First brew without a kit!

[sven945]

I've done one extract kit, two AG kits (with detailed instructions) and today's my first attempt at doing something a bit more on my own. Doing a recipe from a book still (with a modification by necessity because my shop ran out of amarillo hops, and scaled down to hopefully about 12 litres). It's the Extra IPA from James Morton's book.

Vague recipe of 2.5kg pale malt (book said maris otter but my shop didn't have any), 280g munich, 110g oats and 300g sugar, columbus hops to start, simcoe and cascade near the end of the boil. Cascade, simcoe, columbus and centennial aroma steep, and then three days of dry hopping with centennial, cascade and simcoe. A west coast ale yeast (Safale US05 was what my shop suggested). I'm hoping for about 7% at the end of it all.

Mashing away pretty well now. I had to stir it quite a bit to get the lumps out (I'd not noticed many lumps in my previous two, presumably I missed them which may explain why my last two ended up less strong than expected). The temperature was too high after I added my grains so stirring killed two birds with one stone.

 

[sven945]

Had a bit of a brainwave while doing this one. I have a BIAB setup, so I mash in the bag and then put a colander on top for sparging. For my last brews I had a problem where the bag ended up below the level of the wort, but I realised I could put my pizza tray (circular, with holes) on top of the pot, and sit the colander on top of that. Could have ended in everything falling off, but I got away with it. I'll maybe use something like a shelf from my oven next time.

It's cooling slightly now ready for the aroma steep, then I'll cool it properly in the bath (I'll find a better way of doing it one day...).

 

[baggybill]

I used to sparge into another empty pot or dunk sparge in a fv, when I did smaller brews, and just add it to the main pot when done. All sounds good though :thumb:

 

[sven945]

That's a smart idea. Cheers for the tip!

The gravity is higher than expected, though the volume is lower so I've topped up to 12l. I'm just waiting for it to cool from 30° to nearer 20 before adding my yeast (I compensated for temperature on my gravity readings). I was tempted to leave it to get an even boozier beer (because the expected 7% isn't enough...), but then I remembered I'll lose some to dry hopping later so I did the sensible thing and watered it down to a slightly more sensible gravity.

 

[JapanBrew]

Good job. Thought about brewing today but haven't started yet. Bottled a bunch and started using one of my new stainless 4 liter pressure growler. Waiting for my regulator to come then I won't have to growler condition!!

 

[sven945]

I had a quick look in the FV after 24 hours and again after 48 (I know, I know, I'm impatient!) and it's more lively than I've ever seen. There's at least a couple of inches of kraussen (perhaps because of the added easily fermentable sugar perhaps?) and it smells great. I'm keeping my paws of it until the weekend when I'll hopefully dry hop (probably in the FV, but I'll do some reading about that. I'll probably dry hop in a muslin bag so I can at least let it drip to reduce my losses).

 

[sven945]

Taken my first reading after 7 days and it's down to 1.008. Probably as far as it'll go, but I'll check again tomorrow before hopefully dry hopping. There's some harshness from the alcohol (it's 7% so perhaps understandable) that will hopefully mellow with time when I bottle it. But it's tasting very good.

Now to decide whether to just throw the dry hops in the primary or rack to another vessel. I suppose I could rack to a secondary with a tap and put the hops in a bag, so I can bottle from that bin. Anything to save on the washing up (plus saves sanitising and rinsing another bin).

 

[dad_of_jon]

Taken my first reading after 7 days and it's down to 1.008. Probably as far as it'll go, but I'll check again tomorrow before hopefully dry hopping. There's some harshness from the alcohol (it's 7% so perhaps understandable) that will hopefully mellow with time when I bottle it. But it's tasting very good.

Now to decide whether to just throw the dry hops in the primary or rack to another vessel. I suppose I could rack to a secondary with a tap and put the hops in a bag, so I can bottle from that bin. Anything to save on the washing up (plus saves sanitising and rinsing another bin).

The harshness should mellow out as long as you've fermented within the yeast's recommended temp. range. But it all sounds good for you so far.

 

[sven945]

I'm slightly concerned it may have been a bit warm at the start which could be the cause of the alcohol harshness. I'll have to try the damp towel trick next time. I think it was about 24° at the start, when the pack says optimum temperature was 18-22. Maybe I should leave it a bit longer in the primary before dry hopping, in the hope that it subsides, rather than relying on it settling while bottle conditioning (at the same time as losing at the flavours gained from dry hopping).

 

[sven945]

I dry hopped the other day and it's smelling wonderful. I decided to dry hop in a bag in the primary. I probably made a bit of a mistake by putting all the hops in one bag, rather than splitting them over two. To compensate I'll probably give it all a gentle stir today and leave them in for an extra day (four rather than three).

 

[JapanBrew]

Sounds like it's working out.
I wouldn't worry too much about being in a separate bag. The oils will come out with no problem. If it floats, it could have less contact. Some people steralize marbles or a stainless spoon to help sink the bag.
This weekend I'm trying a hop tea in my bottling sugar mix. I've heard it's the best, freshest flavor you can get.

 

[sven945]

It's interesting you mentioned the bottling not sugar mix because that's the one thing I forgot while bottling, oops! I realised as it was half siphoned into the bottling bucket, so had to leave it until it was done and then stir it in gently. I hope I stirred enough (but not too vigorously). Aah well.

I broke a bottle while capping, and my capper didn't seem totally okay afterwards. I can't see anything that's broken, but I might have to invest in another one before my next bottling session, just in case.

 

[JapanBrew]

Sounds like a brew day!!!