So, with a day of sunshine forecast yesterday, as I brew outside I decided it was time to get AG #4 on the go... I kind of tried to hit the ground running as soon as I switched to all grain last year, had a few teething problems with the first two... the third one (a saison, brewed 15 days ago and also bottled yesterday) went a lot more smoothly, and I have pretty high hopes for it - but decided a SMaSH sounded like a good way to test my efficiency etc. and get to know my way around some ingredients. The recipe was a cross between StevieDS's suggestion on another thread on here, and a similar beer in The Homebrew Handbook that was released last year... brewed longer that Stevie's at 23 litres, and with 5kg of Maris Otter - but I basically lifted his hop bill wholesale, leaving it around 40 IBU (if you read this, thanks Stevie!).
My last couple of beers I filled the Buffalo with 33l water and they came up a little short, so went with 35l this time. Treated the water with 16.5ml lactic (as suggested by Bru'n Water) to bring the carbonate levels down to something a lot more reasonable. Doughed in with the strike water at 71 degrees, and hit 68.7 for the mash... wrapped the boiler in an old duvet and left it for a 90 minute mash, during which time the temp dropped to 67.3... lifted the bag off the bottom of the boiler and raised the temp to 78 - I have a punch bag bracket on the wall for this purpose - then hoisted the bag the rest of the way out to drain while the water was getting up to boiling point, and gave it a damned good squeeze! 1.042 pre-boil gravity, and still 33l in the boiler. Went for a 90 minute boil, with hop additions (in hop bags) at 75 mins, 20, 15 (plus whirlfloc, and chiller in) and 5.
After the full 90 minute boil, started the immersion chiller to drop the temp down to 80, and added the final 20g hop addition for a 30 minute aroma steep. Rehydrated the US-05 yeast, chiller back on after the 30 minutes to drop it down to pitching temp (22 degrees), and crashed it into the fermenter to aerate. My previous brews there has been a lot more break material at the bottom of the fermenter, but there was just a thin layer this time - something to do with the simple grain bill? So managed to get 24ish litres into the fermenter at 1.052 - pushing 79% efficiency according to Beersmith, which I'm pleased with at this stage :)
Pitched the yeast around 8pm, and 24 hours later it's sat around 19 degrees with a big healthy krausen, and already smelling lovely... will dry hop with my last 25g Galaxy with 5 days to go, and straight in the keg! I'm hoping as I mashed a little higher it should still retain some body, but reading about it a bit more it seems US-05 can be a little hungry, and ferment pretty low... will see I guess. Thanks for reading :thumb:
My last couple of beers I filled the Buffalo with 33l water and they came up a little short, so went with 35l this time. Treated the water with 16.5ml lactic (as suggested by Bru'n Water) to bring the carbonate levels down to something a lot more reasonable. Doughed in with the strike water at 71 degrees, and hit 68.7 for the mash... wrapped the boiler in an old duvet and left it for a 90 minute mash, during which time the temp dropped to 67.3... lifted the bag off the bottom of the boiler and raised the temp to 78 - I have a punch bag bracket on the wall for this purpose - then hoisted the bag the rest of the way out to drain while the water was getting up to boiling point, and gave it a damned good squeeze! 1.042 pre-boil gravity, and still 33l in the boiler. Went for a 90 minute boil, with hop additions (in hop bags) at 75 mins, 20, 15 (plus whirlfloc, and chiller in) and 5.
After the full 90 minute boil, started the immersion chiller to drop the temp down to 80, and added the final 20g hop addition for a 30 minute aroma steep. Rehydrated the US-05 yeast, chiller back on after the 30 minutes to drop it down to pitching temp (22 degrees), and crashed it into the fermenter to aerate. My previous brews there has been a lot more break material at the bottom of the fermenter, but there was just a thin layer this time - something to do with the simple grain bill? So managed to get 24ish litres into the fermenter at 1.052 - pushing 79% efficiency according to Beersmith, which I'm pleased with at this stage :)
Pitched the yeast around 8pm, and 24 hours later it's sat around 19 degrees with a big healthy krausen, and already smelling lovely... will dry hop with my last 25g Galaxy with 5 days to go, and straight in the keg! I'm hoping as I mashed a little higher it should still retain some body, but reading about it a bit more it seems US-05 can be a little hungry, and ferment pretty low... will see I guess. Thanks for reading :thumb:
