Double Brewday: Ordinary Bitter & American Amber Ales

This past Saturday, I brewed two batches in a single day, back to back. While this did make for a very long day, I was able to gain some overlap without any additional equipment.

The way I did it, was that as I was running off the second runnings of the first batch, I was heating the strike water for the second batch. This gave me the ability to mash my second batch while boiling my first. Not a huge gain, but I imagine that I gained at least an hour.

These batches were fun, experimental batches. The first was a substatial change to my bitter recipe, a regular in my keezer. The two major changes were that I used Ringwood yeast instead of London Ale III, hoping to really boost the malt profile of a very low-gravity beer. I also replaced a pound of base malt with Victory, in hopes of getting a profile somewhat closer to Maris Otter.

Recipe Overview

Volume At Pitching: 5.25 US gals
Expected OG: 1.039 SG
Expected ABV: 3.6 %

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 5lb 0oz (71.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Victory Malt 1lb 0oz (14.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Dark Crystal 8.00 oz (7.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Wheat Malt 4.00 oz (3.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal 4.00 oz (3.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 0.50 oz (0.4 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Willamette (4.5 % alpha) 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
UK Golding (4.9 % alpha) 0.50 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 25 Min From End
UK Golding (4.9 % alpha) 0.28 oz Loose Pellet Hops used At turn off

Other Ingredients

Yeast: Wyeast 1187-Ringwood Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (66C/151F)
Step: Rest at 151 degF for 60 mins

The second recipe was a repeat, albeit with further modifications, of a low-gravity version of Gordon, an Oskar Blues beer. It’s now called G’Knight Imperial Red due to a lawsuit over the name Gordon, ridiculous, but so it is. It’s a bit big, but one of my favorite big hoppy beers, so I enjoy trying to make a 5% version. It’s mostly about the Amarillo hops in the finish, so the basic beer recipe isn’t that critical.

Recipe Overview

Final Batch Volume: 5.02 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG
Expected OG: 1.045 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 4.5 %
Expected ABW: 3.6 %
Expected IBU (using Daniels): 33.7
Expected Color: 12.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 74.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 78.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 7lb 0oz (71.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Victory Malt 2lb 0oz (20.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
Breiss Crystal 20 12.00 oz (7.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 0.20 oz (0.1 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Centennial (9.0 % alpha) 0.50 oz Loose Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (13.0 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (8.0 % alpha) 2.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients

Yeast: Wyeast 1056-American Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (69C-156F)
Step: Rest at 150 degF for 75 mins