My First Full All Grain Stout

winstonia · Jul 5, 2015

Fair enough, geterbrewed are based in Antrim. All my online orders are local too considering Ireland is so small :p

http://www.geterbrewed.com/safale-us-05/

GlentoranMark · Jul 5, 2015

winstonia said:
Fair enough, geterbrewed are based in Antrim. All my online orders are local too considering Ireland is so small :p

http://www.geterbrewed.com/safale-us-05/

Didn't realise that but thanks for your cryptic spam :)

A Good Glentoran supporter has only a few miles to travel so will stick to my local but will put Geterbrewed on my radar. I probably spend more in fuel BTW. :)

GlentoranMark · Jul 25, 2015

My last brew ended up down the drain. I just tweaked too much and never took enough precautions. It smelt rancid so I din't even bother bottling it. Still a good experience though.

Today is another experiment! Sort of.

I'm going to give Niman's recipe a go but I'm a little short of ingredients.

3kg Maris Otter
1kg Irish Pale Malt - kindly donated by Niman
15g Columbus 90 mins
30g Fuggles 15 mins
Youngs Ale Yeast

Every time I visit the HouseofHomeBrew I learn something new - 15g of Columbus is not a lot but it's a highly bittering hop and why it only requires a small amount. Although my beer is not of this type, a SMASH beer is a Single Malt an Single Hop or SMASH for short! The guy knows his stuff in the shop.

I really enjoyed Niman's beer so hopefully mine will turn out similar.

Niman · Jul 25, 2015

Good luck with the brew

GlentoranMark · Jul 25, 2015

I used your boiler for my mash, I had the foresight to wrap it up in towels to retain the heat and it worked very well. Now about to do my sparge.

GlentoranMark · Jul 25, 2015

That's me finished, beer was a slightly darker colour and OG than I expected. To chill I threw in 3kg of Ice (3 Litres). From the no chill thread I think this will be fine. Temp is still 29ÃÂ° so I'll wait until it drops to 20 ÃÂ° until I pitch my yeast. OG is 1.035 but I'll check when I pitch. Batch size is 22L probably why my OG is low.

clibit · Jul 25, 2015

A darker OG than expected? :shock:

GlentoranMark · Jul 25, 2015

clibit said:
A darker OG than expected? :shock:

Too many Scottish Heavy's :-P I spotted it as well but hope it went under the radar. You know what I meant :tongue:

clibit · Jul 25, 2015

Yeah just liked the notion. You could up your OG with some DME.

My latest batch is darker than intended too. A little bit of Carafa III goes a long way.

GlentoranMark · Jul 25, 2015

clibit said:
Yeah just liked the notion. You could up your OG with some DME.

My latest batch is darker than intended too. A little bit of Carafa III goes a long way.

I think things will be fine, still not ready to pitch my yeast but OG is changing as temperature drops. I need to buy a sample jar btw, I'm measuring from my bucket and in my old age, my eyes are getting worse.

Niman · Jul 25, 2015

Lol eyes . buy a glass trial jar makes life so much easier

GlentoranMark · Jul 30, 2015

Until yesterday, there was a really thick crausen but today it's cleared and the beer is the colour I'm expecting. OG was 1.040, the gravity is now 1.010 (3.9% so I'm happy with the strength, it may still get stronger)

When I spoke to the guy in the Houseofhomebrew he said the ale yeast I chose would act quick so I'm guessing the yeast has done most of its work.

My question is, how long should I leave it in the fermenting bucket? I want it to clear more so I'm going to leave it until Saturday (when I do my brews) but I could leave it longer. If I leave it longer, it has the chance of spoiling. Any idea's for length of time?

I want to make a simple Stout next so a trial jar is top of my list when I buy my grains!

ManseMasher · Jul 30, 2015

I've been in there a couple of times - it's like an Aladdin's Cave! Last there on Tuesday. Don't tell anyone, but they are expecting a delivery of Nelson Sauvin in the next couple of weeks. Might go and buy the lot, and sell them on to you guys

:twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted:

clibit · Jul 30, 2015

I'd have it in the FV at least two weeks, maybe three. Experience has led me to be patient.

GlentoranMark · Jul 30, 2015

I think your reply was for another thread Manse :-D

Any beer I've done except for my first 2 or 3 beers (as a total noob) has been 2 weeks at least. It's just this has cleared pretty quick and I think the yeast has done its work. There is still some haze in the beer but I was wondering if this could be an exception to the rule.

I'll do as you say and leave it another week, it's sealed up and I won't check it again for 9 days.

I've only one Fermentation Vessel but I'll do my stout in demijohns and 5L water containers.

ManseMasher · Jul 30, 2015

GlentoranMark said:
I think your reply was for another thread Manse :-D

No mate, HouseOfHomebrew on Newtownards Road?

Niman · Jul 30, 2015

Think I may have to visit them on sat

Redron · Jul 30, 2015

Niman said:
Lol eyes . buy a glass trial jar makes life so much easier

And it gives you an excuse to 'test' your sample

GlentoranMark · Jul 30, 2015

Planning my next brew, a sort of Guinness Clone. I'll buy my ingredients tomorrow and brew on Saturday.

I found some recipes online but the main thing I got was that Guinness is basically 70% base grain, 20% flaked Barley and 10% Roasted Barley so I downloaded the Beersmith App and came up with the following recipe:

Batch size 22L

3.5kg Irish Stout Malt ÃÂ£3.50
1Kg Flaked Barley ÃÂ£4.00
500g Roasted Barley ÃÂ£1.45

45g Fuggles 60 mins
15g Willaimette 60 mins

10g Irish Moss 15 mins

Wyeast or Irish Ale Yeast

Hops don't matter as much as long as the IBU is around 45 so instead of buying new hops, I combined the above hops I already had in my fridge.

GlentoranMark · Aug 1, 2015

My Guinness clone is just on the boil now. I've learned a few things today:

When I do my own recipe, my boil size is what I should be basing things on. In the end I've 22L boiling which should give me a batch size of 17L (not 22).

I'm going BIAB from now on. I used Nimans boiler as my masher (it holds the temp just fine when its wrapped in towels) but straining the wort is hard. I ended up scooping the grains into a mash bag and squeezing to get all my wort out. It's also a lot cleaner. I've grains stuck down the back of the cooker lol, they're everywhere :)

When I'm straining my liquid back into my boiler, make sure the tap in the boiler is closed!!! I've read of other people making this mistake and I'm sure I'll do it again but I lost vital wort and gave me an extra clean up.

It looks and tastes great without the hops. Not sure what my OG is but I'm hoping for 1.046.

I'm also using a live Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast. It set me back ÃÂ£6.25 so I'm hoping good things from it. I'll also be washing and reusing if I can.

My First Full All Grain Stout

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