Well the beer has been sat there for two weeks, allegedly fermenting. And that's kind of the problem.
It started looking good, nice head and trub on the beer after 2 days. After 5 days, I took a gravity and skimmed and roused well. 1026. Ok, some to go.
After 9 days, the gravity had plummeted all of 2 points, and it has remained there for the rest of the fortnight I let the beer ferment for. I am a bit nervous kegging at such a high gravity, but nothing o could do seemed to shift it, so I wonder if it was done. If this is the case, then the high mash temperatures really screwed this up. I have invested in a digital in situ thermometer, so it is easier to regulate temperature next time.
But what about the beer? Well, it now sits at just under 3%, perhaps it might make 3% on conditioning?!! But it is nowhere near as thin as I had feared...perhaps those high mash temperatures did do something after all. It is not sweet exactly, as my hop bill was relatively high as my extractions were expected to be higher with Hopville's (now defunct) calculator. In fact, where as I had designed it to be about the same bitterness as the last extract brew I made, it was, in fact, twice as bitter. Still, it is not over whelming, so I am happy to wait a fortnight or so, and drink on. At 3% one might be shifting a lot of this in one evening :-}
Sunday 20 March 2011
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Moving on up to All Grain!
Well, the time had come to start thinking about doing this brewing malarkey properly. And that, friends, means mashing.
No more malt extract, just the pure grain. It's kind of tricky, because, it appears, temperature and pH control is pretty crucial. I'll be honest, I left the pH thing alone. There were lots of other things to worry about, and I was pretty secure that my pH ranges were not way out because of the bottled water I use...and pH movement would come from the grain. Ah, well, I thought give it a go.
But I have no mash tun. Fear not, though, for a found an alternative, the brew in a bag method (BIAB). Again, thank the Lord for t'internet. I know that a few purists get a bit sniffy about extracting into largish volumes of water etc., but this is still experimental stuff for me, so I decided to give it a bash. The basic principles are the same, add grain to water at a certain temperature, and leave at that temperature for about 90 minutes. As I only do small brews this meant that I could do the whole thing in my boiler (just) without the need to sparge (wash) the grains afterwards - another potential difficulty.
Well, it went ok.....just need to practice controlling the temperature better. Many BIABers tend to mash in a pot and insulate it, a la many of the mash tuns you can buy, but I went for the tweak the thermostat option on the boiler. All I can say is that I overshot the temperature quite a lot - all that means is that I extract more non-fermentable sugars, so I end up with a fuller beer, sweeter, but lower in alcohol. As it was an oatmeal stout, not really an issue [Conversely, mashing at too low a temperature liberates lots of fermentables, giving higher alcohol but thinner tasting beer]. Anyway, the recipe is here.
One problem I did have was the bloody OG again. It was WAY under that predicted from the recipe. Those nice folk at BIAB.info had given me a handy calculator for scaling recipes, but I had a devil of a job understanding it. A few posts, and I've cracked it. The efficiency on Hopville is incorrectly defined....that calculates my 'Efficiency into bottle' and you lose loads. It assumes 75%, when in reality I get 55%!! Sorry, this is sounding technical now, but simply put, if you define the terms properly, I would NEVER get the gravities I had hoped for (and thus, not the strengths). By recalculating on the basis of this Damascene moment, I realised I was short on my grain bill by about a third!! DOH
This revelation also explains why all of my recipes have been coming up short on the OG readings, apart from my first brew that was extract only!![so doesn't suffer from extraction issues!]....So back to Hopville to reprogramme all my recipes :-{
However, apart from all of this, operationally the process wasn't too bad...felt quite realistic in a way. OK, so this time my stout comes out a 4% not 5%, but that shouldn't be an issue. Just waiting to see what it tastes like now...thinking of kegging this.
As the days get longer, and warmer, thoughts now turning to a lighter, Dalley-esque, beer, with a nice pale malt. J wants me to try a weißbier after sharing my bottle of Schneider Weisser Tap 5....a wapping 8% but UTTERLY GLORIOUS......mmmm, that might have to wait!
No more malt extract, just the pure grain. It's kind of tricky, because, it appears, temperature and pH control is pretty crucial. I'll be honest, I left the pH thing alone. There were lots of other things to worry about, and I was pretty secure that my pH ranges were not way out because of the bottled water I use...and pH movement would come from the grain. Ah, well, I thought give it a go.
But I have no mash tun. Fear not, though, for a found an alternative, the brew in a bag method (BIAB). Again, thank the Lord for t'internet. I know that a few purists get a bit sniffy about extracting into largish volumes of water etc., but this is still experimental stuff for me, so I decided to give it a bash. The basic principles are the same, add grain to water at a certain temperature, and leave at that temperature for about 90 minutes. As I only do small brews this meant that I could do the whole thing in my boiler (just) without the need to sparge (wash) the grains afterwards - another potential difficulty.
Well, it went ok.....just need to practice controlling the temperature better. Many BIABers tend to mash in a pot and insulate it, a la many of the mash tuns you can buy, but I went for the tweak the thermostat option on the boiler. All I can say is that I overshot the temperature quite a lot - all that means is that I extract more non-fermentable sugars, so I end up with a fuller beer, sweeter, but lower in alcohol. As it was an oatmeal stout, not really an issue [Conversely, mashing at too low a temperature liberates lots of fermentables, giving higher alcohol but thinner tasting beer]. Anyway, the recipe is here.
One problem I did have was the bloody OG again. It was WAY under that predicted from the recipe. Those nice folk at BIAB.info had given me a handy calculator for scaling recipes, but I had a devil of a job understanding it. A few posts, and I've cracked it. The efficiency on Hopville is incorrectly defined....that calculates my 'Efficiency into bottle' and you lose loads. It assumes 75%, when in reality I get 55%!! Sorry, this is sounding technical now, but simply put, if you define the terms properly, I would NEVER get the gravities I had hoped for (and thus, not the strengths). By recalculating on the basis of this Damascene moment, I realised I was short on my grain bill by about a third!! DOH
This revelation also explains why all of my recipes have been coming up short on the OG readings, apart from my first brew that was extract only!![so doesn't suffer from extraction issues!]....So back to Hopville to reprogramme all my recipes :-{
However, apart from all of this, operationally the process wasn't too bad...felt quite realistic in a way. OK, so this time my stout comes out a 4% not 5%, but that shouldn't be an issue. Just waiting to see what it tastes like now...thinking of kegging this.
As the days get longer, and warmer, thoughts now turning to a lighter, Dalley-esque, beer, with a nice pale malt. J wants me to try a weißbier after sharing my bottle of Schneider Weisser Tap 5....a wapping 8% but UTTERLY GLORIOUS......mmmm, that might have to wait!
Saturday 5 March 2011
All quiet on the brewing front?
Yes, I realise it has been some time since the last post. Indeed, I have been a bit pre-occupied, but that does not mean that brewing has stopped.
First, the Ginger Tom. Well, what can I say....erm, well, bottling seems to be successful...that's kind of it. It's drinkable, but the lack of hops just does nothing for the character of the drink, and lemon juice just tastes odd. That's strange, because the old home recipe from a ginger plant has loads of lemon juice in it....but then the sugar never quite ferments out, so it sweetness counteracts it. Having the occasional one, but I suspect the rest of it will get chucked as a failed experiment.
Recently, however, I have been working on another brew, but a Birthday Special. I had designed it to come in at 5.0%, but I just cannot get this starting gravity thing to work....so it's more like 4.0%. The recipe is here, and, tasting it from the fermenter, it tastes great...proper beer.
I upped the technique count too. I warm steeped the crystal as before, but tried to do that in a pan, which I insulated, rather than leave to the vagaries of the boiler. Think I'll go back to the boiler! I suspect this is one reason why I did not get great efficiency, the crystal did not steep as well in the cooling water. But my new technique was a 24 hour cold steep of the chocolate malt. It certainly gave a nice smooth, coffee-ish wort.
That brew has fermented now, and has been in bottles a week. One week for a test, and then the ceremonious handing over to the birthday boy. I am hoping that a few labels might get printed to, just to finish the bottle off.
In the meantime, I have been going back to the recipe, and tweaking it for a new technique, where I move onto something akin to a full mash - boil in a bag. The yeast starter is on, so I'll report back later!
First, the Ginger Tom. Well, what can I say....erm, well, bottling seems to be successful...that's kind of it. It's drinkable, but the lack of hops just does nothing for the character of the drink, and lemon juice just tastes odd. That's strange, because the old home recipe from a ginger plant has loads of lemon juice in it....but then the sugar never quite ferments out, so it sweetness counteracts it. Having the occasional one, but I suspect the rest of it will get chucked as a failed experiment.
Recently, however, I have been working on another brew, but a Birthday Special. I had designed it to come in at 5.0%, but I just cannot get this starting gravity thing to work....so it's more like 4.0%. The recipe is here, and, tasting it from the fermenter, it tastes great...proper beer.
I upped the technique count too. I warm steeped the crystal as before, but tried to do that in a pan, which I insulated, rather than leave to the vagaries of the boiler. Think I'll go back to the boiler! I suspect this is one reason why I did not get great efficiency, the crystal did not steep as well in the cooling water. But my new technique was a 24 hour cold steep of the chocolate malt. It certainly gave a nice smooth, coffee-ish wort.
That brew has fermented now, and has been in bottles a week. One week for a test, and then the ceremonious handing over to the birthday boy. I am hoping that a few labels might get printed to, just to finish the bottle off.
In the meantime, I have been going back to the recipe, and tweaking it for a new technique, where I move onto something akin to a full mash - boil in a bag. The yeast starter is on, so I'll report back later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)