GrainFather Brew Day #19 - Doom Bar?

[DoctorMick]

Brewed a Doom Bar clone last night...probably won't turn out anything like the original!

Target OG: 1.037
Target FG: 1.006
ABV: 4%
IBU: 22

3.5kg Pale Ale Malt
0.3kg Crystal 100 EBC
0.05kg Black malt
2g Northdown 60min
2g Northern Brewer 60min
2g Perle 60min
18g Northdown 0mins (steeped 30mins before chilling)
18g Northern Brewer 0mins (steeped 30mins before chilling)
18g Perle 0mins (steeped 30mins before chilling)
Pitched Wyeast London Ale taken from previous brew

For the 5th brew in a row I missed my OG target, this time by 4 points! Sparge was ridiculously quick again so I think it is to do with the crush of the grains, it could just be coincidence but my poor efficiency has coincided with switching to ordering 1kg bags of grain rather than 25kg sacks which I thought would improve efficiency not make it work! I mashed at 64c but I'm skeptical that would have extracted enough fermentable sugars to hit 1.006 so I wouldn't be surprised if I only hit 3% ABV! I really need to sort out these efficiency problems, they're really getting on my nerves! I've contacted my grain supplier and the Grainfather manufacturers to get their take on the problem. Annoyingly, I've already got the grains for my next brew so if it does turn out to be grain related I'm going to have another brew with poor efficiency although I'll probably combat that by adding some LME.

Anyway, enough whinging! I know doom bar is meant to be fermented very warm but I couldn't bring myself to brave setting my fridge over 22c.

 

[Covrich]

So you ended up with 1033??

 

[DoctorMick]

So you ended up with 1033??

Yep, I really don't understand how I've gone from being over target to under target consistently. Hopefully between iMake and BrewUk I'll get a solution...I've been toying with the idea of buying a grain mill for a fair while so I'll probably end up doing that if the grain crush is the problem.

 

[Covrich]

Yep, I really don't understand how I've gone from being over target to under target consistently. Hopefully between iMake and BrewUk I'll get a solution...I've been toying with the idea of buying a grain mill for a fair while so I'll probably end up doing that if the grain crush is the problem.

Milling by own grain def seems to be a helpful thing for me personally and I get pretty consistent efficiecnies plus you know the crush is as fresh as you done it.

I crush quite fine though.. not sure what you will need to do for a GF

 

[DoctorMick]

Milling by own grain def seems to be a helpful thing for me personally and I get pretty consistent efficiecnies plus you know the crush is as fresh as you done it.

I crush quite fine though.. not sure what you will need to do for a GF

They recommend a medium crush, the crush in the grains I have looks ok to my untrained eye but I don't know what else would cause the sparge water to run through so quickly.

 

[Budgie]

I'm quite partial to a Doombar so I might have a crack at this myself. I hope you manage to get your efficiency problems sorted!

 

[DoctorMick]

Has a reply from iMake and they agree that it is probably down to the crush of the grain. Just need my usual supplier to respond and let me know if they can provide a finer crush for my next order, if they don't reply or can't do anything about it I'll use someone else in future.

Where do other GF users get their grains from?

 

[DoctorMick]

Grain supplier have replied and they haven't changed anything and use the same machine for alll crushes and haven't changed it recently. I'm thinking it is something to do with using 1kg bags rather than 25kg sacks of base malt but I have no idea why that would make a difference!

 

[Simonh82]

I would definitely recommend getting a grain mill. It was one of the investments I made early on. I generally get 80-82% efficiency which I think is pretty good for a BIAB system. I have the rollers very close and it pretty much pulverises the grain. I think for a Grainfather or three vessel system you might want to add some rice hulls to make sure the sparge didn't stick.

I know I am going to have to brew a lot of beer to make my money back as grain is so cheep but I I think whole grain keeps better so I can save money by buying grain in bulk.

 

[DoctorMick]

Gravity yesterday was down to 1009, tastes very little like doom bar but seems like it could be a fairly nice standard bitter. I'm tempted to bottle on Wednesday and get another brew on rather than leaving it for 2 weeks.

 

[BeerCat]

I feel for you. I often miss and a few times resorted to spray malt to boost the ABV.

 

[DoctorMick]

I feel for you. I often miss and a few times resorted to spray malt to boost the ABV.

I'll be doing that with my next brew, will take a pre-boil OG and chuck in some spray malt to compensate if (when) it is low.

 

[BeerCat]

I'll be doing that with my next brew, will take a pre-boil OG and chuck in some spray malt to compensate if (when) it is low.

I normally boil for 90mins or more now just to make sure or use more grain to compensate but i have made some awesome beers with a tin of extract added at the end. Just bought some more.

 

[Slid]

Has a reply from iMake and they agree that it is probably down to the crush of the grain. Just need my usual supplier to respond and let me know if they can provide a finer crush for my next order, if they don't reply or can't do anything about it I'll use someone else in future.

Where do other GF users get their grains from?

I seem to get better mashes with MO in 25kg sacks from Worcester Hop Shop. The grain I got from certain other suppliers may be a bit fine for the GF and better suited to BIAB, I think. In the GF I found the water would recirculate very slowly through the grain, which I put down to the holes in the bottom plate getting clogged up. When this happens the mash can be a bit sticky as well and take ages.

 

[DoctorMick]

Well this has turned out crap, can't put my finger on what is wrong with it but it isn't nice at all.

 

[yeastinfection]

Milling by own grain def seems to be a helpful thing for me personally and I get pretty consistent efficiecnies plus you know the crush is as fresh as you done it.

I crush quite fine though.. not sure what you will need to do for a GF

what mill do you have rich?

 

[MyQul]

Well this has turned out crap, can't put my finger on what is wrong with it but it isn't nice at all.

Maybe it was that extra warm fermentation which you bottled out of?

 

[Covrich]

what mill do you have rich?

A corona one, tbh it isn't great quality but does the job..

If I had the money I would rethink things and get one of the larger ones

 

[MyQul]

A corona one, tbh it isn't great quality but does the job..

If I had the money I would rethink things and get one of the larger ones

I'm kind of thinking of getting one of the bulldog style ones after xmas

 

[DoctorMick]

Been thinking about this a little more and I think a word I could use to describe the flavour is acrid. Could as little as 50g black malt cause that in a fairly pale ale?