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It has been around a year since I brewed an unmodified Simplicity Mild (2020-11-21). In that time I've completely changed my equipment, increased my batch sizes, and brewed slight variations on it. I decided it's time to brew the base recipe again with my current setup.

Preboil SG: N/A

Original gravity: 1.035

Final gravity: 1.015

Volume in Fermenter: 5.1 Gallons

The last time I brewed this beer I fermented using US-05, but had noted then that I wanted to brew it again using S-33 yeast, so that's just what I used this time. I believe I did use S-33 for my variations using smoked malt and Briess Extra Special Roast. I seem to be unable to brew a beer without a dumb mistake or two and this time it was that I was also looking at my Scottish Light recipe and calculated water for a 2 hour boil instead of the intended 1 hour. Fortunately this was easily corrected for since I realized my mistake during mashing and at worst I'll have a bit more interesting flavor from the extra boiling.

Mash process:

Added grains at 162F. Stirred initially and again after about 15 minutes. I mashed at a pretty consistent 156F for one hour while recirculating the wort. While I found a dunk sparge to be helpful on this new setup with larger grain bills, this is a small grain bill, so I just lifted by grain bag and squeezed the hell out of it. This seems to have worked since I hit my intended gravity, more or less. It's a bit higher than I had calculated, but also a bit lower volume since I just can't get the grain absorption and boil off volume dialed in here.

Fermentation

I pitched the yeast at 64F and then set my temperature controls to maintain 68F. Fermentation was well under way in less than 24 hours and most of the krausen has fallen by 48 hours later.