February 11, 2009

New Brew: British Steel Reserve

We don't make too many English styles, but here goes...

In a solid liquid tribute to Judas Priest, we dubbed this un-styled bastard ale British Steel Reserve. It features a few across-the-pond hops I won in a raffle back in December: Phoenix, Bramling Cross and First Gold. Phoenix did all the kettle bittering at 10% alpha acid, then we mixed the Bramling Cross and First Gold 50/50 for two later additions. A pound of flaked oats were also mashed with the UK 2-row and Amber malt.

Well, I think our efficiency woes are a thing of the past! We destroyed our pre-boil target by a couple Brix. I might chalk up the awesome sugar pull to the drill on the mill. We got a much finer grind with the DeWalt hooked on in comparison to the last batch's hand-cranked grist. If the Windor yeast has good attenuation, this bloke could very well put a hurtin' on your arse.

It took nearly a full boil before we were graced with "Living After Midnight" on the Sirius metal channel. During the lull, we tossed the very un-British American football around with awkward abandon. All that exercise made us peckish for some tucker. So, in a fitting homage to Mr. Rob Halford, we ate an awful lot of sausage.



OG=1.061 IBU=30 SRM=7.6