Crouch Vale - Version 1

This is a recipe that I took from Mashweasel's (Kris England) post here here. Kris is a member of my homebrewing club and phenomenal resource. I've made a number of his recipes before and have never been disappointed. This recipe is damn simple - one grain, one hop addition. My plan is to brew this and in a week, brew Kris' "more bittery" version and pitch it onto the yeast cake from this one. The only difference was that I only had Bullion hops available, so I substituted them in place of the Brewers Gold. This should be an interesting experiment - my friend Nic is brewing the same recipes, but he's using invert sugar for the "more bittery" version and he's using Wyeast 1028 instead. 


Crouch Vale Brewers Gold

• Gravity (OG) 1.038
• 30 IBU
• 6 gal  into the primary

Grist

• 8lb Halcyon
• Mash @ 151F for 60min
• Boil for 90min

Hops

• 3.5oz Brewers Gold - 7.9% @ 15min

Yeast

• WLP013 - Ferment at 63F

I made a 1 liter starter about two days ahead of time. I also used the Brewery Timer app for the first time, which I got here and I must say it is a nice little app. It's one of those things I used and said to myself "now why didn't I code this up years ago?"


Brewing Notes:


Day 0 (because everything should be zero-based)
1710 :: flame on! 2.5 gal on to boil
1720 :: approaching 165F - no time to preheat mash tun so I plan to add the H2O at a higher temp let it drop
1722 :: 182F and nucleate boiling. Flame off and transfer the H2O to the mash tun
1726 :: I want to mash in @ 162F; currently @ 173F; allowing thermal equilibrium to occur
1735 :: 170F in mash tun
1745 :: after some swirling for cooling, I reached 162F (close enough) so mash in
1750 :: mash @ 150F
1805 :: mash @ 151F
1810 :: sparge H2O on to heat (2.5 gal pre-vorlauf + 3.82 gal sparge)
1825 :: mash @ 150F
1838 :: sparge H2O @ 180 F so flame off
1850 :: 4 gal from first runnings
1855 :: 3.5 gal from second runnings
1900 :: OG = 7.5 Brix (1.030) --> 80% eff
1905 :: current temp is 71F and 60% RH (important because summer brewing yields odd boil-off rates)
1908 :: full-on boil
1935 :: going with a fuller boil than normal to ensure that I get the boiloff I want
2012 :: my Bullion hops are 7.9%, so I am using 3.5oz @ 15 min
2025 :: Bullion hops, whirlfloc, and immersion chiller (IC) into kettle
2038 :: flame off. IC down to 74F in under 15 min
2055 :: oxygenate for 60s @ 0.5 lpm <-- I need to change this to 0.12 lpm for 75s
2100 :: added 1 l of yeast starter to just over 6 gal of wort
2105 :: into fermentation chamber @ 63F


From a boil-off point-of-view, I lost just shy of 1.5 gal over 90 min for the given environmental conditions (71F and 60%RH). 


Day 1
Morning, fermentation temp was 68F so I dropped the temp controller setpoint.
Evening, fermentation temp was 55F so I let the heater control and cooler control battle it out


Day 2
Morning, I finally achieved 63F. From here on, fermentation was nice and steady 


Day 4
Evening, kraeusen has fallen but fermentation still ongoing.


Day 7
The gravity of the beer has fallen to 1.010, which is pretty much where I want it to end. I racked the beer to a keg and put it into the fermentation chamber at 62F. The hydrometer sample was tasty. The hop bitterness was definitely present (as it should be) but not overly so, and no significant hop flavor. Minimal malt presence.

To reuse the yeast for tomorrow's Crouch Vale - Version 2, I poured the remainder of the trub/yeast into a sanitized gallon jar and waited for for the trub to settle out. I poured off the top portion (the yeast) into a sanitized Erlenmeyer flask. 


This site documents the process well, but where it takes him 20 minutes to achieve a nice yeast-trub separation, it takes me 90 minutes. I put my flask of yeast into the fridge overnight and will pitch a portion in when I brew Version 2 tomorrow.


Tasting Notes
OK, it is a nice beer. Nice hop presence, but seems a bit flabby. Bit of malt to it. Definitely drinkable though. It did not clarify well though. Nic's version was better - nice and clear. The hop nose was the same but not flabby at all.