24 Hour Mild

Yesterday I brewed up a special brew for a special occasion. On Memorial Day weekend, a buddy of mine and I are attempting the epic 24-24-24 challenge: eat 24 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, drink 24 beers and walk 24 miles in a 24 hour period. Crazy? Certainly. But we plan to be drinking in style, if at a lower ABV than normal: thus, 24 Hour Mild, a dark English-style mild ale that might render this challenge possible.

The Recipe:

5 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz Crystal 60°
4 oz chocolate malt

3 AAU (17g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
1 AAU (6g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 15

Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1028 - London Ale

Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 8 quarts of water. Fly-sparged with 170°-190° water.

O.G.: 1.028
Est. IBU: 11.7

Brewing was entirely uneventful with the exception of wort collection. I got distracted when collecting the final runnings and when I went to check my brew kettle, I had nearly 30 quarts of wort collected (I usually try to collect 26). So, I took a sample to measure the pre-boil gravity for my efficiency calculation (86% on this beer; I'm quite glad my LHBS has indeed fixed their grinder) and then disposed of 2-3 quarts of the wort before the boil. After the boil, I still had 24 quarts in my kettle so this just gets to be a 6-gallon batch.

I'm going to get this into the secondary after just a week and keg it probably after three or four days in the secondary. I know that in this case the secondary isn't exactly necessary, but it's part of my protocol so I'll do it. I need to get it carbed up and ready to go before the 29th, so this may be the shortest-fermented beer since my first batch. Wish me luck!