Roddy McDowall

AKA, Cloudy McDowall

This was my 18th attempt to clone Witchwood's Hobgoblin Ale. What a disaster. Unfortunately the alphabet placed this brew on Roddy's shoulders. Oh well, he's had it worse.

THE GRAIN BILL

12 Pounds 2-row
4 Ounces special-b
4 Ounces black patent
1 Pound wheat malt
1 Pound barley flakes

THE MASH PROFILE

Strike with 14.5 Litres @ 77° Celsius for 68° Celsius. Rest for 20 Minutes.

As you can see, I was trying to be a fancy pants with the rest time.

THE RESULTS

Perfection, with one exception. After the mash out, it STUCK on me. That was unexpected. After some fiddling around I got it going, and to my surprise the sparge temperature held well between 70° Celsius, and 75° Celsius.

0.6 Ounces columbus boil (9 AAU)
1 Ounce fuggles finish
1 Ounce goldings dry

Pitched Wyeast 1275

THE DISASTER

The first sign of trouble was the airlock getting plugged up. It's a pretty bad sign when you have to put a vent line on a bucket. What's worse this beer refused to clear, even after days in the fridge it was cloudy. I'm not talking chill haze here either. This cloud had texture. It had personality-- a real smart alec. Looking back, I could have given it a spanking with gelatin finings, but can the parent really blame the child in this case?

I can think of three explanations for this cloud. #1, Perhaps my 20 Minutes mash didn't work out so well. Perhaps I was looking at starch. #2, Perhaps I didn't chill the wort down as far as I thought I had. The overrun on the airlock is a sign of flash fermentation, and I've long suspected that yeast cultures that get over heated, don't flocculate well. #3, Perhaps there was wild yeast introduced at some point. This would account for all the symptoms.

I suspect that #2 is the most likely explanation, however I'm still leaning a bit towards #3 as (assuming my gravity readings were correct) the attenuation was a bit higher than expected. In any case it was my fault. I feel kinda bad, as I was looking forward to the Roddy McDowall brew. I was hoping to do well by one of my favorite Englishmen, with one of my favorite English beers. On the other hand, what am I worried about? My silly blundering can't diminish Roddy. No mater what his role, he has always been memorable, and very charming.

OG: 1.056

TG: 1.010