First time BIAB - Oyster Stout

[Mihai]

This is the second beer i ever make, after doing first a kit beer so I'm gonna detail the process and i would appreciate if you could advise me what i did wrong or could do better.

I started with the recipe:

Black Pearl Oyster Stout
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain with bivalve mollusks) - i adapted it to 12 liters and used blue mussels instead of oysters

OG = 1.052 FG = 1.013 IBU = 37 SRM = 60 ABV = 5.0%
Ingredients
9.0 lbs. (4.1 kg) 2-row pale malt - 6lbs/ 2.8 kg Weyermann Pale Ale
0.5 lb. (0.22 kg) flaked oats - 0.35lbs/ 160g.
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) roasted barley -0,55lbs/250g barley roasted by me
0.5 lb. (0.22 kg) chocolate malt -0,5lbs/210g
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) black patent malt -0,17lbs/80g Brewferm Special-B
10 oz. can raw oysters (and brine) -0,4 lbs/190g blue mussels with shells, added in the last 15 min. of boiling
1 tsp. Irish moss -added in the last 15 min. of boiling
8.6 AAU Fuggles hops (60 mins)
(1.5 oz./43 g of 5.7% alpha acids) -30 g added in the last 60 min.
4.3 AAU Fuggles hops (20 mins)
(0.75 oz./21 g of 5.7% alpha acids) -15 g added in the last 20 min.
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) or White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) yeast -I used BREWFERM TOP 6 gr
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step-by-Step
Mash grains for 45 minutes at 152 °F (67 °C). Boil wort for 120 minutes. Add hops at times indicated. Add oysters and Irish moss with 15 minutes left. Cool wort. Transfer to fermenter, leaving oyster bits behind. (Don’t eat the oysters - they taste terrible.) Aerate, pitch yeast and ferment at 68 °F (20 °C).[/i]

I put the crushed malt in the bag at 65-67 C for 45 min and then sparged with 2 liters hot water at 75C, obtaining about 10 liters of wort which i boiled for 120 minutes.After 60 minutes I added the first part of hops, 40 min later the second part and the last 15 min I added the mussels and irish moss. Separately, i boiled 600ml water and disolved 150 ml SprayMalt extract and when it got to 23C i added the yeast to it, about 2 hours before adding it to the wort. In about 10 minutes i was able to bring the wort temperature from boiling to 21C but the gravity was 1.075, too high compared to the recipe. So i added water until i got to 12liters and the density reached 1.054, then added the yeast, agitated well the carboy and left it at room temperature 20C to ferment. The wort had a nice stout smell and looks very dark in colour. On the bottom of the carboy there s about 1,5 liters of entire volume with sediments. The fermentation begun intensively after 5-6 hours with continuous bubbles and the sediments were moving in the entire carboy and the wort temperature raised to 23C. But after 30 hours it stopped and it now only makes 2-3 bubbles/minute and the temperature dropped to 18C. The room temperature is still 20C.

Now my questions are:

-shouldn t have I sparge the grains?
-what does the 5 gallon in the recipe indicate? the initial volume or what you should obtain? because i've read that by BIAB it s not a common practice to sparge, but as my gravity was a lot higher than the recipe stated i thought i bring it to the set gravity by sparging.
-is the fermentation process normal? suddently almost explosive and then reduced entirely and the drop of wort temperature?
-in 2 weeks i'm gonna leave for about a month: should i move the beer in a secondary then for 1 month or bottle it directly after 2 weeks if it reached the final gravity?

Thanks.

 

[ballsy]

Yes, sparge at 170 F.
5'gal is roughly the final volume.
Not the end of the world to add water to bring down OG if overshot. Better to overshoot than undershoot.
Ferment sounds fine, I would keep it in low 60's F range for first week or so then allow to warm up near 70 to finish off.
Do NOT rush a stout hahaha, although I'm surprised at how low the OG is for a stout in your case, I would either go to secondary after 2 weeks vs leave in primary whole time. Definitely wouldn't bottle until return from trip.

 

[jtratcliff]

The 2 hour boil seems like a bit of overkill and is probably why your OG was so high.... Most recipes are formulated for a 60 min boil.

Traditional BIAB is no-sparge. All the water you'll need (allowing for grain absorption, boil-off, and other kettle losses) goes in the mash. 1 vessel, Full-volume.

A lot of folks add a sparge step. Either because they can't do full-volume in their kettle or they get better efficiency with a sparge. You can dunk sparge in a separate pot, like a teabag, or just pour sparge water over the bag as it drains over the kettle.

 

[Mihai]

Thanks for the answers. Then it seems i did pretty ok until here. I have the option of a 10L plastic carboy as secondary but i wouldn't quite use it. Isn't then 6 weeks too much for the stout to stay in the primary until bottled? Will the yeast still be effective for carbonation or should I add new/pick from the bottom of the fermenter?

 

[jtratcliff]

Sentiment here on HBT seems to be leaning toward a secondary not being necessary unless you're racking onto fruit or something. Or intend to do long-term aging like for a barleywine.

Longer time in primary is no problem. I routinely leave mine in primary for 4+ weeks. You should have plenty of yeast left in suspension to bottle carb, no need to add more.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for the answers. Then it seems i did pretty ok until here. I have the option of a 10L plastic carboy as secondary but i wouldn't quite use it. Isn't then 6 weeks too much for the stout to stay in the primary until bottled? Will the yeast still be effective for carbonation or should I add new/pick from the bottom of the fermenter?

I know of a brewer who left his beer in the primary for 8 MONTHS and he said that that wasn't too long. I think he may have needed to add yeast to make it carbonate though. I've done 9 weeks and my beer carbonated just fine with the yeast that was left.

 

[Mihai]

Wow, that s encouraging. Does this apply to most of beers generally or only stouts and stronger beer? For a wheat beer for example, isn't 6 weeks too much on a primary? I've also read that plastic fermenters aren't recommended for longer times, so if i leave it it the same fermenter for more than 2 weeks it should be glass. Is that true?

 

[RM-MN]

It's true that the plastic bucket fermenters are permeable to oxygen but we're talking months, not a couple weeks. You'll never notice the difference with only 2 weeks.

It's generally considered that wheat beers should be drunk "young" so the 6 weeks in the fermenter might be a bit much but if I wanted a wheat beer and my only option to make one would require me to leave it in the fermenter for 6 weeks or go without, I'd still make it.

 

[Mihai]

Hi folks,

I got back home from my trip and found my 2 beers (Oyster Stout- 7weeks old/Wheat- almost 6weeks old both in primary) still bubbling air. I read their density and the stout is 1.021 and the wheat is 1.013. The initial fermentation (first 2 weeks/1week) was at around 20 C but as i left the fermenters unattended for apx 5 weeks the temperature dropped at around 15`C.
What should i do now? Should I increase the room temperature and wait a little longer, read the density and only bottle when close to 1.010?

 

[RM-MN]

Hi folks,

I got back home from my trip and found my 2 beers (Oyster Stout- 7weeks old/Wheat- almost 6weeks old both in primary) still bubbling air. I read their density and the stout is 1.021 and the wheat is 1.013. The initial fermentation (first 2 weeks/1week) was at around 20 C but as i left the fermenters unattended for apx 5 weeks the temperature dropped at around 15`C.
What should i do now? Should I increase the room temperature and wait a little longer, read the density and only bottle when close to 1.010?

Warm them up but don't get hung up on getting them to 1.010, just give them a few days at the warmer temp, then check for stable gravity. If the gravity doesn't change in 3 to 4 days, bottle it up.

 

[jtratcliff]

+1 to this. Don't trust the bubbles. Trust the hydrometer.

 

[Mihai]

I kept them at 20`C for the past week and measured the gravity again now and they both dropped just 0.001 (Oyster Stout- 1.020/Wheat- 1.012). They both bubbled the first days at 20` and stopped 2 days ago when i also slowly decreased the room temperature. After taking the samples (which both taste very good and are also slightly carbonated) the bubbles started to reoccur.
My thought is to bottle it tomorrow, should i still be waiting?
And how much priming sugar should I use per litre considering they are both already a bit fizzy?

 

[jtratcliff]

Don't trust the bubbles.... Trust the hydrometer. If you get the same gravity 2 or more times in a row over the course of a few days and you are the in the ballpark of where you expect to be, then you are done.

There are a few other reasons *besides* fermentation for CO2 to outgass. Among them: Changes in temperature, changes in atmospheric pressure, bumping the fermenter.

Don't trust the bubbles. Trust the hydrometer.

 

[jtratcliff]

Google for a priming sugar calculator. There are several online to choose from. They will ask you for the temperature of your beer. This is to account for the amount of CO2 still dissolved in the beer. They will also ask for a level of carbonation in volumes of CO2 that you would like to achieve. Some will give the option to carbonate to style. Most will let you choose the type of sugar you'll be carbing with.

You'll want somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.3ish volumes (probably lower for the stout) which should put your around 4-5 oz of table sugar (about 3/4 cup). Corn sugar amounts will be slightly different.

Use a calculator and weigh it out... You can look up typical carb levels for various styles to dial in just what you want.

 

[ballsy]

WEIGH the priming sugar...do not attempt to dry measure....go for about 2.1 vol's co2.

 

[Mihai]

The stout has been bottled more than 4 weeks ago and I just opened a bottle which tastes great, i am really satisfied with the results.
Thank you all for the help!

 

[ballsy]

Congrats! Glad it all came together!

 

[RM-MN]

The stout has been bottled more than 4 weeks ago and I just opened a bottle which tastes great, i am really satisfied with the results.
Thank you all for the help!

Don't drink it all too soon, it will keep getting better for months. :rockin: