It’s National Homebrew Day, so it was fitting to begin brewing again today.  The recipe was suggested by the American Homebrewers Association, a clone of Chiswick Bitter from Fuller’s, because it was one of beer writer Michael Jackson’s favourites, who died in August 2007.  The recipe was Maris Otter, caramunich, and Special B.  The bittering hops are Target, but I had to substitute Northern Brewer for the aroma hops of Challenger and Northdown, since they are unobtainable due to the hop shortage.

Target gravity was 1.040. and we reached 1.041.  The colour in the primary looked quite dark, although it calculated to be gold in colour, at 7 SRM.  The ground water is starting to be warmer than optimal for chilling the wort, in order to maintain mid 60s we had to throttle the runoff to about half speed.  Fermentation with White Labs English Ale made in a starter on Thursday took off within 4 or 5 hours, keeping it at 66F.

We also racked the Belgian Strong Golden Ale out of the primary, after 3 weeks.  Gravities were 1.006 and 1.007, so the beer really dropped during the last of the 3 weeks.  The beer is being cooled now in an attempt to get it to clear, it is still quite hazy with yeast.