Badger Fursty Ferret clone - lazy BIAB brew!

[timcunnell]

I am slightly cheating here as I haven't done this brewday yet! But will be doing it at the weekend so I thought I would share the recipe first in case there are any suggestions!

First off, I've got to give a shout out to the guys at The Homebrew Wizard, as I have lifted this recipe from them. It sounds like it could turn out to be a pretty good clone of Badger Beers' "Fursty Ferret", which is one of my favourite tipples at the moment. The thing is, the method on the website differs from what I am planning to do - I just wonder if this is likely to affect the outcome.

I ordered a custom AG kit from HBC, which I think is a great service. I just copied and pasted the ingredients from their website into the order details, and they took care of the rest - even packaging the hops individually and printing labels with the addition timings for each. Nice touch!

The full details/ingredients are:

Character

1.042 OG
1.010 FG
4.3% ABV
26IBU
Style 8B special/best/premium bitter
Ingredients

3.8kg Marris Otter (84.8%)
300g Carapils (6.7%)
300g Wheat malt (6.7%)
80g Chocolate malt (1.8%)
12g Target 13IBU 11%a 60 mins
25g EK Goldings 7IBU 5%a 20 mins
20g Styrian Goldings 6IBU 5%a 20 mins
Irish Moss 15 mins
1275 Wyeast Thames valley ale yeast (washed/ starter).


Because HBC don't seem to sell Wyeast (and I have only brewed with dried yeast and didn't fancy a risk!) I went for S-04 rather than the Thames Valley yeast that t he recipe suggests. So this is the first difference.


The other difference is probably going to be in the method. The home brew wizard page says:


"I used an infusion mash with a mash out. The 11.6 litres of strike water was heated up to 72°c to give a mash temp of 65°c. The grain was left to mash for 75 mins during which another 8 litres of strike water for the mash out was heated up rot 100°c, for a target temp of 78°c. This was added after 75 mins and left to mash for a further 10 mins. The grain was then fly sparged with 13 litres of water at 77°c."


With my basic equipment etc I am not sure about all this. So my plan is to go for my previously proven method of mashing at approx 66c (which will drop to 65 during the mash), then a "dunk sparge" in a separate vessel with 6-8 litres of sparge water at around 78-80c. I will use the sparge water to top-up during the boil.



I don't really know if this will affect the outcome too much either?


Anyway - I would really welcome any comments/advice. Either way, I will get the brew done on Sunday, and will report back with how it went!


Cheers!

 

[GHW]

That biab process is v similar to mine and I generally get ok if not amazing efficiency. I've been a few points shy on og but nothing that should affect the overall product.

Fursty ferret is a nice beer (as are all the badger beers imo) so I might add this to my potential brews list if it turns out well. Keep us posted

 

[timcunnell]

That biab process is v similar to mine and I generally get ok if not amazing efficiency. I've been a few points shy on og but nothing that should affect the overall product.

Fursty ferret is a nice beer (as are all the badger beers imo) so I might add this to my potential brews list if it turns out well. Keep us posted

Thanks Gareth! Yeah, I am really new to AG/BIAB, but I used this method before with my first AG kit and worked great. I brewed about 2 litres short - producing 21 litres rather than 23. But got 1052 rather than 1046 - so efficiency must have been about there! (Beginner's luck, most likely!).

I agree its a lovely beer! I also love the Badger Beers. Other than Fursty Ferret I really like Tangle Foot and First Gold. The only one which I don't like is Golden Glory. In fact, I absolutely can't bare it!! Probably just me though - but the flavour of peaches is just too much!

Anyway - if I can brew up anything half-way close to Fursty Ferret I will be over the moon!

Full report to follow!

 

[GHW]

The only one which I don't like is Golden Glory. In fact, I absolutely can't bare it!! Probably just me though - but the flavour of peaches is just too much!

Ha! Golden glory is my favourite badger beer, love it. Never looked into what hops they use to get that flavour though. Hopping hare also very good.

 

[Redron]

Good one Tim.
Sounds like you are at the same stage as me with your brewing exploits.
I did'nt sparge with my first AG BIAB and went for the full volume /no sparge method and got really poor efficiency for my TT Landlord clone. Next time I will dunk sparge....

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
I will be doing a Theakstons OP clone tomorrow with a slightly different approach than my first attempt, it's a learning curve....

 

[Covrich]

Good one Tim.
Sounds like you are at the same stage as me with your brewing exploits.
I did'nt sparge with my first AG BIAB and went for the full volume /no sparge method and got really poor efficiency for my TT Landlord clone. Next time I will dunk sparge....

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
I will be doing a Theakstons OP clone tomorrow with a slightly different approach than my first attempt, it's a learning curve....

It is up to you but you really shouldn't need to go down the dunk spagre doing full volume. It is kind of the point of the full BIAB is taht you include all the water , some people don't even bother with a mash out they just mash 60-90 mins (with a fine crush).. even if they get 65-70% efficiency its fine as long as its consistent, you can add an extra 5% pale malt in to get the OG you desire.

When I did my stout I ended up with way too much volume probably about 26 liters post boil I was a few points shy of my OG at 23 liters but given I had somuch extra I was probablt 72% .. it can be done I would suggest you try a finer crush, by default it isn't done because it can cause a stuck sparge in mash tuns

 

[timcunnell]

Well - the brewday went ahead as planned and................went really quite well! :) Dare I say, almost like clockwork.

I started with 26 litres in my Peco boiler and got the temp up to 72 for the mash. After adding my grains the temp went to 66.7 and pretty much stayed there for 75 mins (I wrapped the boiler in a king-size duvet).

I did decide to do a dunk sparge, separately heating 6 litres of water to 80 degrees. I dunked the grain bag into the sparge water and gave it quite a vigorous stir, before leaving it for 10 mins, and then stirred again before removing the bag and squeezing out as much fluid as I could bare, given I didn't have any gloves and the water was really hot!

I got the wort up to a boil and gradually added in my 6 litres of sparge, and did a fairly aggressive boil for 60 minutes. After boiling and chilling I had pretty much bang on 23 litres transferred into my FV, and the all-important OG figure : 1044. Target was 1042, so I guess this is good!

I was really excited to try my new brew fridge for the first time, so I got my FV tucked away safe and sound, and now bubbling away nicely. In fact, when I checked this morning I found some krausen had escaped through the airlock - which hopefully isn't too much of an issue?

Hopefully attached a few pictures, because everyone loves pictures! :)

 

[Spapro]

Nice post Tim, looks like you did really well with your starting gravity and the volume of wort in the FV - and enjoyed the process which is important.

Sure it will taste awesome when ready.

 

[timcunnell]

Thanks Spapro! Yeah it is certainly still very much a learning curve for me, but trying to apply what I learned from my first crack at the BIAB method. My main issue before was ending up with too low volume - and concentrated wort!

My main prob now is patience, as I just want to try everything I've made! But at least having the FV tucked away in the brew fridge in the garage should mean that I will resist tinkering for a couple of weeks! (or at least I will try my best!).

 

[clibit]

The different mashing process won't make a difference but the mash temp will make a slight difference. The biggest difference will be the yeast. But you'll get a similar, nice beer. White labs WLP023 is allegedly the same as wyeast Thames valley 1275 btw.

 

[ManseMasher]

Looking good! Difficult to tell, but looking at the close up of your airlock, has the original liquid been displaced? If you haven't already - looks like it could do with a top up....

 

[timcunnell]

Looking good! Difficult to tell, but looking at the close up of your airlock, has the original liquid been displaced? If you haven't already - looks like it could do with a top up....

Thanks Manse! Yes, when I checked it yesterday morning and took that picture, I noticed that the krausen had frothed up so much that some came out of the airlock, and it pretty much ejected the airlock fluid (Starsan) in the process.

I just whipped out that bubbler and stuck in a nice clean one with new Starsan solution last night, so hopefully all okay now.

Just an observation, but last night after I changed the airlock it was bubbling really well every 3-4 seconds. I checked in this morning and bubbling was down to every 20-30 seconds. Is that okay for day 3?? I know airlock activity isn't really everything, and I shall do my best to leave it alone until at least the weekend before checking the SG. I just get nervous at this stage - especially as I am so new to the AG game!

 

[Slid]

Thanks Manse! Yes, when I checked it yesterday morning and took that picture, I noticed that the krausen had frothed up so much that some came out of the airlock, and it pretty much ejected the airlock fluid (Starsan) in the process.

I just whipped out that bubbler and stuck in a nice clean one with new Starsan solution last night, so hopefully all okay now.

Just an observation, but last night after I changed the airlock it was bubbling really well every 3-4 seconds. I checked in this morning and bubbling was down to every 20-30 seconds. Is that okay for day 3?? I know airlock activity isn't really everything, and I shall do my best to leave it alone until at least the weekend before checking the SG. I just get nervous at this stage - especially as I am so new to the AG game!

Sounds all good to me, no worries with reduced ailock activity on day 3 as your wort looked very well oxygenated with just dropping it out of the boiler from the tap.

 

[timcunnell]

Sounds all good to me, no worries with reduced ailock activity on day 3 as your wort looked very well oxygenated with just dropping it out of the boiler from the tap.

Thanks Slid!

Yes I read on here about oxygenating by dropping from the boiler tap into the FV! One of many great tips I've picked up already on here :) Actually - for good measure I also whisked up the wort with an electric whisk, which is another tip someone on here mentioned.

In the past I definitely haven't oxegented my wort at all - actually I didn't know it was necessary!! So hopefully it has helped this time.