Brew day - dry stout

[the_city_of_homebrew]

Hi all

Brew day today as the Mrs is out so its just me and the dog.

Decided to do a dry stout, scaled down from a 5.5g recipe to a 2 gallon recipe.

Simple recipe:

940g 2 row
400g flaked barley
180g roasted barley
28g goldings hops @ 60 minutes

Recipe calls for a 60 minute mash and a 90 minute boil, adjusting to a 90 minute mash too; doing a BIAB method and always get better effiecny with the extra half an hour.

Currently mashing now at 66 Celsius, will post updates and pictures as I go

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[clibit]

I love a dry stout. Good choice!

 

[the_city_of_homebrew]

Me too!

Brew day over.

Efficiency came in at 64% which I'm disappointed with, any suggestions to get closer to 75% with BIAB?

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Mashing

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Draining the bag

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Getting her cooled down to 22 degrees

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Mandatory Homebrew whilst brewing

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Chillers in

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She's now tucked up in the brew shed at 21 degrees, used a s04 because I just can't get my hands on any wyeast at all.

All in all a successful day, other than the efficiency, OG came in at 1036, recipe (at 5gallon states 1045), should it attenuate down, I'm looking at roughly 3.8-4%? Happy with that.

Happy homebrewing everyone

 

[the_city_of_homebrew]

A little young but didn't want to wait. This isn't the one above, it's a similar one brewed a couple of weeks earlier that didn't go quite right; efficiency was s little out meaning roughly 3.6%

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[mirsultankhan]

A little young but didn't want to wait. This isn't the one above, it's a similar one brewed a couple of weeks earlier that didn't go quite right; efficiency was s little out meaning roughly 3.6%

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nom nom nom

 

[the_city_of_homebrew]

Went down far too well. The difference between kits and all grain is quite significant in my brews. Love. It.

 

[brisboy]

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I've managed to up the efficiency of my last few BIABs. My last was my highest between 75 and 80% (according to brewer's friend) which is pretty amazing (after earlier efforts which got me less than 60!). Here's what I did last time so you can compare.

Asked my home brew supplier to mill for biab (I don't have a mill)
Heated full volume of water to strike temperature and doughed in, stirring to make sure it was all distributed and no dough balls.
Stirred again at half an hour.
After an hour slowly raised the heat to 75 C, stirring continuously (mash out).
Lifted grains out and squeezed the heck out of the bag.

Worked for me last brew anyway. Yet to see if I can repeat it.

How did your method compare?

That dry stout recipe looks good, by the way. Might have to give it a go soon. Thanks for the brewing photos too!

 

[clibit]

It's possible your efficiency was affected by the high proportion of flaked barley, I think, but I'm not sure. 940g of pale malt in a 10 litre brew is not a lot. I suspect your efficiency will be better with a mostly pale malt brew. Good tips from brisboy, stirring the mash and raising the temperature at the end. Then stir well again before lifting the bag.

 

[the_city_of_homebrew]

Wasn't aware the high barley ratio would impact efficiency; would be interested to know more about that?

Regarding my BIAB method, it was quite similar to the above:

66 Celsius strike water, doughed in mixing as I go to ensure no dough balls. Left for 30 minutes and stirred, left for another 30 and stirred, left for another 30 and stirred and increased the temp to 74 for 15 minutes. Squeezed the hell out of the bag, and job done.

The first time I did this brew I didn't do the stir or the mash out and got effiecncy of around 50% ( may have been slightly more but my memory is failing me), doing this method I got 64% (same recipe). So it works, but I couldn't get it to the 75% I wanted and which the recipe calls for.

I'm willing to move onto a mashtun etc and I'm keen to do so, to test the efficiency difference if nothing else, but I love the BIAB method. It suits me.

The brew above was really good, still young but the difference from a kit and all grain has surprised me a little, as the all grain has a much stronger, cleaner flavour. I can taste the differences and it tends not to have that "Homebrew" taste. It doesn't bother me, I love the kits and I enjoy being able to throw one together j half an hour, however when I give these out, people can tell that it's homemade and they prefer commercial.

More fool them in my eyes and happy days for me as it means it's more for me, but I have to say that I do prefer all grain taste.

Happy Homebrewing everyone

 

[clibit]

I'm not sure how or why the flaked barley might reduce the efficiency, ive just found that my efficiency does drop if I use a high proportion of roasted grains and/or unmalted grains. Perhaps an extended mash would help, not sure

 

[Cwrw666]

I've only done 6 BIABs so far working from normal AG recipes. First one had poor efficiency but I learned a lot. All the rest of my brews are giving the same OG that the recipe calls for, I haven't worked out the efficiency but I'm obviously getting reasonable results.
For a 5 gallon brew, I heat 5 gallons to mash temp. Add the bag and add the grains slowly, stirring them well in. Mash for 90 minutes with lots of stirring.
Drain the bag, squeeze the bag out, dunk sparge then drain the bag and squeeze it again. Top up the boiler with the sparge water. Boil for 90 minutes, topping up with boiling water to replace evaporation losses.
That's it. Personally I think the dunk sparge is pretty important.