2nd Extract w/ Steeping Grains Brew Day

Today I brewed my second extract beer with steeping grains.

I followed a similar base recipe to the Beavertown Gamma Ray clone that I modded to make a Black IPA in my previous attempt, which turned out delicious. i decided to use the same recipe, but change the hops up.

Recipe as follows:

Recipe:
Target OG 1.057 ABV 6.02% IBU 64.88

Batch size: 20L

3kg Light DME
500g Caramalt
250g Carapils

Hops:
Magnum 12.7% / Amarillo 10% / Columbus 12.7% / Citra 13.2%

Schedule
20g Magnum 60min
10g each of Amarillo, Citra, Columbus 10min
15g each of Amarillo, Citra, Columbus 5min
35g each of Amarillo, Citra, Columbus 0 min

Dry hop with 25g of each

Yeast = Safale US-05

Actual OG = 1.064, Actual Batch size = 18L

Since my previous brew day I started off with a boil size of 23L and ended up with 17L, I was aiming for 20L in the FV this time round, so I measured out 26L into my boil pot, added half a campden tablet, then removed 3L to reserve as spare water. I then added roughly half of the DME to steep the grains in.

Heated up the remaining 23L to 68C, then steeped the speciality grains for 30 mins. In the last 10 mins of the steep, I heated up the sparge water to 71C. I actually overshot and ended up at 74C, but added the grain bag actually brought it back down to 70.5C. I sparged for 10 mins then added the sparge water to the boil pot.

I added the rest of the DME, half a teaspoon of gypsum and brought it to the boil. I waited for the hot break, then threw in the 60 minute hop additions, followed by the 10 and 5 minute additions.

From reading up about doing a hop stand for flavour, I decided to wait for the wort to cool down to 80C after flameout before adding the 0 minute additions. I wanted to go for more hop aroma this time.

I let it stand for 30 mins before moving the pot into my bath which I had previously filled with cold water. Cooling the wort down to 22C took longer than it did last time, mainly due to the fact that my tap water seemed warmer than before. It took just over half an hour - I may invest in a wort chiller for next time...

Once it was to temp, I brought it back to the kitchen whirlpooled with a whisk and then started to siphon off. I realised that I needed to let it stand before racking as I was getting a ton of hop sludge into the FV. I stopped the racking, re-sanitised the equipment and let the boil pot stand for another 30 mins to let everything settle down.

I decided to tie one of my fine mesh hop bags to the end of my siphon tube - good thing I did as it was almost full of hop material and trub after I racked! I was really surprised to get this much sediment come through.

The wort was looking super hazy, but I'm hoping it will be ok after fermentation is complete, the yeasties have cleaned up after themselves, and cold crashing has dropped everything out of suspension.

I ended up tossing away about 2 or so litres as there was just too much hop sediment in it. Reading back over my last brew day, I should have done what I did there - pour the wort out through a paint strainer bag.

I then aerated the wort with a sanitised whisk and got about 3 inches of foam going before pitching 2 packs of US-05 yeast.

I reckon with that loss and the fact that I ended up with 18 litres in the FV, my boil calculations were spot on. I just need to account for losses due to trub, or just strain it out! Adding 2 litres would have actually gotten me bang on my target OG, but I decided against topping it up because I was too lazy to pop down the shops and pick up water.

The FV is now sitting in my brew fridge, set at 19C. Now the wait..

All in all - a successful brew day, more lessons to be learned:

- Strain the last dregs of the wort to get every last bit
- Look into a wort chiller
- Look into using whirlfloc tablets to clear the wort

That's going to be great I reckon. Do use whirfloc or Irish moss. Just chuck it in the boil 15 mins before the end.

Glad to say it's been bubbling away nicely in the brew fridge! Temperature control has taken all the worry and stress out of everything. I definitely think that's what caused my previous batch to finish high.

I think I might brew another as soon as this one has been bottled so I can make use the fridge as a fermentation chamber whilst the bottles are conditioning.

I need another fridge!

have to say am not usually a fan of BIPA but I do like that recipe !

ProjectBeer said:

I ended up tossing away about 2 or so litres as there was just too much hop sediment in it. Reading back over my last brew day, I should have done what I did there - pour the wort out through a paint strainer bag.

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Was researching about seperating the trub from the wort this morning and I came across an interesting way that you might be able to reclaim some or most of the lost wort that was mixed up with the hop debris.

If you put those 2L in a pop bottle or something you can then crash it in the fridge fr 12-24 hrs and then just decant the top layer of wort off. I think in theory you could just put that in your FV and the yeast should just ferment it as normal - although I welcome any comments to the contrary.

MyQul said:

Was researching about seperating the trub from the wort this morning and I came across an interesting way that you might be able to reclaim some or most of the lost wort that was mixed up with the hop debris.

If you put those 2L in a pop bottle or something you can then crash it in the fridge fr 12-24 hrs and then just decant the top layer of wort off. I think in theory you could just put that in your FV and the yeast should just ferment it as normal - although I welcome any comments to the contrary.

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Very interesting...that sounds like it could work in theory. Obviously need to keep a keen eye on sanitation, but seems like an idea.

ProjectBeer said:

Very interesting...that sounds like it could work in theory. Obviously need to keep a keen eye on sanitation, but seems like an idea.

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I will be trying this on tues after I brew on mon. I no chill in the FV so after chucking all the boling wort and trub (I seive the hops out) into the FV to cool down for 12 hours I will then rack the wort off the trub into a second FV. I will then have a go at putting the trub in a couple of pop bottles to crash for a further 12 hours then decant off the top layer of wort and add to the main body of wort before pitching

MyQul said:

I will be trying this on tues after I brew on mon. I no chill in the FV so after chucking all the boling wort and trub (I seive the hops out) into the FV to cool down for 12 hours I will then rack the wort off the trub into a second FV. I will then have a go at putting the trub in a couple of pop bottles to crash for a further 12 hours then decant off the top layer of wort and add to the main body of wort before pitching

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Sounds good! I'd be interested to hear how it goes!

Came home this evening and looks like fermentation has slowed down quite a bit. I took a gravity reading and was surprised to see it hovering at 1.022 after 4 days. Hopefully it dries out more. I was planning on dry hopping on Sunday, but may leave it for a few more days if fermentation continues.

Sample taken from the tap (wish I took a picture) was extremely hazy, most likely due to lots of yeasties and the like at the bottom of the FV.

Just a thought - is it worth taking FV samples from the top rather than the bottom?

Ok, I think fermentation may have stuck. When I took the sample from the tap last night, it levelled out the liquid in the bubbler airlock. When I came home this evening the airlock still looked to be about the same. When fermentation is active, the liquid is usually pushed down into the u-bend in the airlock (I'm sure you're familiar with this), but it wasn't.

I sanitised my long spoon, opened the FV and gently stirred the beer to try and agitate the yeast to get it going again. I took a picture where you can see the liquid is pretty cloudy. I didn't have time to take a gravity reading then as I had to go out.

I've just come back and taken a gravity sample. At first, the hydrometer was reading 1.020, but after letting the sample sit for a few minutes to settle, I took more readings by lifting the hydrometer and dropping it as well as spinning it in the trial jar. It read 1.018 so I'm hoping that fermentation is still going, albeit slowly even if there's next to no airlock activity. Hopefully it continues to dry out the beer!

I pitched 2 packets of US-05 - does it usually finish this high?

I've just decided to calibrate my hydrometer - the instructions say the reading should be taken from the liquid level, not the meniscus, but when putting plain water into the trial jar, it reads at 1.001. When I put the hydrometer into a large water jug, it reads 1.000. I think because the trial jar is thin and most of the time the bottom of the hydrometer rests against the side of the jar, it gives a slightly inaccurate reading.

Therefore I think I will take gravity readings at the meniscus.

Therefore OG is now 1.063 and current SG is 1.017.

Took another gravity reading today - 1.014, so at least it's gone in the right direction!

On Tuesday I upped the temperature on the STC-1000 to 20C from 18C to try and help with the last bits of attenuation. I'm going to up it again to 21C tonight and leave it there before dropping it again to 18C for dry hopping - or should I keep it at 21C?

Today is dry hopping day!

The original plan was to hop with 25g each of Citra, Amarillo and Columbus, but I had 7g left of Citra after weighing everything out so I just chucked that in as well.

Boiled a few stainless steel spoons, the nylon hop bag and the zip tie, then added the hops to the bag and threw it in the FV. I turned the brew fridge back down to 18C.

Next step is to start cold crashing it on Friday morning to 2 or 3C before bottling next Sunday.

Ok so I bottled this beer on the 12th July after 7 days total dry hopping, which included a 2 day cold crash to 3C. I took into account that cold crashing would cause some CO2 to be forced back into the beer and adjusted my priming solution accordingly.

I learnt my lesson from the previous batch and gently stirred the beer in the bottling bucket after racking to ensure an even mix of the priming solution.

I cracked open a bottle on the weekend after 1 week conditioning, and wow, it tastes amazing! The carbonation is perfect, it smells dank and of citrus, great head retention. It's not clear, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I've actually had 6 bottles of it already since Sunday (it's Weds today), this beer won't last long. It's a little bitter at 65 IBUs, and it packs a punch at 7% ABV.

When I brew this again I might tone down the bitterness a little bit - or I might experiment with a different hop combo - I'm thinking Simcoe, Galaxy, Citra. I'll probably double dry hop it to get even more hoppy aromas and flavours infused.

Excellent job, that looks lovely. I can almost taste it from here.

What FG did you get to eventually?

You can raise the temp at the end of fermentation, up to 24 ish, to help the yeast finish it's work.

clibit said:

Excellent job, that looks lovely. I can almost taste it from here.

What FG did you get to eventually?

You can raise the temp at the end of fermentation, up to 24 ish, to help the yeast finish it's work.

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It got down to 1.013, which I'm happy with. I did increase the temps towards the end, but only up to 21C. I dropped it back to 18C for the dry hop.

To be fair, it took about 40 mins to chill the wort so that's probably the prime cause of the haze. I'm not really too fussed about getting a crystal clear beer - I'm a big fan of The Kernel's beers and I quite like the haziness. That being said, I do have an immersion chiller now so we'll see how that affects the next brew of this recipe.

Looks good to me!!

You got about 79% attenuation which is very typical for US05.

This looks top notch and I really liked gamma ray when I tried that so might have to concoct something along the lines of this myself, that 'to do' list of beers keeps getting longer!