Bash-Shell.Net

I first brewed this beer for my birthday in January 2020. It was on tap for my pre-quarantine birthday party and so I only got one or two glasses of it. It was a big hit so I've been intending to brew it again and just now finally got around to it. Instead of my usual Windsor yeast for I use for lower gravity British ales I decided to go with S-33 Belgian yeast because it has a similar attenuation, I have 8 packs of it on hand already, and I figured it would be interesting.

My original recipe was set up for 70% efficiency and 2.25 gallons into the fermenter. My records show that I pretty much nailed that efficiency and volume last time. I have been getting much higher efficiencies than that on small grain bills so I went down the middle of what I got before and what I have been getting, scaling to 73% efficiency. I thought I had also scaled up to the 2.75 gallon batches I have been doing and ordered the amount of grains Brewtarget showed me. After brewing this morning I discovered I had apparently not scaled up for the increased volume so my grains and hops are all a bit low. I had thought the grain weights were weirdly low when I ordered, but missed having the wrong intended volume when double checking. I ended up with an actual efficiency of 75%-76% which is in line with what I have been seeing. That made up for some of the reduced grains, landing me at about 1.035 OG.

Mash Process

As usual I did a full volume, no sparge BIAB mash and boil. I added my grains to the water at about 155F and let it sit for 1 hour. My final grain temperature was between 147F and 149F. I then cooled to about 65F, took my OG reading, and pitched the yeast.

Fermentation

I used about 1/2 a packet of S-33 yeast pitched at 65F. My temperature controls are set to maintain 68F which will hopefully get some good flavors out of the yeast based on being the upper end of the manufacturer's ideal temperature range for this yeast. I also used 1 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1/2 tsp of yeast energizer.

2021-03-21

As of about 10am this morning the fermenter looks like the yeast took off rapidly overnight resulting in several inches of krausen which has already mostly fallen, although the beer itself is still very cloudy with yeast. The airlock is not bubbling, but it is popped all the way up and holding.

2021-04-03

I poured my first glass of this last night. It is really good and I'm very happy with it. I wish I had a better memory of fermenting it with Windsor yeast to tell how much difference the yeast has made in the flavor. I may have to do it again. My attenuation was on the low end for this yeast, which is strange. I am guessing maybe I should have pitched the yeast cooler and let it warm things up on its own.