Noble Mild

Sunday I brewed up another Mild Ale, which I haven't done since last spring's 24 Hour Challenge. Today, the recipe is essentially the same but with the addition of 4 oz of Cara-Munich malt and a switch-up from EKGs to Hallertauers (hence the Noble moniker), though maintaining the same hopping schedule.

The Recipe:

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

3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
1 AAU (9g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 15

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1968 - London ESB

Mashed at 150° for an hour using 7.25 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.

O.G.: 1.030
Est. IBU: 15.8

Brewing was mostly uneventful, which is the way I like it. I hit 73% mash efficiency here, and this is acceptable. I've pretty much given up trying to get a predictable consistency in my mash efficiencies.

The only potential issue with this beer is that I cooled the wort a bit too much (January tap water is really cold, apparently) and so ended up pitching at about 57°. Wyeast recommends fermenting 1968 in the 64°-70° range, so I may have mucked that up a bit. If it hasn't gotten rolling by tonight, I may put a heating pad around the carboy to kick-start it a little (note that, for obvious reasons, I'm not bothering with the cooling tub on this one).

On top of brewing up Noble Mild, I racked Hoppy Hefeweizen onto about 235g of homegrown hops in a secondary fermenter. I'm a little concerned that I racked it a bit early (only 7 days), as the kräusen hadn't fully subsided yet. Ah well, we'll see!