Bitters Brew Day

The warm days of summer seem to call for an easy drinking, low ABV beer. In addition to the Kölsch I brewed on May 25th, on the 26th I brewed a Bitter - a sort of British pale ale with firm bitterness but not a lot of hop flavor or aroma. The British malts are supposed to shine through. And, since it's a fairly low gravity ale it should be ready within a few weeks, unlike the Kölsch

Ordinary Bitter
3.25 gallons

4.812# UK Pale 2-Row
4oz Crystal 120
2oz Special Roast

.825oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 60 min
.25oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 30 min
.25oz Kent Goldings, 5%AA, 5 min

WLP002 - English Ale

Brewed on 5/26/13

Mashed at 151F for 75minutes, added mashout water and held for another 10 min. I was aiming for a mash temp of 152F. Collected 2 gal of 1st runnings. Added sparge water and collected another 2.05 gal of 2nd runnings. Got a pre-boil OG of 1.035, for about 73% efficiency. Again, better than I've usually gotten in the past. According to my calculations, this will get to a post-boil OG of 1.045 @ 3.25 gallons, which is a little higher than intended but oh well.

Got 3 gallons into the fermenter. Pitched the yeast when the beer was around 62F and placed in an area at 65F ambient. Two days later and the beer was fermenting vigorously in the 3 gallon Better Bottle. I'll leave it at room temp for another week, then transfer to the cooler basement where it is around 62F. I plan to bottle after two weeks of fermentation.

Bottled on 6/8/13, going for 1.6 volumes of CO2. Let the bottles sit in the basement, where the temp is around 63F.