Since the yeast we’re using right now is relatively new, we brewed another low gravity session beer before moving up to the stronger beers later on. Today it is the second version of Harvey’s Best Bitter, since it won for a second year in a row at the Great British Beer Festival in the best bitter category. The mash is Maris Otter, crystal, and flaked maize, and we used the no-sparge method again. We had to sparge about a gallon and three quarters in order to hit the gravity, but this time we hit it right on, at 1.040. Hops are Fuggle, Phoenix, First Gold, and Kent Goldings. The ground water is still 70 degrees, so we used the two-stage chill again.

The London Pride clone spent a week in primary, but since it was the first use of the yeast it hasn’t reached its attenuation potential yet, so secondary gravities were 1.020 and 1.019. We racked them to the firkin with a couple of ounces of Northern Brewer in the cask. We’ll have to remember to tap it in a week or two at the most, otherwise it will be over-conditioned. We tapped the Alpha King clone on the engine and it was surprisingly non-grassy for having spent only a week in the corny keg and the hops had not been taken out of cold storage ahead of time. The only theory we came up with is that the hop bag prevents them from mixing well with the beer. This makes sense, since the beer didn’t have a lot of hop flavour or aroma, so the hop bag must be to blame. I much prefer the sure screens, so I ordered three more. That should be enough that we will never run out of them, even when all of our beers are using them!