Lukesteroo
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I've done 3 kit brews so decided to go for it with a simple 1 gallon BIAB batch. My wife has a 10 litre stockpot which is the perfect size for boiling on the hob, and I knocked myself up a grain bag made from a piece of voile net curtain. I was all set! Bearing in mind I had never even seen the ingredients before let alone brewed with them it was an enlightening experience to say the least, so much so, that I thought it worth sharing.
So, firstly here's the recipe:
Pale Malt: 1kg
Crystal Malt: 110g
8 litre mash for 90 mins @ 66C
Boil: 60 mins
East Kent Goldings: 7g 60 mins
East Kent Goldings: 5g 20 mins
East Kent Goldings: 4g 7 mins
1/4 Protofloc tablet @ 15 mins.
Yeast: Neale's Ale Yeast: 4g
O.G. 1048
Target F.G. 1011
Target ABV 4.9%
So... how did it go?
I heated 7 litres of water to 72C and doughed in the grain. After dumping it in a bit too quickly I had a hard job breaking it all up... still, I'll know better next time! The temperature only dipped a couple of degrees so I rather nervously tipped in a further litre of water, and, guess what! Temperature dropped to about 62C. Back on with the heat and as soon as it hit 66 it was slid off the hob and into the oven.
It held almost perfectly steady at 66C and 90 minutes later out it came, smelling quite interesting (a sort of farmyard/grassy sort of smell) and tasting (yes I admit it) like weak sugary water. The colour was somewhat akin to Coca-cola.
I warmed it back up again to about 80C and then lifted out the bag, gave it a gentle squeeze (burnt my hands a bit!) then deposited it into a large colander to drain. I then tipped 500ml of water at approx 80C over the grain and tipped the resultant runnings into the stockpot. At this point I was left with approximately 8 litres of wort for the boil.
I had no trouble achieving a good strong boil so in went the first lot of hops and I sat back and took stock. Never having seen or smelt hops either, naturally I found the weighing out and subsequent additions quite fascinating. Once the first lot of hops were in and had spent a few minutes boiling, the smell changed quite markedly, and it was then reminiscent of the tins of hopped extract from kit brews. It tasted different too - much more bitter.
The boil continued fairly uneventfully and, at the requisite times, in went the second and third hop additions along with the Protofloc. The smell was amazing, really appetising and tantalisingly floral without being sickly. I did notice that the volume was diminishing rather alarmingly, but I knew it was important both to maintain a rolling boil, and not cover the pot, so I let it continue boiling away.
At the end of boil, I cooled as rapidly as possible in several sink-fulls of cold water. It only took about 7 mins to get the temperature down to 28C, at which point I could see the wort visibly separate out - I believe this is the "cold break" - with a cloudy layer developing below the top layer which was a beautiful clear amber brown.
I took a gravity reading and have never seen my hydrometer bob so high - it was about 1067! Then I tried to syphon it off the cold break layer into a separate fermentation vessel (actually a large tupperware container) but I soon gave this up as a bad job after the syphon immediately clogged with hop leaves. In the end, I strained it through my grain bag into a 1 litre jug and from there into the fermentation vessel, and measured just shy of 4 litres. This meant I lost over half to evaporation during the course of the boil, a staggering amount I thought!
Obviously at this point I was well down on volume but sky-high on gravity, so I watered it down with 1.5 litres of water to give an overall volume of about 5.5 litres (including the majority of the cold break material). I sprinkled on my yeast and tucked it up in my brewfridge @ 19C.
24 hours later and fermentation is well underway. My intention is to allow it to die down and then tip/syphon into a demijohn safely under airlock until 3 weeks has elapsed.
I am feeling fairly positive about this first experience. Yes, it was a fairly drawn out process and one which will ultimately yield only about 8 bottles of beer, but still a hugely enjoyable lesson to have learnt. I bought 3kg of the Pale malt so am planning my next two brews, using some different hops and possibly some other grains in small quantities, to experiment with different styles and flavours. As you can imagine I am building up to a more sensible volume and see this as a good opportunity to explore a few recipes.
I would be interested to hear if anyone thinks I made any major howlers or has any suggestions for the next couple of batches. I am predominantly a traditional bitter drinker with a leaning towards the lighter, hoppier end of spectrum.
Thanks for reading!
So, firstly here's the recipe:
Pale Malt: 1kg
Crystal Malt: 110g
8 litre mash for 90 mins @ 66C
Boil: 60 mins
East Kent Goldings: 7g 60 mins
East Kent Goldings: 5g 20 mins
East Kent Goldings: 4g 7 mins
1/4 Protofloc tablet @ 15 mins.
Yeast: Neale's Ale Yeast: 4g
O.G. 1048
Target F.G. 1011
Target ABV 4.9%
So... how did it go?
I heated 7 litres of water to 72C and doughed in the grain. After dumping it in a bit too quickly I had a hard job breaking it all up... still, I'll know better next time! The temperature only dipped a couple of degrees so I rather nervously tipped in a further litre of water, and, guess what! Temperature dropped to about 62C. Back on with the heat and as soon as it hit 66 it was slid off the hob and into the oven.
It held almost perfectly steady at 66C and 90 minutes later out it came, smelling quite interesting (a sort of farmyard/grassy sort of smell) and tasting (yes I admit it) like weak sugary water. The colour was somewhat akin to Coca-cola.
I warmed it back up again to about 80C and then lifted out the bag, gave it a gentle squeeze (burnt my hands a bit!) then deposited it into a large colander to drain. I then tipped 500ml of water at approx 80C over the grain and tipped the resultant runnings into the stockpot. At this point I was left with approximately 8 litres of wort for the boil.
I had no trouble achieving a good strong boil so in went the first lot of hops and I sat back and took stock. Never having seen or smelt hops either, naturally I found the weighing out and subsequent additions quite fascinating. Once the first lot of hops were in and had spent a few minutes boiling, the smell changed quite markedly, and it was then reminiscent of the tins of hopped extract from kit brews. It tasted different too - much more bitter.
The boil continued fairly uneventfully and, at the requisite times, in went the second and third hop additions along with the Protofloc. The smell was amazing, really appetising and tantalisingly floral without being sickly. I did notice that the volume was diminishing rather alarmingly, but I knew it was important both to maintain a rolling boil, and not cover the pot, so I let it continue boiling away.
At the end of boil, I cooled as rapidly as possible in several sink-fulls of cold water. It only took about 7 mins to get the temperature down to 28C, at which point I could see the wort visibly separate out - I believe this is the "cold break" - with a cloudy layer developing below the top layer which was a beautiful clear amber brown.
I took a gravity reading and have never seen my hydrometer bob so high - it was about 1067! Then I tried to syphon it off the cold break layer into a separate fermentation vessel (actually a large tupperware container) but I soon gave this up as a bad job after the syphon immediately clogged with hop leaves. In the end, I strained it through my grain bag into a 1 litre jug and from there into the fermentation vessel, and measured just shy of 4 litres. This meant I lost over half to evaporation during the course of the boil, a staggering amount I thought!
Obviously at this point I was well down on volume but sky-high on gravity, so I watered it down with 1.5 litres of water to give an overall volume of about 5.5 litres (including the majority of the cold break material). I sprinkled on my yeast and tucked it up in my brewfridge @ 19C.
24 hours later and fermentation is well underway. My intention is to allow it to die down and then tip/syphon into a demijohn safely under airlock until 3 weeks has elapsed.
I am feeling fairly positive about this first experience. Yes, it was a fairly drawn out process and one which will ultimately yield only about 8 bottles of beer, but still a hugely enjoyable lesson to have learnt. I bought 3kg of the Pale malt so am planning my next two brews, using some different hops and possibly some other grains in small quantities, to experiment with different styles and flavours. As you can imagine I am building up to a more sensible volume and see this as a good opportunity to explore a few recipes.
I would be interested to hear if anyone thinks I made any major howlers or has any suggestions for the next couple of batches. I am predominantly a traditional bitter drinker with a leaning towards the lighter, hoppier end of spectrum.
Thanks for reading!
