[Brew day] Old Speckled Hen clone

[Parky]

This is a follow-on brew day to an earlier posting (here), trying out Dunkel's 'brew in a pot' method. The following brew builds on what was learned from the last brew day and has three main goals –

1   Ensure all fermentables are pasteurised
2   Achieve a bittering level over 30 IBUs
3   Use liquid malt extract as the main fermentable (the last brew used DME)

For this brew I chose a clone of Old Speckled Hen (adapted from recipe here), as it has a fairly high level of bittering, but will still be a lovely malty ale if the bittering levels aren't achieved. There are numerous adjuncts included in this recipe, so it's a little more complex than the previous brew, but it still only took an hour and a half including clean up.

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Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L):           14.0
Total Grain (kg):         2.025
Total Hops (g):           30.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.058 (actual)
Final Gravity (FG):       1.009 (est.)
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  6.43 %
Colour (SRM):             7.9   (EBC): 15.6
Bitterness (IBU):         35.2   (est. Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes):      60

Malt Bill
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1.500 kg Craft Range Liquid Malt Extract - Light (74.07%)
0.275 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup (13.58%)
0.189 kg Crystal 60 (9.33%)
0.061 kg Demerara Sugar (3.01%)

Hop Bill
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15.0 g Magnum Pellet (10.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes [29.94 IBU]
9.0 g Goldings Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes [4.1 IBU]
6.0 g Goldings Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes [1.12 IBU]

Yeast
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11.5g Safbrew S-04 yeast

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Pre-prep

1. Prepare and adapt recipe as required
2. Assemble all ingredients
3. Place 10L of water in fridge to chill in advance (will help cool wort to pitching temp later).

Walkthrough



1. Placed pouch of LME in basin of boiling water to soften.

2. As with previous brew-day I used two pots from a standard domestic set (2.5L and 1.5L), I added 1.5L to one pot (for the hop boil) and 1L to the other (for steeping grains).

3. When the water in the steeping grains pot reached 70oC I removed both pots from the heat.



4. Added steeping grains directly to steeping grains pot, covered, and started timer for 30 mins.

5. Measured out 50g of LME (Note: 50g of LME will create a wort of approx. 1.010 SG) (Further note: Embrace the mess!)



6. Added LME to hop pot and stirred well to mix. Returned pouch of LME to hot water basin to keep it as fluid as possible.

7. Returned hop pot to the heat and added bittering hops right away. (Note: The aim here was to both use the hop addition to help prevent a boil over, and also increase time the hops were exposed to hot wort).



8. Brought hop pot to the boil, watching carefully for boil over. Lowered temp to a simmer (approx 90oC) and added an additional 500ml boiling water to hop pot. (Top tip: After hopped wort has boiled make sure to scrape any hop residue from the side of the pot and back into the wort).

9. Partially covered hop pot with lid to limit evaporation and started another timer for 60 minutes.



10. Measured out next hop additions and adjuncts.



11. After grains had steeped for 30 minutes I strained them through muslin bag stretched over a colander.



12. Returned wort collected from steeping grains back to the heat and brought to a boil.

13. Once boiled take steeping grain wort off the heat and add adjuncts, stirring constantly. Cover resulting wort and allow to dissolve and pasteurise.

14. With 15 minutes left on the hop pot boil rehydrated yeast in 150mls of water at 28oC and covered in cling film.

15. Add 15 minute and 5 minute hop additions to hop pot as per hopping schedule.



16. Poured wort from steeping grains into sanitised fermentation vessel.

17. Added remaining LME from pouch and stirred well to dissolve.



18. At flameout added hop tea to FV through sanitised hop bag and mixed well. (Note: I used tongs to hold bag open here - hot things burn!).

19. Left to stand for 10mins at a temp of 80oC - 75oC, which may further assist in pasteurising the resulting wort/hop mixture.

20. Added cold water from fridge to top up FV to 14L.

21. Once fermentation vessel was topped up temperature read 20oC, which is probably at the high end of the yeast being used here.



22. Gravity reading of the wort came out as 1.058

23. Yeast was pitched into fermentation vessel and mixed.

24. Placed lid on fermentation vessel and moved to area that had an ambient temp of 18oC

Additional Notes:

1. Even though this recipe was a bit more complex than the last (see here), the brew day was very straightforward and the longer boil meant I could use the extra time to sanitise equipment and prep ingredients.
2. I used a wort with a lower SG than the last brew day (1.010 instead of 1.020) to boil the hops. This was both to increase the efficiency of hop isomerisation, and also to prevent a boil over. I also added hops prior to the boil to similarly prevent a boil over. Both strategies seemed to work well, as the wort did not foam as energetically as it had previously, and was far more controllable.
3. Similar to the previous brew-day I created the wort from steeping grains and the wort for the hops separately. The logic behind this was not only to save time, but also to precisely control the SG of the hop wort.
4. I took an additional step of adding 500ml of water to the hop pot, post boil, to increase volume of liquid hops were exposed to and increase efficiency.
5. I was surprised OG came out so high, as it was calculated at 1.043 (came out at 1.058). I can only assume that this was due to more sugar solids being at the bottom of the FV when the gravity sample was taken.
6. Tasted wort after gravity sample and it had some level of bittering to it, although it was overshadowed by a totally delicious sweet caramel flavour. I expect this brew to turn out fairly dry, so we'll see if the bitterness comes through a little more once fermentation is complete.

[dcalnan]

It's a nice setup, and would definitely be easier for beginners to start with. One suggestion, weigh the dme in the pot if possible? I hate getting dme on the countertop.

[Parky]

[Update - 24 August, 2015]

First tasting of this today, and not a bad brew, but not the 'Old Speckled Hen' I had anticipated. Nice colour, and a fairly decent head, but the body and bittering level just weren't there.

The body can be easily sorted. I revisited my conversion on the recipe and discovered there should have been 2kg of LME in there, rather than 1.5kg. The greater proportion of highly fermentable adjuncts caused the brew to be a little thin, although the golden syrup gave a nice light caramel flavour.

The bittering was fairly non-existent, and although I like a sweet and malty English ale, I feel that even a little bitterness on the finish would have given this brew a lift. Trying to get a level of bittering around 30 IBUs from boiling hops in such a small volume of water simply didn't happen on this occasion, and even using fairly high alpha hops (10.7%) just could make up the numbers.

So would I brew it again?
In a word - no, but it was worth doing the experiment none the less. Lots of lessons learned here I can take on to other brews, but unfortunately the small scale boil volume didn't have the capacity to create the desired effect.

Note: See original thread here for my final impressions on this brewing technique