What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[David R]

Good to know, it's a great beer so if mine turns out half as good I'll be happy!

[Robert McLeod]

Actually - looking back at my notes - it was a shade different to the recipe you have

Water (Lower Hutt - Eastbourne) adjusted to get chems to:

Ca+2: 110
Cl-: 96
SO4-2: 220
SO4-2/Cl- Ratio: 2.3 (more bitter) 

5.2 added to get the ph to ... 5.2 ;) 

60 Min mash @ 66 deg (lost ~1.5 deg over time), mash out at 70.

76% Pale 2 row
18% Vienna
6% Crystal Medium

12g Simcoe @ 90min
6g ea Simcoe and Columbus @ 60min
6g ea Simcoe and Columbus @ 30min
12g ea Simcoe and Columbus @ 15min
Irish moss @ 15 min
20g ea Amarillo and Centennial @ 5min
20g Centennial @ FO

US-05 (cause its easy)

Controlled temp @ 16 deg for 2 weeks

25g ea Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial & Amarillo dry hop (5 days)

Hit 1.066 into the fermenter - Finished at 1.012 which was a bit lower than expected (1.016).

My mash temp varied a bit as the chilly bin lost about 1.5 - 2 degrees over the 60 min mash - so this could account for it finishing lower.

Still - it tastes bloody nice ... even though it is mostly uncarbed. Its only been under pressure for the good part of 8 hours - and I'm not gonna rock the shit out of it, too lazy for that sort of carry on.

I couldn't help myself - had to pull a pint out of it just now (as I had nothing else cold - bad planning on my behalf)

Next time I'll use a hop sock though - lost quite a bit of volume to the hops. I did use my BIAB bag stuffed through the hole in the fermenter lid with the siphon hose going into it to help filter out most of the solids that came through so I could keep the volume up.

The kids still complain about the smell in the kitchen from that day ... thankfully I have an 70L hardy now with a 2x2.4Kw element in it (Thanks Karl) - It's meant to be an HLT, but it'll be repurposed as a kettle for a while.

[Robert McLeod]

I've got a question. I've had quite a few people try this after it came out of the keg.

Each of them have noted either a maple syrup or candyfloss note to the flavour of the beer.

I didn't make any additions apart from what's listed above.

Any ideas how I managed to do this?

I might try it again to see if I can replicate it.

[David R]

Bit disappointed, I missed my target OG of 1.071 by a full 0.11 points!

I'm doing a bastardised BIAB sorta thing mashing in a chilly bin (in the bag) and transferring to the pot with a small sparge. I used 12L water for the ~4kg of grain, mashed in at 72C and it dropped about 10-12C by the time I had added all the grain and given it a good stir! I added some near-boiling water gradually to bring it up to about 65C. It lost ~3-4C over the hour, the chilly bin is just a cheapo warehouse one and I don't think it seals particularly well. I lifted the bag out, let it drain, then into the brew pot with 5L @75C, gave it a good dunking, poured the wort out of the cooler back thru the grain bag, dunked it a few more times, then poured another 2L of 75C water thru it to give it a bit of a rinse. I was a bit worried the pot was going to boil over as I over-estimated just how much the grain would soak up, but it didn't (was within millimetres!) and I hit 12L exactly in the fermenter after straining it thru my fine hop bag to remove most of the trub.

Any suggestions on what I can do to improve the efficiency? My first two AG brews using this method worked out pretty much as planned with ~69% efficiency, but they were both only 1.040 OG, where as this one (and the one I'm planning on doing tomorrow, here; http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/single-hop-citra-ipa) are around 1.070.

[Scarrfie]

Do a protein rest at 55°C for 15-30 mins. Always give the grain a good stir before draining. 5 pts in each of those steps. Drain your chillibin but sparge in the chillibin, ie: drain but leave the bag in and add the sparge water. Leave at sparge temp for 10 mins and give a good stir before draining. No need to recirculate wort with a bag as the bag is the filter not the grain bed. Try those and you should get above 80% every time.

You can crank up your hot water heater the night before and have an endless supply of 85°C water

[David R]

Cheers for that, hadn't thought about leaving the sparge water to steep but it makes sense! With the protein rest, how would I increase the temperature of the water in the chilly from 55C to 65-70C for the mash? Only do the protein rest with 2/3 of the water then at 1/3 at a higher temp?

[David R]

And another thing I thought of, how accurate are those stainless steel 'Mad Millie' thermometers most brew shops sell? I've got two and put them both in a pot of boiling water, one seemed about 2C too high, the other 2C too low. Guess I should put them in an ice slurry to check them more accurately. Are they 'good enough' for all grain brewing, or is it worth spending more to get something accurate for hitting mash/sparge temps precisely?

[Scarrfie]

I can't help you with the thermometer David as I use an infrared one. Mind you that tolerance is probably 2°C Lol. Having my own doubts about my temps as my beers haven't been reaching FG, so I reckon they may be hotter than I am measuring. Sparge temp has a bit of leeway but you do want your mash temperature exact.

With the protein rest use as little water as possible, I am usually 1:1 Litres of water to Kilos of grain. That way you have plenty of leeway to bump up to the required temperature. If you still don't reach your target mash temperature with the remaining water you can simply cut into your sparge allotment if the chilli bin is big enough, or consider a decoction mash. But I suspect you will be fine.

Steeping the sparge water is to kill off any enzymatic action left. I am also wondering if draining and then sparging is also altering my sugar profile because I am essentially extending the mash out longer.....you never stop learning :-)

[David R]

Cheers. I'll try calibrate the thermometers in an ice slurry before brewing this afternoon. I should really invest in a good quality accurate thermometer, even if just for "calibrating" the others (ie writing the difference to the actual temp on them with vivid). I know the cheap digital ones I use for my aquarium aren't particularly accurate, have seen half a dozen of them on the same tank reading ± 4C from the actual temp!

I'll be interested to see where this beer finishes too, I have a funny feeling the mash may have been at the warmer end of the scale (at least to start with) so there may be a high proportion of unfermentables in there. The airlock action certainly doesn't seem as vigorous as many past beers  nearly 48 hours after pitching.

Now I just need my wife to decide if it's going to be all Citra or if she wants to throw something else in the mix! Initially she wanted to do a single-hop Citra IPA, but after smelling the Amarillo and Simcoe in the freezer she is having second thoughts!

[David R]

A bit better than yesterday, but only ended up with 62% efficiency, and 7 points under the estimated gravity. Had a couple of fails;

-under-estimated how long it would take to heat water for mash and the protein rest ended up being more like half an hour.

-don't think the grain was wet enough for the protein rest using 1:1, the shape of the grain bag vs the rectangular chilly bin isn't ideal, probably time to invest in a false bottom or manifold in a good quality bin with a decent seal.

-forgot to put the calcium/etc into the mash water so the pH was probably far too low given that our tap water (tank) has virtually no mineral content and therefor buffering capacity.

That aside, the beer still smells good, and I guess if it isn't quite as strong I can drink more of it!!

I do want to get the efficiency thing sorted though as I'm planning on doing a few darker stronger beers next...

[Scarrfie]

You will get it sorted David. My first couple of mashes were a disaster really but the beer still tasted damn good :-) Hey I even got caught out with my water preparation on stout last week.

With your protein rest the grain only need a little moisture and the right temperature to do its business, but add as much water as you need to wet most of it. If you are on roof water then that should work fine without mineral additions, but you can tweak it later to perfect things. Heck I didn't even know about mineral additions when I started out!

[Thies]

My second batch ever, an extract + specialty grains porter. 

I believe I might have overdone it on the quantity used for the malts, if so, is there something I should do?

400grams crystal malt, 250grams caramunich malt, 200grams chocolate malt, 200 grams black malt, steeped for 30minutes. drained the bag with malts, and poured some hot water over the bag "sparged". Then while bringing it to the boil, added 1 tin malt extract, 1 tin of bitter extract, boiled till hotbreak, added 30grams of Fuggles Hops and 85grams of oats boiled in some water. I used the whole 11 grams bag of yeast ( british ale yeast) which i made in some water, let it "yeast up all foamy" and poured into the fermenter, on top of the wort. Other questions is should I stir in the yeast? Or do I leave it on top as it is a top fermenting beer? IT's been in the fermenter, happily bubbling away now since Saturday night, and a good layer of krausen is sitting on the top.