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redrocker652002

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Ok, my next attempt is going to be today. My recipe is as follows:

If this looks familiar, it is. I got it from here. LOL

5# Pale Malt (Recipe calls for Marris Otter)
3# Vienna Malt
2# Munich malt
1/2# Crystal 20L
1/2# Crystal 60L

Hops are simple, all Cascade full cone

1 ounce at 60
3/4 ounce at 30
1 ounce at 10
1/2 ounce at 5
1/2 ounce at flameout

1 ounce dry hop, will probably wait until fermentation is done and then add them for about 3 or 4 days

Yeast is WLP001 and made a starter of 100g of DME to I litre of water. Boiled for 5 mins and in a 5 gallon jug when down to 70 degrees. Shook the heck out of it, then added the yeast and covered. Shook it a few times last night and it is sitting on the counter now waiting for later today.

Mash will be at 154 or so for 60 mins. I am going to try and move my burner into the garage to see if I can get a bit better temp control. Looks like the wind is going to pick up a bit today, so it might be tougher to keep the burner going and keep the temp close outside. About 4 3/4 gallons of water to mash in, then about 3 gallons of sparge water. I am going to split that in half I think, and do the dunk in sparge that I read about. Put the grain bag in a pot with the heated water and stir and try and extract as much as I can that way. Seems the way I have been sparging isn't quite working.

60 minute boil, cool to about 70 degrees, aerate as best I can and pitch the starter. According to the recipe sheet I have, the fermenting will be at about 62 degrees for two weeks.

My hope is that I can get an OG of about 1.054, FG of 1.012 with an ABV somewhere around 5.5%. Brewfather has the IBU's at about 46, which will be a lower IBU for me, but what the heck. I saw the recipe on another forum and thought I would give it a go. I have not used Marris Otter before, so that should be fun. Anyway, I won't be starting for a bit, so any comments would be welcomed. But, since I already bought all the stuff, it is unlikely I will be changing anything other than maybe having a packet of BRY97 yeast that I can sub for the WLP001 if that makes it better. Wish me luck. RR
 
Good luck! I LOVE MO malt…it is my go to malt for all of my non-German ales. That recipe looks eerily familiar…like one of my first brews LoL

I believe I called it Worry Wort Ale if memory serves me. Anyway, hope you have an easy brew day and the beer tastes delicious!
 
Good luck! I LOVE MO malt…it is my go to malt for all of my non-German ales. That recipe looks eerily familiar…like one of my first brews LoL

I believe I called it Worry Wort Ale if memory serves me. Anyway, hope you have an easy brew day and the beer tastes delicious!
Unfortunately, it is not starting well. According to Brewfather I should be at a pre boil gravity of 1.055 and I am at 1.042. Not a good start, but we continue on. I am in it now.
 
Unfortunately, it is not starting well. According to Brewfather I should be at a pre boil gravity of 1.055 and I am at 1.042. Not a good start, but we continue on. I am in it now.

You said in your original post your OG at 1.055…1.042 is pretty close where you should be to get that OG.
 
OK, so I was a bit off. Brewfather had my efficiency at 75%, yea, not happening. I adjusted my efficiency down to 70% and my OG of 1.055 was damn near spot on at 1.052. First time using the Ispindel and I am digging it too. The ferm temp is supposed to be 62 degrees, that is going to be tough to get to. I have a fan in the closet and I am at about 70 right now. Not much I can do there, so off I go. LOL. Also, I am already seeing some activity in the airlock, so the starter worked out OK too I guess. We shall see, but for now, a long day is a good day. Cleaned up and ready for my next batch in a week or two. Keep on rockin in the free world. LOL RR
 
You said in your original post your OG at 1.055…1.042 is pretty close where you should be to get that OG.
Ooops, you are right. I looked again, and once I adjusted the efficiency down my preboil gravity was supposed to be 1.046. I got close at 1.042. So, I am good to go, now we just let the yeast do it's thing and try and get the temp down in the closet a bit. All good.
 
Closet is holding at 71. I'm assuming it will drop a bit overnight. My research says 70 is a good middle ground so I'm pretty happy with that.
70 may be the middle ground but with the ambient temperature of 71 the yeast may be able to push the beer temp into the low 80's, way too high and likely to produce off flavors at least and possibly fusel alcohols too. A tub of water to set your fermenter into can help to moderate the temperature rise due to the yeast activity. You may have to add ice to the water in the tub to help control the beer temp.
 
70 may be the middle ground but with the ambient temperature of 71 the yeast may be able to push the beer temp into the low 80's, way too high and likely to produce off flavors at least and possibly fusel alcohols too. A tub of water to set your fermenter into can help to moderate the temperature rise due to the yeast activity. You may have to add ice to the water in the tub to help control the beer temp.
Thank you. I will see what I can do. According to the Ispindel the temp inside the bucket is at 73. But I will see what I can rig up.
 
I think I have a hold on the temp now. I put a second fan in and it dropped it down to anywhere between 68 and 70. I found a keg sleeve on amazon for about 15 bucks that I can put ice packs into and wrap it around the bucket, so I might give that a try. Numbers according to the Ispindel have been doing ok. Temp is in the high 60's to about 70 inside the bucket. My OG started at 1.054 on Friday mid day when it went into the bucket, and I am now at 1.023. Per Brewfather I should get down to about 1.012 or so, and according to the recipe I am to ferment for 14 days. My attenuation on the yeast is at 57.41 percent, and as I have read it, that should top out at about 80%, so I think we have a bit more to go there as well. My ABV is sitting at 4.0% and that is supposed to get to about 5.3 or so. All these numbers are based on Brewfather once I adjusted my efficiency, so I am anxious to see how close I can get.

I only post this to update and to get any feedback you all may have. I am very new to all the numbers and what they mean, but I am getting there. I like to analyze things and am very AR about numbers and process. This has been fun, but difficult for me because I am not hitting the numbers the recipe says I should. But once I realized those numbers are simply guides that made a huge difference.

Thanks to all who have replied to this and my other posts. I appreciate it. RR
 
One question that I am not sure of. If the fermenting time is 14 days, when do I add the dry hops? My plan was to watch and see when fermenting has stopped, or at least slowed down and drop the hop bag in for about 5 days. Then finish out the 14 and either keg or bottle. Thoughts?
 
One question that I am not sure of. If the fermenting time is 14 days, when do I add the dry hops? My plan was to watch and see when fermenting has stopped, or at least slowed down and drop the hop bag in for about 5 days. Then finish out the 14 and either keg or bottle. Thoughts?

I don't dry hop often but when i do, i drop them on day 10 and package on day 15.
 
OK, so I am a bit confused about something. I put my beer in the fermenter on Friday afternoon. It took off right away and was really going good. Today, all day, it has been stuck at 1.023 with an attenuation of about 57.41. I am not sure what is going on. Any help?
 
Mash will be at 154 or so for 60 mins.

OK, so I am a bit confused about something. I put my beer in the fermenter on Friday afternoon. It took off right away and was really going good. Today, all day, it has been stuck at 1.023 with an attenuation of about 57.41. I am not sure what is going on. Any help?
The "or so" in the first quote might be the cause. Your mash temp is in the middle of the saccrification range but it wouldn't have to be much above that to create mostly dextrines that are not fermentable.

The other possible reasons include a stuck ferment, a final gravity reading taken with a refractometer, or a bad reading. If you have a stuck ferment, try gently swirling the fermenter with the hopes of rousing the yeast. The only time I have had a stuck ferment, simply moving the bucket fermenter was enough to restart it.

If you are using a refractometer for final gravity, the alcohol in the beer will skew the reading higher that it really is. You need to use a hydrometer or learn to correct the refractometer reading.

Your ispindel, being afloat in the fermenter, may have collected some krausen and had CO2 bubbles stuck to it making it float higher which will give a bad reading.
 
The "or so" in the first quote might be the cause. Your mash temp is in the middle of the saccrification range but it wouldn't have to be much above that to create mostly dextrines that are not fermentable.

The other possible reasons include a stuck ferment, a final gravity reading taken with a refractometer, or a bad reading. If you have a stuck ferment, try gently swirling the fermenter with the hopes of rousing the yeast. The only time I have had a stuck ferment, simply moving the bucket fermenter was enough to restart it.

If you are using a refractometer for final gravity, the alcohol in the beer will skew the reading higher that it really is. You need to use a hydrometer or learn to correct the refractometer reading.

Your ispindel, being afloat in the fermenter, may have collected some krausen and had CO2 bubbles stuck to it making it float higher which will give a bad reading.
All great info, thank you for replying. I will say that this is my third all grain batch, and most if not all have been mashed in the 150 to 155 area and I have never had any issues. I did have, at least I think I did, have a stuck ferment once. And I say that only because I thought I had reached final gravity as the number had not changed in two days, so I moved the bucket to the counter to begin the bottling and it started bubbling again. So I put it back in the closet and let it go another 4 or 5 days and the final gravity dropped to where I thought it should have been. So that may be where I am at again this time. My thought is to give it a quick 5 to 10 minute move to the counter in the hope to repeat what happened before. While I do this, I am going to check the Ispindel as well. This is my first attempt at using it, so I am still trying to figure it out as well.

Once I try these things, I am going away for a few days so it will sit there until I get back. I will throw some dry hops in it and bottle it and see where it ends up. Thank you for the input, I truly appreciate all the input.
 
Update, I checked the gravity with my hydrometer and the Ispindel was pretty much spot on. So, I moved the bucket to the counter, took the Ispindel out and cleaned it up. Sanitized it and put it back in the wort. All sealed up again and back in the closet. At this point I am going to leave it and see what happens. I am thinking of adding more yeast, but all I have is BRY97 and S05. I used WLP001 initially so I am not sure if it is ok to mix yeasts like that. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Either way, this is my third go around with BIAB, and I am not giving up yet. LOL. I might go back to my original way of mashing and then running water over the grains instead of dunking the bag into a separate pot of water. I am also going to see if my local Morebeer will double crush my grains for next time. Either way, I am going to let this one play out and see what happens. Heck, I am only out about 35 to 40 bucks I think. LOL
 
Well, after about 10 days, the gravity went from 1.052 to 10.22 and stopped. So, I put it in the keg and will see if that helps. Probably won't, but what the heck. I tasted it and it didn't taste bad, so I am encouraged. I will add some dry hops, let it sit another week and carb it up and see what I have. If it is crud, down the drain it goes. No need to drink lousy beer. LOL.

On a positive note, my next brew day will be tomorrow and I am trying a simpler recipe that I got from here. Not giving up on this hobby. It is fun.

Rock on!!!!!!!!
 
Well, after about 10 days, the gravity went from 1.052 to 10.22 and stopped.

In the future I would leave it another few days and check gravity again. That beer IMO isn't done fermenting. It could be depending on your mash temp but considering your fermentation temps I say you pulled the trigger too soon and made a common new brewer mistake...not being patient.
 
In the future I would leave it another few days and check gravity again. That beer IMO isn't done fermenting. It could be depending on your mash temp but considering your fermentation temps I say you pulled the trigger too soon and made a common new brewer mistake...not being patient.
Thank you for the input. It stood at 1.023 for almost a week. It was at 1.0228 for 3 days. I might have been too quick. I'll see what happens.
 
Nothing you can do now because you kegged it and I assume put it in the fridge...live and learn fellow brewer!
Yup. It is in the keg. Not yet in the fridge. Gonna drops some dry hops in tomorrow or Thursday.

I probably should have left it alone. Patience isn't my strong suit. But I'm learning.
 
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