and slapped / activated at ~ 9:00 am. Very well swollen by pitching
time (~ 10:30 pm)
Recipe:
Source: Northern Brewer.
XX Ale Extract Kit
O.G: 1061 / Ready: 4 weeks
Crowded, polluted, foggy, and dangerous: these were the streets of Victorian London. Porter was the everyday drink of the working man who would, on rare occasion, order a pint of something more special. Stock ales, what we now call Old ales, were different in the fact they had been aged and blended to produce a much more flavorful beer. This 'aged' character was sought after and cherished so much so that these beers were nearly double the price of the regular offerings. This beer, with its dried dark fruit character exemplifies the base of these stock ales. Additionally, a small amount of Brettanomyces is used in combination with yeast to give that unique aged flavor. Drink this young for a rich fruity libation or let it age and you'll get notes of leather and dark
cherry pie. If you ever wanted to know what a traditional stock ale tasted like, this is your chance.
Kit Inventory
Specialty Grains
- 1 lbs. Special B
- 0.5 lbs. Black Malt
- 6 lbs. Amber Malt Syrup
- 1 lbs. Black Treacle
- 1 lbs. Priming Sugar
- 1 lbs. Maltodextrin
- 1 oz. Fuggle (60 min)
- Wyeast #9097 Old Ale Blend - Private Collection.
All kits also contain a muslin mesh bag for steeping the grains (if required).
Copyright © 2008 Northern Brewer, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Yeast: Wyeast #9097 Old Ale Blend (limited edition).
Date on the slap-pack was: xx-xxx-2009.
Extraction:
- 30 min in 3.0 (possible 3.5) gallons filtered (Britta) Titusville, FL tap water for Special B and Black Malt at 160 oF, range temp off, so it declined to ~ 152 oF by the end of the 30 min.
According to the Northern Brewer instructions for Extract brewing, raised the temp. to boiling, took the kettle off the heat, added Fermentables, with
stirring, and placed back on the burner
Boil: 60 minutes. Stirred at 45 min, 15 min, end. Added wort chiller coil at 15 min.
Cool: Wort chiller. Due to the heat spell, tap water temperature was not very cold. It took over 30 min to chill to 80 oF.
Transfered to sanitized fermenter with 1 gallon filtered water already in it. After transfer, added 1.0 gallon more of filtered water, to mark on fermenter vessel (5 gallon plastic fermenter #1). Mixed well to aerate for 45 sec. Withdrew sample for O.G. and temperature. It was 1.052 at 80 oF.
Pitched the yeast.
Put sanitized blow-off tube in. Placed in 32 gallon waste can with water up to the fermentor's 5 gallon mark. Added a frozen gallon jug of water.
(This system of fermentation temperature control basically sucked.)11-May-09 Observations
~ 7:00 am. No blow-off yet. Replaced thawed out gallon jug with a fresh frozen one. Broke the floating thermometer last night (Damn!), so I couldn't measure the fermentation temperature.
Evening. Still no blow-off. Took out the thawed out gallon jug. Temp was ~ if forget. DID NO REPLACE with a new frozen jug. Thought maybe lag phase was stalled by cold startup temperature.
12May09 Observations
~7:00 a.m. Still no blow-off. Then I noticed what might be floated-out dark brown particulates aglomerated onto the top inside of the plastic fermentor jug. Hooked up a light, popped off the blow-off tube and low and behold, there was krausen. Put in a fermentation lock into the hole and it started bubbling away. Apparently the blow-off tube had a loose fit in the hole and, thus, no gas was making it into the blow-off receiving bucket!
Eventually put the blow-off tube back in because I thought that, if it really got going like other recent startups, then I'd have a mess around the fermentation lock. I also put a fresh gallon jug of frozen water into the chiller, to cool the incubation temperature to around 68 oF, hopefully.
After exercise, ~ 20:00. Temperature ~ 72 - 73. Replaced ice jug. Bubbling at once per 8 - 10 seconds. Nice long gurgles.
13,14-May-09 Observations
Temperature measurements ~ 72 oF, at the end of the ice jug thaw period, both morning and evening observation times. Each time I replaced the ice jug with a nice frozen one.
In the evening on Wed 13-May, water had intruded into the Ziploc baggie and the thermometer wouldn't work. It had gotten wet and is an electronic cheapo marvel of technical wizardry. D'oH. I'd forgotten to cover the switch with the little soft plastic coverpiece. The thermometer was meant for outdoor use, after all.
Busily planning the fermentation schedule over the summer. See the group calendar for these updates. A wheat beer, a fruit wheat beer, a saison. Plus starting a Flanders Oud Bruin de Table and Flanders Red Ale in late May and late June might be fit in. These will take 12 - 18 months in secondary - tertiary phase.
04-Jun-09 Observations
This sucker won't ferment fast enough.
Stopped fermenting after the first week. S.G. was 1.030. Roused the yeast on the bottom by gently stirring it up with a sanitized long-handled plastic spoon. It barely increased bubbling for a couple of days.
Since I had an Activator 'slap'pack' of Wyeast #1768, ESB yeast that I wasn't going to use, I smacked it good one morning. By that night it was very well swollen, almost bursting the seams, so I used it to inoculate a starter (5 oz. DME / 2 cups H2O, boiled for 15 min then cooled to nearly room temp.). After growing for a day, I used this to pitch the XX Ale primary plus I again roused the bottom-dwelling sediment while mixing in the newly ptiched #1768.
Fermentation started again, but only low to moderate activity. This has slowed, but the fermentation lock still gurgles once in a while (minutes between gurgles). Last weekend the S.G. was only 1.022 or so. I will wait until this weekend, then either bottle & keg, or rack to a secondary fermenter and add some Wyeast Roesalare blend (2nd transfer of starter used to pitch Oud Bruin de Table secondary fermentation).
I'm tired of waiting I'm really perturbed because it was supposed to have been ready to put into bottles 2 weeks ago. NOw my brewing, i.e., drinking, schedule is WAY off. Next week after the Innkeeper Party Pig runs dry, I'll have to switch to commercial beers until I get back from Montana on July 15th (5 weeks from now). I'm starting a wheat beer, as scheduled, this weekend so it will be ready by then. If the SG of the XX Ale is low enough, I'll bottle it now and maybe start drinking it after 2 weeks of conditioning instead of of my usual 3 weeks.
Wyeast 1768 PC English Special Bitter
A great yeast for malt predominate ales. Produces light fruit and ethanol aromas along with soft, nutty flavors. Exhibits a mild malt profile with a neutral finish. Bright beers are easily achieved without any filtration. It is similar to our 1968 London ESB Ale but slightly less flocculent.
Attenuation 78-72%
Alc. Tolerance 9%
Flocculation high
Temperature Range 64-72°F (18-22°C)
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