First BIAB Dry Run

[spryzie]

Well, I got impatient and tried my beer.

Firstly, I had made a Coopers Lager earlier as well because it came with the fermenter. It sat for 3 weeks in the fermenter but I gave up and bottled at 1017 - I let it get too cold and I think the yeasties died. It's been bottled for almost 3 weeks now. Opened one up and it's flat with zilch yeast residue in the bottle. Bah! Tastes horrible too. Threw that down the sink. Might have to throw it all out...

Now, I opened one of my first BIAB Red Ale'ish brew. It's been bottled on 3 days but I can't wait!

It's carbonated a little (more than the fail lager) - very much like Kilkenny. It's pleasant anyway. Could be a bit more fizzy but wouldn't want too much more. Probably be a little too fizzy in another week. Just used carbonation drops 1 per stubbie and 2 per tallie.

The aroma? Sweet. Burnt Caramel. That's all I can tell. Not much hop aroma.

The taste? TOFFEE!!! What the? It's like cordial almost (well, note quite). It did ferment completely to what BrewMate predicated (1015'ish). Not horrible, just not really bitter enough. Maybe too much CaraRed and Crystal 120? I can't taste much bitterness at all which BrewMate said should be 31 IBUs. Needs more IBUs... I rushed the hops a bit, I think I did 10g @ 30mins, 20g @ 10mins and 10g into the no chill cube. East Kent Goldings.

The mouth feel? Good. Thick. Nice.

All up, it's pleasant enough to drink and it's only been bottled for 3 days after 1 week in the fermenter!

Oh, and it was red!

I'm going to make a stout next. What hops should I use to bitter it with? I have 10g of EKG left I'll probably through into the no chill cube for it.

What does this recipe look like?

Original Gravity (OG): 1.061 (°P): 15.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8
Alcohol (ABV): 5.99 %
Colour (SRM): 43.9 (EBC): 86.5
Bitterness (IBU): 41.2 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

78.12% Pale Malt
7.81% Crystal 120
7.81% Roasted Barley
3.12% Chocolate
3.12% Flaked Oats

1.4 g/L Northern Brewer (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L East Kent Golding (5.9% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil)

 

[Crusty]

1 week in the fermenter is a pretty short time,
How confident are you that it's fully fermented out?
I'm surprised you found it drinkable at only 3 days in the bottle. I refuse to drink anything bottled under 4 weeks old.
What you are tasting now will be completely different at 8 weeks, you won't believe it's the same beer.
Let it be mate & crack one after 4 weeks in the bottle & one every week up to the 8 week mark.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[iralosavic]

Hydrometer is fine. I've made sure of that. Just wondered why she fermented so dry. I have consistently been hitting 1012ish FG with all my extracts, so I figured it must be the grain mash, or is it Wheat? I've not done a brew that has 50% wheat content before. Considering my estimated OG was bang on 1040, just curious what factors might make me hit 1003 FG?

Infection? Sounds like a bad reading (sometimes the concentration of yeast or hop debri can cause inconsistent readings) or an infection. If it were 1.050, I'd say infection 100%, but with a low OG like 1.040, a long mash in the low 60s and a highly attenuating yeast, it would be "possible", but still unlikely. (sorry to ambush the main thread starter, but infections are bad mkay!)

 

[manticle]

Well, I got impatient and tried my beer.

Firstly, I had made a Coopers Lager earlier as well because it came with the fermenter. It sat for 3 weeks in the fermenter but I gave up and bottled at 1017 - I let it get too cold and I think the yeasties died. It's been bottled for almost 3 weeks now. Opened one up and it's flat with zilch yeast residue in the bottle. Bah! Tastes horrible too. Threw that down the sink. Might have to throw it all out...

Now, I opened one of my first BIAB Red Ale'ish brew. It's been bottled on 3 days but I can't wait!

It's carbonated a little (more than the fail lager) - very much like Kilkenny. It's pleasant anyway. Could be a bit more fizzy but wouldn't want too much more. Probably be a little too fizzy in another week. Just used carbonation drops 1 per stubbie and 2 per tallie.

The aroma? Sweet. Burnt Caramel. That's all I can tell. Not much hop aroma.

The taste? TOFFEE!!! What the? It's like cordial almost (well, note quite). It did ferment completely to what BrewMate predicated (1015'ish). Not horrible, just not really bitter enough. Maybe too much CaraRed and Crystal 120? I can't taste much bitterness at all which BrewMate said should be 31 IBUs. Needs more IBUs... I rushed the hops a bit, I think I did 10g @ 30mins, 20g @ 10mins and 10g into the no chill cube. East Kent Goldings.

The mouth feel? Good. Thick. Nice.

All up, it's pleasant enough to drink and it's only been bottled for 3 days after 1 week in the fermenter!

Oh, and it was red!

I'm going to make a stout next. What hops should I use to bitter it with? I have 10g of EKG left I'll probably through into the no chill cube for it.

What does this recipe look like?

Original Gravity (OG): 1.061 (°P): 15.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.015 (°P): 3.8
Alcohol (ABV): 5.99 %
Colour (SRM): 43.9 (EBC): 86.5
Bitterness (IBU): 41.2 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)

78.12% Pale Malt
7.81% Crystal 120
7.81% Roasted Barley
3.12% Chocolate
3.12% Flaked Oats

1.4 g/L Northern Brewer (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L East Kent Golding (5.9% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil)

Why was your first addition at 30 mins? Were you trying to accomodate/compensate for no chill? Did you 'tick the no chill box"?

Forget that until you have a couple of brews down pat, then see what difference it makes. Adjust hoppy beers from there, leave less hoppy brews as they are.

Carbonation and time will change your brew a lot too.

Also I suggest being patient in future. Why are you bottling at high FG after 1 week in the fermenter?

I hope you are not bottling in glass, wear thick gloves and eye protection in day to day transactions, have no kids or pets and don't give your beer to anyone else. Sounds crazy to me unless I've missed something.

 

[Econwatson]

Yeah, I've left all my brews for 2 weeks in the fermenter before bottling. It makes sure fermentation is complete and it allows the nasties floating in your beer to drop out of suspension. If you bottle before that time, you get all of that stuff in your bottle as well as your beer.

Cover the bottles with a couple of heavy towels or stick it somewhere out of the way.

 

[spryzie]

Yeah, I was trying to accommodate no chill - I ticked the box in BrewMate.

Probably just stick with bittering addition @ 60mins next time?

Hydrometer said it was finished (according to BrewMate predicated final gravity) and, yeah, I got impatient. I'll leave the next one for 2 weeks regardless if it's finished earlier.

Did about a 10L batch, I got 10 plastic tallies and 4 glass stubbies bottled. I'm squeezing the plastic bottles everyday to make sure it's not going to explode. They aren't that firm now. I'm watching them - should be fine.

I'm wanting to sample as it ages kind of a learning exercise too.

Why was your first addition at 30 mins? Were you trying to accomodate/compensate for no chill? Did you 'tick the no chill box"?

Forget that until you have a couple of brews down pat, then see what difference it makes. Adjust hoppy beers from there, leave less hoppy brews as they are.

Carbonation and time will change your brew a lot too.

Also I suggest being patient in future. Why are you bottling at high FG after 1 week in the fermenter?

I hope you are not bottling in glass, wear thick gloves and eye protection in day to day transactions, have no kids or pets and don't give your beer to anyone else. Sounds crazy to me unless I've missed something.

 

[bum]

I believe the whole point of the box is to avoid the "manual" shifting of hop additions. I don't use the box myself as it only takes bitterness into account and I don't believe for one second that bitterness is the only aspect that changes when no chilling. But that's me - there's tonnes of blokes who say there's no difference between adjusting for no-chill and not adjusting at all.

 

[manticle]

I would definitely not say there is no difference but I would recommend brewing the first few without adjusting to get a feel/taste then adjust IF they seemed to be turning out too bitter or not balanced.

Certainly beers with one or two hop additions (eg 60/20/0 or just 60) that aren't super hoppy, I find negligible difference. Beers with tons of late hop additions are far more noticeable. My belief is that no-chill boxes in software are too simplistic and lead people to over-estimate a tad but brewers should be smart enough to use these things as a guide and work out where their palate sits.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I believe the whole point of the box is to avoid the "manual" shifting of hop additions. I don't use the box myself as it only takes bitterness into account and I don't believe for one second that bitterness is the only aspect that changes when no chilling. But that's me - there's tonnes of blokes who say there's no difference between adjusting for no-chill and not adjusting at all.

Hop flavour changes, IMHO.

I tend to no chill for beers with 'non-hoppy' characters - your British beers, anything that needs a 60 minute and nothing else addition.

And chill for anything that needs a 30 minute hop addition or less. I haven't got a 'hoppy' beer right yet no chilling and I attempted with a cream ale that I wanted a little more hop flavour with (experimenting). Not that happy out of the fermenter, though it might improve. Tried to dry hop with 60g of 'fruity' hops post ferment to compensate, but I don't reckon it'll be that fantastic.