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Date started:      6 October 2003
Volume:            25 litres

Initial density:   1047

Ingredients:

1       Grumpys Extrabrew "Newcastle Brown"
1.5 kg  Coopers Pale Malt extract
        Coopers Pale Ale Yeast from brews 4 and 6

Mashed according to instructions.
Sparged with 3l hot water, added remainder as cold boiled water.

Fermentation progress:

6.X     midday  25° pitched
        pm      25° 0.23 Hz
7.X     am      21° 0.55 Hz
        pm      21° 0.40 Hz
8.X     am      20° 0.18 Hz
        pm      19° 0.09 Hz
9.X     am      17° 0.04 Hz
        pm      18° racked, density 1013.  Much sludge, sourish taste
        pm      18° 0.011 Hz

10.X    am      18° 0.025 Hz
11.X    am      15° < 0.005 Hz

                density 1011.  Bottled with 150g sucrose (6g/l)

Bottling statistics:
     Bottles    size         total
    
    31          0.5 l        15.5    l
    21          0.375 l       7.875  l

        Total                23.375  l

Obvious problems

• Too much volume for my utensils. Next time boil extract and grain separately.

Further history

23 November: Unbalanced flavour, still too sour.

22 December: More mellow, but still too sour (maybe not as much as before) and too much roast barley flavour. pH 3.5. Possibly this is a better beer for waters with mineral content. It doesn't seem to work with rain water.

mid-February 2004: Tastes a lot better now. No longer as sour, and a tendency towards “nuttiness” that seems more in keeping with the type of beer. Might just need more storage.

28 May 2004: I've tried this beer several times since the last record. It no longer has any sourness about it, but there's this funny taste about it that I don't like at all, almost like chocolate; maybe that's what they call chocolate malt. If so, they can keep it. I find it just plain unpleasant. Maybe I can find somebody to help me drink the rest.