Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

You don't normally sparge BIB, you raise the temp, over ten min to 170 and then drain the bag.
You're correct, if you squeeze the bag, you get more tannins and more cloudiness. Just hang your bag, by string, it doesn't take that long to drain, 3 5/8lbs of grain.

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Thanks so just soak/mash the grains for 60min in 155-160f and then up the temp to 170 for 10min?

seabrew8 said:

Thanks so just soak/mash the grains for 60min in 155-160f and then up the temp to 170 for 10min?

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I am curious for this reply as well .

Add grain in bag to 150-160 water, hold at 145 for 60min ( light body, higher fermentable sugars) or 155 for 60 min ( fuller body, lower fermentable sugars), over 7 min bring water up to 168 and hold for 10 min. Raise bag, with grain out of water, letting it drain, discard grains. You can continue with rest of recipe, you just did small AG BIB mash, instead of using DME,

RobertMT said:

Add grain in bag to 150-160 water, hold at 145 for 60min ( light body, higher fermentable sugars) or 155 for 60 min ( fuller body, lower fermentable sugars), over 7 min bring water up to 168 and hold for 10 min. Raise bag, with grain out of water, letting it drain, discard grains. You can continue with rest of recipe, you just did small AG BIB mash, instead of using DME,

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oh, ok perfect....thanks...now, this might seem strange or odd....but, I'm still learning, so I have to ask as I do not know...

I already have the DME...is there a way to do the grain portion as BIAB, BUT, still use the DME as per the recipe?

thanks again for everyone's help.

Yes just follow the original recipe directions. If your going to use extract (dme or lme) put the specialty grains (1/2 lb of 60L and the 1oz of wheat) in a small grain bag and STEEP as Brandon describes in original recipe. If your not going to use extract (dme or lme) then you have to replace the extract (dme or lme) with base malt (ie 2 row) and then you would have to add the base grains with the speciality grains and follow the instructions for BIAB (MASHING). Hope this helps. I would recommend looking up info on extract brewing with specialty grains. Pick a simple ale recipe with extract brewing and steeping 1 or 2 specialty grains. Make a couple batches, work on the basics, and relax and have a homebrew.

A50SNAKE said:

oh, ok perfect....thanks...now, this might seem strange or odd....but, I'm still learning, so I have to ask as I do not know...

I already have the DME...is there a way to do the grain portion as BIAB, BUT, still use the DME as per the recipe?

thanks again for everyone's help.

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Charts like this one may be of interest to you also:
http://bundlr.com/clips/547a056e4d0c1e2bc900015f

slym2none said:

Hop it with Citra, and let us know later!

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So, I've got this kegged and carbed. I hopped with saaz, because that's what I had.

This is pretty damn good. If I had to do it over, I'd use the pound of torrified wheat I screwed up and put in here. And I'd hop it with Australian Summer hops.

Yes, there's an inch of head you have to patiently wait for, but it has the mouth feel of a nitro stout. It really surprises you, in a good way.

My graff has been in the fermenter for 10 days. The first 24 hours were very slow but I haveto say the yeast is VERY happy! 2 inches of Krausen and bubbling strong. Im leaving it in primary for another 2 weeks and then I'll keg it. Any suggestions as to whether I should force carbonate or add the sugar and let it carb on its own? Im dying to try this one but Id rather wait for the best results.

Roland

So - I brewed this last Sunday exactly as detailed on the first page. Pitched Nottingham that afternoon. 4 days later and there has been absolutely zero krausen and no airlock activity - but a gravity reading has seen it drop from 1.052 to 1.03. Anything I should be concerned about - or just chalk it up to one of those "Sometimes the airlock doesn't bubble for whatever reason" brews and move on?

HappyFermentations said:

So - I brewed this last Sunday exactly as detailed on the first page. Pitched Nottingham that afternoon. 4 days later and there has been absolutely zero krausen and no airlock activity - but a gravity reading has seen it drop from 1.052 to 1.03. Anything I should be concerned about - or just chalk it up to one of those "Sometimes the airlock doesn't bubble for whatever reason" brews and move on?

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do you have lots of head space?

Yeah - I have quite a bit because I wasn't sure how much krausen I was going to get and wanted to eliminate the chance for a blowoff. So, I've got about 4.5 gallons in a 5G carboy

Although I'd say it's odd for Notty not to show signs of fermentation via krausen, sometimes wort & yeast just doesn't make a big krausen. If possible, take a strong flashlight and shine it on your wort. If you see bubbles coming up, the yeast is working, eating the sugars and burping up alcohol & CO².

What does concern me is after 4 days, it's only halfway dropped to (somewhere near) FG. Notty is a beast, ripping through beer pretty fast. My last brew was "done" in four days, taking the beer from 1.062 to 1.013. Krausen dropped & all. Of course, I let it sit for while longer to "clean up" but as far as FG was concerned, it was done in four days.

Hmm... the thing is, I am not an experienced enough brewer to know why you are only halfway done. I'm sure others who are more experienced will come in and give their opinions.

Yeah - I've definitely got bubbles forming and moving around and stuff, but it's definitely strange that it's going so "slow" for Notty. The last time I used it in a cider it absolutely ripped through it.

I'm halfway tempted to try switching to something else like s-05 if it doesn't finish by this weekend. Think that's a terrible idea, or should I leave it alone and see what happens?

Here is my finished product.

View attachment 1447364366906.jpg

View attachment 1447364383309.jpg

HappyFermentations said:

Yeah - I've definitely got bubbles forming and moving around and stuff, but it's definitely strange that it's going so "slow" for Notty. The last time I used it in a cider it absolutely ripped through it.

I'm halfway tempted to try switching to something else like s-05 if it doesn't finish by this weekend. Think that's a terrible idea, or should I leave it alone and see what happens?

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I would leave it for now. You have activity, so the yeast aren't dead. Unless you are in a big hurry, anyway...

Strangest thing... I just switched air locks on a whim and it's magically going to town. Still no krausen and the bubbles are the same, but the airlock is flying all of a sudden. I've looked at the old one and can't find any cracks - really weird.

HappyFermentations said:

Strangest thing... I just switched air locks on a whim and it's magically going to town. Still no krausen and the bubbles are the same, but the airlock is flying all of a sudden. I've looked at the old one and can't find any cracks - really weird.

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maybe the stopper just needed a twist? Maybe the top wasn't on tight?

Dunno!

Or the movement of the carboy in the process resulted in some offgassing

My graff fermented painfully slow using Bry-97. I wanna say it was a good 3-4 days at least before I saw some real activity, and it did take about 3 weeks to ferment out if memory serves. I left it in the carboy another 3 weeks to clean up.

Not graff, but I just pitched Bry into a bipa yesterday. Rehydrated 2 packs for about 30 minutes in some wort from an iipa(firestone walker double jack clone, yum!)I was chilling after that brew.
It was chugging along 10 hours later. In a bucket, so I'm not peaking but it got started faster than the 002 did in the iipa.
I had a stout I used bry on about a year ago that took ~36 hours but I didn't rehydrate...

My airlock is still chugging twice/minute but I'm going to check the gravity tonight. It's been fermenting strong and long with Us-05.

Roland

Ok, my graff checked out at 1.010 last evening so Im pretty sure its done fermenting. The math puts me at 6.2%abv and Im ok with that. Tasting the sample gave me a nice malty taste and just a hint of hops but I was hoping for a little appley sweetness to be left over. Overall I think it will be tasty once it is kegged and carbonated.

Roland

Roland_deschain said:

Ok, my graff checked out at 1.010 last evening so Im pretty sure its done fermenting. The math puts me at 6.2%abv and Im ok with that. Tasting the sample gave me a nice malty taste and just a hint of hops but I was hoping for a little appley sweetness to be left over. Overall I think it will be tasty once it is kegged and carbonated.

Roland

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What yeast did you use? I'm waiting for my wort to cool down now to add apple juice/yeast!

Edit: US-05 How long did it take to ferment out? Thats the yeast i will be using.

Roland_deschain said:

Ok, my graff checked out at 1.010 last evening so Im pretty sure its done fermenting. The math puts me at 6.2%abv and Im ok with that. Tasting the sample gave me a nice malty taste and just a hint of hops but I was hoping for a little appley sweetness to be left over. Overall I think it will be tasty once it is kegged and carbonated.

Roland

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If you will be keeping it chilled for the remainder of its life, you could back sweeten with aj concentrate

seabrew8 said:

What yeast did you use? I'm waiting for my wort to cool down now to add apple juice/yeast!

Edit: US-05 How long did it take to ferment out? Thats the yeast i will be using.

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It started at about 24 hours and was chugging away strong for a week before I checked the FG. 10 days into the fermentation it settled.

Roland_deschain said:

It started at about 24 hours and was chugging away strong for a week before I checked the FG. 10 days into the fermentation it settled.

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Really.., mine started in about 3-4 hours. I sprinkled the yeast on the wort after it was cooled down and about a hour later i dumped the 4 gallons of apple juice on top of it.

I was a little curious about the lag in starting myself, but it worked out just fine

So my wife talked me into making a cider for her, so I compromised and made this Graff recipe. The only change I made, was the wort. I was already planning an IPA, so I added grain to my current recipe and drew off a gallon of the wort,. One quart of first running, and a little over three quarts of the sparge. OG came to 1.042 so added a cup of light dry malt extract, and .2 oz, of saaz hops for the boil. Mixed it all up in the fermenter, pitched yeast, and off it went to the ferm chamber. But I forgot to check OG. Oh well I don't really worried about, abv so I could care less. I hope this turns out good.

I got this going last night. I'm generally a purist in regards to strictly adhering to a recipe, especially when the recipe is not mine...but I happened to have some 290 degree Candi Syrup that I recently made and wanted to try it in something, and figured this would be as good as anything to test it in. My OG came in at 1.074 and I only had one pack of Notty. I rehydrated per the instructions so I'm hoping all will be good in regards to cell count, etc. I will report back on the finished product.

Cheers,
Tim

I think you'll be fine, Notty is a beast!

slym2none said:

I think you'll be fine, Notty is a beast!

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That's the vote of confidence I needed! Thanks,
Tim

Bottled yesterday after two weeks in primary. It seems to be carbing up pretty quickly. One issue I noticed is that I will DEFINITELY cold-crash before bottling next time. Yeast is already dropping out in the bottom of the bottles.

Been drinking my first batch for a few weeks. I only did a 3 gallon batch, so it was 2 gallons of Whole Foods Cider with 1 lb. of Amber DME (and no torrified wheat). Used S-05 and let it ferment for at least 4 weeks and added pectin. I then cold crashed before bottling. It is brilliantly clear at this point. I knew I was saving this for the holidays, so I was in no rush to bottle and carb (and wanted to avoid the hooch).

Gotta say, its even better than I expected.

Going to be a great Thanksgiving Day beverage.

tallguybrewer said:

Been drinking my first batch for a few weeks. I only did a 3 gallon batch, so it was 2 gallons of Whole Foods Cider with 1 lb. of Amber DME (and no torrified wheat). Used S-05 and let it ferment for at least 4 weeks and added pectin. I then cold crashed before bottling. It is brilliantly clear at this point. I knew I was saving this for the holidays, so I was in no rush to bottle and carb (and wanted to avoid the hooch).

Gotta say, its even better than I expected.

Going to be a great Thanksgiving Day beverage.

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Mine is only 2 weeks old but the sample i took was pleasantly nice, i was very happy with it. I was suprised i could taste the hops so much but maybe that will fade - i used 1/2oz of mt. hood.

It certainty seems like it will be very "drinkable".

Mine turned out nice, but a little on the dry side. I had hoped for a little sweetness but now that it's carbed up its very drinkable.

Made my second batch of this tonight. I'm trying out 2# of amber DME. Sample tasted awesome. First batch was exactly to recipe, i loved it.

Thanks for the recipe!

Just thought I'd throw this this out on the mat, The Dark Tower movie is due for release in January 2017. Perfect you recipes before then. I can imagine that summer being full of Graf makers.

wc1376c said:

Just thought I'd throw this this out on the mat, The Dark Tower movie is due for release in January 2017. Perfect you recipes before then. I can imagine that summer being full of Graf makers.

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Graff doesn't make an appearance until the third book, "The Wastelands" so there will be plenty of time

Finally had an excuse to make this. (Cider doesn't really appeal to me).

Made to exact recipe except used a 1 gallon .140 starter of 2 row and c60 instead of extract. I used natures reward apple juice that was on sale for $2.00 a gallon.

Fermented for three weeks at 65 using a slurry of 05. kegged and primed and sat it out of rotation until this last Friday (6 weeks from brew date.)

We had at our town Christmas tree lighting on Friday and the cider was very well received.

It is very favorable in my view, more tart than a commercial example which is good for me.

I'm brewing a pale ale now and upped the vol a gallon to use that wort for the next batch ( Costco's Kirkland juice).

Everybody loved it and if it weren't for me having 5 other things on tap, I'm sure it would have kicked in an hour or so.

If its good this time around; everytime I make centennial blonde, I will make this using the xtra wort. I'll let you know how it turns out.

So, mine fermented for 2 weeks and has been in the bottle for 2. Boy, is it tart! Does that fade with time? Right now it's super dry, which is fine, but is so tart it'll crack your teeth!