BIAB pale ale with Citra.

[Duxuk]

This evening I'm starting an overnight mash of a self devised recipe. It's my 101st AG brew, always using a modified BIAB method. I'm using Citra hops at flameout so what could possibly go wrong?
I heated 22l of water to 70C in a 32l stockpot and added 2tsp of gypsum to harden up our soft water. I then wrapped it up stood on a heatproof tray. I use a sleeping bag and a very warm bike jacket. I expect it to have dropped to around 56C in the morning.
I added 3.5kg of Maris Otter and in the morning I will heat it up to 76C with crushed crystal. I find the crystal can lose it's sweetness if I add it to the mash. I imagine that the unfermentable sugar chains get broken down to shorter fermentables in the long mash.



I'll write the recipe in the morning and continue the exciting tale.

 

[Poochops]

Wow 101 brews! How long did it take to drink 4000 pints then :whistle:

 

[Duxuk]

Frighteningly enough that's less than 5 years of brewing but I don't buy much beer at all!
So today's recipe is...............
3.5Kg Maris Otter
250g crushed crystal
25 g First Gold @ 60 mins (8.32%AA)
Half a Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes
100G Citra (13.5%AA) at flameout for a five minute steep then cooled with an immersion chiller to 20C.
You may be wondering where the bag is. I use 2 pieces of net curtain. One to filter the grain out and one for the hops, usually.
This time I'm copying Tiny Rebels Cwtch and leaving the hops in during the fermentation. I did this once before with a Saison, but didn't think it made a difference. With this beer being more hop forwards I thought it would be interesting to try.The crystal is in at 6.10am.

Buy an AGA for your brewing. The hot plate is exactly the same size as my brew pan!

 

[Duxuk]

Heated to 76C and I now want to filter the grain out and do a 6l mini sparge with hot water.








I lined the FV with net curtain and transferred the liquor into it. Heavy work so early in the morning. I then hoisted the net with my convenient piece of nylon cord. After draining I transfer the liquor back to the pan and open the sheet in the FV to add 6l of hot water. After a ten minute steep I then hoist the sheet again, adding the drained liquor to the rest which I'm currently bringing to the boil. 7am as I type and I'm about to drain the sparged liquor. Can then make breakfast for the family and wake up the puppy, Freddie, age 11 weeks.

 

[Duxuk]

Sparged liquor about to be added to the pan. Not only does sparging allow me to brew 23l in a 32l pan but it also increases efficiency. The liquor in the picture has a much lower gravity than the first running therefore the water trapped in the grains has a lower gravity. In short, more of the available sugar is now coming to the boil and less is being discarded with the grain.

Next is the boil. I will mainly boil with the lid on to cut down on steam. With Maris Otter this doesn't cause any issues. This may not be true of all grains, though.

 

[Duxuk]

Bittering hops ready to go in.

 

[Duxuk]

Porridge and Freddie. Looks like we're all getting breakfast. He's a tan Jack Russell. Quite unusual.

 

[Duxuk]

Chiller in to sterilise with 2 minutes to go. Then after a 5 minute steep about 35 minutes of cooling. I find a 5 minute steep gives a much better late hopped flavour than a 10 minute, which increases the bitterness. As I mentioned at the beginning I'm going to leave the hops in for the whole fermentation period to see if I get more flavour out. I've taken a sample to measure the OG and work out my efficiency. It doesn't matter if my calculation is flawed because I always
Use the same method so it is still good for comparison.

 

[Duxuk]

I've ended with 23.5l in the FV at an OG of 1046. Calculating manually I get an efficiency of 97.72%. Not bad, even if it's a bit of an exaggeration! The secret to high efficiency is to not waste anything in dead spaces, of which I have none. Tasting the sample I can tell it will be low on bitterness but high on scrumptious Citra flavour. I'm about to add yeast which I reclaimed from th brew I bottled yesterday.
Of course the volume of residue will have increased the apparent volume and hence, efficiency. I hope to be drinking the first of over 40 500ml bottles in about 4 weeks. It'll be best drunk young.

 

[Spapro]

Nice write up and good pics - Freddie is cute !

Love all the C hops - Citra, Cascade Centennial et al.

I also wear Crocs while brewing - elf and safety would have a heart attack but got away with it so far

 

[Duxuk]

View attachment 9991
Freddie now at rest after a three and a half hour brew. Yesterday whilst bottling he enthusiastically licked up a drop of beer which had dripped from the end of my symphony tube. I'll have to keep an eye on him. Our last dog hated alcohol, in any form.

 

[joel]

Wow that's quite some efficiency when others struggle to get 65% with BIAB, maybe mashing without the bag then filtering through the net curtain is better than doing the mash in the bag. Food for thought!

Is that with pre-crushed grain or do you crush your own? If it's pre-crushed where did you buy it from?

 

[Spapro]

View attachment 9991
Freddie now at rest after a three and a half hour brew. Yesterday whilst bottling he enthusiastically licked up a drop of beer which had dripped from the end of my symphony tube. I'll have to keep an eye on him. Our last dog hated alcohol, in any form.

Freddie looks like a boozer to me !

 

[pms67]

View attachment 9989

View attachment 9990
Chiller in to sterilise with 2 minutes to go. Then after a 5 minute steep about 35 minutes of cooling. I find a 5 minute steep gives a much better late hopped flavour than a 10 minute, which increases the bitterness. As I mentioned at the beginning I'm going to leave the hops in for the whole fermentation period to see if I get more flavour out. I've taken a sample to measure the OG and work out my efficiency. It doesn't matter if my calculation is flawed because I always
Use the same method so it is still good for comparison.

Don't all laugh at once,Ive only done 4 BIAB but how do you calc efficiency?
Ta

 

[Duxuk]

Wow that's quite some efficiency when others struggle to get 65% with BIAB, maybe mashing without the bag then filtering through the net curtain is better than doing the mash in the bag. Food for thought!

Is that with pre-crushed grain or do you crush your own? If it's pre-crushed where did you buy it from?

I but pre crushed grain from Leyland Homebrew.

 

[Duxuk]

There's a calculator on the forum for efficiency but the way I do it is.........................
Total grain weight X 295 / volume in FV = A
Then take your OG (1046 for me today) take off the 10 and multiply by 100, giving 4600 in this case.
Calculate 4600/A and that's it.
So today it was 3.5kg of MO with 0.25kg of crystal giving 3.75 times 295 and divided by 23.5 (litres) = 47.07
4600 divided by 47.07 = 97.73%
Got to go now. Freddie has chewed through the power lead to the laptop and the screen has dimmed! Lucky he didn't get a shock.

 

[Duxuk]

This beer has turned out to be amazing. It is less bitter than Oakhams Citra and a little less sweet. The hop flavour, however, is massive. Like drinking alcoholic marmalade!
As I said in the recipe I left the hops in for the entire fermentation like Tiny Rebel Cwtch, which was my inspiration.
My previous brew was basically the same but with only 3kg of Maris Otter instead of 3.5kg. In that brew I filtered the hops out before it went into the FV and the flavour is a pale shadow. If you like it hoppy this could be the way to go.
http://home-brew-online.co.uk/instructions/cwtch-beer-kit-instructions.pdf