Second Attempt - Getting Better

[adajam4]

Hi all,

Firstly, thanking everyone for all the advice to help me get my first two brews going. The first one was a bit of a disaster in that I ended up with just 10L in the fermenter. Still, as people have said it is a learning curve.

I decided to get back on the horse today with my second brew and tried to iron out what went wrong (including my 40% efficiency!)

20L - Actual 18.5


OG 1.044 - ACHIEVED 1.049
FG 1.011
ABV 4.4% EXPECTED 4.99%


Grain
3.4kg Marris Otter
200g Crystal Rye
200g Crystal Malt 40L
200g Torrified Wheat

Hops
Admiral 14.8% 10g @ 60m
Cascade 7.8% 10g @ 10m
Citra 12.5% 20g @ 10m
Cascade 7.8% 10g @ 0m
Citra 12.5% 50g @ 0m
Cascade 7.8% 20g @ 5 day dry hop
Citra 12.5% 50g @ 5 day dry hop

All in all, I think it went really well, so lets see how it turns out :)

 

[peteplus1]

A learning curve it is. Im still trying to get it spot on 8 brews in! The help on here and just brewing when time and money allows is all you need. out of my 8 I've had 4 really great ones, 2 lesser so, 1 way too strong in abv and 1 currently conditioning with fingers crossed. Let us know the outcome.

 

[Leon103]

Sounds a good recipe, just up my street. That looks like 10l in the fv though.

 

[adajam4]

Sorry that was the first one which was a disaster, thought I would pop a picture of that up too, don't want to leave it out as I still pitched it. Used a full pack of Safale 05 and it seems to have ripped through (air bubbling) in around 60 hours (2 1/2 days) - looks like a Krausen has formed nicely on it though - but the sediment on that one is indicative of the fact I didn't pass the first of the wort through the grain bed (I think)

Anyway - second attempt (19.5L) is bubbling away nicely at the moment.

 

[Slid]

At the risk of sounding a bit repetitive, if I had just made a 10L AG brew after 4 hours of messing, I would be sorely tempted to bung a one can kit in it and brew it out to 23L or so. This approach makes beer noticeably better than a kit does.:thumb:

Of course, it won't last nearly twice as long....

Or be quite as good as an AG beer.

Each to his own, I guess.

 

[adajam4]

At the risk of sounding a bit repetitive, if I had just made a 10L AG brew after 4 hours of messing

I wasn't going for a 10L - I messed the first attempt up, second attempt ended up nearly at the 23L I was going for, so getting better. The 10L batch which I made the pigs ear of, well... That looks very dark and ominous in the FV when compared to its brother with the right amount of water.

 

[Fil]

looking good at this rate by brew #4 you will be a master brewer

once you have your losses due to deadspace and boil off sorted you will be hitting your targets in the bullseye..

 

[adajam4]

Thanks Fil,

Just hoping there is no infection in the beer. I brewed at uni a bit and housemates kept opening the FV to "take a look" and that led to infection.... twice! So although I know why, I am terrified my lovely AG will do the same. Anyway, here's hoping. Shall be dry hopping Tuesday, so will be able to take a look then.

 

[Fil]

crack the lid and peek in from the side as often as you like, just dont stand over the open bucket scratching your head in idle contemplation

may the beer gods smile down on you,,

 

[adajam4]

I opened up to dry hop today and all looked good, I tasted the 10L mess up and... it was bitter as anything (has had 8 days today and will be 15 come bottling day) - both looked good when I peaked at them, didn't take a picture though as was worried about leaving them open. Here is hopping

 

[adajam4]

So this was bottled last Sunday and I really couldn't wait to try what is my first real AG beer - the 10L mess up was bottled last Friday. I put it in the fridge today in order to try and settle out the 05 but it was still a little cloudy. I think this is just a time thing.

So my thoughts after 5 days bottling were:

Carbing - yea it is clearly still carbing and there was some carbination there, but it was still obviously under. No head at all from this due to carbing I think.
Bitterness - was quite bitter to be honest, tasted like the whole beer hadn't fully come together yet, which is to be expected I am sure. This did get better as the 330ml went on to be honest.
Yeasty - was a little yeasty to be honest, which probably explained why it was a little cloudy - a longer cold crash may help, but this beer should not be dunk cold.

 

[Covrich]

Give it another few weeks ( wouldn't blame you for trying them in between ) but let them carb up and clear chill them and then remove and drink them 12 is and they will be much better.

 

[adajam4]

Yea - I couldn't wait.

At 13 days after bottling the beer is markedly better than the last trial - shockingly so. I chilled a single bottle over the past two days and when I saw it looking at me, couldn't resist giving it a go. I should have let it settle to room temperature as when it warmed up it got even better. The yeast flavour had almost vanished and the bitterness taken a back seat to some nice flavours.

Happy with how this is going.

I didn't use a IC and let this no chill. My brew today I used the IC - as well as some irish moss at 15 minutes.