Today's Brew - something British inspired [General]

2009 Jun 7
So far this year I've been brewing mainly German-style beers with a quick stop in Belgium, so today it is something British inspired. Normally I stick with very simple grain bills, but had a bunch of odds and ends to use up so this is what I came up with. I don't expect much character from the small amount of Smoked malt - used it mainly because I needed more base malt and did not want to use up any of my 2 Row because I have other plans for it next weekend.

4.6 kg pale ale
2.3 kg Weyermann Dark Munich
400g Fawcett Malted Oats
400g unknown base malt :-)
500g Caramunich III
1.7 kg Weyermann Rauch/Smoked

For a total of 10kg

Mashed in a bit low and even after adding 3 qts of hot water only got up to 151.5 so did a quick decoction of 3 litres to get it up to just shy of 153F. Mashed 90 minutes, and am just running off the first batch (sparge) now.

More to follow

2009 Jun 7
For hops I went with 99g of East Kent Golding (EKG) (5.2% Alpha Acids) @60m (boiled 60 minutes)

Knockout (power off) is coming up shortly, at which point I'll add 30g more of the same EKG. Let it sit 5-10 minutes, then chill it.

EDIT : OG (original specific gravity - i.e. before fermentation) 1.050

2009 Jun 7
nothing wrong with a little variety!

So what's in the work for next weekend?

2009 Jun 8
Next weekend I'm thinking another lager while my basement temp is still below 15C.

2009 Jun 8
Zymurgist your brewing is inspiring...how much yield does a typical batch provide? How is the shelf life?

2009 Jun 8
I brew 45 litres at a time. But that is a function of the size of your kettle. I can brew any volume in the same amount of time, given the right-sized vessel.

Properly packaged it will easily keep for a year, though flavour does peak at 3-5 months depending on the type of beer.