Sven's 2018 brew days

[svenito]

Thought I would start a thread as well, as I just finished my first brew of the year (finally).

Many firsts in this one.

• First recipe I created from scratch
• First time doing water chem
• First SMaSH
• First small batch

Ok, so not that many. Anyways, it's a 10l SMaSH comprising of

• 3kg Munich I
• 60min boil
• 1/4 protafloc @ 10min
  
• 10g of Yellow Sub @ 60min, 15g @ 15min, and 15g @ 5min
• Safale K-97 yeast @ 18C

Went pretty well, undershot OG, but that's nothing new. Was estimated at 6%, and I'm not a big fan of anything much over 5% anyway.

Used a blend of 15l tap water with 10l Ashbeck. Added 0.5g gypsum and 1g Calcium Chloride. Added 2ml of Phosphoric to mash. Will cut back on the acid next time as pH was a little low at 5.0.

Final water estimated at:

Ca+2    Mg+2     Na+     Cl-      SO4-2     Alkalinity     Residual Alkalinity

100.6   14.6     29.4   66.7      77.6        132.1              51.8

1/4 Campden tablet the night before.

Mashed in at 65C for 50min, 15min batch sparge at 75C.

Volume to fermenter ~12l which should give me about 10l minus trub and deadspace.

I have no idea what it's going to be like, but the colour and initial post-boil taste were ok. Plan to cold condition it for a few days, no dry hopping. Looking forward to seeing what the K-97 can do, as its description sounds pretty interesting.

 

[dan125]

I'd never heard of Yellow Sub before, but they sound nice.

 

[svenito]

I'd never heard of Yellow Sub before, but they sound nice.

A fairly new strain. Got them from a friend who runs a hop growing company. They are similar to Amarillo. A nice fruity hop. Around 9%AA

 

[svenito]

Did my first brew for my series of Wheats at the weekend.

https://wurstbrewery.co.uk/2018/02/03/weizen-brewday-i-biab/#weizen-brewday-i-biab

Apart from the low gravity, it all went nice and smooth

 

[foxbat]

Apart from the low gravity, it all went nice and smooth

The only time I've ever significantly missed Beersmith's gravity estimate was with wheat (70% by weight). I knew the hazards; I double-crushed, I sparged and squeezed and conversion was 100% complete. Volumes were hit but I was still off by 5 points. The wheat was about 12 months old and I suspect that, without the protection of a husk, maybe the potential was reduced. The beer turned out great but it wasn't the outcome I'd planned.

 

[svenito]

I was way over volume, so I'm attributing the missed gravity to that. I guess I could have boiled longer, but I was short on time. I'll probably repeat this again after I've done the other experiments I want to do.

I am looking forward to tasting it though.