Grumpy's ExtraBrew - Marston's Pedigree Bitter

[Boots]

Hi All,

I put down Grumpy's Marston's Bitter Extrabrew last night. It's the first time I've ever boiled a recipe and it was a great learning experience. Can't wait to see what it turns out like.

The visit to Grumpy's was well worth the trip as well. I highly recommend it to anyone in / visiting Adelaide.

I came away with a few questions tho.

1) How important is the boil temperature (ie. should it be kept stable, is a certain temp better?) ergo .. Should I be buying an appropriate thermometer?
2) After you get the big "bubble up" ( i think it's called the Hot Break??) there was a lot of gunk on the sides of the pot. Most of this looked to be broken down hop pellets, so I scraped it back in - is this the best thing to do? Or am I scraping yucky stuff back in as well as the hops?

Thanks guys (and Gals?)

Mike

 

[RegBadgery]

There was a good discussion of hot break and what to do about it a couple of weeks ago on the Aust. craftbrewing digest (cbd). Worth following but it's not easy to search the current yahoo archive (happily though it's all being shifted to a new system with better search facilities).

Anyway, I usually skim as much as the hot break as I can, though it's not essential or even desirable to remove it all (it's got some nutrients that the yeast likes). Also not essential or even desirable to remove all the cold break (and if I remember rightly - again it's a yeast nutrient question).

As for not scooping out the disintegrated hop pellets - try adding the hop pellets after you've skimmed off the break. eg. I brew from grain and I usually boil for at least 30 minutes before adding the pellets.

Sorry to sound like a broken record but there was also a very informative discussion on boiling and how vigorous it should be (based on the amount that evaporates each hour) - no forgotten the figures for this too and it's too hard to search etc etc etc.....

Anyway I maintain a boil that's not very vigorous - it's certainly boiling but it's not splashing and foaming like blazes - hardly scientific, but again- - there you go.

cheers
reg