Monthly Archives: March 2013

Splitting Fancy Lad, English Mild

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mmm, Fancy Lad likes English Milds

Blue boy is a fancy lad who can appreciate a good dark English Mild

Working with a sour beer pipeline is challenging. Since sours take quite a bit more time than non-sour beers a brewer needs to plan ahead. Back in January I had a “double” brewday of sorts. I was finishing up a sour-worting for a Berliner Weiss which only required a 30 minute heat to 176 and then chill and pitch. I decided that I had enough time to brew a full batch of beer in addition to this short heating and cooling cycle.

This turned out fine, but was one of the busiest brewdays I’ve had, even with help. So, to avoid this extra stress, I’ve instead decided to brew larger batches and split the results. My next planned sour is a Flander’s Brown, or Old Bruin. I’ve also got a nice yeast cake from the Ed’s Best Bitter batch, so instead of wasting that, I’m going to brew an English Mild, right at the edge of the gravity limit for the style and then pitch half on the 1968 yeast and the other half will be racked onto a Roselares yeast cake from a Flander’s Red that’s been souring since January.

in-Rubicundiusque

in Rubicundiusque, Flander’s Red souring since Jan, 2013

Here’s the recipe for Fancy Lad

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
10 gal 60 min 20.4 IBUs 20.9 SRM 1.041 1.015 3.4 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Mild 11 A 1.03 - 1.038 1.008 - 1.013 10 - 25 12 - 25 1.3 - 2.3 2.8 - 4.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 12.5 lbs 80
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 2.5 lbs 16
Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) 10 oz 4

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Fuggles 1.41 oz 45 min Boil Pellet 5.3
Fuggles 1.41 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 5.3

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968) Wyeast Labs 69% 64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 158°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

2013-03-29 — Brewed with Mark, collected 10 gallons of 1.041 wort, split into two carboys. One repitched onto the Wyeast 1968 cake from Ed’s Best Bitter. The second 5 gallons collected into a 6.5 gallon carboy with the yeast cake from the Flander’s Red.

Split Fancy Boy

2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Non-sour half, S.G @ 1.016, raised temp to 72F for d-rest
2013-04-03 — Gravity Check, Sour half, S.G @ 1.009, continue ambient temp

Off-schedule brew for competition

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This year, I’ve been trying to enter at least one beer in each of the Lone Star Circuit homebrew competitions.  I entered three into the Bluebonnet Brew-off and another three into the Alamo City Cerveza Fest, but the next one, the Celtic Brewoff caught me by surprise since it has a restricted/modified list of BJCP categories.

This meant that even though I have close to 8 beers on-tap in my garage, I didn’t have anything that I could submit. I happened to have an older beer that had been aging over at my friends house available, so I ended registering one of my favorite brews, Makkuro Kurotsuki, an Russian Imperial Stout (Category 13F). But I wanted one more.

I dug through my list of recipes in Beersmith and found a lighter and easier (meaning faster) beer that had been a big hit in the past. Ed’s Best Bitter.

Ed's Best Bitter fermenting at 68F

Ed’s Best Bitter fermenting at 68F

Now that I had my recipe selected, it was time to brew. I normally brew twice a month on a Friday night. I invite a bunch of my friends, some who help out and others who come to enjoy the show and drink some homebrew. However, I couldn’t wait if I wanted this beer to be done in time for the competition.

So I did a complete brew, from grain to fermentor including the cleanup in about 4.5 hours. Starting at 8PM when the kids go to bed, my head hit the pillow at 12:30.

Not bad without any help.

The brew session went as expected. Targeting a mash pH at room temp (25C) of 5.5, I ended up with 5.4 @ 23C. Pre-boil gravity was a few points low (1.033 instead of 1.035) and subsequently, O.G was as well, 1.045 instead of 1.048. But that works out OK since the style is meant to be lighter in alcohol.

Here’s the recipe

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
5 gal 60 min 27.8 IBUs 9.2 SRM 1.048 1.013 4.5 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Special/Best/Premium Bitter 8 B 1.04 - 1.048 1.008 - 1.012 25 - 40 5 - 16 0.8 - 2.1 3.8 - 4.6 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
ESB Pale Malt (Gambrinus) 8.25 lbs 91.03
Crystal, Medium (Simpsons) 13 oz 8.97

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent 1 oz 60 min Boil Pellet 5
Fuggles 1 oz 15 min Boil Pellet 4.5
Goldings, East Kent 1 oz 0 min Boil Pellet 5

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Calcium Chloride 5.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 3.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
London ESB Ale (1968) Wyeast Labs 69% 64°F - 72°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 152°F 75 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

Bru'n Water calculates a mash pH of 5.5
Did a 1L starter of 1968 24 hours before pitch.

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

2013-03-24 — Measured gravity after 4 days, 1.016 with activity still going, hoping to hit 1.011 or 12 by Wed, 2013-03-27.
2013-03-26 — Measured gravity after 5 days, 1.012, start cold crash
2013-03-27 — Racked 5 gallons into keg, force carbing to ~2 volumes of Co2.