Yesterday was a brewday, and I brewed a small batch (around 12 liters in the fermenter) of the recipe below. The original recipe for the ‘Bold Bobcat’ was a bit different, but I had to change the hop additions, since my order of hops didn’t arrive in time (it’s been two weeks now since I ordered). The original recipe contained Magnum, Cascade and Centennial, but I had some Simcoe, Centennial and Amarillo on hand so decide to use them instead. I also changed the hop additions to 20, 10 and 0 minutes, to make an attempt on hop-bursting. These were not the only problems I had, as this was my first brew where I crushed all my grains myself (I’ve been buying pre-crushed grains before), and I’m quite sure I didn’t crush them fine enough, as my mash efficiency was awful (50%). This meant that I had to collect some more wort by extra sparging, and that I had to use a 120 minute boil to gain some more original gravity. I also added 425g of Dry Malt Extract to raise the gravity some more. I still ended up with a lower original gravity than predicted (1.053 instead of 1.066), but it hopefully shouldn’t affect the beer all too much. The yeast starter was in good shape, as the airlock was rapidly bubbling this morning (12 hours later). I’m fermenting the beer at 15 degrees C (low range of what is recommended for Denny’s Favorite), to hopefully get a clean, hoppy and malty beer. If everything goes as planned, this should just make it to the Christmas table.

Recipe: Bold Bobcat
Style: American Amber Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 19 l
Post Boil Volume: 14 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 12 l
Bottling Volume: 11 l
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 13.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.0 IBUs
Boil Time: 120 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amt           Name                                     Type          #     %/IBU         
2.40 kg       Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1     67.6 %        
0.23 kg       Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                    Grain         2     6.5 %         
0.23 kg       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain         3     6.5 %         
0.11 kg       Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)                  Grain         4     3.1 %         
0.11 kg       Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)   Grain         5     3.1 %         
0.05 kg       Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM)          Grain         6     1.4 %         
0.42 kg       Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)              Dry Extract   7     11.8 %        
8.00 g        Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min   Hop           8     7.1 IBUs      
8.00 g        Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min     Hop           9     8.4 IBUs      
8.00 g        Simcoe [12.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           10    10.2 IBUs     
1 Items       Protafloc (Boil 15.0 mins)               Fining        11       -            
16.00 g       Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min   Hop           12    8.5 IBUs      
16.00 g       Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min      Hop           13    9.6 IBUs      
16.00 g       Simcoe [12.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           14    12.2 IBUs     
16.00 g       Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min    Hop           15    0.0 IBUs      
16.00 g       Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min       Hop           16    0.0 IBUs      
16.00 g       Simcoe [12.20 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           17    0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg       Denny's Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450PC) [ Yeast         18       -