My first AG brew wasn't a resounding success.... not really sure what happened, but it finished up with a pretty unpalatable 'off' flavour and despite the very best efforts of me and my hard-drinking friends at a recent Tarantino-themed fancy-dress party, I can safely say that tastiest thing there was the girl in the skin-tight Kill Bill outfit, and unforunately not my brew....
I don't know if 'over-extraction' through my failing to measure the actual runnings during sparging (I was busily reading the hydrometer by popping it into the boiler of collected wort - so perhaps I went well under 0.990?) - can that cause off flavours??
Alternatively, the yeast wasnt great - and i didn't have a fermentation cabinet at the time.
Bugger it - i'm not going to worry about it - I was able to test my kit and get a feel for it, and so on to number 2!
Having enjoyed Marks & Spencer's Citra IPA, which I belive is an Oakham Ales recipe for them I searched around for a recipe ,which I found here:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/view ... =5&t=59511
In the end, I went for:
Maris Otter - 4550g
Munich Malt - 225g
Wheat Malt - 50g
Hops
Citra(14.8%) 15g, 60 mins
Citra(14.8%) 10g, 20 mins
Citra(14.8%) 10g, 15 mins
Citra(14.8%) 15g, 10 mins
Citra(14.8%) 50g, Flameout
This used up a full 100g pacakge nicely, and I'll open another for:
Citra(14.8%) 40g, Dry Hop
The brewday went well:
Water treatment - 1 crushed Campden tablet and 2 teaspoons of Gypsum into my boiler - Wilko fermenter bucket with two kettle elements. It feels a bit flimsy but this its second outing and so far no leaks. It doesnt have a great capacity - probably 25 litres safely, but does come up to strike temp 80degrees in about 20mins with both elements.
Last time I found that I was way under my desired 68degree mash temp, despite preheating my mashtun, so I heated the liquor to 80 before adding grain. Doughed it in at 2.5lts to the KG of grain, so 12litres of water. It was still under temperature but not by much - probably because I was in the cold utility room - so I had to add a kettle of boiling water and the doughed in.
Mash was 1hr and was probably closer to 70degrees at the start as it was down to 68 by the end.
This time roudn I'd remembered to refill my boiler as last time I hadnt and inevitably ran out of liquor to sparge with. This time, no such problem... I just lay tin foil over the grain, punch loads of holes, then gradually jug 85degree liquor over, keeping 1inch deep over top of grain, with a very slow rate of drain.
Biggest difference this time was remembering to take the hydrometer readings from the wort coming out of the tap, not the total collected. As such, I collected around 27 litres i would guess - with the last 2 in a jug as by this poiint the boiler is over-full.
On my last brew, i had filled the boiler (25lts) and then gone on to collect probably another 8litres in jugs before I realised that I was taking the hydrometer reading in the wrong place! I dont know the impact - does overextraction make it taste funny?
ANyway,,, on with the boil. This time I had deliberately not filled the boiler too much, and so didnt end up paddling! result! My mother will be pleased! I jugged back in as I went the spare 2litres of wort I'd collected.
The recipe uses lots of small additions throughout - man alive! Citra smells fantastic! Powerful, lemony scent. Really delicious.
Usual dessertspoon of Irish moss (dry) added 15mins before the end, along with the chiller to sanitise it.
This was the first time I used hops at 'flameout' - I just bowled in 50g once the boil was finished and they remained in there for the 20mins or so of chilling.
Here's the latest cock up - I forgot to fit the hop strainer! Dang it!
So, I put it in my sanitiser bucket for 10mins, then poured boiling water over it while also sanitised my entire arm.... then popped it in. Not sure if that is a good idea or whether a safer option is to syphon the lot off the top of the hops?
I also realised that as i do not have a lot of dead-space in the bottom of the boiler, and because the slits in my copper-tube strainer are quite tight, with a recipe like this where there is a deep bed of hops it is very quick to block up. i had to use my beer paddle to keep dipping in and scraping the hops off.
I was waaaay off collecting much more than 15litres with loads of wort still in the boiler, so I am afraid i tilted, and moved some of the hop mass to the back to allow me to collect more. I guess that as a result i probably collected quite a lot of **** that I should have left beind?
In the end I got around 20litres with a final temperature corrected gravity of 1.050 - i forgot to take a reading at the mashing stage annoyingly....
What was very noticiable was the huge amount of fine froth generated just through the collection - I think this must have been the Wheat inclusion?
I'd rehydrated some Nottingham ale yeast, which was looking livelier than the non-brand stuff i'd salvaged from a disused Wilko beer kit for my first brew.
Sealed the Wilko fermenter lid on (i havent bothered with airlocking - the last time it seemed to work well enough - although is it a better idea?) and in it went to my STC1000 controlled fridge. This is back at my parents, so i cannot check in on it regularly but I've been assured that the temp is sat at 18.2degrees at present, so that's all working.
I intend on simply leaving it there in primary until i go back at Christmas and I plan to try bottling this time.
So that;s that. It smells good, the small amount i tasted was very bitter but perhaps not as hoppy as I'd expected. I guess the 50g dry hop will help there?
When is the best time to add the dry hops - I was thinking give it a fortnight, then sterilise the muslin bag, tie them in and just submerge that, leaving for another fortnight or so before bottling? How long should I leave them in for - is 2 weeks too long?
So, all in all the learning curve is improving.... and good fun. I just hope I get something drinkable this time!!
I don't know if 'over-extraction' through my failing to measure the actual runnings during sparging (I was busily reading the hydrometer by popping it into the boiler of collected wort - so perhaps I went well under 0.990?) - can that cause off flavours??
Alternatively, the yeast wasnt great - and i didn't have a fermentation cabinet at the time.
Bugger it - i'm not going to worry about it - I was able to test my kit and get a feel for it, and so on to number 2!
Having enjoyed Marks & Spencer's Citra IPA, which I belive is an Oakham Ales recipe for them I searched around for a recipe ,which I found here:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/view ... =5&t=59511
In the end, I went for:
Maris Otter - 4550g
Munich Malt - 225g
Wheat Malt - 50g
Hops
Citra(14.8%) 15g, 60 mins
Citra(14.8%) 10g, 20 mins
Citra(14.8%) 10g, 15 mins
Citra(14.8%) 15g, 10 mins
Citra(14.8%) 50g, Flameout
This used up a full 100g pacakge nicely, and I'll open another for:
Citra(14.8%) 40g, Dry Hop
The brewday went well:
Water treatment - 1 crushed Campden tablet and 2 teaspoons of Gypsum into my boiler - Wilko fermenter bucket with two kettle elements. It feels a bit flimsy but this its second outing and so far no leaks. It doesnt have a great capacity - probably 25 litres safely, but does come up to strike temp 80degrees in about 20mins with both elements.
Last time I found that I was way under my desired 68degree mash temp, despite preheating my mashtun, so I heated the liquor to 80 before adding grain. Doughed it in at 2.5lts to the KG of grain, so 12litres of water. It was still under temperature but not by much - probably because I was in the cold utility room - so I had to add a kettle of boiling water and the doughed in.
Mash was 1hr and was probably closer to 70degrees at the start as it was down to 68 by the end.
This time roudn I'd remembered to refill my boiler as last time I hadnt and inevitably ran out of liquor to sparge with. This time, no such problem... I just lay tin foil over the grain, punch loads of holes, then gradually jug 85degree liquor over, keeping 1inch deep over top of grain, with a very slow rate of drain.
Biggest difference this time was remembering to take the hydrometer readings from the wort coming out of the tap, not the total collected. As such, I collected around 27 litres i would guess - with the last 2 in a jug as by this poiint the boiler is over-full.
On my last brew, i had filled the boiler (25lts) and then gone on to collect probably another 8litres in jugs before I realised that I was taking the hydrometer reading in the wrong place! I dont know the impact - does overextraction make it taste funny?
ANyway,,, on with the boil. This time I had deliberately not filled the boiler too much, and so didnt end up paddling! result! My mother will be pleased! I jugged back in as I went the spare 2litres of wort I'd collected.
The recipe uses lots of small additions throughout - man alive! Citra smells fantastic! Powerful, lemony scent. Really delicious.
Usual dessertspoon of Irish moss (dry) added 15mins before the end, along with the chiller to sanitise it.
This was the first time I used hops at 'flameout' - I just bowled in 50g once the boil was finished and they remained in there for the 20mins or so of chilling.
Here's the latest cock up - I forgot to fit the hop strainer! Dang it!
So, I put it in my sanitiser bucket for 10mins, then poured boiling water over it while also sanitised my entire arm.... then popped it in. Not sure if that is a good idea or whether a safer option is to syphon the lot off the top of the hops?I also realised that as i do not have a lot of dead-space in the bottom of the boiler, and because the slits in my copper-tube strainer are quite tight, with a recipe like this where there is a deep bed of hops it is very quick to block up. i had to use my beer paddle to keep dipping in and scraping the hops off.
I was waaaay off collecting much more than 15litres with loads of wort still in the boiler, so I am afraid i tilted, and moved some of the hop mass to the back to allow me to collect more. I guess that as a result i probably collected quite a lot of **** that I should have left beind?
In the end I got around 20litres with a final temperature corrected gravity of 1.050 - i forgot to take a reading at the mashing stage annoyingly....
What was very noticiable was the huge amount of fine froth generated just through the collection - I think this must have been the Wheat inclusion?
I'd rehydrated some Nottingham ale yeast, which was looking livelier than the non-brand stuff i'd salvaged from a disused Wilko beer kit for my first brew.
Sealed the Wilko fermenter lid on (i havent bothered with airlocking - the last time it seemed to work well enough - although is it a better idea?) and in it went to my STC1000 controlled fridge. This is back at my parents, so i cannot check in on it regularly but I've been assured that the temp is sat at 18.2degrees at present, so that's all working.
I intend on simply leaving it there in primary until i go back at Christmas and I plan to try bottling this time.
So that;s that. It smells good, the small amount i tasted was very bitter but perhaps not as hoppy as I'd expected. I guess the 50g dry hop will help there?
When is the best time to add the dry hops - I was thinking give it a fortnight, then sterilise the muslin bag, tie them in and just submerge that, leaving for another fortnight or so before bottling? How long should I leave them in for - is 2 weeks too long?
So, all in all the learning curve is improving.... and good fun. I just hope I get something drinkable this time!!
