Indian Summer Pale Ale - Brewing notes

Today I started an all-grain brew with an Indian Pale Ale. One thing I hadn't realised when I bought my slightly bigger brew pot (24 litres) is how much liquid one loses when boiling for an hour. In hindsight I could have done with a 30 litre pot in order to get the 18.9 litres recommended by the recipe by the end of the boil. We live and learn I guess. One day I'll cave and buy a 30 litre but until then I'll resign myself to the fact I'll be making smaller brews (or adding some DME to increase the gravity and topping up with water once it's in the fermenter). I have yet to work out if this changes any of the characteristics of the beer but I'll be sure to let you know if it does.

Pale Malt is the grain of choice to add body, and Crystal malt for flavour. This IPA uses a number of hops to give it a long finish and citrusy body. On show are Williamette, Cascade and Northern Brewer (instead of Chinook).

Unlike my first attempt at all grain - I calculated the mash and sparge water correctly and collected about 22-23 litres for the brewpot. I lost almost 7 litres over the hour of boil.

Flavouring hops and Irish Moss
waiting to go in during the last 15 minutes

The boil

Cooling the wort with my home made
chiller

London Ale Yeast

Gravity: 1.048 (Target 1.052-1.054). Final gravity 1.004 (doesn't seem right! target is 1.014)

Yield: 16.5 litres (target 18.9 litres)

Sparge method: US batch sparging

Notes: The lower gravity may be due to inefficiency in my mash and sparge. The recipe assumes 70% efficiency however, I do not have the patience for continuous sparging so I will stick with batch sparging. By my incredibly dodgy calculations, I estimate that I am at 65% efficiency.