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Notes

Second attempt at this brew. It was pretty good last time, but not *super* special. Will continue to try the acidulated malt for mash pH but this time I will also try a hop oil addition at racking rather than 2nd hop addition during boil. Combined 250 g of acidualted malt with the pale malt before mashing in to attempt to get close to the correct pH from the start of the mash. Was still only ~ pH 6.0 so required a further 200 g to get to optimal pH range (~5.4). Decided to run the mash liquor out of the boiler/mash tun at maximum rate for the first time. HIGHLY recommend this next time, grain bed formed well & quickly. This was the fastest and easiest sparge to date. Maybe not the most efficient (partly due to boiler volume limiting the amount of sparge water I can use), but good enough for a homebrew. Added ~3-4 litres during the boil because of boil off then added ~3-4 more litres boiled water to the cooled wort in the fermenter to top up to batch size. This diluted the boil from ~ 1.058 to ~1.048 for the "final" OG reading. Forgot to order the yeast with the rest of the ingredients so cooled wort was left sealed in the fermenter (Starsan in the airlock) for 2 days until the yeast was pitched, also did not aerate the wort until just before yeast pitch. Not ideal but hopefully will avoid any infections. Monday 16th April 2018. Aerated with vigorous stir and then pitched yeast, stirred in gently. OG 1.048. Yeast pitched at ~18 C. Plotted SG & temps this time - daily for primary then stopped. Gravity dropped steadily but then halted a little higher than expected, only really dropping 1 point in the secondary. After a week in the secondary the look & taste of the batch was actually really good. Very bitter but the maltiness had mellowed out. I would drink this as it stands.... I batch primed with 105 g of dextrose and at the same time added 10 g of polyclar and 5 ml of EK Goldings hop aroma oil. I hope I didn't overdo the hop oil and I hope there's enough viable yeast left to take care of the priming sugar.... Time will tell!