Hop and Circumstance
I've hardly even started drinking my Admiral IPA No.4 and already there's space in the keezer for another so it's time to get going. This one will be a fairly straightforward bitter, using WLP002 as the yeast and Weyermann Pale Malt as the base malt.
Starter
As is always the case I got my starter going on the Tuesday evening before Sunday's brewday. I made it up to 1.5 litres with 0.5 litres being earmarked to be stored in the fridge for next time and the remaining litre to be pitched into the wort on Sunday.
As you can see I've recently invested in a 3 litre beaker to try instead of the usual Erlenmeyer flasks which are great in their own right but have the twin drawbacks of being hard to clean and are prone to yeast starters overflowing from them. As long as the top is covered with foil then I can't see any drawback to using a beaker like this.
As before, the WLP002 yeast fermented out extremely quickly and appeared to be done after just a single day on the stir plate. I gave it an extra 12 hours so after a total of 36 hours I separated off 500ml to keep for the next brew and left a litre in the fridge for the brew on Sunday.
One drawback of using a beaker is that you can't swirl it around to ensure the yeast is evenly distributed before pouring 500ml out into the Kilner jar so I had to sterilise a stainless cooking spoon and stir it manually. This is likely to be only a problem with super-flocculent yeasts like WLP002 where if you take your eye off it for just a second it all immediately falls to the bottom.
Brew day
This time I've decided to use Endeavour hops for the bittering and a combination of Progress and Willamette hops for flavour addition, all in fairly low amounts so that the hops and malt are in balance.
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Date: 23 March 2025
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 12.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 31.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Water profile: Ca:95 Mg:16 Na:9 SO4:120 Cl:121
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type %/IBU
29.49 L Tesco Ashbeck Water -
4.20 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent -
3.40 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent -
2.40 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent -
0.30 ml Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent -
4.200 kg Weyermann Pale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 95.5 %
0.200 kg Extra Light Crystal (Crystal 100) Grain 4.5 %
0.90 g Calcium Chloride (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.70 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.50 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.20 ml Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent -
20.00 g Endeavour [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 22.8 IBUs
20.00 g Progress [6.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5.4 IBUs
15.00 g Willamette [5.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 3.2 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining -
1.0 pkg White Labs WLP002 Yeast -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.400 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.49 L of water at 71 C 67.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5.00 L water at 75.6 C
Brew day started OK but right at the end I had a bit of a nightmare with my stainless fermenter. I'd over-tightened the outlet valve and crushed the o-ring causing wort to slowly leak out of the fermenter. I had to transfer the wort back into the kettle, clean and sterilise the fermenter, re-tighten the valve less tight, test it with water, then re-transfer the wort back over. That's something I don't want to have to do again!
In the end I got an OG of 1.043 which is just one point shy of the estimate so not bad at all. After I'd finally got it transferred into a leak-free fermenter I put it in the brew-fridge set at 20C where it will stay for the next three weeks.
Kegging day
After three weeks it's now kegging day. I was able to get a full corny and 4 bottles while still having enough left in the fermenter for at least another two bottles which I will prepare for next time. This new fermenter that I made has less dead-space in it at the bottom than the last one had.
Unfortunately I knocked over my glass sample jar and it shattered before I could take a photograph but I did read the OG and it was 1.006, giving an ABV of 4.9%. It was also the clearest beer that I've ever seen straight out of the fermenter. If this one stays cloudy in the keg like the Admiral IPA No.4 then I really don't know what's going on!