say that fast 3 times!) in future. a few of them have had some off-flavours. over all, this beer was a pure winner. so very happy with the entire recipe. next go through i'll substitute in a liquid yeast variety.
brew pictures: