I did Hashie's Old Speckled Hen clone from the recipes board, but without the golden syrup. I Checked my figures in the "Convert Your Recipes" thread and got some minor corrections and advice, thanks guys!
The mash went smoothly, insulated my 20Ltr pot with a few tea towels and only lost 2 degrees over the 90 mins.
The boil however wasn't so good! It took ages to reach the boil from mash temp, well over an hour and when it did I'm not sure it was a proper rolling boil. I think it was more than a simmer, but not very vigorous. Is this likely to have a huge effect on the finished beer?
It will definitely be weaker than expected, I ended losing just under 2 ltrs to evaporation rather than the expected 4.5 (90 min boil) and the gravity was 1.046 rather than the expected 1.048 (this is from what I remember anyway, I haven't got the figures to hand!)
The strength doesn't really bother me though, as long as it tastes good!
At the end of the day I have a couple of gallons of stuff that looks and smells like beer happily fermenting away, so I consider it a success!
. Your gravity being within a few points of the estimated is fine and normal. Unless we all used exactly the same grains and equipment and brewed in the same atmospheric conditions, we should never expect to be anything more than within a few points and you certainly won't taste a difference.
) is struggling so much. Also maybe consider brewing a bit less volume until you can acquire a stronger heat source. (Consider some of the maxi-BIAB methods.)
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I don't believe they are meant to be submerged.
