Formula: Victorian Bitter recipe: Golden Lager HME, Mellow Amber UME, Palisade Hops
Brew Date: January 8, 2011
ferment time: 21 days
Bottle Date: January 30, 2011
conditioning time: 4 weeks
Open Date: February 26, 2011
Another attempt at the English Ale. I think this is going to be more of an ESB, or extra-special bitter, and not nearly as creamy or malty as I was hoping. But we'll see.
Update: 24 January
Had some pretty severe temperature issues for the first two weeks of fermenting (very cold basement and then too-hot heating pad.)
The fermenter was very cloudy 13 days in. It's since settled a bit, but it tastes nasty. Theoretically, after 15 days the brew should be ready to bottle, and it's . . . Not.
Very concerned, but I'll let it go a few more days, then cold-crash and bottle.
If it still seems wonky, I may only bottle half the batch. No point wasting bottles.
Update: 29 January
On some sage advice, I'm going to rack the Victorian Bitter to a secondary (slimline) today and pop it in the fridge for a few days. That should settle it out a bit and hopefully clean things up.
That way I can have an empty keg to brew this weekend, and then I can bottle that batch (batch-prime!) mid-week.
I still may only bottle half the batch. I can save my bottles . . .
Update: 30 January
Bottled a dozen bottles today. Final taste was . . . not bad. I don't think it's going to be my final English pub ale, but it'll be fine. It'll be beer.
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