Old Speckled Hen 3/29/08

Recipe:
Steep grains in 0.5Gal water @ 150ºF for 20 minutes.

Strain into brew pot, sparge with 0.5 Gal 150ºF water.

Bring to a boil then add: 5.25 lb. of Light DME, 0.5 lb. cane sugar, 0.25 lb. wheat DME, and 1 oz.
Challenger Hops.

Boil for 45 minutes, then add: 0.5 oz. East Kent Goldings, 0.5 oz. Challenger, and 1 tsp. Irish moss.

Boil for 15 minutes and add 1 oz. East Kent Goldings.

Boil 1 minute, then cool. Strain into carboy.

Add water to reach 5 Gal total volume. When temperature is below 80ºF, add Wyeast 1084 Irish ale yeast.
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Recipe Specifications:
Original Gravity: 1.051-10.53
Final Gravity: 1.010-1.012
IBU 32
SRM 12
ABV: 5.2%
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Observations:

0.5 Gal of water was too shallow and left the specialty grains touching the bottom of the pot. I steeped the 1 Gal water for 20 minutes in brew pot in mesh bag and poured sparge water through bag.

Northern brewer only sells DME in 1 and 3 lb. bags, so I haphazardly converted weight to volume units by measuring the number of cups in a 3 lb. bag. I counted about 9 cups in a 3 lb. bag, but pouring was a bitch and I confused my self halfway through, so that might be wrong and my beer might be a little stronger than expected. I estimated the light DME to be 15.75 cups, the cane sugar to be 9/8 cups, and the wheat DME to be 0.75 cups.

If I were a smarter man, I would have been heating the gallon of water to be added right before the boil so I wouldn’t have had to heat the whole thing back up before starting the 60 minute clock. Unfortunately, I am an idiot.

First Boil: 8:45 pm

Again, NB only sells hops in 1 oz. packets, so I substituted 1 oz. Challenger for the 45 minute hop addition.

Flavor Hop Addition: 9:29 pm
Aromatic Hop Addition: 9:43 pm

Cool start: 9:45 pm
Start temp: 212ºF
Cool end: 10:19 pm
Final Temp: 68ºF

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Results:

Initial Gravity: 1.047-1.048
Temperature: 68ºF
Corrected Gravity: 1.048-1.049
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Fermentation:

The beer was left in primary until it was bottled. This was not ideal, as secondary fermenting was instructed.

Final Gravity: 1.012
Temperature: 78º
Corrected Gravity: 1.014
Approximate ABV: 4.5%

Kegged on: 5/16/08
Pressure: 35 PSI @ 76º
Fermentation time: 49 days
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