Try #2

Batch #2 (Brewed Friday, January 16, 2009)

Goal:
Brown ale similar to Newcastle Brown Ale

Ingredients:
64 oz. can Ironmaster Northern Brown Ale un-hopped liquid malt extract
1x 3 lb. bag of Munton’s Amber DME
Publix brand spring water (enough to make 5 gallons wort)
Irish Moss
White Labs English Ale Yeast (WLP002)


Notes:
This was the first batch I did without help. After adding 1 gallon of water and the malt extracts, it became very clear that my pot was too small. I'm still not sure how the first batch worked out so well. Anyway, I tried running 2 pots, but that didn't work at all, so mid-brew, I let the wort cool and went to the store and purchased a 20 quart stainless steel pot. If you're just starting out, this is probably the single most important piece of equipment for ease of use.
This was another 20 minute boil, with Irish Moss added at the 10 minutes mark. This time, just for kicks, I added the supplied dry yeast with the Irish Moss to kill it and give the liquid yeast a little more food to eat. Chilled the wort in an ice batch, but when combined in the fermenting bucket with the rest of the water, it took a long time to get all 5 gallons of wort down below 80 degrees. When the wort was down to 75, I pitched the yeast and stirred vigorously.
Racked after 5 days to secondary carboy.
Bottled after 4 more days.
Beer was carbonated after 3 days.
Trying to create a Newcastle clone was a goal that I missed a little bit. The beer was good, but not quite on par with my first batch, which is a little disappointing.

OG: 1.058 @ 80 degrees (1.061 adjusted)
FG: 1.021 @ 72 degrees (1.022 adjusted)
ABV: 5.02%