BIAB batch No.12 Blackberry porter

[Greenhorn]

This is my 3rd BIAB batch and my 12th grain recipe.

I'm slowly getting the hang of the BIAB setup and it's really good.

Thanks to a new copy of "how to design great beers" I have been able to really design this batch properly and work out my efficiencies and things like tweaking OG for temp.

Anyway.

20L batch.

3.6kg Pale malt
0.45kg Munich light
0.375kg chocolate malt
0.3kg CaraMunich I

16g pacific gem (13.2AA) @ 60 min
8g pacific gem @ 15 min
8g pacific gem @ 0 min

(I picked pacific gem as I was looking through a hop guide and read that it has light fruity, blackberryish notes. And I like to try something a bit unusual. Perfect for a blackberry porter. OMG, these hops smell amazing. I tried a tiny bit of the wort and it was absolutely delicious. Already has a slight, but noticeable berry flavour. I'll be using the rest for a SMASH to really see what they're all about.)

Wyeast 1968.

I mashed 26 of my 28L aiming for 68°c. I set the boiler for 80°c as it's previously been coming in low. Initial mash temp was 74°c (damn it). Thankfully I had 2L of both boiling and cold water to add to tweak the temp.

Added all the cold and hit 70°c. I reset the temp on the boiler and left the top off and it didn't take long for it to get down to 68°c.

Left it to mash for 60 min with a stir and temp check every few min.

raised the temp to 80°c and drained the bag.

Got 25L with an OG (corrected for temp) of 1.042. I think... My notes are are home.

worked out the figures as 20L @ 1.052 which was pretty much bob on what I was after.

Boiled for the hour, cooled with my copper coil cooler and pitched at 22°c.

It's currently in the brew fridge at 20°c and should be bubbling nicely by now.

Once primary is done I'll bottle half and rack the rest over 1.2kg of wild blackberries we picked and froze last month.

 

[IainM]

That sounds very nice.

 

[Honk]

Sounds nice, does it have any blackberry's in or just getting blackberry flavour from the hops?

Edit : I just reread and see your going to rack over some frozen blackberry's I'd like to know how this turns out.

 

[Honk]

Sorry, another question, is the book you refer to the ray Daniel s one of a similar name or something different?

 

[Greenhorn]

Ah yes.

"Designing great beers" by the aforementioned Mr Daniels.

 

[Simonh82]

I brewed a plum porter last night. I went for Bramling Cross as my flavour/aroma hop which is also meant to have a dark berry like flavour.

I'm afraid I couldn't get away from my hoppy habits and put 100g of them in, split evenly between a 10 minute addition and a hop stand at 66°C. This is probably not true to style but the Titanic plum porter that I'm basing it on says they use lots of late hops.

I hope it works well with the blackberries. I opted to put the plums in the boil with 10 minutes to go. Are you doing anything to the blackberries to sterilise them other than freezing?

I've also got some natural plum essence if it isn't plumy enough in the end.

 

[Greenhorn]

No. Apparently freezing should be enough.

Weirdly, I've had absolutely no airlock activity or krausen whatsoever. I was assuming something was wrong. But I took a gravity reading this afternoon and it's down to 1.020. So the little yeasty chaps are clearly up to something.

 

[Simonh82]

No. Apparently freezing should be enough.

Weirdly, I've had absolutely no airlock activity or krausen whatsoever. I was assuming something was wrong. But I took a gravity reading this afternoon and it's down to 1.020. So the little yeasty chaps are clearly up to something.

That's strange. 1968 is the Fullers strain which I thought gave a good thick krausen normally.

 

[Greenhorn]

Hmmm. Now seems to be stuck at 1.020.

Never had a stuck brew before. Given it a swirl.

Is it possible and/or advisable to add more yeast?

 

[Simonh82]

It might not have stalled, it might be just about done. White Labs give this strain attenuation figures of 63-70%. You mashed at the top end of the temperature range and started out at over 70°C. Your attenuation is currently at 62% so it might be very close to done.

Maybe a gentle swirl might help but I wouldn't expect much more from it given your mash temperature.

 

[Greenhorn]

That's true.

I've been mashing colder in order to produce drier, stronger beers and have got used to FGs of 1.008 and the like.

Sort of forgot that I designed this one to be much more full and sweet. Doh.....

 

[Simonh82]

Duplicate post for some reason.

 

[Simonh82]

Snap! My plum porter has just stopped at 1.021. I mashed at 68°C and I'm using a yeast I have no experience of and which Brew Labs couldn't give me any details of so this might be where mine finishes too.

I've got 66% attenuation which is less than I was hoping for but will still make for a drinkable beer. It didn't taste overly sweet.

I've give it a gentle rouse but I'm not necessary expecting it to do much more.

I'm going to add some of the plum essence as the sample I tried didn't taste that strongly of plums.