Which Yeast?

[j1gsaw]

Howdy all.
Im finally getting around to ordering in the ingredients for the Hens Tooth recipe, however just need some advice on a few things. Firstly, The recipe calls for 372g of crystal malt, but would there be a preferred style?
I was thinking of either Carared malt (weyermann)
or, maybe either pale or medium (Bairds) Any thoughts??

Also, if i cant obtain Pipkin malt, would there be a very close substitute?
And what would be the best yeast to order in for this brew?

Now for the newbie question... (prepare to gasp)
I was just reading up on a BIAB article, and from what i read it sounds easy enough, however, does it actually mean i can just drop 6kg of grain, plus the crystal malt, into the same big grain bag, and merrily boil that for 60-90 mins (with hop additions)
and then a quick drain, chill, yeast etc.
Or does the Crystal malt need to be seperated for less boil time ?

Also, seeing i have only one 19 litre stainless pot, naturally i doubt i can do the full boil in one go, so how do you other brewers get around that? (Probably have 2 pots Jig you tool)...
But for those who have had to do a couple of boil ups for the one recipe... do you just pour the first lot of wort into the carboy and leave it sit until the next lot goes in, say an hr or so later? Or would that be infection risk? Cheers.

 

[Adamt]

*GASP*

No, it's not that easy... you probably need to read the article again!

You must have the bag of grain in water in your pot at about 65C for an hour, then you remove the bag, draining the contents and boil the liquor (without the bag in it) for an hour with hop additions. With a 19L stainless pot you may be able to get away with 12-13L batches. Mashing is not something you should just jump right into, there's a lot of things that can go wrong if you don't understand the principles.

 

[Sammus]

1) I think pipkin is just an english base malt, subs with any english base malt if so (halcyon, golden promise, maris otter) - someone correct me if I'm wrong.

2) whatever you do, don't boil it You need to read the BIAB article again more thoroughly if you think boiling grain is OK. Boiling grain is a big no-no (except in some specific circumstances, ie decoction mashing) and you will not extract anything good from the grain.

3) most people have bigger than 19L pots. If you can't fork out for a bigger pot (50L?) then yeah, split your boil and all hop additions between a couple 19L jobs. Should do the trick. I don't know about using the same pot sequentially. *shrugs* doesn't sound like a great idea though. You can get cheapo 19L pots from bigW or whatevever, I've also seem them in some asian grocers, I got a couple of SS ones for $17 each.

 

[j1gsaw]

Righto, shall add that info to the List.
So any thoughts on which yeast? I havent used anything flasher then safale/lager so far, Im keen to splurge on a good one.

 

[Bribie G]

Sounds like the recipe originates from the UK since it mentions Pipkin Malt. I would use Maris Otter which is very flexible. Also use Medium crystal malt, that's what they mostly use in the UK home brew community and on one of their forums they seemed a bit surprised to learn about the big range of crystals we get here.

Yeast, for dried yeast go S-04 but if you want to really splash out on a liquid yeast then suggest Wyeast 1768 which gives a luscious fruity beer but don't bottle too soon as this yeast can give a lot of diacetyl (butterscotch flavour).

Seeing as you haven't yet come to grips with actually producing the wort maybe go the cheaper S-04 until you are up to speed.

:icon_cheers:

 

[j1gsaw]

Righto, cheers for that. So lastly, can i put the crystal malt in with the maris otter when its on the boil (so to speak, @ 65c) ?
Or does the crystal go in for less time?

 

[Bribie G]

Up to you. I put mine in with the base malt. Some HBers add it to the end of the mash because it is already 'pre mashed' and doesn't need mashing as such and there is some debate that the husks of the crystal can add astringency if steeped too long. Haven't found that personally.