Michelle's 2nd All Grain Bramling X

[brenmurph]

@ all
I was simply reporting on beersmiths / bjcp recomendation it takes 500 dark crystal to get the official colour in the middle of the range or as I mentioned as well there are other ways to get the colour increase.
@ beerfly / michelle
good idea re ur last brew, twas a lovely beer so u have a good base, your suggestion of American amber this time makes it darker and the bjcp clearly states:

"Medium body, less malty with noticable caramel/crystal malt flavor.  Medium to high hop rate with corresponding aroma.  Light copper to brown in color.  Fruity and estery with low diacetyl.  Moderate carbonation."

thats the profile of american amber and as i mentioned it needs 500g dark crystal. So Im not sure what all the phobia of crystal is to be honest

@ Diva
Just go for it using the principles of your last brew and as eoin says keep it fairly csimple and make it as dark or light as you want, taste on the day and play it by ear

however
if your view is for competition entry you need to stick with the quoted official style above " light copper to brown" is a dark beer and the range of dark crystal is 300g to 750g thats why I suggested 500grams.

As long as you make a nice beer and we can all help u test it all will be well

[Brew_Diva]

      

Eek, all this info my brain will fry, but its all good, and believe me, I need it!! hopefully there will be a nice beer as the outcome. Thanks again for all the extra tips and advice.

@Kellie, pop me a text on Saturday and let me know how its going. I'm only up the road so can pop down after lunchtime-ish or whatever, sure we'll see.

There's most likely be buns also... I should make it more clear maybe... cupcakes   

[Brew_Diva]

if you still have a list of what you used for your last beer use that as a guide since you know what that was like.
more grain will mean more beer at the same % or the same amount of beer at a higher %
if the crystal is a higher number then the same amount you used before will make a darker beer

The last mash was 5kg of the Marris Otter and 250g of Crystal Malt as far as I can remember, straightforward enough... and it was in fact the same ECB, 250)

I was very lucky that day re bittering as James Keane turned up to bring us beer  and had some great app on his phone to work out the IBU for my CItra & Cascade hops combination, I think we had some very exact figures (not rounded to the nearest ten anyway... ) ...This hop will be totes different right??
   

i think shiny was talking about using the kettle to heat the water for the mash.  you still need a boiler (pot/bucket) big enough to boil everything for an hour

I can't believe I forgot this. I was thinking there was something. My excuse is that in the picture for my Mash tun on homebrew company website the strainer for the Mash tun looks like a large element.... :