AG#1 - Hooky Bitter (GW) BIAB - PICTURES!!!!

[Rich747]

Hi. From your original recipe, what happens to the 4L between post boil and fermenter?

 

[artyb]

a great read , :clap:

i doin my 1st biab this weekend ...gettin nervous already .. :?

 

[calumscott]

a great read , :clap:

i doin my 1st biab this weekend ...gettin nervous already .. :?

Have fun with it!!

Have you got your plan sorted? All the steps written or printed out? Times, volumes, gravities expected, weights of hops, etc etc.?

Just be organised and well planned, that way you are highly unlikely to screw up anything big. Screwing up little things seems to be not just common but essential!! :lol:

 

[calumscott]

OK, so a little earlier than one might normally sample a brew but thanks to MacKiwi and bobsbeer twisting my arm (yeah, it didn't take a hell of a lot of twisting) I've just supped a bottle...

I'm well pleased for the following reasons:

1) it's beer
2) it's really very VERY good beer (even if I do say so myself!)
3) I think it tastes like hooky
4) it was crystal clear, like seriously clear, feck-test-will-be-no-problem-whatsoever clear (yes, I'll feck test the next bottle!!)
5) Notty really packs down tight doesn't it!?!?
6) It's going to be hard to resist the temptation to slurp the whole bloody lot before its properly ready!!

But the main thing I've learned...?

...the dark side is tasty. Very tasty indeed!

 

[artyb]

a great read , :clap:

i doin my 1st biab this weekend ...gettin nervous already .. :?

Have fun with it!!

Have you got your plan sorted? All the steps written or printed out? Times, volumes, gravities expected, weights of hops, etc etc.?

Just be organised and well planned, that way you are highly unlikely to screw up anything big. Screwing up little things seems to be not just common but essential!! :lol:

yup had a list/plan
and it all went really well
i added the actual times and measures to the list

here it is [,feckin photobucket wont let me edit it to turn it round]

its a lot more scribbled on now..

i was surprised how long it took to get from mash out to boil,

next brew i will get the mash water temp up ,with a couple of kettles of boiling water .... b4 the grain goes in..

 

[pittsy]

only half a camden tab is wanted , 4 is 8 times the amount , and some say to stir the mash (after mash in) is bad , can't remember why though , hope its a good 1 for you .

 

[calumscott]

Wheeler's book says stirring (even over stirring during doughing in) is bad for a mashtun mash as it can over-saturate the grain causing it to sink in a big old block and cause a stuck mash when it comes to sparging.

That wouldn't be an issue for a BIAB.

Don't know if there is any other reason...?

 

[PD]

well I batch sparge Calum...after 60 mins it gets a good stir 15 min rest and drained. 2nd batch water added another vigorous stir and rest before draining.
Flows beautiful clear and fast, thanks to the ss false bottom now working good.

 

[artyb]

only half a camden tab is wanted , 4 is 8 times the amount , and some say to stir the mash (after mash in) is bad , can't remember why though , hope its a good 1 for you .

i did add 3 camden tabs..thought it wouldnt hurt with nearly 7 gallons of water over all,

it had 1 stir as i couldnt be bothered doin a second one .. but the grains were all nicely swirling round in the bag..

all seems good so far...

might do another this weekend ... :hmm:

 

[artyb]

HERES THE ACTUAL DETAILS OF THE BREW...
good or bad this is how it went ...

Water
33litres.. 3 x camden tabs
Grain
4kg maris
½ kg pale wheat
½ crystal
Mash
heat up to 160
mash at 152 for 105 mins
Stirred once at 45mins

Mash out
167deg for 15 mins
remove bag,
Sparge in bucket….6L of hot water,

Boil
Time 75 minutes
Hops
40g fuggles @ start
50g bobek @ last 10 mins..

final volume 26 litres..inc trub/dregs.


had a great time doing it ... :party:

will start a thread [wiff piccys ]when i get time

 

[jimp2003]

Wheeler's book says stirring (even over stirring during doughing in) is bad for a mashtun mash as it can over-saturate the grain causing it to sink in a big old block and cause a stuck mash when it comes to sparging.

That wouldn't be an issue for a BIAB.

Don't know if there is any other reason...?

Stirring the mash when BIABing is a good thing as we usually have a lot thinner mash than the 3 vessel method. This means the enzymes are diluted through the mash and stirring helps to move them around to get more contact with the starches.

Of course you might experience a bigger temp loss by doing this frequently but if you are mashing in the kettle you can usually add a bit of heat to bring the mash up again..

 

[rich27500]

I stir 100 times, I have no idea why!!!

 

[pittsy]

I stir 100 times, I have no idea why!!!

lol that would be well sh*t to be 1 of them and a brewer , pour in water turn round 3 times , mash in grain turn clockwise 12 times then anti clockwise 12 times ....... it would be dark before you finished brewing :rofl:

 

[calumscott]

Had a couple of more of these, it's still wonderful!

Head is getting better (it had none to start with so any is good at this point).

I've also got a couple of real bottles of hooky in the "cellar" for a proper comparison in the near(ish) future...

...more follows... :

 

[calumscott]

So, last night was the biggie...

One bottle of real hooky bitter and one bottle of my AG#1 opened and decanted into two glasses each, a pair for me and a pair for my Stepdad.

A direct beer-to-beer look, smell, taste test!

Findings:

1) Mine was a little darker in colour, not much, but just enough to be noticeable. Could have been on account of my longer boil caramelising more sugars perhaps.
2) Aroma-wise, the real one had more "pop", maybe on account of having more fizz bringing the aromas up from the beer? Taking more time over mine revealed *very* similar, almost but just short of identical notes.
3) Flavour was absolutely spot on! It tastes almost exactly like hooky bitter.
4) Bittering was again absolutely spot on despite the longer boil, I've either got everything from the early addition hops and would have with the recommended 90 minutes or it needs more early hops if using the standard 90 mins. I guess I'll never know unless I do this and the comparison again...
5) Body and mouthfeel, mine was definitely a little heavier and thicker in the mouth. I'm putting that down to the replacement of GW's sugar component with malt and my somewhat wayward mash... Again, not off-putting in any way, just different.

All in all, I'm dead chuffed. I wasn't setting out to produce an exact hooky clone, just a good first AG beer "in the style of". But it turns out that I've got bloody close and that is just an awesome result as far as I'm concerned!

I'm right looking forward to polishing off the rest of the bottles, and I'm also VERY excited about the AG future...

:thumb:

I foresee a (very) Merry ( :drunk: ) Christmas and an increasingly (in line with beer stocks) Happy New Year and I wish the same for all you lot too... :

 

[mattrickl06]

Its posts like this which sometimes i wish i didnt read.

AG is drawing me in, stay strong and resist, stay strong and resist, boil strong and resist, boil strong and find bits, buy pot and some tins, buy grain and muslin, help help :nah:

 

[calumscott]

:lol: You'll be the first AG cherry popped in 2013 I reckon!

 

[LeedsBrewer]

:lol: Recon i'll be the last one in 2012. Going to the lhbs today to get grains. Hops should arrive tomorrow. The call to the dark side is too strong to resist. Especially after reading too many posts saying "after trying AG i'll never go back..."

 

[fbsf]

After trying AG, I'll never go back.



A bit like that LB? :lol:

 

[jimp2003]

That sounds like a right result!

I don't think the fuller mouthfeel in yours would have been down to not using sugar as Hook Norton don't use sugar in their version. I think that GW's book is out of date on the sugar additions for a lot of the beers listed.