First Brew - BiaB Tire Biter Bitter

[olie]

This is my attempt to adapt the 'Tire Biter Bitter' recipe from Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing', scaling down for a 1.5 US Gallon Brew-in-a-Bag, and with Chinook instead of Northdown for the bittering hops.

This will be my first ever brew, so if anyone would be up for having a look at the amounts and letting me know whether they look about right, it'd be much appreciated!

1.5 US gallons (5.6 litres)

Grain:
1kg Maris Otter
137g crystal malt (typo corrected)
34g biscuit malt

Hops:
17g Chinook - 90 mins
4g East Kent Goldings - 30mins
4g East Kent Goldings – end of boil

Yeast:
S-04

 

[andyd]

It's a typo on your part I'm sure but 1g crystal should be more like 130g?

Also not sure about the quantity of Chinook, it seems rather high in comparison to the bittering hops in the original recipe but I haven't calculated the resulting IBUs, depends on the AA% of course.

Good luck with it anyway, post how it goes :)

 

[olie]

thanks for pointing that out, yes it's a typo, should be 137g

 

[olie]

grrr... today was supposed to be brewday, but due to the ineptness of UK Mail Group my malt, hops and yeast (which should have arrived yesterday) are still sitting in the shop...

 

[olie]

first brew day underway! currently mashing... and very excited!

 

[PD]

:thumb: :thumb:

heres to a successful day...... :drink:

 

[olie]

well, it's in the fermenter and looks and smells good. I'm a bit shocked how much liquid I lost though. 6 litres of liquid has ended up with just over 2 litres of beer!
Thought I'd read somewhere you should keep the lid off during the 90 mins boil, is that right?

Still, it was fun, and hopefully I've made a little bit of drinkable beer - already looking forward to the next one.

 

[jimp2003]

Congrats on your first brew! :

How much water did you use for the mash? Did you have a pot big enough to take the full volume or was the plan to top up in the fermenting vessel? Did you hit your target OG?

Don't forget that if you are aiming for 5.6l of beer then you need to use a lot more water than that to take into account losses throughout the process.

Firstly the grain will absorb quite a bit (about 1l per kilo of grain), then there is the wort that the hops absorb and then the evaporation during the boil. You might leave some in the kettle depending on how you transfer to the FV. When I BIABed I just used to tip the whole lot out of the kettle through a big santisised sieve and into the FV.

It is recommended that you leave the lid off the pot during the boil to drive off unwanted compounds like DMS.

This game is all about honing your technique and making adjustments in subsequent brews and I am sure you will get some good beer out of it.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[olie]

thanks.
I wildly underestimated how much water would be lost to the malt, hops and evaporation. Was aiming for 5 and a half litres of beer so I just thought 'top it up a bit, I'll use 6 litres'. Can see now that was a bit silly...

didn't measure gravity either, another mistake. Basically I forgot to get a test jar, and having lost so much liquid already I didn't want to take any more liquid out by using a pint glass, or risk infection by measuring gravity and then pouring the liquid back in.

Still, not disheartened really, I knew the first few would be mainly about learning. once this is ready to bottle I'll have another go...

 

[olie]

can I still top my fermenter up with water, having already pitched the yeast? and if so, should I stir it in?

 

[bobsbeer]

Well done. :clap: I hope you kept good notes then you can adjust things next time.

 

[Asalpaws]

If you get on The BIAB forum you can download "The Calculator". It's software that works off an exel spreadsheet. You plumb in the grain bill, your kettle diameter, and the intended amount of beer at the end. It's really accurate and tells you how much water to use. It always amazes me how much water you need I did an Old Tom clone today, I started with 26 liters and got about 10 L of wort out of it (I did spill a bit!). All the best, up the BIAB

 

[olie]

don't suppose you know if 'the calculator' works with Linux, do you?

 

[Asalpaws]

Hmm not sure on that, I'm running Mac OS and it works

 

[olie]

drinking the first bottle of this as I type... not bad! Definitely made some mistakes, and there is a slight solventy smell, but it tastes pretty good apart from that, and will hopefully improve with a couple more weeks in the bottle. And brew #2 is already fermenting happily, a saison with dregs from a Dupont bottle... think that went better too, excited about trying that one when the time comes