Tehama River Ordinary Bitter

A British ordinary bitter, meant to be consumed while sitting in my backyard watching the canal tugs traverse the Tehama County River. (there is no Tehama river and no canal tugs. It's a canal for irrigation water sent to SoCal. Little joke o' mine... but I could think of worse things to do than drink a good beer while waiting for the canal tugs to show.)

Brewer:	Rathole		Email:	am1nightcreature@yahoo.com
URL:	http://hometown.aol.com/rathole2331/apology.html
Beer:	Tehama River Ordinary Bitter		Style:	English Ordinary Bitter
Type:	Extract w/grain		Size:	5 gallons
Color:	23 HCU (~13 SRM)		Bitterness:	33 IBU
OG:	1.043		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	4.3% v/v (3.4% w/w)
Water:	Should have put the burton salts in but I didn't, Oh well
Grain:	1 lb. British crystal 70-80L
Steep:	Steep in a grain bag at 155° for 30 minutes
Boil:	50 minutes	SG 1.043	5 gallons
	3.3 lb. Light malt extract 1 lb. 8 oz. Light dry malt extract 8 oz. Brown sugar
	1 teaspoon irish moss in the last 15 minutes
Hops:	.5 oz. Cascade (5.3% AA, 50 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (5% AA, 50 min.) .5 oz. Cascade (5.3% AA, 25 min.) .5 oz. Fuggles (5% AA, 20 min.) 1 oz. Fuggles (5% AA, 3 min.)
Yeast:	Danstar "windsor" yeast, rehydrated per instructions
Log:	Brewed 8/28/05 OG was actually 1.037 8/30/05 Fermentation still perking along in my approximately 68° room tempature. Looks like it should be the color I wanted, the color of a bright penny. 9/2/05 Transferred to secondary, SG 1.010 nice color, just what I wanted and seems to be slightly lighter than the color tile suggests. Floral and a little more bitter than I want, should fade by kegging time and be about right. 10/2: Kegged force carbonated 10 PSI @ 70° SG 1.010
Carbonation:	Plan to force carbonate in keg to 1.3 atmospheres, to keep it true to style
Tasting:	10/6: first taste from the keg. nice malty aroma, perfect color I was looking for. nice light spicy aroma. first taste on the palate shows promise of malt, with a bitterness that just barely pushes it away. almost non-existant carbonation and head. I dont know if that's authentic, but I plan to recarbonate it to about 20 psi equivalant at 70 degrees (about 2+ atmospheres) A bit more bitter than I would like at this stage. If the bitterness doesn't fade, I will likely bump it down to about 28 IBU next time. 10/15: chocolate and malt with spicy taste and aroma, a lingering bitterness, with a light lacey head. this is actually a lot more complex than a low gravity beer ought to be. very nice.

Recipe posted 08/30/05.