This brew was compromised from the start. I over estimated how much head space my boil kettle had and so my maiden all grain BIAB voyage turned into an all grain partial mash. I'm pretty sure that 12# and 7.5 gallons of water in a 42qt pot was going to end in a sticky mess so I ended up doing a partial mash.
The mash went relatively smoothly with some minor trouble staying at/near my mash temp. My pre boil gravity was 10 points under the OG which in retrospect was probably fine, but at the time I panicked and decided to up the gravity with some DME. There goes my first all grain batch!
Post boil I had the "wise" idea to filter out the pellet hop debris when I racked over to the fermentor and that was maybe the dumbest decision of the night. It took FOREVER. The strainer kept clogging up. Think I'll add pellet hops to a paint strainer bag next time so I won't have a repeat performance.
Thanks to my tinkering managed to over shoot the recipe's OG by 7 points. My fear of a Half Hearted IPA was what drove me to mess with the gravity and I probably didn't need to. The wort tasted pretty good if a little sweet. Hopefully the bottle harvested Bell's yeast (another first) will be able to take care of that extra sweetness.
I also used some fining agents for the first time and added a whirlfloc tablet to the boil. I've gotta say that was some clear wort. Could see my hand on the other side of my gravity sample tube (a first for me)!
When would one use gelatin if the beer is going to be dry hopped in secondary? Before dry hopping? Or do you dry hop then cold crash the secondary and add gelatin right before bottling?
I've added a lot of new techniques and variables into my brewing with this batch. If its terrible (or good) it is going to be tough to pinpoint the cause. It's currently bubbling away at about 68 degrees though so I must have done something right.
The mash went relatively smoothly with some minor trouble staying at/near my mash temp. My pre boil gravity was 10 points under the OG which in retrospect was probably fine, but at the time I panicked and decided to up the gravity with some DME. There goes my first all grain batch!
Post boil I had the "wise" idea to filter out the pellet hop debris when I racked over to the fermentor and that was maybe the dumbest decision of the night. It took FOREVER. The strainer kept clogging up. Think I'll add pellet hops to a paint strainer bag next time so I won't have a repeat performance.
Thanks to my tinkering managed to over shoot the recipe's OG by 7 points. My fear of a Half Hearted IPA was what drove me to mess with the gravity and I probably didn't need to. The wort tasted pretty good if a little sweet. Hopefully the bottle harvested Bell's yeast (another first) will be able to take care of that extra sweetness.
I also used some fining agents for the first time and added a whirlfloc tablet to the boil. I've gotta say that was some clear wort. Could see my hand on the other side of my gravity sample tube (a first for me)!
When would one use gelatin if the beer is going to be dry hopped in secondary? Before dry hopping? Or do you dry hop then cold crash the secondary and add gelatin right before bottling?
I've added a lot of new techniques and variables into my brewing with this batch. If its terrible (or good) it is going to be tough to pinpoint the cause. It's currently bubbling away at about 68 degrees though so I must have done something right.