It's Just Finding The Balance...

[blink471]

Hi all.

Just thought I would share some experiences I have had over the last couple of months with my adventure into all grain brewing.

It has been a ton of fun making up recipes to do, also the brew day which always extends to the night, and the learnings from each brew.
Mind you I have done only 3 so far.. but learn something every time.

My first attempt went pretty good, with all though it took a lot longer than expected with both the re-checking of every step making sure I didn't stuff up... and then a small stuff up
with my first mash. I had it going great.. until when I went to do the runnings and sparge back into the mash tun.. I had but a trickle of liquid coming out. Which extended the
whole process a few extra hours I think. Lesson there was the fact I milled the grain a bit fine which I adjusted next time, and also I stirred the grain bed at the end of mash thinking it would extract more sugars. I think I upset the bed at the bottom and clogged the mash. Anyway.. you learn..

The second and third brews went well as far as the process goes with everything going pretty good. And I really enjoyed the day of brewing.

But the main thing I wanted to share was the actual thing I did learn was the grain bill and how important it is to get it right, and understand what each ingredient does.

I found that the beers I have made are coming along great (only three weeks in bottles), but I over did the amount of crystal malt in my recipes for what I wanted.
I got a beautiful creamy rich head with good lacing on a few of the beers I have tried (I know its still early for conditioning), and carbonation I think just right. But a real caramel taste and a
darker beer than expected. Also got a bit of chill haze on the beers probably from the larger amount of proteins the specialty malts have. Which is still ok... I'm still a rookie with brewing.

So I have been using Beersmith as guide.. not a written in stone recipe, and now will adjust the grains a bit for future, with every bit of confidence I will get it right for my tastes.

The information on here from you guys is amazing.. and Youtube gets a workout everyday with the brewers on there. But like I said in title.. I understand its finding that balance, recording it down, and play around with styles.

I have now built a fermentation fridge and looking to controlling fermentation a bit more.. with a goal of a Bohemian Pilsner as a target when I get better.

Hope this isnt sounding like a beer ramble.... just wanted to share my experience so far.

Cheers
Tony

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Yeah its awesome. Some people have asked: "why would you brew this way if it takes you all day?"
They just don't get it..

How much crystal % did you use?

 

[blink471]

How much crystal % did you use?

Thanks for reply. Yeah on the opening two brews it was about 10% of specialty malts for both of them. That included wheat, Carapils, and on the first brew 4.% was crystal malt.
I was trying to get too fancy with the malts I think.. although I notice some people go that way.

Still very drinkable... I just had to learn what these malts do and the quantities to use.

In fact I went to England a couple of years ago... and it was very similar to a few bitter ales I had there. So it is still going to be consumed.

I used Pale malt for one and pilsner malt for the other as well which definitely contributed to colour as well... ale obviously darker.

Beersmith gives you the opportunity to get creative... but I need to understand malts first.
Im going up to Sydney next weekend to the GAB's festival for craft beers. Will be asking a few questions there.