First AG Brew, Bosco IPA - BIAB

[seehuusen]

Hey fellow brewers

I've been brewing a couple of kit brews, but haven't really gotten into the flavour of the beer too much.
I think it was largely dependent on my fermentation temperatures not being kept at the right level (e.g. approximately 24C!!)
So I sorted a thermostat controlled brew fridge and tried my luck at partial mashing.
I really enjoyed the mashing process, and I thought I might as well jump right into a BIAB setup.


This is the first brew I'll do, controlling grain, hops and that all important fermentation process, I'm pretty excited about this

My recipe started out as Bull's Tail Pale Ale (SMaSH). I was going to stick pretty much with it, but change the Pride of Ringwood hops for Citra, as I like that hop better.
I called up the local brew shop, who unfortunately only had expensive 5g packets of Citra... (bought some of eBay but will have to wait for those to arrive for the next brew)

Using the recipe calculator on BrewersFriend.com I concocted something slightly different.

It's a 12L Batch Size, because I want to make more brew batches to get my skills up.
I anticipate on doing approximately a 60 minute boil.

Bosco IPA
2.5 Kg Cracked Pale Malt
0.5 Kg Cracked Crystal Malt

10 g Amarillo @ 60min
25 g Amarillo 45min
15 g Galaxy 5min

1 packet US-05 Yeast

Stats
Original Gravity 1.057
Final Gravity 1.014
ABV 5.62%
IBU 58.70
SRM 14.29

I love American IPAs, and a smack in the mouth with hops is definitely not a bad thing hehe
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I'm also tossing up if I should chuck Whirfloc in the last 10 mins of the boil. Also wondering if I should use half a yeast packet or a whole one...

Input is very welcomed!

Cheers
Martin

 

[sponge]

17% is probably a little high on the crystal but if it's already cracked then just give it a go and adjust for next time.

Also, I'd be making the 45min amarillo addition more of a 5-15min addition (could throw them in with the galaxy at 5min for simplicity) as you'll want more flavour and aroma with IPA's which you won't get (much) from a 45min boil.

Keeping in mind that changing the addition from 45min to 5min would require a little extra tweaking of hop weights to maintain the same level of bitterness. Without having brewing software infront of me, it would be similar to 20g amarillo @ 60, then 15g each amarillo/galaxy @ 5min.

 

[seehuusen]

Thanks mate, what would you recommend for the percentage of crystal?

 

[Judanero]

Thanks mate, what would you recommend for the percentage of crystal?

8%

 

[seehuusen]

any chance you could tell me what the lower amount of crystal does, I assume take some sweetness out of the beer?

I made a few changes on the Beer Recipe Calculator

Bosco IPA
2.5 Kg Cracked Pale Malt
0.25 Kg Cracked Crystal Malt

10 g Amarillo @ 60min
25 g Amarillo 30min
24 g Citra 5min

1 packet US-05 Yeast

Stats
Original Gravity 1.053
Final Gravity 1.013
ABV 5.19%
IBU 52.73
SRM 10.21

I'm going to clean both my beer fridge and brew fridge, clean bottles and bottle what is currently in the fermenter.
Then later today (or tomorrow dependent on commitments) I'll get into brewing this BIAB, I have a good feeling about this brew
Thanks for comments so far!

Cheers
Martin

 

[The Village Idiot]

Download Brewmate link The crystal adds sweetness.

 

[seehuusen]

Thanks for the link to the application, that's brilliant!
It will be very helpful to keep track of all of the details, notes and ideas :beer:

 

[seehuusen]

I did the brewing last Sunday.
It all sort of went OK, although I had a few problems, which contributed to a low OG, which I will fix with some DME (about 1kg worth!)

First problem was that I didn't have an esky that would hold my brew pot inside as the diameter is wider than any esky I had... Also my BIAB bag wasn't large enough to hold all the grain...
I have an 8L drinks esky, which I found would hold half the grain and about 6L of water. So I did my mashing in two sections, half and half. Took forever... and I only did it for 60 minutes each time (first real brewing problem)... Then when all the grain was mashed, I attempted to sparge each lot of grain, that needs a bit more practice I think (problem number two)...

With all my liquor in the brew pot, I started the boil. This went without any drama, I kept a close eye on it, and managed to keep all of the wort inside the pot
I cooled it down in the sink, with water all around it and every freezer block I had... I think I'll have to work on a better method for chilling the beer, immersion chiller next project I think

When the wort was cool, I poured it into the fermenter. Here I noted that my 12L had become 9.5L. Having only done kit brews prior to this, and thinking that my recipe was for 12L, I added 2.5L of water to the fermenter, to make it up to the 12L batch size (mistake number 3)

All in all, I got an OG reading of 1030, I should have left the grain to mash for 90 minutes, I'll have to come up with a better way of sparging and lastly, not add water to the fermenter diluting the beer.
I only managed to get a 44% efficiency rate, which is quite poor. I do think that perhaps the grain milling is to be blamed too, I'll ensure I get a finer milling next time OR purchase my own mill (might have to wait a little while for that to happen though)

The wort tastes great, so I'm sure it'll still be a nice beer with the extra DME in there to make it a bit more potent than a light beer LOL
I've purchased a bigger drinks chiller yesterday, to be able to mash in one go rather than two
Cheers
Martin

 

[seehuusen]

Added the DME to a litre of hot water, this was then cooled to 21C and added into the fermenter.
According to BrewMate I'm now looking at a 6.2% beer, better than the sub-3% before LOL
The IBU is a bit lower of course, but I can live with that

Will report back on the next brew attempt, with some changes to my BIAB process and hopefully lack of DME this time around

 

[seehuusen]

it's been a week since I brewed the Bosco IPA, and I just had to check the gravity, still at 1016, so I'll leave it in the fermenter for another couple of days, then cold crash it I think..
What do you guys reckon? Keep the yeast in there or try to get a clearer beer?

Flavour was definitely the best brew I've made to date! Nice lychee flavours off the hops, even the missus enjoyed a zip out of the test tube

 

[djar007]

It will be the best beer you ever made. Until the next one. Good luck and happy brewing. Look forward to reading future brews.

 

[seehuusen]

Thanks mate

I'm getting ready for my next brew session, but wanted to ask a couple if questions.

I've been reading up on the mashing process to get a better efficiency.
What percentage of water is used for mash in? I need about 11.25l for the strike and 6l for the sparge.
Any major advantage of doing a mash-in?

I'm trying no- chill, which obviously would include to sterilize the cube. Can I be a cheap-skate, and reuse the sanitizer in the fermenter and leave it there for a day or two? How long could I leave it for?
Only reason I ask is I'm running low on no-rinse...

Thanks in advance,
Martin

 

[seehuusen]

I just finished a brew with the remaining grain from the local hb shop, my efficiency problem has got to be his grain
With a 90 minute mash + 10 minute batch sparge, I got an efficiency of about 51%!!

Some of my notes from the brew day:
11.25 litres of strike water @ 71.1C
After stirring and putting the lid on the cooler, 66.5C
Swirl & stir at 65min left - temp @ 65.5C

After 90 minutes, I poured the mash into my boil pot, and took the gravity. It was 1049 @ 32 = 1052 corrected for 20C
Added 6 litres of sparge at 75. Let that sit for 10 minutes and took a gravity of everything combined.
It came up at 1034 @ 31.5C = 1037 corrected for 20C

My total pre-boil volume was 14.5 litres

After 60 minutes of boil, I got 12 litres of wort.
I was a bit keen to see what was going on with my efficiency, though I will double check it again tomorrow.
I measured it to 1042 @ 42C = 1049 corrected for 20C

Recipe was intended to account to dilute with 2 litres of water... but at this stage, that's not going to happen...

I'm keen to hear if anything regarding my method used, needs to change?
I did the following:

1. Heat the required strike water to the BrewMate suggested temperature (on the stove)
2. Poured that into my cooler/mashtun (19 litre)
3. put a large BIAB bag into the mashtun
4. Added all the grain and stirred that well
5. Put the lid on and let it sit for 30 minutes, where I just swirled the whole cooler around on the the table.
6. I did that every 30 minutes.
7. After 90 minutes, I hoisted the bag up and out of the wort. I did let it drip into the bottom of the mashtun while I poured the wort
8. I then poured all the wort out of the mash tun into my boiling pot
9. Added the calculated (by BrewMate) sparge water and added the entire amount to the mash tun and stirred that well. Lid back on.
10. Let it sit for 10 minutes and hoisted the bag out of the sparge
11. Poured all of the sparge water into my boiling pot
12. Added heat to the pot and got it to a rolling boil.
13. Added 60, 30 and 5 minute hops when required (as well as whirfloc at 15 minutes)
14. Took it off the heat and it's now cooling (no chill)


Keen to hear if it is me, or if these grains I've bought are just ridiculously terrible???

Cheers
Martin

PS. I bought another batch of grain from the HBS in Brisbane, these grains will definitely not be bad! Looking forward to giving them a bash and see what efficiency I can hit then...

 

[djar007]

Try an iodine test to rule out conversion issues mate . at least then you can move from there.

 

[seehuusen]

Sorry if this is a newb quesi. How do you do that mate, never heard of it?

 

[djar007]

No drama mate. I am on my phone so links are a bit hard. But google mash starch conversion test and have a look at a few videos. Apologies for the short reply. Regards dave

 

[seehuusen]

Cheers Dave, will have a look for it

 

[seehuusen]

Dave, I had a look on youtube regarding the iodine test, I'm not sure exactly what it is you are suggesting I prove? If you don't mind, could you please explain what I'm missing, sorry for the newb q's
There are sugars converted, the gravity of my mash suggest that, just not to the extent that I expected (or BrewMate for that matter)
The OG I measured this morning was 1050, but the wort only measured in at just under 11 litres, bringing my efficiency further down by the looks of things
46%, if my calculations are correct. I got 44% with the same grain on my first batch.

I also conclude that although no-chill is a water saving thing, I'm not convinced I like it 100%
Next time I try it out, I'll be sure to use much less hops during the boil, probably only bittering hops. Then at second fermentation, dry hop with all the hops that I would normally use during the boil when I chill the wort.

I'm really enjoying this hobby. It's technical, yet not hard. It's by-product is generally delicious and I learn new things all the time
I can't wait to try the other grains and hopefully prove to myself that I'm mashing correctly...

Anyone with comments on the above procedure, please post them here, I'm keen to know if I'm on the right path or not

Cheers
Martin

 

[djar007]

my efficiency problem has got to be his grain

I know there is conversion taking place. But if you are wondering about the milling of your grain being too coarse then an iodine test can tell you if any starches remain in the grain unconverted. Indicating a problem with the crush or your mash schedule.

 

[seehuusen]

ahhh, are you saying to test the spent grains?
Also, comparing his milling with the Brisbane store, his is way finer :huh:

Got the second mash going now, with 3.5Kgs of Maris Otter Pale Malt from a Brisbane store, hopefully that'll prove it either way.
I'm using the remaining 500 grams of Crystal from the LHBS, which I know is a bit high, but I just want to get rid of it and get my malt from Brisbane from here on in.
I work there once a week, and can swing past the store on my way home. They go through litterally tons of grain a month, so no possibility of old grain

I've adapted the recipe for use with Magnum in the boil and won't add quite as much. Then once I'm on second fermentation, I'll dry-hop it with Citra.
Fingers crossed, this'll be yummy and OG correct

Cheers
Martin