Today I brewed the kit I won from HBC a while back, an AG English pale ale.
Part of the competition deal was that winners wrote a review, so this thread will primarily serve that purpose.
However, I'm also doing a full volume BIAB (though my 4th AG brew) for the first time with my equipment, so in this first post I'm also going to report how that's gone. In subsequent posts I'll just focus on reviewing the beer. Sorry it's a bit of a long post as a result.
The HBC English pale ale kit:
Packaging: all grain mixed in one bag with hop additions and yeast, plus instructions all inside the grain bag, but individually wrapped. A bit fiddly, maybe those bits being outside the grain bag would have been better, but a very minor thing.
Instructions; several winners and other users of HBC kits mentioned the instructions were a bit sparse. They are, but that's fine IMO. There are so many ways to brew AG (three vessel, BIAB, with all their variations) that I don't see this as an issue. I didn't really look at them other than to double check mash timing, and hop addition times. Even there, the hop additions are labelled with timings (using standard '60m' etc wording), again that's all I really needed.
The instructions included expected OG and FG and expected abv (1057, 1012, 4.7%) , which was helpful. HBC should include the abv on their website too, on another thread here they have mentioned they will do that. I wouldn't normally buy AG stuff as a kit anyway, but if I did I'd want to know the expected abv.
However, the instructions didn't give final volume in fv!
Bit of an error that, I had to go back to the website to check (23L).
As a side note there is no list of specific ingredients (grain, hop varieties, with weights etc), so if I wanted to recreate this I'd have to buy the kit again. Unsure where I stand on that. I can see why they'd not include them (so I can't replicate it with ingredients bought elsewhere), but on the other hand I'd probably buy the separate ingredients from their site if they did include them.
Once in the fv:
Kit was supplied with SA-05 yeast. I will use a newer pack as the one in the kit was a bit old. Once in the fv it smelt lovely.
Nothing much else to say on the kit for the time being, but my subsequent posts on this thread will focus on that. The instructions promise a 'mix of fruity, hoppy, earthy, buttery and malty aromas'. Crikey. Watch this space.
So on to my BIAB process:
Setup; I have a 33L pot with false bottom (cake rack!) and gas burner.
I put 25L of tap-hot water into the pot and put heat on it at 8am. Got to strike temp of 75c at 8.20, very pleased with that.
Put pot on the floor of shed, on some corrugated card to insulate the pot bottom. Doughed in.
First learning: 25L plus 4.5kg of grain = pot full to brim. Good thing to know. In some ways a bonus as it meant there was no headspace in the pot which meant less cooling. I can now also use it as a yardstick for future brews.
Second learning: holding up an fv containing 4.5kg of grain, long enough to dough in properly, hurts my back.
Hit mash temp spot on, 67c. Happy again with that. Covered pot with duvet. Half way through mash checked temp. It hadn't moved at all. Happy happy. I gave it a stir, snd had a good sniff. Nice smell.
Gave bag a dunk sparge in a 15L fv, using about 6L @ 80c.
Reached boil at 1030, about 25 mins after heat on.
3 hop additions, some Irish moss, sorted.
Got 20L into fv, now cooling in the bath. I think a chiller is going to be a necessity for 20L BIAB in the future, but I'll have to take my chances on a slow cool today.
As per above the target volume in fv was 23L. I'll check gravity when cooled before topping up. If I've not been very efficient then I'll leave it at 20L rather than dilute.
Will pitch yeast later and update the thread.
feels good to have got this one under my belt with no hitches (yet)
Brew on!
Part of the competition deal was that winners wrote a review, so this thread will primarily serve that purpose.
However, I'm also doing a full volume BIAB (though my 4th AG brew) for the first time with my equipment, so in this first post I'm also going to report how that's gone. In subsequent posts I'll just focus on reviewing the beer. Sorry it's a bit of a long post as a result.
The HBC English pale ale kit:
Packaging: all grain mixed in one bag with hop additions and yeast, plus instructions all inside the grain bag, but individually wrapped. A bit fiddly, maybe those bits being outside the grain bag would have been better, but a very minor thing.
Instructions; several winners and other users of HBC kits mentioned the instructions were a bit sparse. They are, but that's fine IMO. There are so many ways to brew AG (three vessel, BIAB, with all their variations) that I don't see this as an issue. I didn't really look at them other than to double check mash timing, and hop addition times. Even there, the hop additions are labelled with timings (using standard '60m' etc wording), again that's all I really needed.
The instructions included expected OG and FG and expected abv (1057, 1012, 4.7%) , which was helpful. HBC should include the abv on their website too, on another thread here they have mentioned they will do that. I wouldn't normally buy AG stuff as a kit anyway, but if I did I'd want to know the expected abv.
However, the instructions didn't give final volume in fv!
Bit of an error that, I had to go back to the website to check (23L).
As a side note there is no list of specific ingredients (grain, hop varieties, with weights etc), so if I wanted to recreate this I'd have to buy the kit again. Unsure where I stand on that. I can see why they'd not include them (so I can't replicate it with ingredients bought elsewhere), but on the other hand I'd probably buy the separate ingredients from their site if they did include them.
Once in the fv:
Kit was supplied with SA-05 yeast. I will use a newer pack as the one in the kit was a bit old. Once in the fv it smelt lovely.
Nothing much else to say on the kit for the time being, but my subsequent posts on this thread will focus on that. The instructions promise a 'mix of fruity, hoppy, earthy, buttery and malty aromas'. Crikey. Watch this space.
So on to my BIAB process:
Setup; I have a 33L pot with false bottom (cake rack!) and gas burner.
I put 25L of tap-hot water into the pot and put heat on it at 8am. Got to strike temp of 75c at 8.20, very pleased with that.
Put pot on the floor of shed, on some corrugated card to insulate the pot bottom. Doughed in.
First learning: 25L plus 4.5kg of grain = pot full to brim. Good thing to know. In some ways a bonus as it meant there was no headspace in the pot which meant less cooling. I can now also use it as a yardstick for future brews.
Second learning: holding up an fv containing 4.5kg of grain, long enough to dough in properly, hurts my back.
Hit mash temp spot on, 67c. Happy again with that. Covered pot with duvet. Half way through mash checked temp. It hadn't moved at all. Happy happy. I gave it a stir, snd had a good sniff. Nice smell.
Gave bag a dunk sparge in a 15L fv, using about 6L @ 80c.
Reached boil at 1030, about 25 mins after heat on.
3 hop additions, some Irish moss, sorted.
Got 20L into fv, now cooling in the bath. I think a chiller is going to be a necessity for 20L BIAB in the future, but I'll have to take my chances on a slow cool today.
As per above the target volume in fv was 23L. I'll check gravity when cooled before topping up. If I've not been very efficient then I'll leave it at 20L rather than dilute.
Will pitch yeast later and update the thread.
feels good to have got this one under my belt with no hitches (yet)
Brew on!
