I'm Doing It!!

[LTownLiquorPig]

First all grain on the boil. Supposed to be a simple ESB that I tried to model off of the Common Room Bitter recipe from here in the data base.

I mashed at +/- 154* for 90 mins, 4 #'s 2 row and 1 # Crystal 60.

BIAB, mashed in t the oven in 8 quarts of water, then squeezed and "sparged" with enough water to get me up to 13.5 quarts for the boil. Pre boil SG was 1.034 at 128*, which by the Brewer's Friend conversion chart would be 1.044 at 60* I believe.

Hoping my boil off guess gets me close to 2.5 gallons for the fermenter.


Boiling 60 minutes, .75 oz EKG for bittering, then .125 oz each of EKG and Fuggles at 20 minutes and flame out.

Going to use Cooper's yeast, as I like the flavours that seem to come through from it in my ferment temp ranges, 62-66* or so.

Holy Crap. That is all.

 

[RM-MN]

Congratulations. It looks like you are off to a running start. If you haven't boiled off half what you need by the half hour mark, extend your boil and add your flavor and aroma hops a little later.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

HA! Checked in 15 minutes late.

Looks to be good. I boiled with the paint bag over the pot to filter hops. Wish I hadn't, as now I can only guess at what the volume is at. Approaching what I wanted I think though.....

Edit: Just pitched the yeast @ 72*, SG was 1.050, Brewer's Friend Calculator says that would be 1.051 @ 62*, and about 71.63% efficiency. Ended up with bang on 2.5 gallons. Bubble away little buddy, bubble away....

 

[jflongo]

Sounds like you did well, let us know in 3 or 4 weeks how it tastes.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Airlock bubbling nicely, started about 24 hours in.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Brewed second all grain biab this morning. It's really as easy as people say. Fun as well, glad I tried it. Might brew an AG dry stout, then go with 5 or 6 batches of SMASH's to get to better understand the malt and hop flavours a little better.

 

[EdgeBrew]

Brewed second all grain biab this morning. It's really as easy as people say. Fun as well, glad I tried it. Might brew an AG dry stout, then go with 5 or 6 batches of SMASH's to get to better understand the malt and hop flavours a little better.

I'm glad you found it fun.... It is fun. I have done one and I'm itching to do another one. Might do Jamil's American pale ale next.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Going to by a burner tomorrow. Found one I can buy locally for about 35 bucks taxes in (loyalty point aided). It's 60000 btu with a 10psi regulator, appears to be sort of a Bayou Burner SP10 knock off I think. Pretty pumped. Going to keep doing 2.5 gallon batches until I save up to upgrade the kettle. Hope to do a simple IPA next week to give it a try.

 

[jflongo]

What size of kettle are you looking for? I bought a SS 20 quart pot w/lid from a large grocery store on sale for only $29.99. Then bought a 30 quart one as well for $39.99.

Keep an eye on craigslist for used kettles, or check out a large grocery store, that sells kitchen items as well and see what they have.

In the 30 quart one I have, you can easily do 5 gallon batches.

 

[gizmodog51]

Wunderbar!!

biab is the best!:rockin:

many happy brews to your future!

GD

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

My parents got me avery nice, but overpriced SS 20 quart pot for Christmas. Using it for now, got my eye on a nice SS 9 gallon with two welded ports for 89. That price seems to be a steal of a deal here in Canada. My other option is an aluminum 12 gallon pot for 59. Bigger batch potential vs. better qualityis what I'm wrestling with.

 

[jflongo]

My parents got me avery nice, but overpriced SS 20 quart pot for Christmas. Using it for now, got my eye on a nice SS 9 gallon with two welded ports for 89. That price seems to be a steal of a deal here in Canada. My other option is an aluminum 12 gallon pot for 59. Bigger batch potential vs. better qualityis what I'm wrestling with.

Definitely go with the 12 gallon. That way if you ever decide to step up to 10 gallon batches, you will have a big enough pot. Also, you can make a mash tun for under $100 in the future as well, that can mash enough for 5g or 10g batches.

However on the flip side, if you decide to do 5 gallon batches for a good year before you want to go up to 10 gallon, then get the 9 gallon one. You could always use that as a sparge pot in the future, if you upgrade your equipment in the future.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards bigger, as it's cheaper too. Then when I upgrade to a better kettle I can run the aluminum pot to fry turkey, etc.... And it's 30 bucks cheaper and local, vs. online.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Just bottled my "ESB", finished out at 1.010. batch primed with 5 teaspoons of corn sugar, which is supposed to get me close to 1.5 vols of CO2. Ended up with 26 12 oz. bottles, not too bad for $12 in ingredients.

Sample tasted quite malty, and not much hop presence. Still delicious. I ended up with probably 11-12 oz's that didn't make the bottle, and drank it down quite happily.

 

[jflongo]

Just bottled my "ESB", finished out at 1.010. batch primed with 5 teaspoons of corn sugar, which is supposed to get me close to 1.5 vols of CO2. Ended up with 26 12 oz. bottles, not too bad for $12 in ingredients.

Sample tasted quite malty, and not much hop presence. Still delicious. I ended up with probably 11-12 oz's that didn't make the bottle, and drank it down quite happily.

Congrats and cheers Let us know in 5 - 7 days how well it carbonated and turns out.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Just put down what's supposed to be a 2.5G dry stout. OG 1.048. Off to the racers on recycled Notty.

 

[Coldies]

Your on a roll. Good for you, for getting the pipeline going. Nothing is worst then when I look into my fermentation chamber and nothing is in there.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Trying to get lots of brewing in now while I can. I work 50-60 hour weeks April to October, so I'm trying to get 3 brews every two weeks between now and then.

 

[janson745]

BIAB, mashed in t the oven in 8 quarts of water, then squeezed and "sparged" with enough water to get me up to 13.5 quarts for the boil. Pre boil SG was 1.034 at 128*, which by the Brewer's Friend conversion chart would be 1.044 at 60* I believe.

So you actually mashed in the Oven? Set it to 154 degrees and just let it go for the 90 minutes? As in, just placed your kettle with BIAB in it right into the oven? I think that would be a great idea to hold and keep the right temp...

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

So you actually mashed in the Oven? Set it to 154 degrees and just let it go for the 90 minutes? As in, just placed your kettle with BIAB in it right into the oven? I think that would be a great idea to hold and keep the right temp...

Yeah, 4 gallon pot. Heat on stove, doughh in. My stove only goes down to 170, so I heat it up, turn it off and stick the pot in the oven. I take it out and stir every 15-20 mins, and check the temp. If the oven feels cool, I pre-heat to 170 again, and shut it off when it gets there. I get 71% efficiency without playing with the crush. Seems too easy.