Rockit Cup Grinder’s Mild Brewday

Time to punch my Rockit Cup ticket for the month, which also coincides with my first brew of the year. Hooray coincidences! Hopefully there will be some new people who brewed this at the upcoming DRAFT meeting. If not, then damn them all to hell. No, seriously—I mean it.

137. Rockit Cup Grinder’s Mild
Mash:
6 lbs. Maris Otter
½ lb. Torrified Red Wheat
¼ lb. rolled oats
¼ lb. Muntons Dark Crystal 150° L
2 oz. Crisp Pale Chocolate
1 ½ oz. Simpsons Roasted Barley

Mash @ 155° F for 60 minutes w/ 2 ½ gallons of RO water & 2 g. gypsum; collected 1 ½ gallons @ 1.064
Batch sparge @ 161° F for 20 minutes w/ 3 gallons RO water & 2 g. gypsum; collected 3 gallons @ 1.016

Collected 4 ½ gallons; topped off with 2 gallons RO water, brought to a boil (60 minutes), & added:
w/60 to go: 1 oz. East Kent Golding leaf 4.6% AA
½ oz. Sonnet Golding leaf 4.1% AA

w/5 to go: 4 oz. dark brown sugar

Chilled, split into two 3 gallon carboys, and pitched:
137a. Wyeast 1968 London ESB
Brewed: 1/21/2013
Secondary: skipped
Bottled: 2/3/2013 w/ 1.0 oz. Turbinado cane sugar

OG: 1.034 @ 70° F; dropped to 66° F before fermentation took off
FG: 1.008

137b. Wyeast 1728 Scottish
Brewed: 1/21/2013
Secondary: skipped
Bottled: 2/3/2013 w/ 1.0 oz. Turbinado cane sugar

OG: 1.034 @ 70° F; dropped to 66° F before fermentation took off
FG: 1.008

Tasting Notes: This beer was moderate to OK; I drank it, but never bothered to take notes, as it wasn’t as good as other mild recipes I’ve made in the past. Thus, we’ll be chalking this one up to “experience,” and leaving it at that. I did learn via this beer that Wyeast 1728 Scottish is a poor, poor substitute for White Labs 028 Edinburgh. Yes, I know they are supposed to be equivalents, but in this case, the White Labs version far out-performs the 1728. I really felt let down by 1728.