5th Brew Today, 2/8/12- Jenny's Irish Red

Doing 1-Gallon BIAB batch of this recipe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/jennys-irish-red-220357/

Altered as:

Malts and Fermentables:
Pale Malt (Maris Otter)- 1.8 lb
Caramel/Crystal Malt 40L- 0.10 lb
Flaked Oats- 0.051 lb
Black (Patent) Malt- 0.026 lb

Strike temp 162 (full volume of water used was 1.86 gallons per BIAB calculator)
Mash temp 158 for 1 hr

Hops:
EK Goldings- 0.2 oz @ 60 min.
EK Goldings- 0.1 oz @ 2 min.

Boil 1 hr

Yeast:
Wyeast #1084 (Irish Ale) - (Per Mr. Malty- #Vials or packs needed without starter: 0.4)

Misc.
1/4 of a Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 min.

Target SG: 1.052
My SG (after adding any top off water mixed thoroughly with wort): 1.051
Target FG: 1.015
My FG: ???

Nailed the strike water temp and mash in (strike temp was 162 per BIAB calculator) and as soon as I added the grains and stirred them up, it dropped to 158. I wrapped in towels and put in the oven (off) for 60 min. So far so good! I'm DETERMINED to finally meet my numbers.

Just took out of the oven and took the temp of the grains. 149 degrees...HOW!? How could I lose 8 degrees with the lid on, and wrapped in towels? And AGAIN, I probably won't hit my SG number. What does it take?

I keep my pot on the stove with one of those digital thermometers with the wire that goes into the wort, that way you can watch the temp the whole time with out taking the lid off. Soon as it drops a couple degrees give it a quick flash of some heat. Works pretty good for me......

18 minutes left in my boil and it looks like I'm going to have too much wort for my 1-gallon carboy. Again, I used all of the calculators out there, calculated my boil off rate, etc., and again...my water volume isn't accurate. *sigh*

Did you pre-heat your oven to the lowest setting then turn it off when you put it in? (This is what I do...don't loose much if any temp in 60 mins). Also, if you didn't stir real well, the uniform temp may not have been 158...

That is still a good mash temp range that it stayed in, I'm sure it will be just fine. I learned to stir, stir, STIR after messing up my temps the first time I tried to do a partial mash.

You should be able to tweak your water volume data from this batch to dial it in next time.

strambo said:

Did you pre-heat your oven to the lowest setting then turn it off when you put it in? (This is what I do...don't loose much if any temp in 60 mins). Also, if you didn't stir real well, the uniform temp may not have been 158...

That is still a good mash temp range that it stayed in, I'm sure it will be just fine. I learned to stir, stir, STIR after messing up my temps the first time I tried to do a partial mash.

You should be able to tweak your water volume data from this batch to dial it in next time.

Click to expand...

I did stir. I stir constantly. I turned the oven on "warm" about 1hr prior, and then turned it off a half hour prior, then put it in. Next time I'll turn it off as soon as I put it in.

Wooohooo! Even with about 3/4 of a quart more than I needed, my SG came out to be 1.051!!!!!! FINALLY! :rockin:

Good fermentation going all day today. I think this beer is going to be dayum good. Interesting how the Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale took about 12 hours to actually get doing. Either way, I'm excited for this brew!

12 hours is actually a pretty good lag time. I'm not sure of the exact science behind it, but I have read that this kind of lag time will lend itself to better taste, as it indicates the yeast have gone through an actual reproductive phase. Again, I'm not sure on the details, but this is apparently a good thing, as far as yeast health and beer quality go.