Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[JackoNZ]

I'm still trying to work out the calcs, these came from Beersmith with 15% boil off rate, based on the first brew I did. Maybe I can dial that down a bit this time, it didn't appear too vigorous however. I put 2L in for trub loss and I reckon it was closer to 3-4L had I not put so much of the non clear wort into my fermenter. I lost about 0.5L per KG of grain after I squeezed the bag in a bucket. I was thinking of getting the boil volume back up to what beersmith told me next time by sparging some water over the bag once in the bucket - good idea?

What boil volume would you expect to be using for a similar grain bill?

[Mike Neilson]

Just realised its biab, Ask Reviled hes the guru, not me!!

[JackoNZ]

haha fair enough! Can you explain what you meant by the ciggy butts comment? Are you really meaning a cigarette butt smell or flavour? Be keen to hear what causes that, is it the reduction of so much water and flavours becoming too concentrated?

[Mike Neilson]

Spot on Jacko!! I got it one of my early brewed beers when I first started brewing. Gas on full noise and a lite bottomed kettle not a good mix!!

[James P]

Haven't done BIAB for a couple of brews, but when I was I was getting closer to 20% boil off at full noise on a three ring burner. Equipment was converted 50L keg.

[Reviled]

Its really a bit hit and miss your first couple of times with evap rates, it can change from set up to set up, and to be perfectly honest with you, I still havnt calibrated my pot so I still dont know what my evaporation rate is... Pretty much every brew I do, when it goes into the fermenter, it gets topped up with a litre or two of tap water to get me to my desired volume - I dont do this with lagers but I dont notice a difference when I dont do it either...

The way I see it, its easier to add water than to take it away after the boils all done and dusted - So the first couple of times just aim low and be prepared to top it up, then after youve done a couple of brews on calibrated gear youll know exactly what your evap rate is for future brews :o)

Recipe looks pretty good btw - maybe a bit too much roast barley and chocolate? Id be more inclined to up the carafa cos that stuffs awesome, but each to their own..

[James P]

I wonder how many people have to top? I seem to always have just enough into the cube, and by the time I have gone from kettle to cube to fermenter to secondary to keg there is usually just enough to fill the keg....

[Reviled]

I would probably have the perfect amount for a keg if I didnt top up - I reckon including trub which I dont put into the fermenter I get about 20-22 litres, normally 18-19 into the fermenter..

But i like to have those couple of extra bottle conditioned beers when the kegs run out ;o)

[jt]

I wonder how many people have to top?

I don't have to, but I usually do to bring gravity down - oh, and bring the volume up - both desirable for me

[Martin Bridges]

I don't normally, but I did with the Mild this morning. My efficiency was a bit higher than expected so I liquored it back from 1.042 down to 1.037 (just under three litres of water added). So it looks like a few dodgily-carbonated bottles for me to go with the keg!

[MrC]

I try not to top up at all. My last AG batch I didn't top up but I have for previous batches.

I was finding that I was lautering and that the gravity of the runoff was getting too low even though I only had 22L of wort. Topping up gave me the volume that I wanted and adjusted the gravity to what I wanted but I still felt bad about topping up. I increased the lautering speed for my last batch and I hit my numbers extactly, first time ever. I changed my system just prior to xmas and it has taken 3 brews to get the hang of it. I feel like I'm on top of it now :)

[JackoNZ]

I ended up topping up on the first brew, got 18L in the fermenter but the gravity was slightly too high. Topped up to 20L which bought the gravity down to what it was supposed to be. Hence this time I thought about going the sparging route, dial back the gas and hopefully get my required volume into fermenter without topping up.