Thursday 9 January 2014

Brewday - Blind Tiger 16/01/2014

Having spent much of the Christmas and New Year period drinking my HGH Pale Ale (5.5%), Porter (5.7%) and the recently brewed RIP (5.8%), I'm in the mood for something lighter and more refreshing.

I do have some of my Best Bitter left (a review of that one and the RIP to follow soon), but for now, I fancy brewing a low gravity beer, with plenty of flavour.

I've decided on American hops, with a simple grist made up from Mild Malt and Carahell. Although the starting gravity will be very low, I'm hoping the body from the sweet malts, combined with the citrus punch from the hops, will give the impression of a beer punching above its weight.

The recipe currently looks like this and I've pencilled in the brewday for a week today (providing my bad back allows).

Coincidentlaly, home brewing on Jan 16th will be quite fitting, for I believe it was on that date back in 1920 that Prohibition came into effect in the US. And with a 'Blind Pig' being a term for a low class drinking establishment that illegally sold alcohol, what better name for my first beer of 2014?

EDIT:
The answer to that question is 'Blind Tiger'. I've decided to change the name of this brew, so as not to confuse it with the beer brewed by Russian River BC in the US. Thanks Mark.


Blind Tiger 
Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type: All GrainDate: 16 Jan 2014
Batch Size (fermenter): 45.00 lBrewer: Mark
Boil Size: 52.43 lAsst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 minEquipment: Elite 45L Brew
End of Boil Volume 48.88 lBrewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 45.00 lEst Mash Efficiency 73.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two StageTaste Rating(out of 50): 
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients
AmtNameType#%/IBU
7500.00 gMild Malt (7.9 EBC)Grain190.4 %
800.00 gCarahell Malt (25.0 EBC)Grain29.6 %
20.00 gSimcoe [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 minHop318.9 IBUs
20.00 gCascade [7.50 %] - Boil 20.0 minHop45.6 IBUs
1.00 ItemsWhirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)Fining5-
20.00 gWillamette [6.30 %] - Boil 7.0 minHop62.1 IBUs
2.0 pkgUS West Coast Yeast (Mangrove Jack's #M44)Yeast7-
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.039 SGMeasured Original Gravity: 
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SGMeasured Final Gravity: 
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %Actual Alcohol by Vol: 
Bitterness: 26.6 IBUs
Est Color: 11.3 EBC

4 comments:

  1. Hey Mark,
    Quick question. How do you plan to end up with that high a f.g.? With lower gravity beers like you've described here, my final gravity would be down near 1.007 or 6 What's your mash temp? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Mark. Mashed at 68C (154F) - but TBH I haven't done too many beers at this sort of gravity. That FG is only what Beersmith has predicted, so I'll update and let you know what it actually finishes at.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool. By the way, Blind Pig is the name of a very popular beer in Santa Rosa California brewed by Russian River brewing co. The makers of Pliney the Elder voted number one in the u.s. for Imperial IPA. Enjoy your brew session!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Mark. I've decided to change the name of this beer, just in case anyone trolling the net thinks it's meant to be a clone.

    ReplyDelete