Rebellious Lambic - AKA Old English October Beer...

[Garry]

Line up by the wall lads and we'll pick a few teams

[johnrm]

Shirts and skins?

I think most lads are on electric, a group brew would fry domestic electrics.

[mr hoppy]

John, you've a gas burner and I've got 2 propane cylinders.

[mr hoppy]

I've looked at recipes for October beers in a couple of sources (Mitch Steele, Gordon Strong, Ron Pattinson and Randy Mosher). Based on that, and garry's feedback here's some thoughts on a possible recipe:

Grain bill:
All grain
Pale malt - 8kg
Amber malt - 200g

Mash: Single infusion 20 litres @ 67C
Batch sparge x 2 - 6 litres @ 75C

Water treatment (Cork city water) - 1 tsp Calcium Chloride

Boil - 90 minutes
Hops
60 minutes - 60 g East Kent Goldings 5% AA - 44 IBU
30 minutes - 80 g East Kent Goldings 5% AA - 45 IBU

Yeast: WLP037
http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp037-yorkshire-square-ale-yeast
Joking aside, this is a very decent, characterful English ale yeast that can handle high alcohol.

Boil volume 24 l
Original volume 20 l
Final volume 18 l

Expected boil gravity:        77
Expected original gravity:   90
Expected final gravity:       23
Expected ABV:                  8.5%
Expected colour:                7
Expected IBU:                   90

I know not everyone batch sparges, (or lives in the city - I add calcium to all my brews as it's very low in city water - so water treatment mightn't be relevant for some people) - other assumptions are 10% boil off per hour, malt absorbing 1 litre of water per kg and 75% efficiency.

Primary - 2 - 3 weeks - rousing occassionally
Secondary in Barrel - 6 mths - 1 year
Keg and add dry hops and / or brett to taste

or Partial mash, same as above except
Pale malt - 6kg
Amber malt - 200g
DME - 1.635kg at start of boil
Mash: Single infusion  18 litres @ 67C
Batch sparge x 2 - 6 litres @ 75C

On the partial mash option - I've a pretty small mash tun, and others might also. The DME represents 25% of the fermentables and Designing Great Beers say using that kind of proportion of DME for a barley wine will not impact flavour profile significantly.

I've not got access to beersmith at the moment, does anyone want to run this through it and see what they get?

[Garry]

@ MrH, congrats on the medal  Is the WLP037 from that beer?

The recipe looks good. You're library is much bigger than mine 

I ran the partial extract ingredients (no hops) through beersmith and here's what she says:

Code Select Expand

Recipe: Rebel October Ale Barrel - Partial Extract TYPE: Partial Mash
Style: Imperial IPA
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 18.1 EBC SRM RANGE: 15.8-29.6 EBC
IBU: 0.0 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 60.0-120.0 IBUs
OG: 1.107 SG OG RANGE: 1.070-1.090 SG
FG: 1.029 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.020 SG
BU:GU: 0.000 Calories: 427.1 kcal/l Est ABV: 10.5 %
EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 18.00 l      Boil: 15.90 l BT: 90 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------


Total Grain Weight: 7.83 kg Total Hops: 0.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
6.00 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)           Grain         1        76.6 %       
0.20 kg               Amber Malt (43.3 EBC)                    Grain         2        2.6 %   

The OG is coming out 1.107, does that sound right? I think a partial extract will work fine for those that don't have the mash tun capacity. We're all going to have different processes anyway. If we are all just doing a 18L batch we might need another volunteer? I might be able to do a 25L batch. I'll check the figures later.

I don't know much about water treatment. My water comes from a well, it tastes grand! It leaves limescale in the kettle so that makes it hard right? Like Burton On Trent water??

Edit: I've just seen on another thread that WLP037 was used in your medal winner 

[donnchadhc]

Using a boil of rate of 3l/hr and an efficiency of 65% on a 19 litre batch, the all grain comes in at an OG of 1.089 and an FG of 1.023. Colour is 15.1 EBC. All nearly dead on, except the IBU's only come in at 52.9!

Have a look at the volumes, we can always double mash (get two picnic coolers!)

[Garry]

Good man Donnchadh, I had the efficiency set to default (72%). The AG numbers are coming out as per MrH's now, but the partial-extract OG is 1.100.

I put in the hops, the IBU's are low for me too. I'm getting 58.2 using pellets.

[johnrm]

To fill the Barrel we need to have 10 x 21l in Secondary so no agitated trub in transit.
21l to allow for small accidents.

We could do cluster brews depending on kit.
1. johnrm - Electric 33l plastic (Have Gas burner, Propane Cylinder, need reg and 50l s/s pot)
2. taf
3. Sam
4. Dara
5. mr_happy
6. Garry
7. LordEoin
8. Dr Horrible
9. ColmOM
10. DonnchadhC (taking johnrm 2nd slot)

[Garry]

I can try 30L in primary at a push!

[LordEoin]

So is this the new plan?

• everyone brew this recipe individually
  
• aim for 21L in secondary
  
• complete primary, transfer to secondary
  
• bring to garry's and tip into the barrel to age
  

[donnchadhc]

Garry my system has a 65% efficiency so I use that 

Attached the beersmith I did earlier for others. I would aim for 23 litres to take into account for trub loss etc.

When do we aim for?

[johnrm]

• bring to garry's and tip into the barrel to age
  
  

For that perfect Cardboard-ish Je ne sais quoi 

[Garry]

•everyone brew this recipe individually

It's probably easier to brew individually alright. But some of us might be able to team up in two's (maybe three's?) if it works out on the day?

I think we might have to increase the hops to get us closer to a 1:1 bitterness ratio? I'm sure MrH will comment when he's back online.

When do we aim for?

Good question!

[donnchadhc]

I'd be for a group sesh

[Taf]

I'd be up for a small session as well, but it all depends on the day, and what I have on. If a few of us can get together great, but if I just get a spare few hours to brew, I will just go for it. I need to put a house brew on for something to drink first as stocks are getting low, so it will probably be a few weeks before I do the October beer.