Today I brewed batch 18 – the second version of my Extra Strong Bitter. I had planned for it to be almost identical to the last one, however a few of the ingredients from last time were not available, so I think it will be a significantly different beer.

We decided that the time had come to do another double batch, as the remains of batch 11 (our last double) are coming to an end. I decided on 40L, which (I found out today) is the absolute maximum I can do in my 55L esky. It was almost flowing through the hinge. Time to upgrade this soon…

We had a dream brew day. We hit both the target gravity and the target volume, something that I do not remember happening in the past. Also, I managed to get 65% efficiency, which is pretty good for the volume of the brew. We also christened the new 60L fermenter today, which seems to be good, except for some lid-sealing issues (see pics below for solution).

This beer is a bit paler than the last one, due to changes to the grain bill. I also replaced the Target hops with Pilgrim. Unless it goes wild like the last one, it should also be slightly lower ABV (5% instead of 6%).

For those who are interested, this batch cost me AU$100, and 8.5 hours of time. That works out at less than $1 per schooner of beer (I don’t charge myself for time)

There are a few pics below, and for the first time, video of the boil in full swing.