Bompa Bristles' 80/- (export)

This is the third installment and the last of the regular Scottish shilling ales. This one's named for me Da. My son calls his granddad's bompa...

27, January, 2009

I got a starter going today from the harvested yeast! Pitched some yeast I washed from the 60/- into a pint of wort that I thawed. I will add another pint later to step it up. This will be for Bompa Bristle's 80/- ale. I'll try and get the grains weighed today and other stuff set up. Perhaps I will do a 10 gallon batch this time... Hmmmm. Maybe not though, that would throw off the project some. I suppose it is better to keep the variables the same for comparisons sake. I will post the recipe when I am closer to brew time. Should be the same mostly. Just more MO and maybe a touch more roasted barley for some deeper color. I did bump it a touch in the last one.

8, February, 2009

Okay. So life happens and I did not get to it when planned. Had to chill the starter down. Decanted and added another pint to get it going again before actually brewing.

Bompa Bristle's 80/- ale is happily chugging away at 60F in the basement. Got to brew it on Friday (plus 13 gallons of other beers last week!!). Went much smoother this time around. With 9 lb. 2.5 oz. grain bill, the floating lid, a higher water to grist ration and a much higher strike water temp I actually had to cool it down a few degrees this time. I am thinking the grain weight was probably the biggest factor in having an easier time. It must be at the lower threshold of weight my system can take.

So. Recipe and changes this time around.

9 lb. of Marris Otter
2.5 oz. of roasted barley.

28 g of Golding hops.

Mash temp I went for 158F this time to give it lots of chewiness. I actually ended up with 61F after using a strike temp of 182. So I poured some cool water in and stirred until it cooled. Ended up with 159. Left it there as I figured it would drop some and it did. Was reading 156F to 158F at the end of the hour depending on the part of the tun I took the temp from.

Caramelized again as usual. Cold temps outside (single digits I did not write down the exact temp) made the reduction happen much quicker. I ended up reducing to 1.125 quarts. Had one nasty boil over too as I got a bit impatient at the end and messed with the nice boil i had going. Then left it... Not sure how much was lost there but I achieved my preboil gravity and was not over as I had been in the past. OG ended up being

Volumes were all spot on and transfer was much smoother with the auto siphon.

Got a bit of good reading material as I gear up for the final installment. Scotch Ale #8 in the Classic Beer Style Series by Greg Noonan. I highly recommend it.

Here is the book with a recent glass acquisition
Okay so it is my 70/- and not a wee heavy...