Braziliain's Brew Days

[braziliain]

Brew day for me tomorrow, yeehaaa!

York homebrew club threw down the challenge of a black IPA, so I had a play with Beer Smith for the first time using the GH recipe as a starting point. I upped the abv a bit and played with the hop schedule. Would appreciate any advice from those with experience. Does this recipe look ok?

Planning to mash at 66C for 60min and dunk sparge for 10min at 77C.

Thanks!

 

[IainM]

I've done my BIPA recipe twice with different hops (thread here), and it is without question one of the best beers I've made. It is very different from your one, but yours looks good too. Personally, I would up the dry hop. The first one I did had 4.4g/L (excluding the Summer, which is a pretty tame hop) and was good, but the second had 8g/L and was better.

 

[grmski]

From my understanding the BIPA is supposed to have the mouthfeel, aroma and flavour of a standard IPA but it's black in colour. That being the case I'm not sure choc malt is something I'd include, I think even at 3.6% of the grainbill that you'll be introducing flavours you wouldn't have in an IPA, wouldn't black malt be more appropriate? Another thing to consider when using dark malts in an IPA is to go for a cold steep of those grains and add that directly to the fermenter or late boil to again bring in the colour without flavour.

Good luck with it.

 

[braziliain]

Thanks for the replies guys. All good stuff to consider.

Unfortunately I only bought 50g of Citra, so upping the dry hop is tricky. A quick calc showed that I was saving 2g of Citra from my 50g. Oops! So upped the dry hop from 18g to 20g.

With regard the chocolate. That is straight out of Greg Hughes recipe. I have actually reduced the percentage slightly by upping the Pale to increase abv.

 

[braziliain]

Decided to brew tonight instead so I can work on the bike workshop build tomorrow.

Mashing now.
Was aiming for 66C and hit 67.2C.
I definitely find this part of the process the most difficult with stove top small batch brewing.

Drinking a Willko Cerveza from last September. It definitely tastes less awful now than it did back before Christmas. Won't be making it again mind :lol:

 

[braziliain]

I'm not sure how this has happened but I have massively overshot my OG.

Target was 9L at 1.059.

I have 9.25L at 1.067

This is my first time using Beersmith and I must have done something very wrong!!

Any ideas anybody?

What can I do with my brew? I'm guessing I could back liquor or have a brain melter? Beersmith seems to be saying if I add 1.0L water it will lower the SG to 1.060. Presumably though this will also reduce IBUs and flavours?

The mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency calculated in Beersmith seem very high!

 

[braziliain]

Et voila, 24 bottles of black IPA.

I think you were right IainM, it's not as hop forward as I expected despite being extremely tasty. Though, even up at 7.5% ish, the hops are masking the alcohol well. Can't wait for this one to carb up, I have high hopes. Feeling the effects after my taster :lol:

Next time I'll double the dry hop Citra.

 

[braziliain]

Cracked open my black IPA this evening and I'm pretty darn happy! Bitter, hoppy, well carbonated and delicious :)

Why did it take me so long to discover this hobby?!

 

[chub1]

Cracked open my black IPA this evening and I'm pretty darn happy! Bitter, hoppy, well carbonated and delicious :)

Why did it take me so long to discover this hobby?!

Black IPA,good aint they:smile:

 

[braziliain]

Black IPA,good aint they:smile:

Yep! :) I'll be honing this one. Think i will go for double the dry hop next time.

 

[braziliain]

Well the weather is doing it's typical bank holiday thing here in Yorkshire, so thought​ I'd brew.

It's not going so well today. I do BIAB and I forgot the bag... Now waiting on a mash tun full of water and grains while I figure out how to separate them.

*****.

Hopefully end up with a Yorkshire Bitter by the end of the day.

 

[Ajhutch]

Ah the less known BWIB (Brew Without Intended Bag)

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IainM]

Haha. Easily done. Surely you can just put the bag in an fv and pour the lot in.

 

[braziliain]

Haha. Easily done. Surely you can just put the bag in an fv and pour the lot in.

Yeah, that's what I went for.
It worked out ok. Hit the pre boil gravity bang on but ended up slightly under on OG with slightly too much volume.

Went with it anyway. Greg Hughes Yorkshire Bitter, OG 1.036, pitched some Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell.

First brew in my new brew fridge courtesy of the recent Inkbird giveaway.

 

[Ajhutch]

Sounds good, will be interested to hear your views on the yeast as I've got a couple of packs of that, can't remember what I was planning when I ordered them!

 

[braziliain]

Sounds good, will be interested to hear your views on the yeast as I've got a couple of packs of that, can't remember what I was planning when I ordered them!

Will feed back. I think I originally bought it for a Wherry experiment but thought it might suit an AG bitter. :thumb:

 

[braziliain]

Well I must say I have not been the best at updating this thread. But today I attempted brew number 16 which is for the York Homebrew Club bi-monthly challenge.

The challenge is to brew with fruit, so this is an attempt at a Blackberry Saison. I brewed a saison earlier in the year using the recipe in the Craft Brew book for a clone of Brew By Numbers Citra Saison. I was pretty pleased with it, although thought it slightly too bitter. Feedback at Homebrew Club however, was positive. This recipe uses the same base, but I have dialled back the magnum at 60min and swapped out the copious amount of Citra for a small amount of Styrian Goldings at flame out. No dry hop here either, just a week on 1kg of blackberries in secondary.

I've been adapting and adding to my kit since the last post and this was my first time using a copper wort chiller which is the latest addition. It's also the 2nd brew on my newer larger 20L kettle with tap and pickup tube.

12L Batch

Malt bill:
800g Tom Fawcett Maris Otter Pale (36%)
650g Bestmalz Pilsner (29%)
490g Crisp Pale Wheat (22%)
165g Flaked Wheat (7.5%)
100g Runny Honey from Aldi (4.5%)

Hop schedule:
5g Magnum @ 60min
10g Styrian Goldings @ flameout

Yeast: CML Saison de Lille

Dryhop:
1kg Blackberries after primary fermentation completes for 7 days before bottling

Mashed in with 5.3L of 75C strike tap water aiming for 67C mash but forgot to preheat the tun. Mash settled just over 64C so may end u a little dry. This should be ok for a saison I hope. Batch sparged with 10.8L tap water at 80C for 15min.

Preboil gravity was 1.034 (adjusted) against an estimated 1.033. Boil volume was slightly up at 15.2L against and estimated 14.7L. Beersmith makes the mash efficiency 78% against estimated 72%. I did squeeze the bag fairly hard though which may go someway to this.

I added the honey at 15 mins to go just before popping in the copper wort chiller to sanitise.

Chiller got the wort from boiling to 30C in 20mins and I mixed the runoff water with some fairy liquid, saving it for clean up.

First time rehydrating dried yeast. Used 100ml of preboiled water with a splash of the wort. After 30 mins the starter was looking a little cloudy but not bubbling like when rehydrating bread yeast. Will keep an eye on this and may need to pitch more yeast.

Yeast pitched at 26C and wort in the brew fridge with temp set to 22C for the first 3 days, then will ramp up to 28C until primary is complete.

Apart from forgetting to preheat the tun, this was a pretty successful brew. I'm starting to feel at home with my equipment.

Here's a snapshot of the day:
https://gopro.com/v/X69dnLVPKo4G

 

[braziliain]

Brew day is go. An American Pale Ale for the Christmas party.

First time dabbling with water chemistry. Tested the alkalinity, dosed with Phosphoric acid to reduce it and added a smidge of calcium chloride and magnesium sulphate to give me a 3:1 sulphate to chloride ratio.



First time brewing using the Brewfather app. Trying it out with the month free premium.

 

[braziliain]

Brew day went well and I ended up with 13.5L in the Fermenter at 1.070.
I topped this up with 5.4L water to get 19L at 1.051, bang on target.

Maris Otter, Caragold, Caramalt

Columbus, Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic, Zeus, El Dorado in this one.

CML US Pale yeast pitched at 18C for 3 days now, then raise to 20C for 11 days.