Ade's Self Build Boiler Brew Days - AG BIAB #12

POTUS-45 Grisette Thing (It's actually number 13, just realised.... My Mosaic IPA was number 12.... lol)

So, new kit, and new methodology, so started a new thread.

Trying for a full volume, recirculated, BIAB. Treated the water, starting with RO then rebuilding with calcium chloride flakes, epsom salt and gypsum. Little bit of acid in the form of 80% lactic acid.

Targets:-

Aiming for a batch size of 20 litres (yeah right... lol). OG of 1.032. FG of 1.000. Bitterness (IBUs): 19.5 Tinseth. Colour: 17.0 EBC. 4.3% ABV alc estimated.

I'm going to be using Fermentis Safale BE-134 Belgian Saison yeast for this baby. Quite a new kid on the block, could only find it for sale from Brew UK.

Grain/Fermentables (70 minute mash at 64.4 degrees C)

1kg 3 EBC Wheat malt
.8 Kg 17.7 EBC Munich Malt
.8 Kg 3.2 EBC Dingemans Pilsen Malt
.13 Kg 290.6 EBC Digemans Special B
.12 Kg 124.1 EBC Weyermann Caramunich II

100g honey 5 minutes before end of boil

Hops (60 minute boil)

7g Magnum whole hops 13.2% AA @ 60 minutes bittering
10g Jester whole hops 8% AA @ 15 minutes
20g Jester whole hops 8% AA @ 5 minutes
70g Jester whole hops 8% AA @ flame out

Pics in a moment, need to check it.

Ok, it's fine. One thing I know now, I need to not get as close to the rim whilst mashing, as get a teeny tiny bit of wicking when this close... lol

Anyway, other things I've got tuned in is I can maintain temps spot on with the power control set at 50%, gives me a nice steady temperature with no big swings either way. I reached this via trial and error. Tiny grain bill, so I have been able to run the pump practically at full whack.

Ok, first off, that last post I actually started posting a while ago, then had to go off and do brewing stuff, hence the big overlap here...

I'm actually into the boil now, having lifted the bag and drained it.



Gave it a darn good squeeze too (grain soup anybody?). Possibly a bit down on my mash efficiency (got 1.024 on my refractometer, estimate was 1.027) however I'd estimate I was over on volume into boil (estimate was 27.51, looked way more than that). All to be expected though with new kit AND new methods. Need to tune it in yet. Heck, first time I've used Beersmith 3 for the entire brew build and calculations even, I usually build in BIABacus...

Got to a nice rolling boil quite quickly. Not as insane as both elements on my old boiler, but not the pathetic one I used to get with just the 1600 watt element either. I tried to get a pic, but as always you get the flat between the rolls....



Bit lop sided thanks to only one element, but it should do the job.

Got the pump set up ready to whirlpool (if it works...).


Panel doing it's business (power regulator isn't actually in the circuit, it's not needed) coming up to the boil.



Oh well, I'd best sanitize the FV and re-hydrate the yeast....

Oops, guess who forgot to either bag the hops, or put a hop filter on the pump intake.... No prizes for guessing how the whirl-pooling worked out.... lmao Had to do it with my wine degassing wand. Now letting it settle before I transfer to FV.

Ok, in all honest, I'm not happy with the build. It needs some tweaks.

First up, the whole pick up tube with a spontex scourer thing over it as a hop filter thing... It doesn't work, at all. It clogs within milliseconds using whole hops. You take the scourer off, the pick up tube itself clogs up just as quickly. Back to a bazooka there then. I ended up having to transfer using a sanitised jug, by hand, through a sanitised sieve to try to filter out the hop bits. It looks like I have 21 litres in the FV, but once the trub compacts down and I account for it I'll be lucky to get 19 litres into packaging, more likely 18. Ultimately I'm looking to move back to hop pellets (my wife wants her freezer back...), but I still need to be able to transfer the wort into the FV....

Next up, yeah that pump inlet absolutely NEEDS a hop filter on it if I am going to use it to whirlpool. No ifs, no buts. The whirl-pool worked great, for the few seconds it took the pump to clog up.... lol

The BIAB bag, talk about saggy and horrid! Need to secure it better in future when doughing in. It ended up all pulled down into the pan, with all folds full of grain... It's like a big floppy thing that just wants to float around and swirl!!!

On the bright side, I hit my target OG bang on! 1.032 on the dot post boil. Be assured, this pic ISN'T what we took the reading from, it's just for illustrative purposes. I got fed up of trying to get the sample on a level surface etc.

Lots of reasons for doing this, not least of which:-

Getting plenty of brews in before Severn Trent drop the hose pipe ban hammer.
Getting plenty of brews in where the yeasts likes it on the warm side whilst we have the heatwave.
My wife is sick of all off the hops in the freezer (the big pause in my brewing caused by my old kit burning out on me didn't help there...)...
I need to test the tweaks I made to my boiler...

So, brew day #14, Wen's Lunch, Patersbier Revisited!

Targets:-

Target Batch Size: 23 Litres into FV. Estimated OG: 1.043. Estimated BH Efficiency 70%. Estimated FG: 1.004 (? Ok...). Colour: 5.1 EBC. Bitterness (IBUs): 17 Tinseth.

Recipe etc:-

Mash: BIAB Full volume (almost, 24.04 litres) @ 65 degrees C for 90 minutes. Mash out @ 75.6 degrees C over 15 minutes (rising over 15 minutes).

4500g Dingemans Pilsen malt 3.2 EBC.

Boil: + 4 litres kettle top up (estimated), boil for 70 minutes.
All hops whole hops:-

@ 60 minutes 48g Saaz 3.5% AA

@15 1/2 Protafloc tablet

@10 minutes 22g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 3% AA

Re-hydrate 1 packet Mangrove Jack's M41 Belgian Ale yeast.

Into FV, top up/dilute to 23 litres, and/or OG of 1.043.

Oh and the water, yeah, RO water treated to the good old yellow balance profile, with about 3mls of 80% lactic acid to drop the mash pH with it been such pale malt.

My first foray into out door brewing too!

Ok, so one lesson learned the hard way... When brewing outside have a mind to where you are in relation to a suitable drain for the immersion chiller.... Carting buckets of cooling water around the garden is NOT fun in the dark.... Or the light of day I should imagine....

Future tweak, either invest in a hop filter with a larger surface area, or bite the bullet and just buy a hop spider already.... It's struggling somewhat.

Right, time to wrap this up for the night.

Brewing in the dark was, well, amusing you might say.... lol



Not bad over all, for one thing transferring to FV went like a dream. Fair bit of trub transferred at the start, but the hops kicked in and did that filter thing eventually and I was able to open the tap up a little more.



I changed my volumes a little though by the by, I added 6 litres to the boil as kettle top up as I had plenty of space for it. This meant I had 20 litres transferred into FV at the end of the night, with an SG of 1.050. Beersmith 3 dilution tool to hand, and 3 litres later my OG was bang on target of 1.043 with the target 23 litres in the FV. So yeah, my volumes must have all been bang on target or something too, as I game out with my target OG AND target batch volume:-

Couple of updates.

First up, POTUS-45. Seems that that yeast is one of those that likes to slow right down near the end. On the 27 and 29th of last month SG was 1.004, today it's down to 1.002. So yeah, another slow and steady in the end Saison yeast. First samples were pretty meh tasting to be honest, latest sample though is much more hoppy, like a subtle cascade, so hoppy with a little citrus there. Should make a good warm weather quaffer I'd say. Colour is a good amber.

Wen's Lunch. The MJ M41 Belgian Ale yeast has been rocketing through this. SG taken yesterday, down to 1.002 for 95.2% apparent attenuation already. Tasted the sample, was delicious! Much nicer than the last Patersbier I made using the CML yeast.

Brew day #15:-

(Ignore the bottled date, my Dymo LabelWriter software fills that in for me when I print the labels, so it will be the date when I ACTUALLY bottle that will be there come the actual day... lol)

This short be my first actual Belgian witbier. My last attempt ended up a bizzare hybrid, and was more German than Belgian (CML yeast, wheat malt rather than flaked wheat, etc)... I thoroughly enjoyed it, my wife no so much as it kinda ended up tasting of banana....

Sooo, this time around, did some research, and decided to use Mangrove Jack's M21 Belgian Wit yeast. I can find nobody saying it tastes of banana, just a few complaints about it under-attenuating.... I'm going to be extra thorough with the splashing with this one, and add some nutrient too just to be sure.

I'm also using what SHOULD be a proper witbier recipe, with a mash profile to suit. Oh, and RO water rebuilt to the Lager water profile in Beersmith 3. When I say a mash profile to suit, by this I mean I am going to have a go at doing a beta-glucan rest for 20 minutes at 40 degrees, then mash at 65 degrees C for 90 minutes, before mashing out at 76 degrees for 15 minutes. Almost full volume BIAB, but with a 6 litre kettle top up, and 3 litre top up in the FV (all allowed for in Beersmith 3 calculations).

Boil will be for 60 minutes. Targets based on 70% brew house efficiency estimate.

Batch Size: 23 Litres. Original Gravity: 1.049. Colour: 6 EBC. Bitterness(Tinseth): 15.6 IBUS.

Grist

Beta-glucan mash:-

200g Rice hulls 0 EBC
600g Flaked malted oats 0.5 EBC
700g Crisp pale malted wheat 3.5 EBC
2000g Flaked wheat 4 EBC

Then added for the main mash:-

2000g Dingemans pilsen malt 3.5 EBC


For the 60 minutes boil:-

@ 60 minutes 20g Mandarina Bavaria whole hops 8.9% AA

@ 15 minutes .5 Protafloc
@ 15 minutes 10g Lightly crushed coriander seeds
@ 15 minutes 25g Bitter orange peel


Currently, the RO filter is running, and I'm running hot water around my boiler and pump system to give it a pre-clean before I use it. As a bonus, it's heating the metal up a bit too.

Uhm, twiddling my thumbs whilst waiting for the RO... Up to 21 litres now... I'd be at 23, but my wife messed up and put it on for aquarium water before I got to it, it was 2 litres in before I spotted what she'd done.... It has a 5 litre tank on it, so that was 2 of the 5 litres used up and unusable for brewing as the aquarium container is definitely NOT sanitary. lol Could be our pressure is a bit low too, it's usually faster than this.

I've twiddled with my calculations anyway, so I can get my mashing water adjusted and in as soon as it's ready, then carry on running the RO for the kettle and FV top up, then add the extra salts needed for the difference. I didn't do this my previous 2 brews (I used pure RO for the top ups), and I reckon I can tell.

On the plus side, it'll be on the beta-glucan mash during lunch, so won't interfere with using the microwave.

Well, mashing away nicely now. No signs (touch wood!) of gummyness at all, pump is running nicely. It's the palest mash I have ever seen for sure though... lol

This isn't really very representative, as was taken during the gummy mash as I shall call it. Very white though.

Gotta love how it goes from:-

Not Horlicks


To happily boiling eh?



Bunged the hops in a sock, this not been a hop driven style particularly. Save myself a bit of messing for once. Seems to have actually given me more of a vigorous nature to the boil happily.

Don't mind me, I'm just hanging around, chillin...



It's actually nearly done, in super quick time as I've been able to use my pump properly, thanks to that hop sock....

Ok, all done apart from some cleaning up. I had pretty much no sleep last night though, so my wife has given me permission to leave some of it until tomorrow. Won't take long though, no hops to clean out of the boiler for one....

I overshot slightly, ended up with 23.7 litres into the FV rather than 23 litres, and at an OG of 1.051 rather than 1.049. So basically my brew house efficiency was a much less conservative 75%, so would seem I'm getting my eye in with this new boiler slowly. That, and getting the hang of not sparging....

One thing I have done is change the attenuation range Beersmith 3 has set for M21 yeast, it was way higher than reality, so I've reduced it to 70-75% (the figures given by MJ themselves, and most other sources too). They'd got it as 75%-80% or something like that, no idea where they pulled those numbers from though....

Anyway, took a quick pic of the wort sample from the trial jar:-



I think it looks ok... lol Smells like every other wort I've ever sniffed (like posh cold tea), and I flat refuse to taste it....

Tucked up neatly in my new FV, with plenty of headspace to go at... Oh, and for the record it was much easier to lift up there on my own than a normal bucket was with it in it (that shelf is roughly almost chest hight on me, which is perfect for bottling from etc, hence I put them so high up, oh and I'm 6'5" tall for those not already aware)....



My wife and I are now going to bid you all a very good night. :hat:

Brew Day #16 Crivens, English Strong Ale. Brewed 28/08/2018.

It was SUPPOSED to be an ESB, was going to be my first attempt at brewing one... I kinda overshot my estimated efficiency (75%) though, so ended up brewing my first British Strong Ale. Still a departure for me, and the darkest beer I have brewed so far.

90 minute mash at 67 degrees C (mash out at 76 degrees C). 90 minute boil. New grain bag, so I used my old grain bag as a giant sized hop bag. The higher efficiency I know was thanks to instead of doing a kettle top up, I did a cold water dunk sparge, which meant the liquor I topped the kettle up with had (6.6 litres) an SG of around 1.030, rather than just been water. I missed sparging for sure. I didn't add ANY water into the FV this time either, I tipped the entire contents of the boiler instead (hops were bagged, so it was just break material in there, which has compacted down nicely), giving me 23 litres. I'm definitely going to include the cold water sparge in my future brew days.

The recipe is one I built myself, the idea been to produce something fairly dark. Hopping is also fairly experimental, with an element of using my EKG up.

In the mash (90 minutes @ 67 degrees C, 76 degrees C mashout):-

5000g Crisp Maris Otter 6 EBC
300g Crisp Crystal Malt 150 EBC
250g Torrefied Wheat 3.3 EBC
100g Chocolate Malt 1183.5 EBC



With such a large amount of malt, and a new BIAB bag that's finer meshed, and no rice hulls, I couldn't open up the flow of the pump very far sadly though. Need to invest in some rice hulls for future brews, they really do help a LOT.

In the boil (90 minute boil, and believe me, you can tell when you look at my poor element... lol)

@ 90 minutes 80g East Kent Goldings whole hops 5.9% AA

@15 minutes 1/2 Protafloc tablet

@ 5 minutes 300g Golden Syrup

@ 0 minutes:-
10g Endeavour whole hops 9.8% AA
7.6g East Kent Goldings whole hops 5.9% AA
5g Fuggles whole hops 6.32% AA



Yes, I did squeeze the heck out of that hop bag once I'd cooled the wort to 19.5 degrees C!! The aroma was delicious smelling.

As to targets, well I was aiming for an OG of 1.063, I got 1.067. Bitterness I was aiming for 43 IBUs. Colour, about 33 EBC.



As I'd planned for an OG over 1.060 I'd already re-hydrated 2 packets of Mangrove Jack's M36 Liberty Bell Ale yeast, so that was no concern. Today it's blooping away very happily.

Good sample day today.

My Belgian Wit has finally moved a bit, after days sat at 1.016 it's dropped to 1.014, going from 67% apparent attenuation (under range), to 71.7% apparent attenuation (within range). Good flavour too, not as watery and limp as actual Hoegaarden (possibly thanks to using Mandarina Bavaria in place of Saaz) with lovely notes of clove, coriander and a bit of citrus. Cloudy as all heck, but heh that's all good, for one it's still young, for another it's a Wit... lol



Also checked on Crivens! Holy fecal spherical objects!!! No joking, this has to be THE best tasting beer I have EVER brewed! What happened? It's seriously not ready yet obviously (I only brewed it Friday), this was just my 1st SG sample for the purpose of checking when fermentation is done. At an SG of 1.012 I'm pretty certain primary has finished to be honest (81.3% apparent attenuation is actually really high even for M36 Liberty Bell yeast, even from my experience with it). The sample looked as murky as all heck, like muddy water, but the flavour was really delicious! Some alcohol warmth, malty with notes of chocolate, dark fruits and Christmas spices. The hops seem to have taken up a supporting roll (as they should, given that I only used bittering and aroma additions), allowing the malts to really shine. Aroma is pretty much the same, it just draws you in. This would make a lovely Christmas beer, but to be quite honest with you I'll be surprised if any lasts past November! I am going to HAVE to brew more! A LOT more!!!



So, there you have it. If I could only brew one recipe ever again, it'd be Crivens, a recipe I threw together just for the heck of it, whilst trying to come up with an ESB.... You know something too? I'd be quite happy doing so, I'm kinda fed up of pale and hoppy beers (my wife however loves them and wants me to carry on brewing them... lol).

Great thread, some nice brews on there. I just started to use RO myself and have noticed a vast improvement in my beer.

Thanks Darren. I should have mentioned though, I used treated tap water for Crivens with it been a darker beer, otherwise the amount I'd have to add back gets silly when it's all right there in my Severn Trent tap water to begin with. So all I did was treat it with half a Campden tablet, then a bit of table salt, a bit of Epsom salts and then 6mls of lactic acid in the mash to bring the mash pH down to 5.4 (my tap water is liquid rock!). Pale beers though I prefer to use rebuilt RO water, rather than dabble with using AMS/CRS etc.

There are more recipes in my old brew day thread by the way, some good ones too (in my opinion anyway). The one constant you'll notice is that I seem to have more luck with beers where I've played around with the recipe over ones where I've used an existing recipe for some reason. The one exception been the Hobgoblin Gold clone that I brewed from a recipe I found searching the internet, which was just excellent, a recipe I really recommend. I do not for one second however believe that it helped the brew when the music changed from the Rolling Stones to S-Club 7 mysteriously....

In other news, we had a 1st taste of the 2nd brewing of Wen's Lunch Patersbier the other day. All I can say is, we're hoping it get's better with more time in the bottle, as right now it kinda tastes like fizzy water..... I definitely added the hops though, as I remember when I added the mittelfruh very clearly as it coincided with a cloud of a neighbours wacky drifting over and my briefly thinking "wow! These hops are a bit dank" before realising what the smell ACTUALLY was... lol

Right now, Fosters lager has more flavour..... I bet a Sun reader would actually really enjoy drinking it....