Sadly it was fine. Boiling would have made it sanitary and often looks like egg drop soup since the lacto will coagulate and drop out after your boil. I encourage you to try another time. This time:
make wort and boil it to kill off any wild lactic/bacteria from the grains. I do 45 mins (so I only have to boil remaining 15 mins to drive off DMS and kill lacto)
add lactic acid to bring wort down to about 4.5 (2mL/gal)
Dang, I think that was your advice the first time I asked lol. Where can one pick up lactic acid for brewing/food? Guess I need to pick up a ph meter too. If I can’t purge with co2, should I be souring in a smaller kettle? My old one leaves a lot of headspace for one gallon.
Now I’m really craving a proper brew day. Going to brew similar to NBs Black Magic Dark Mild tomorrow. Mainly hoping for relative drinkability by a few days before Xmas (bottling). Basically using the Northern Brewer kit recipe for inspo since I don’t have time for shipping. Any substitution suggestions appreciated, not sure what my grocery store homebrew section will have. Might throw in 1.5 lbs cherries I have in the freezer from the summer into the boil for kicks. I’m thinking a starter for sure if I use liquid.
Safeale s04 dry
or
Wyeast 1968 London ESB
or
White Labs WLP002 English Ale
6 lbs Fawcett halcyon or 1/2 Maris otter and 1/2 sergeant
1 lb English caramalt
1/2 lb pale chocolate malt
BIAB 150 60 mins
.75 oz uk northdown hops at 60 mins
1 oz uk Kent goldings hops (.5 oz at 5 mins, .5 oz dry hop)
So I ended up with 3 lbs Maris Otter, 3 lbs 2 row pale universal,1 lb caramel 20, and 1 lb chocolate. Apex cultures dry London yeast, 2 oz fuggles. And found lactic acid. Great selection for a grocery store! Had to mill it all myself, except the chocolate just wouldn’t mill
That’s a lot of chocolate malt!!
Perhaps next sour, start yer thread a week before, give the sour brewers time to weigh in on yer process… I’ve never brewed one. Just doesn’t suit my palate. Porter season for me now… really like a dark brew for the dark months, for some reason….
I’ll be looking forward to yer tasting notes on this new English brew!
Sneezles
Good call on the early start for advice. I may just use 1/2 the Choco malt since I just read up on acidity in dark malt. Will save the next for a batch of graf, I think.
IF you’d like a “see thru brown”, 2-3 oz will give color.
Food for thought…. Dark roasted malts can also be cold steeped. No sugar in it. No converting. Color and roast flavor… I did do a few darks crystal malt brews, Irish Reds.
Sneezles
I’m really going for as dark as I can get without overdoing the bitterness I guess. I have 1.5 lbs cherries in the freezer but I don’t think that will impart much to a 5 gal batch. And I will prob go all in on the hops since i don’t know when my next brew day will be: 1 oz fuggles at 60, 1/2 oz at 5, 1/2 oz dry hop one week in. Thanks for the malt advice! Irish red is on my list as well
I would throw the cherries in why not. It may give a bit of darkness and add some ABV. It’s a Christmas beer and your recipe looks like only end up around 4%. By the way I looked at the recipe on NB. It said $49 ? For 7.5 lbs of grain 1.2 oz hops pack of dry yeast ? That is insane
I wish I had time to give it a secondary. Could I add them pasteurized when I dry hop? And do they need to be pitted? I think the grocery/homebrew store where i bought my supplies charged $1.79/lb for unmilled? Hops were $2.50/oz, and the yeast i think was $8-10. That is significantly less, I may be making the 45 min drive for that. Dead on man, my OG was 1.030.
starting my lager series with my HogsBock. I will decoct but have heard people just carmelize some wort to approximate one. I will try that at some point.
Do you do a decoction for them ? The HogsBock is designed for a friend who said he wanted my regular Bock recipe but maltier. So it got melanodin Malt and a double decoction. It’s a malt bomb. Last time it came out great. The victory malt makes it in my opinion
I have, but rarely. And only a single decoction. I’ve Never done a side by side to see the difference if any. But melanoidin malt AND a decoction? I bet it’s a malt bomb! Especially if using a healthy amount of melanoidin malt.
