I’ve not had the opportunity to spend a day in the beer shack brewing for a while and stocks are running low (for some values of “low” 🙂 so last weekend I decided it was time to get some more beer under way. Graham Wheeler’s take on Morland’s Old Speckled Hen has always been a favourite, so I scaled up the recipe to 40 litres and got to work. I decided to put all the grain through the mill, even the remaining stuff I have that I bought ready-crushed. The hops I was a little generous with as whilst not past the “use by” date they weren’t quite as fresh as I’d prefer.
Getting into the rhythm of things took a while — clearly more practice is required — but after a false start with the boil when I realised I’d forgotten to put in the hop filter everything went pretty well. Once chilled the OG was a smidge under 1050.
Bottling should take place this weekend I think. I’ll check the gravity tomorrow and see. Then I’ll get a few more batches under way. I fancy something along the lines of a Hobgoblin and a London Pride. Time to order some more ingredients…