A brew inspired by ingredients i had on hand – prizes from Euroclash; Nelson Sauvin from Wai Hops, AY3 yeast from AE Brewing, and spare parts not used in the Empire’s End 16D brew; chit malt, flaked wheat, and rolled oats. I added a foundation of 6kg grain comprised of Ale and Vienna malts to the existing ingredients and aimed to produce a strong Hazy – but perhaps not as strong as the result. Hopefully the yeast is ok – with a starting gravity of 1.080 it is on track to be a real mid-winter double.
Brew went ok, mash was very thick and slow due to the rolled oats and flaked wheat, it needed a little more attention and a bit of stiring to ensure it didn’t block.
Brew in fermenter 24L 1.080 18C. It took approx. 24hours before I saw any foam activity. 21/06
On day 2 (23/06) foam increased and fermentation was under way. It dropped approx 10pts.
Steadily fermenting away on day 3 (24/06), another 10pts drop but still a long way to go. I raised target temperature by 0.5 to 18.5C.
I had initially planned for two dry hop additions, the first at around 8pts gravity remaining,the second after 48hours with no change to gravity, approximately days 3 and 6. Since it was still early in the fermentation I changed to one single dry hop to be added just as the fermentation was finishing.
Day 4 (25/06) fermentation increasing and continuing, 1.036 in the evening. There was enough heat produced to hold its own temp at around 18.8. I raised target again by 0.5 to 19C to allow it to hold/rise without the cooling.
Day 5 (26/06) AM temperature held steady at around 18.8 and gravity dropped to 1.028. I’m hoping it continues a bit further.
2pm – velocity is decreasing, I raised temp to 20C to help push the ferment a little further. 10pm gravity at 1.025.
Fermentatiom tailing off and dry hop added end of day 6, 8pm, 1.022 and 20C. I added the whole bag of Nelson Sauvin (200g), so slightly more than the 160g to continue the double strength theme.
Temp raised to 22C over a day or so, and them rested for 6days. Pressure kept low, between 5psi and slowly increased to a max of about 10psi.
FG 1.015 and 8.6% I took a sample in a PET bottle and added gas, chilled, and tasted. Very promising, nice hop aroma and malt flavour. Very strong and noticable alcohol taste, not particularly ‘hot’, just strong. Hoping it will mellow over time.
Started cooling around day 15, lowering back to 20, then to 18. Left for 24hours at 18C.
Continued coolingapprox 3C every 6-12 hours down to 3C