My First Full All Grain Stout

GlentoranMark said:

I was going to rinse out the container the Mocha was in, my other FV is a better seal so I'd rather use it. The Mocha ended up at 1.010, 3.8% but right in the ballpark I wanted.) It tastes delicious, I've high hopes for it even though it was a kit. It's a similar style to my Stout so I think the yeast will work well.

Er indoors has taken the kitchen over so my AG will have to wait. I've my water up to temperature but won't start it for an hour.

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OK the yeast sounds good. :thumb:

Got a lot closer to my numbers, 25L from a 28L Mash, I'm not squeezing my grains today but I've left the Mashtun sitting over the boiler as it boils to get every last drop. I mashed at a lower temperature around 65 degrees, it was my mistake but once I started, I continued on. I'll probably drop efficiency but I'm pleased with the way things are going.

I'm adding Irish Moss @ 12 mins along with the vanilla pod.

Lost 3L in the mash and 4L in the boil ending me around 18L of beer @ 1.042. Put into FV but I must have measured a cool spot in the wort when using my wort chiller. The temp in the FV is 26 degrees atm so I'll leave it an hour before adding my trub.

I'm thinking my tap is too high up in my Mashtun so I'm losing some to that and my boiler is pretty wide and evaporation is too much. I'll cover the boiler (slightly) for my next beer. I know things that spoil beer have to evaporate but I think I'm losing too much to evaporation. My efficiency will also make a difference.

I'm making mistakes but things are improving.

Smells and tastes nice but the vanilla wasn't very strong (if any).

Had a bottle of my Mocha Porter last night and while it's very young and will develope I had the yeasty twang ascociated with kits I haven't had when I switched to AG. I may be able to solve the reason for the twang as I pitched last weeks brew onto the yeast of the Mocha Porter. If the twang is still there then it's the generic yeasts used in these kits but if it's gone then I suspect it's the freshness of the ingredients and a bigger reason than ever to switch to AG.

I found an interesting graph thanks to a Google search. I normally give the credit when I nick something for my own use but it links to a rival site.

This is Gravity/ Hops ratio when constructing a beer and seems like a good guide.



I want to do a SMASH recipe but I've a load of hops that are starting to age so I may combine. I'm going to buy 7kg MO and use 4kg later and want to make a 22L brew, any suggestions?

Ingredients inventory
6kg Maris Otter (purchase later)
200g Carapils III (will use another time)
250g Chocolate Malt
3kg Irish Stout Malt
2.5kg Munich Malt

86g Williamette 5.8%
46g North Down 5.1%
96g Columbus 16.8%
99g Magnum 12.5%
78g Hallertau 2.4%
77g Challenger 7.3%
8g EKG 5.3% pellets
65g EKG 5.8% pellets
13g Nelson Sauv 11%

500g DME dry

Safale US 05 yeast


The pellet hops can wait for another time but I find the higher Alpha hops means less use so I'm thinking Columbus for bittering plus Williamette for aroma? Is that a good combination?

Going for an IPA (although not as strong)

4kg Maris Otter
20g Columbus 60 min
10g Williamette 60 mins
25g Williamette 10 min

Safale US-05
Irish Moss 1 TBL spoon

IBU's 62.5
ABV 4.0%

That's a lot of IBUs in a 4% beer.

I doubt it's the yeast causing the twang thang. Kits taste twangy even if you use a liquid yeast.

I will tone it down, I'm also gonna add 100g Carafe III to give it some colour.

I drilled a hole in my FV to fit a tap, now the FV is leaking. Might have to put my brew on hold. I might also cut down the batch size as my brew shop only had 3kg of Maris Otter (I could put 1kg Irish Stout Malt or Munich Malt)

I think I'd halve the Carafa. Unless you're looking to go quite dark, and add some noticeable flavour.

And why not use the stout and or Munich?

Edit 2n revision thanks to Clibit's input

Revised recipe:

3kg Maris Otter
250g Munich Malt
50g Carafe III

5g Columbus 60 mins
15g Williamette 60 mins
10g Williamette 10 mins

IBU 34.5 which is the upper bitterness for that sg

Safale US 05

17L batch size

GlentoranMark said:

Edit 2n revision thanks to Clibit's input

Revised recipe:

3kg Maris Otter
250g Munich Malt
50g Carafe III

5g Columbus 60 mins
15g Williamette 60 mins
10g Williamette 10 mins

IBU 34.5 which is the upper bitterness for that sg

Safale US 05

17L batch size

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That looks nicely balanced. :thumb:

A low strength iPA is an unusual thing. What should the IBUs be? I don't really know but the key is to look at the ratio between OG and IBUs, I think. And yet this leads to IBUs that are too low really for an IPA. Your recipe looks like a pale ale really. So I think I'd increase the IBUs a bit to 40 ish, if you want a session IPA. The yeast choice will affect the malt hop balance too. US05 will help the hops. This article on session IPA is useful...

http://beerandwinejournal.com/session-ipa/

PS sorry for buggering you about!

Bottled this today but just noticed I didn't take an OG reading arghhh! FG was 1.010 and I only got 11L of the stuff.

I'm having another experimental day, brewing a blonde type beer.

3kg Maris Otter
1kg Munich Malt
200g Dark Spray Malt

3g Columbus 60 mins
10g Williamette 60 mins
12g Northdown 60 mins

Safale US 05

It's bubbling away outside - I had to give in to my wife about the smell.

I've an experiment on now with the spent grains. I'm steeping them in 7L of water and will do a mini brew with the wort, probably using just one hop and dark malt extract. The finished wort is going onto the trub of my last brew. Hopefully I'll get something quaffable.

5g

I put on a Canadian Blonde from Geterbrewed 50% sale. The BBF date is 06/16. I also won hops from the Geterbrewed competition and as a condition to the prize I had to write a review when I used them. Well today, I split the Blonde into 2. The first brew I made as directed but the second I made a Hop Tea with 10g Styrian Cardinal 9.2% and put it into my second brew. I pitched it onto the trub from my last brew which was US-05.

I hope I got the hops right as the Blonde is an already hoppy brew. The SG was 1.036 but it will be good to compare a bottle of each and write a review. Hopefully the Cardinal hops will come through.

Oh and my last beers ended up at 3.8%, right ball park but tastes watery and my re-use grain beer 5.8%. I got 12 pints of the latter. The session beer went into a Corny Keg and the re-use into a mini keg and bottles.

I just put on a House Stout. This is really simple an all the measurements are in sizes the shops sell so no wastage.

3kg Irish Stout Malt
1kg Flaked Barley
500g Roasted Barley

50g Styrian Cascade 5.8, 60 minutes
Irish Moss

Safale US 04.

I'm currently on the boil stage. First time I've used the Styrian and US 04.

This is a house Stout. I'll brew for 2-3 weeks and then put another batch onto the trub of this brew, maybe tweaking ingredients.

Free hops from Geterbrewed so total cost is £7.50.

Everything is going to plan, it should make 23L of 4% beer. I'm also brewing outdoors as SWMBO hates the smell lol.

For the first time ever, everything went as planned!

Hit my numbers, bang on target at 1.040 and roughly 22L. The discrepancy is due to loss in equipment that I forgot the key in, I need to adjust my brewing software to reflect this.

I'm Soooooo pleased.

Will brew the same in 2 or 3 weeks, hence the house stout.

The Safale US 04 took a long time to get going but it's bubbling away, It's nearly finished fermenting but I'll leave it 3 weeks in the FV before I do another. This ties in nicely with my plans but I will need a new FV for next week.

I nearly had a change of plan (look at this thread) but my LHBS came up trumps again and got me my wheat. I've inquired about a fridge on Gumtree so hopefully this time next week I will brew my first lager.

Today I will brew a 19L "It'll be all wheat on the night" brew (gonna start naming my brews lol). I'm aiming this for mini kegs and bottles.

I like to keep things simple and keep wastage to a minimum. It will also give me a chance to use another one of my hops won:

2kg Wheat Malt
2kg Pilsner Malt

10g Styrian Bobek 60 mins
10g Styrian Bobek 15 mins

S33 yeast

Just finished.

I know I've had trouble in the past and wheat beers are meant to be cloudy but this was one messy brew. I made no mistakes, hit some of my numbers but it was a cloudy boil. I o have things down to a tee now, I just know what steps to take and when to take them. Because there was a lot more gunk I left more trub in the boiler than usual so I ended up with a 17L brew.

OG was 1.040.

As my aging eyesight is failing I thought I bought a bigger hydrometer. Stupid eejit I bought an alcohol meter instead.

Can anyone tell me how to read this?

S33 can be a bugger attenuation wise. I've added Nottingham when it's failed to get down below 1020. I like S33 though. And Bobek, nice looking beer there, but how many IBUs? Bobek is low alpha.

Styrian Bobek is 5.2% so IBU for this brew 14.7, just about the top end range for a wheat according to my Wort software.

I try and make my recipes so there is no wastage. I found when I first started brewing I had 300g of this and 700g of that so when I create a recipe I try and keep it in 500g measurements. My House Stout is a simple 3kg, 1kg, 0.5kg brew and never any wastage.

To think of the many pints I've bought over the years and I'm scrimping over a few pennies lol but I love this hobby.

The brew is being kept in a back hall, a lot cooler than my kitchen but not outdoor temps. I'll give the yeast time and maybe a stir after a day so thanks Clibit.

Things are looking good for the brew fridge (I mentioned it on another thread), I could have bought it today but had a beer, if it's still there tomorrow I'll buy it.

The ?bad? news is my current fridge is broke. It keeps temperatures cold but it fluctuates. A sensor in the fridge has gone but it will do me. It's been easy to convince SWMBO for a new fridge but I'll have to fix the old one for a brew eventually :)

GlentoranMark said:

I'm going to attempt a Schwarzbier which literally means Dark Beer following this recipe.

I get to use my Peco Boiler kindly donated by Niman and use some of the Pale Malt he gave me.

1.8 Kg Irish Pale Malt (free)
225 g Crystal 80 - 72p
225 g Wheat Malt - 72p

20g Magnum Hops 60 minutes �£1.10
20g Fuggles 15 minutes �£1.25
20g Williamette 1 minute �£1.20

Safale US-05 (washed from last brew)

Batch size 2.5 Gallon, total cost �£4.99
http://www.brewersfriend.com/styles/schwarzbier/

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I love Schwarzbier - it was my standard tipple when we lived in Germany. Once I've got my next brew out of the fermenter (Steam Beer) I'll be testing this recipe. :drink: