Gunslinger's Graff

Rowdy50 said:

n00b question alert! Would like to brew this up this weekend.

Do you steep the grains first, then sparge, then add LME, then boil for 60min? If so, what volumes and temperatures and times? Or do you just throw the whole thing in the boil?

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You steep the grains first sparge if you want. Brandon's recipe calls for 3/4 gallon of water for the steep and a quart for the sparge. Then heat your water to a boil, remove from heat and add the LME, get that well dissolved and boil.

Here's my recipe of the Graff brewed this summer:
BIAB
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 16.325 l
Post Boil Volume: 13.486 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.016 l
Bottling Volume: 10.183 l
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG
Estimated Color: 59.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 117.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.260 kg Pale Malt, 2 row (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 57.2 %
0.500 kg Caramel Malt - 120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.6 %
0.340 kg Special B (147.5 SRM) Grain 3 8.6 %
0.250 kg Roasted Barley (600.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
0.250 kg Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.3 %
0.123 kg Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.1 %
0.118 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 75 (75.0 Grain 7 3.0 %
0.113 kg Chocolate Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 8 2.9 %
28.000 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 52.1 IBUs
15.000 g Chinook [11.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10 33.0 IBUs
10.000 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 11 10.2 IBUs
35.000 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 12 21.7 IBUs
0.15 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 13 -
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 14 -
0.58 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Other 15 -
11.00 l Apple Extract (Primary 2.0 days) Flavor 16 -

I was thinking - could you just boil the wort and apple juice mixed together? I was wondering if hop flavors would react different that way?
Another plus - you would sanitize apple juice with boiling. I have over 20 gallons of freshly pressed apple juice from my garden, so I thought I might as well try to brew this Stephen King's creation

greencoat said:

From The Waste Lands:

Roland leaned over to Jake, who was sitting tailor-fashion near an oval bed of bright green flowers with Oy at his side. He Hurmured: "Drink only enough to be polite, Jake, or we'll be carrying you out of town - this is graf - strong apple-beer."

So, I may have botched the spelling (one "f", not two) but it certainly is referred to as an apple beer. Also - in the paragraph before the one I quoted, it's referred to as a "dark golden liquid," so for complete accuracy, you might wanna cut out a fair amount of the dark grains.

Click to expand...

Any thoughts or ideas on making this lighter in color? I'm thinking 1 can Amber, 1 can light LME 5 gallon apple juice, maybe some crystal 60 for residual sweetness...

Would someone like myself enjoy this? I'm not a hop head. The IBU's say 68. Is this a really bitter drink? I've never had Graff before so I am not amazingly familiar with it.

I’ve got mine going today! Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Is this excessively bitter with the suggested bittering hops? How's it compar to like an IPA or a common wheat ale around 18 ibu's?

Questions about the volumes....

The OP lists the recipe up top as 5 gallons.

Under the label, it says "4 Gallon, 60 min boil". And then to "top off with 2.75 gallons apple juice".

So, as I understand it, that means the OP brought 4 gallons total to the boil, lost 1.25gal during the boil, then topped it up to 5gal with apple juice. Ja? Seems like a lot of water...

Also, what should the water temp be for steeping and for how long? 155 degrees for 30 mins, like Brandon O?

I steeped at 60min but I used a little more grain including some special B.
I boiled for 60min and only had to add 2 gallons of applejuice. I started with a 4 gallon boild.
Just tasted last night and it is amazing!!

Hoping to brew this when my move is finally finished, be a nice way to celebrate the disaster it became.

Was wondering if anyone had ever done it with a Belgian Abbey yeast before instead of a neutral ale yeast?

SO a few weeks ago I brewed a batch of Brandon O's Graff...followed the recipe to the T using Mt. Rainier hops. Today I bottled that batch leaving the yeast cake in the fermenter. Then I brewed up a 2.5 gallon stout wort with 1 lb chocolate malt .5 lbs de-bittered black malt and 5 lbs dark DME and an ounce of willimette hops booiled for 60 minutes. I threw that along with 2.5 gallons of apple juice on top of the yeast cake from the Brandon O graff. I am also soaking 4 ounces of cacao nibs in vodka to throw in to this during secondary.