Advice sought for a foolproof recipe

[ElvisIsBeer]

I'm having a great time with this all-grain lark. I'm drinking my pale ale now, and in a week or two will be bottling my dark monstrosity. Immediately after I want to redeem recent bad practice with a perfectly executed brew. For that, I will need your help.

I need suggestions for a truly brilliant pint, with full method appropriate to my set up (Brupaks boiler, picnic box mash tun, copper heat exchanger, FV, brewfridge).

I want to end up with 20-23L of something reliably amazing. I'll try anything, but would prefer something light to medium in colour (i.e. not another dark monstrosity).

I'm assuming many will have recipes typed up, with ingredients, timings, temps volumes etc. or even links to brewdays with all that in it. My weaknesses are impatience, not really understanding sparging, panic, and a propensity for chucking the kitchen sink at it.

I need restraint, cool advice, classy midfield distribution and a cast iron recipe that will surprise and delight.

Over to you, comrades. :hat:

 

[aamcle]

Try Dr Smurtos Golden Ale the recipe is available via Google.


Aamcle

 

[Ciaran12s]

Where do you think you're getting problems during the brewdays?

 

[BeerCat]

Have you tried a SMASH yet? A citra with pilsner will make a great beer. You could add other grains if you want but stick with one hop. Why do you think your beer is not good? Do you have temp control? I never really make the same beer twice but
iI reckon most **** ups are from fermentation.

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Temp control is spot on - brewfridge with a Inkbird - so not an issue with that.

First issue to address is to select a recipe and stick to it. On two occasions I've chucked more in than planned because I just got giddy with it. Nothing more complex than me being a big daft stupid kid. Having the discipline for a SMASH would be a good way to purge that, methinks. Good advice.

Second issue to address is about mashing & sparging. I'll describe, broadly, my process so far:

• boil water to strike temp - how much water? I never measured it.....but the Brupaks was full - so I'm saying it's 27-28L.
  
• dispense into mash tun
• dough in my malt and stir, cover up and insulate under duvet - leave for an hour or so
• open the mash tun tap, and dispense liquor into a vessel - this is where it starts to go wrong
  • how long should this stage take? I'm afraid I panic about the mash getting stuck. On 2 occasions the amount coming voluntarily from the tap is very little.
  • I end up stirring it a bit to get more out. On both occasions I end up using a pint jug to get liquor out, and put it through a sieve.
• I start to sparge - but the gentle trickle doesn't result in anything meaningful coming out the tun - so last time, in frustration, I ended up dumping a load of sparge water in the tun (covering the bed), stirring again, and then taking a trickle from the top - before setting at it again with the pint glass.
• I seem to be losing a hell of a lot of liquid, and I'm wondering how I end up with anything like a 20L batch. After boil I'm dispensing 15L into the FV.

I'm suspicious that the copper pipes in my tun are allowing grains to get into the tap on the tun - blocking the entire process and necessitating the 'bail out' operation. The pipes have slits cut into them (whoever made it must have used an angle grinder) and I wonder if the length of the slits allows grains to slip through - when cleaning the tape last time I found many grains in there.

A new pipe with smaller, drilled holes might be in order, possibly?

I'm sure there are so many rookie errors here - but on the positive side my first brew was very drinkable. brilliant when ice cold. My second batch will be bottled in a week or 2 and I'm reasonably confident that fermentation and then conditioning will result in something broadly drinkable and alcoholic. But I'm wanting a bit better than that.

 

[Ciaran12s]

Sparging was an issue for me at the beginning. I ditched my bazooka filter from the tun and replaced it with braided hose which does s fantastic job. I also gave batch sparging a go and it worked out well so I've stuck with it and am getting consistent effeciency and volumes every time.

I had a mash stick and had to jug out the grain through a sieve and tea towel. That's when I went for braided hose.

It does sound like your manifold is a bit dodgy, though I've never used one. Maybe you're just trying to drain too quickly?

I would advise changing to braided hose, give this a read

http://beersmith.com/batch-sparging/

And keep a closer eye on your weights and volumes.

"I've chucked more in than planned because I just got giddy with it"
More what? Everything?

 

[Clint]

Ain't got time now but will post my Yankee pale recipe later for you...I made it up with what I had and it's a winner.. well I think it is!

 

[Zephyr259]

I've never used a mash tun having started with stove top biab then a grainfather but i agree that your manifold sounds like trouble. When I was thinking about building one the instructions were to use a saw to cut the slots which gives an idea of the thickness required.

I'm not sure of how the costs compare but you could line your tun with a bag and see how that drains? Maybe swapping to a braided hose is easier/cheaper.

Do you have a recipe book? They tend to give water volumes required for mashing and sparging, just filling the tun is likely to give a very thin mash. Again I'm used to the GF volumes which work slightly differently.

I also agree that if you're tempted to change things on the fly, hold yourself to a smash. I have a similar issue but during recipe design so I have to go back and sanity check my recipes and simplify before brewing.

I've also never re-brewed a beer but most of my brewing has been from Greg Hughes book and they all just work and are very tasty.

Good luck.

 

[BeerCat]

I would buy a decent BAG then the grain wont get stuck in your manifold. That should sort your drainage problem. I have a perforated false bottom in my set up but still use a bag as nothing gets through it and makes cleaning easier. http://brewinabag.co.uk/en/ I bought one from here. I used to get lots of small batches which is really annoying. I will post you a recipe up later.

 

[Ciaran12s]

I forgot to mention the bag option. Haven't tried it myself but that was the next port of call if the braid and batch sparge didn't work.

From the sounds of things it's not a recipe you need but just some tweaks to your system and a bit of practice with it to work out its quirks etc.

 

[strange-steve]

If you want something a bit different, this is my rye saison recipe which is the only recipe I have brewed multiple times. It's a simple recipe, easy to brew and a lovely beer which scored 44 in a bjcp competition last year. It's light and crisp, a perfect hot weather beer.

Rye Saison

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 20
Total Grain (kg): 5.0
Total Hops (g): 60
Original Gravity (OG): 1.056
Final Gravity (FG): 1.003
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 6.9 %
Colour (SRM): 4
Bitterness (IBU): 23 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 73
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
3.500 kg Pilsner (70%)
1.000 kg Rye Malt (20%)
0.250 kg Granulated Sugar (5%)
0.250 kg Rye Malt, Dark (5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
20 g East Kent Golding Leaf (7% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes
20 g East Kent Golding Leaf @ 15 Minutes
20 g East Kent Golding Leaf @ 0 Minutes

Notes
----------------
Mash in with 15L of water aiming for 64°C for 90 mins.
Sparge until collected 27L.
Boil for 90 mins.
Ferment at 23°C with Wyeast 3711 - French Saison with 2L yeast starter.
Ferment for 4 weeks in primary at 23°C.
Crash cool for a couple of days.
Carb to 2.8 vol.

Water profile (don't worry about this if you're not into water treatment):
Calcium 92
Sulphate 94
Chloride 87
Bicarb 21

 

[MogBot]

Great to hear you're enjoying and having some success with all grain. I agree with those suggesting lining the picnic box with a bag. It does make cleaning alot easier and they are fairly cheap and easy to use.

On mashing in a coolbox and sparging I've found the following bits of advice work for me. Priming the temp of the box with a kettle full (1.5l) boiled water for a few minutes then drain, like you would a flask helps keep the desired temp from strike calculations.
Worth checking the temp with a thermometer through the mash too every 20mins or so, stir to cool, add a bit of boiled water to heat.
As for mash water volume 3.5l per kg of grain has been consistantly good with my set up. I recirculate the wort until clear no grain or bits of murk then start running the hot water through up to your boil volume roughly a 20 min step.

Best of luck! Taking your time on brewday really pays off a few weeks down the line.

 

[Clint]

Yankee Pale...
Ag
4.7kg pale ale malt
235g carapils
200g torrefied wheat

30g citra @ 60
15g citra
10 simcoe
10 amarillo
All at 10 minutes,chill to 80 and add same again. Stand for 20 minutes then chill to 20.
CML American ale yeast @ 19°c
When finished dry hop with 50g citra,11g simcoe,30g amarillo for 5 days.
Bottle,batch prime 120g dextrose.
Og 1053 fg 1010, 5.6% 80% attenuation. 75% bhe.
Didn't record ibu. ....probably between 35/40....
Hop amounts due to being a user upper recipe.
Mashed 2.6 litre per kilo @ 67 due to delays I mashed for 2 hours! Sparge was 2 x 10 litres of 80°c.

 

[BeerCat]

I had no end of trouble sparging, lautering and recirculating when i started. First of all the bag that came with the ace boiler always clogged up as did the bazooka filter. I ended up ditching both and used the false bottom only for a long while. That also used to get very blocked though so after accidentally throwing it away i started using a cheap youngs bag. Bingo no more blockages. For 5kg i generally use about 20l of water so i end up with 15. Another 20l sparge water and i have 35 pre boil. After boil off and losing some to trub i end up with about 25l.

Citra smash

5kg pilsner

mash at 65c for 1 hour
mashout at 75c for 10m

protofolc @15
40g citra @15
40g citra @5
40g citra @0
dry hop 100g