BIAB#2 – Navy Pier Special Bitter

[Bubbles]

Tight git that I am these days, I was determined to re-use the yeast slurry from my first BIAB effort, Fool's Gold Special Bitter. This recipe is based on a clone recipe I found for the wonderful Goose Island Honkers Ale. So how does this recipe differ from my last special bitter? Well, I've left out the torrified wheat and will be using a much bigger amount of plain wheat malt. I'm expecting a significant flavour contribution from this as it's not there simply for head retention. This is also a much hoppier beer, with three large additions of Fuggles. (Goose Island is reported to use all Styrian Goldings and Fuggles were the closest match I had available.)

[size=9]BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout – http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Navy Pier Special Bitter
Brewer: Paddy Bubbles
Asst Brewer:
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 12.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 10.00 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 15.00 l
Bottling Volume: 15.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.041 SG
Estimated Color: 10.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU
15.00 l               Dublin, Ireland                          Water         1        -
2.600 kg              Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         2        79.0 %
0.395 kg              Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)                Grain         3        12.0 %
0.140 kg              Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain         4        4.3 %
0.140 kg              Caramel/Crystal Malt – 75L (75.0 SRM)    Grain         5        4.3 %
0.016 kg              Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain         6        0.5 %
23 g                  Fuggles [4.30 %] – Boil 60.0 min         Hop           7        19.6 IBUs
21 g                  Fuggles [4.30 %] – Boil 20.0 min         Hop           8        6.5 IBUs
0.50 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        9        -
21 g                  Fuggles [4.30 %] – Boil 1.0 min          Hop           10       3.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg               SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast         11       -[/size]

01/01/2013 - I wanted to test my process to see if I can get a consistent efficiency with my BIAB process, even if that efficiency is very low. So I used the same volumes of water and the same method of sparging. I think I may have rinsed the grains a little better in the sparge pot this time though. My OG, which I measured after topping up to about 13.5 litres was 1.052! So I topped up further to the 15 litre mark. This beer is understandably a little darker than my Fool's Gold Bitter because it has a greater amount of crystal malt. I pitched about 400ml of the S-04 yeast slurry into my 15 litre fermeter and it's bubbling away like a beast. Hopefully I can get another 25 bottles out of this batch.