First All Grain Brew - Ideas Welcome

[Scaggs]

Thanks for the comments. I only had some Citra and Fuggles left so I put about 30 grams of each in at 60, 40, 20 and zero minutes. Got about 23 litres in the FV and an OG of 1.050 so I'm hoping it will be drinkable

 

[Zephyr259]

Oh... that could be quite bitter. The citra alone gives 100 IBU assuming 12% AA, 4.8% Fuggles adds another 40. Going to be an interesting one to see how it turns out.

 

[ACBEV]

Going to be an interesting one

ecky thump... BITTER! Bet @Scaggs would win a gurning competition while drinking that... It may need some extra conditioning time, me thinks.

Reminds me of a few Victorian K Ale hopping rates... In those days it was common practice to keep them maturing for months. 7%+ ABV and 100+ IBUs on draught wasn't uncommon, but men were men then.

 

[Scaggs]

I do like a bitter beer but you two have got me a bit worried now (need to read more about hops/IBU's) Is there anything I could dry hop it with to sweeten it up a bit? Or maybe add a bit of honey or something?

 

[Zephyr259]

I do like a bitter beer but you two have got me a bit worried now (need to read more about hops/IBU's) Is there anything I could dry hop it with to sweeten it up a bit? Or maybe add a bit of honey or something?

Not really, lactose is the only way to "sweeten" a beer and it's common in milk stout (and "milkshake" IPA) don't think it would work here. Beer's going to have plenty of hops going without a dry hop and honey will make it drier since it's 100% fermentable which can accentuate the bitterness. I'd leave it be and see what happens, but...

The two options I could think of would be to boil up some extract boost the OG and turn it into a double IPA kinda thing, but that's a bit haphazard. The other way would be to brew a very under-hopped batch of beer and blend the two before bottling, but that's a lot of hassle and you might end up with 46L of mediocre beer.

Oh, then there's the option of leaving it alone to age out and mellow, boosting the abv a bit would help with that as it'll keep better. Go back to the honey idea, add a few jars to it and you'll have some crazy double IPA / Braggot which can be tasty but my braggot attempts are a work in progress.

I'm very interested to see how this turns out.

 

[Scaggs]

Thanks for the advice Zephyr259. I'll leave it to mature as I've got two other beers conditioning and loads of nice ready-to-drink stuff in the garage. Next time I'll wait for replies before getting on with it.

 

[pottsworth]

Hi guys,

So, i've decided after a few kits and a successfull extract brew that i fancy having a go at my first all grain brew. After having a search round i have enough bottles to do upto 15 litres.

Was wondering if anyone had a good first timer recipie that they would care to share. I'd be happy to brew anything between 10 and 15 litres. Also any tips and guidance would be much appreciated.

I did my first BIAB AG recipe this weekend after a few kits and extract ones. I figured stick to a SMaSH as there will be plenty of time for additions in the future.

Went with 1.9kg of Marris Otter and Citra hops at 60, 15, 5, and dry hop, and I now have 8l fermenting in my small fast ferment (which I've found is great for doing smaller batches of new things, and fits with the most I can do in my 20l pan)

I finished up at 65% efficiency which I was reasonably happy with as a first attempt, so should end up with ~5% abv. Also used it as a first trial of my iSpindel which says it's currently up to 3.4%

 

[ACBEV]

@Scaggs

According to my fag packet calculations, your IBUs are around 140. Plus flame out additions too. @Zephyr259 gave good advice... I'd be tempted to add 1000g of honey or golden syrup or 500g of each. Mixed with 1L boiled water and added to the FV and leave for another 2/3 weeks.

This would bring your volume to 25L and ABV up to around 6% (ish) and reduce IBUs by around 10 points.

Then leave to condition for 3 months.

 

[Zephyr259]

@ScaggsThis would bring your volume to 25L and ABV up to around 6% (ish) and reduce IBUs by around 10 points.

Then leave to condition for 3 months.

Thanks for the complement, although boosting OG now won't drop the IBUs, a higher gravity during boil would have done that but it's fixed now as far as I know.

 

[ACBEV]

although boosting OG now won't drop the IBUs, a higher gravity during boil would have done that but it's fixed now as far as I know.

Your right, upping the ABV won't reduce IBUs, but upping the volume by 2L will. If I'm right, upping the volume by 10%, will reduce IBUs by a similar degree.

 

[Zephyr259]

Your right, upping the ABV won't reduce IBUs, but upping the volume by 2L will. If I'm right, upping the volume by 10%, will reduce IBUs by a similar degree.

Shouldn't post before my coffee has sunk in... You are correct, adding about 2L of new volume will dilute the existing IBUs to about 130 as you said.

 

[Scaggs]

I don't have any honey in the house at the moment but I do have a 907g tin of Golden Syrup. Could I just use this, or should I wait until I can get some honey? I've noticed that the beer is fermenting very slowly too. Could this be because of the hops? Maybe the yeast is struggling. It was M44 US West Coast.

 

[Zephyr259]

Never used golden syrup myself. It's caramelised and inverted so it's mostly just sugar but does leave a bit of flavour I'm lead to believe. Honey will leave a noticeable flavour which you may or may not like, it won't be sweet like you expect. Personally, I'd use honey but that's because I'm a meadmaker who likes experimenting with braggot. The golden syrup would probably give you closer to a very dry double IPA, which should work.

Actually, ignore the honey, a kilo of honey is going to cost too much unless you use super cheap stuff, at which point it's almost golden syrup anyway. This brew may not come good so let's not through good ingredients after a (potentially) bad brew. Syrup will up the abv and help it age and mellow, probably best best.