ESB

[time01]

spiesy does 75g of target hops sound a bit too much?

 

[manticle]

Sounds like a lot but it depends. What's the alpha acid?

 

[time01]

Target uk from craftbrewer, alpha acid is 11.4, think on brew mate its 9? Even still at AA 9 and 75g, seems a lot to me?

 

[Spiesy]

Target uk from craftbrewer, alpha acid is 11.4, think on brew mate its 9? Even still at AA 9 and 75g, seems a lot to me?

For a 21l batch that does sounds like too much mate.

I didn't use that much hops and my EKG was lower alpha. Same sized batch.

 

[pk.sax]

Use less

 

[time01]

How much we thinking? Perhaps 30g?

 

[going down a hill]

I just made an english pale and used 50g but I had a 60, 30 & 10 min additions. Off the top of my head it was 30g, 15g & 15g in that order. It turned out to be a 27l brew.

 

[time01]

By the way I will be no chilling biab

 

[going down a hill]

I just made an english pale and used 50g but I had a 60, 30 & 10 min additions. Off the top of my head it was 30g, 15g & 15g in that order. It turned out to be a 27l brew.

Looking at my post, I'm really impressed with my maths.

 

[Bribie G]

Target can be very harsh. I'd not use more than 25g personally.
Common misconception about English bitters is that they should be bitter.
As anyone who has been there and drunk the real ales on offer will probably agree they are mostly a malty beer with hop accents.

 

[pk.sax]

If the hops speak all bitter and smug like Sean Connery you might want to try a more gentle accent. Do Irish accent hops go well in English ales, hey Bribie?

 

[Spiesy]

Irish hops?

 

[time01]

So we went with 30g of target. Unfortunately I couldn't make the brew day, but the boys said everything went well, and mashed at 65 degrees. Just checked og then and it's 1060. I was told by craftbrewer to mash at a lower temp so the fg would finish lower? Is that correct? I'm using wyeast 1968, any tips on fermenting temp given the above? Stick with 18? And finally how come the og finished so high, is it the mash temp? Or is it perhaps time to calculate with higher efficiency? Currently use 70%

 

[going down a hill]

Yes lower mash temp ends with a lower fg. I wouldn't say that the mash temp had an effect on your efficiency, if you constantly get higher than expected og's then change your efficiency.

If you are concerned about hop malt balance you can always take a pre boil gravity reading and use a boil off calculator (brewmate has one) to see where your post boil gravity will be, you can then adjust your hop additions to keep your hop malt balance to your original recipe. It works both ways, if your efficiency is lower than expected you wont end up with a hoppier beer than you wanted and if its higher you wont end up with a beer that's too sweet.

 

[time01]

cheers boys, will advise how this turns out.
doing another brew on the weekend and have upped efficiency to 75%, see how that goes.

 

[Bribie G]

1968 might need some rousing and a bit of a warm up later, if you are fermenting below 19 degrees. It's an infamous "staller". Apart from that, sounds like you are on right track.

 

[MattSR]

Stupid question time - what does ESB stand for?

 

[manticle]

Extra special bitter

 

[mje1980]

Irish hops?

Green potatoes

 

[Vini2ton]

Stupid question time - what does ESB stand for?

Edward Smythe Beaverbrooke the inventor of English ale. Oh yeah, and crisps.