Friday is my Birthday and also Brew Day!

[_jon_]

Hey Guys,

So I've taken on board all the advice you have all been so helpful to give me. I've also watched about 100 YouTube videos... and finally Friday is the day.

My first ever All Grain brew. I've done loads of extract brewing, so once it's in the boil kettle, I'm comfortable.. but still a little nervous but excited to test out all of my new equipment.

I'm brewing a Punk IPA recipe from BF:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/204251/punk-ipa

I'm still a little bit confused about water. The recipe says it needs 39.4L of water, then the strike water is 17.2

The Mash step 1 needs 19L, step 2 needs, 25L. So thats two step mash using all of the water, where is the 17.2? And isn't the strike water what I'm supposed to use for the mash process anyway?

 

[IainM]

I can only see 19L of strike water and 25L of sparge, giving 44L in total. Seems like too much for a 25L batch. The 35L boil size seems large too. I guess the recipe is tailored to the herms system of the person who wrote it, and he must have high boil off and dead space.

 

[_jon_]

Oh, maybe this wasn't a good recipe for me to follow?

This is what the mash instructions say on my brew day schedule on BF:

Strike water volume is 17.2L at default volume
Mash Step 1 - 66c for 60 mins - 19L
Mash Step 2 - 74c for 20 mins
Mash Step 3 - 74c 25L Sparge

Is this just saying that based on my settings the strike should be 17.2 no 19?

Is there anything I should do ahead of Friday to make the recipe more accurate for me? i.e. check my boil off rate?

Would you suggest that I just take the ingredients of this recipe and make my own based on my own brewhouse setup in BF?

 

[IainM]

I would make some educated guesses based on your own set up. If you've done extract brews already then you should know at least the ballpark figure for your boil off rate and dead space / trub loss in the boiler. On the mash side of things you will lose about 6L to grain absorption and maybe some dead space losses as well depending on your setup, so you should be able to get a reasonable estimate of the sorts of volumes you need to hit 25L.

 

[_jon_]

Annoyingly not only am I all grain brewing for the first time, I'm using all new equipment. I've got a new boil kettle and a gas burner, so my extract brews on my kitchen hob may not prove to be a useful comparison.

The boil kettle I've got is a high wide 70L pot, and I have a 7kw burner... so I should be able to get to temps nice and quick. But I suspect I'll be guessing a bit thereafter. With grain absorption and some boil off, which should be no more than 6L an hour I'd imagine, maybe 37L is a more accurate number.

But saying that, would a wider / bigger boil pot cause more evaporation? Due to the larger surface area of water?

 

[IainM]

Annoyingly not only am I all grain brewing for the first time, I'm using all new equipment. I've got a new boil kettle and a gas burner, so my extract brews on my kitchen hob may not prove to be a useful comparison.

The boil kettle I've got is a high wide 70L pot, and I have a 7kw burner... so I should be able to get to temps nice and quick. But I suspect I'll be guessing a bit thereafter. With grain absorption and some boil off, which should be no more than 6L an hour I'd imagine, maybe 37L is a more accurate number.

But saying that, would a wider / bigger boil pot cause more evaporation? Due to the larger surface area of water?

Yes, it would, but I won't worry too much about it too much. Better to underestimate than overestimate volumes as you can always top the boiler up if the boil off is higher than you think, but if you overshoot your volume then there isn't much you can do about it apart from brew a bigger volume or chuck some away.

 

[_jon_]

I've just watched this, which was very interesting.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8mEJ_WTJ2o[/ame]

If I were to follow this method of calculating strike water I'd use 19.8L of strike water. So that's pretty much the same as the recipe.. I'm working on calculating the sparge water now.

 

[GerritT]

Yes, it would, but I won't worry too much about it too much. Better to underestimate than overestimate volumes as you can always top the boiler up if the boil off is higher than you think, but if you overshoot your volume then there isn't much you can do about it apart from brew a bigger volume or chuck some away.

Better to underestimate than overestimate volumes as you can always top the boiler up if the boil off is higher than you think, but if you overshoot your volume then there isn't much you can do about it apart from brew a bigger volume or chuck some away.

This needed repeating. Keep in mind what you wanna end up with. Aim for that. You gonna lose some water (1 liter per kilo grain, 10% in boiling, several liters per racking) but focus on what you wanna end up with.

 

[_jon_]

Based on advice, I've taken the guidelines from other recipes and also the DIY Dog book and have created this recipe on BF.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/571462/punk-ipa-clone

I would really appreciate your thoughts before I brew this on Friday???

Do the water requirements look more realistic?

One thing I do notice is that even though I copied the Hop Bill straight from the Brewdog book, the IBU from BF comes in at 73.71. Whereas Brewdog have it at 35. Also Brewdog have the ABV at 5.6% and BF has it at 6.8% (which is a little strong really).

I did change the malt around a little, Brewdog are using Extra Pale, and some Caramalt. I substituted for 2-row and MO pale. Due to my stock. I do have some Extra Pale Lager Malt, maybe that would be a better fit? And ditch the 2-row for some caramalt?

Thanks in advance.
Jon

 

[treebeard]

There are far more knowledgeable folks here than me but for what's worth...

Looking at the recipe, it's left open to some interpretation, however, regarding IBU's although they say 40 IBU with hop additions middle ( assuming 30 minutes) I would rather think they are nearer the end of the boil. Perhaps split between 10 and 5 minutes.

Good luck with the brew :thumb:

 

[IainM]

I agree. Move those middle additions to later in the boil. That would reduce IBUs and give the beer more Chinook and Ahtanum flavour. 80% brewhouse efficiency is probably a bit optimistic if this is the first time you've used your equipment. Dropping that down to 75% or 70% might be more realistic. MO and caramalt are different beasts altogether, but if you don't have caramalt then I wouldn't worry too much. After all, the original Punk IPA recipe doesn't have any. You could try and recreate it though by upping the MO and lowering the 2-row pale but keeping the abv the same.

 

[treebeard]

There are far more knowledgeable folks here than me but for what's worth...

Looking at the recipe, it's left open to some interpretation, however, regarding IBU's although they say 40 IBU with hop additions middle ( assuming 30 minutes) I would rather think they are nearer the end of the boil. Perhaps split between 10 and 5 minutes.

Good luck with the brew :thumb:

I plugged this into Beersmith, changed the middle hop addition from 30 to the last 5 minutes of the boil and it reduced the IBU's down to 41.75. Closer to the recipe IBU. Hope that helps.

 

[_jon_]

Awesome, thanks :)

I'll change the Efficiency down and also will set the mid hops to 5 mins, and see what BF says.

Thanks again :)

 

[_jon_]

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/571462/punk-ipa-clone

Here are the adjustments, and I think it looks spot on.

I've not bothered with the caramalt as I don't like beers which are very malty, I prefer hoppy.

I think this looks good. Can't wait to brew it tomorrow.

Just hope the weather stays dry because I'd really rather fire up the burner outside, I'm not too happy with boiling 30+ litres on a gas burner inside.

 

[_jon_]

Changed it again.. increased the 2-Row and added the Caramalt back in.

The ABV was looking a bit week, I wanted it sitting around 6%.

 

[_jon_]

Changed again for the final time :) It's printed now and it's happening unless anyone sees any glaring mistakes?

I didn't realised that I had the volume at 23L still and my fermentasaurus is not here yet so I'll be fermenting in a 19L Big Mouth. So I've set the volume to 20L to allow for any spillage etc.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/571462/punk-ipa-clone

 

[_jon_]

I've had to change a few things, but here is the final edit.

I found when measuring out for tomorrow that I didn't have enough Chinook. So I made some adjustments and added some Citra to the quantity of missing Chinook, just because they are a similar AA.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebr...punk-ipa-clone

Getting further and further away from a PIPA Clone... but hey ho! It is what it is.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[_jon_]

So the day has come!

Birthday Brew Day is upon us.

I've weighed out the grains, the hops are all separated into timings, and I have 36L of water on the gas ring outside.

First all grain brew ever, fingers crossed for a good batch.

 

[BeerCat]

That link is not working. You won't get much malt flavour from the caramalt caramalt as it's over powered by all the hops. It's just to balance it a little. Best of luck. Will

 

[_jon_]

That link is not working. You won't get much malt flavour from the caramalt caramalt as it's over powered by all the hops. It's just to balance it a little. Best of luck. Will

Not sure why the link keeps doing that...

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/571462/punk-ipa-clone

I will try adding the caramalt back in on the next batch and see if it's much different.