MonkeyBot
Well-Known Member
I haven't really posted since I joined up here and since I brewed on Sunday I thought I'd document it here. I decided to go for a parti-gyle brew because:
Barley Wine All Grain (I am a branding genius)
5.5 gal batch size
20lbs Simpson's Golden Promise
8lbs German Munich Malt
1lb Special B Malt
1lb Honey Malt
1lb Simpson's Golden Naked Oats
Mash 75 min with 36.25 qts @ 150
Drain mash tun and sparge with 3.25 gal @ 168
2oz Warrior Hops (First Wort Hop 90 min)
2oz Bramling Cross Hops (5 min)
Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast
So to start the whole process I made a 4L starter. I then cold crashed it, decanted off the beer and added a little water to mix everything up then dumped it into a measuring cup. I used 3/4 of the result for the Barley Wine and the remaining 1/4 for the Pecan Caramel Brown. Saved myself $7 on yeast right there.
When it came time to mash I realized I had overestimated the size of my mash tun. I use a 48 qt Coleman cooler so made the bad assumption that I had 12 gallons to work with. In reality it's closer to 10. This meant a much stiffer mash and worse I had to drain off some water after adding the grain resulting in some lost starch. Boo! In the end though I did get all 31 lbs of grain in and mashed. I also ended up mashing closer to 90 min because I forgot to start heating my sparge water. Whoops.
So after the mash I did a kind of hybrid sparge. I pulled off as much liquid as I could and then added more and started draining and used a pitcher to add water to keep the grain covered. I did not go slow, the outbound valve was full open. I did this until I had 8 gallons of wort for the Barley Wine. The OG was waaay lower than Beersmith predicted (1.083 vs 1.129) but I also had a lot of inefficiencies in my mash and I'm still calibrating my system to get more accurate numbers. If you just look at this brew it's 57% efficiency! Luckily, though, we're using this grain again for a second brew so we'll get some higher efficiency numbers. After the boil I had 6.5 gal at 1.093 SG so I should still get a respectable ABV out of this, maybe as much as 11%. Will probably turn out a bit hoppier than expected (.686 IBU/SG as opposed to .496) but I think it'll still turn out good.
Now for the recipe for the beer from the second runnings.
Pecan Caramel Brown Ale All Grain (this is an overly-ambitious name)
5.5 gal batch size
Second runnings from Barley Wine above
1lb US Chocolate Malt
1.5lbs Biscuit Malt
Steep the grains while the wort heats to 170. Remove at 170.
1oz German Northern Brewer Hops (First Wort Hop 60 min)
.5oz Bramling Cross Hops (15 min)
.5oz German Brewer's Gold Hops (15 min)
Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
.5oz Bramling Cross Hops (Flameout)
.5oz German Brewer's Gold Hops (Flameout)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast
4oz Toasted Pecans in secondary for 5-7 days
For the Pecan Caramel Brown ale I added as much sparge water as I could to the mash tun and did my same hybrid sparging technique. I pulled 7.5 gal of 1.034 wort. After the steep and boil I had 1.045 OG so this should turn out as a pretty standard strength beer in the 4.5% range.
I was reminded Monday night why you use a blow-off tube in high gravity beers. And then again on Tuesday morning I was reminded why I should use a pail for the high gravity beer and not the somewhat narrow-necked Big Mouth Bubbler. Both times the beer popped the rubber stopper out of the lid porthole and foamed everywhere. Even after installing the blow-off tube Monday night. That plastic carboy is sticky now. Using a pail with a small hole and the tube shoved straight in rather than using a stopper I think I could've avoided the blowouts.
It was impressive on Monday, I went to clean the stopper and airlock and get the blow-off tube ready and came back to more foam. I wiped it away and it kept coming out of the porthole at about an inch every 10-15 seconds. That was some vigorous yeast. The Pecan Caramel Brown was also happily bubbling away by Monday night so I know my starter was good. I think I'm going to try and harvest and store this yeast for more money saving excitement.
I like the tradition I have apparently started with brewing a big beer in October. Last year it was an Imperial Russian Stout and this year a Barley Wine. It'll need to condition in secondary for probably 4-5 months before bottling to let the flavors mellow, although I'll try and taste along the way to keep an eye on it. I just hope this recipe I came up with doesn't taste terrible.
Oh yeah, about efficiency. I tallied up both runnings and I got an efficiency of 79%! With my terrible mash and sparging technique that's pretty amazing. I'm sure the two sparges are the reason it worked as well as it did. Next time I'm gonna go with a single batch of beer and a much more reasonable grain bill but I think this was a good experience. I may make my tradition a parti-gyle brew every October now.
- I wanted to make a bigger beer
- It sounded kinda cool and
- It's cheaper!
Barley Wine All Grain (I am a branding genius)
5.5 gal batch size
20lbs Simpson's Golden Promise
8lbs German Munich Malt
1lb Special B Malt
1lb Honey Malt
1lb Simpson's Golden Naked Oats
Mash 75 min with 36.25 qts @ 150
Drain mash tun and sparge with 3.25 gal @ 168
2oz Warrior Hops (First Wort Hop 90 min)
2oz Bramling Cross Hops (5 min)
Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast
So to start the whole process I made a 4L starter. I then cold crashed it, decanted off the beer and added a little water to mix everything up then dumped it into a measuring cup. I used 3/4 of the result for the Barley Wine and the remaining 1/4 for the Pecan Caramel Brown. Saved myself $7 on yeast right there.
When it came time to mash I realized I had overestimated the size of my mash tun. I use a 48 qt Coleman cooler so made the bad assumption that I had 12 gallons to work with. In reality it's closer to 10. This meant a much stiffer mash and worse I had to drain off some water after adding the grain resulting in some lost starch. Boo! In the end though I did get all 31 lbs of grain in and mashed. I also ended up mashing closer to 90 min because I forgot to start heating my sparge water. Whoops.
So after the mash I did a kind of hybrid sparge. I pulled off as much liquid as I could and then added more and started draining and used a pitcher to add water to keep the grain covered. I did not go slow, the outbound valve was full open. I did this until I had 8 gallons of wort for the Barley Wine. The OG was waaay lower than Beersmith predicted (1.083 vs 1.129) but I also had a lot of inefficiencies in my mash and I'm still calibrating my system to get more accurate numbers. If you just look at this brew it's 57% efficiency! Luckily, though, we're using this grain again for a second brew so we'll get some higher efficiency numbers. After the boil I had 6.5 gal at 1.093 SG so I should still get a respectable ABV out of this, maybe as much as 11%. Will probably turn out a bit hoppier than expected (.686 IBU/SG as opposed to .496) but I think it'll still turn out good.
Now for the recipe for the beer from the second runnings.
Pecan Caramel Brown Ale All Grain (this is an overly-ambitious name)
5.5 gal batch size
Second runnings from Barley Wine above
1lb US Chocolate Malt
1.5lbs Biscuit Malt
Steep the grains while the wort heats to 170. Remove at 170.
1oz German Northern Brewer Hops (First Wort Hop 60 min)
.5oz Bramling Cross Hops (15 min)
.5oz German Brewer's Gold Hops (15 min)
Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)
.5oz Bramling Cross Hops (Flameout)
.5oz German Brewer's Gold Hops (Flameout)
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast
4oz Toasted Pecans in secondary for 5-7 days
For the Pecan Caramel Brown ale I added as much sparge water as I could to the mash tun and did my same hybrid sparging technique. I pulled 7.5 gal of 1.034 wort. After the steep and boil I had 1.045 OG so this should turn out as a pretty standard strength beer in the 4.5% range.
I was reminded Monday night why you use a blow-off tube in high gravity beers. And then again on Tuesday morning I was reminded why I should use a pail for the high gravity beer and not the somewhat narrow-necked Big Mouth Bubbler. Both times the beer popped the rubber stopper out of the lid porthole and foamed everywhere. Even after installing the blow-off tube Monday night. That plastic carboy is sticky now. Using a pail with a small hole and the tube shoved straight in rather than using a stopper I think I could've avoided the blowouts.
It was impressive on Monday, I went to clean the stopper and airlock and get the blow-off tube ready and came back to more foam. I wiped it away and it kept coming out of the porthole at about an inch every 10-15 seconds. That was some vigorous yeast. The Pecan Caramel Brown was also happily bubbling away by Monday night so I know my starter was good. I think I'm going to try and harvest and store this yeast for more money saving excitement.
I like the tradition I have apparently started with brewing a big beer in October. Last year it was an Imperial Russian Stout and this year a Barley Wine. It'll need to condition in secondary for probably 4-5 months before bottling to let the flavors mellow, although I'll try and taste along the way to keep an eye on it. I just hope this recipe I came up with doesn't taste terrible.
Oh yeah, about efficiency. I tallied up both runnings and I got an efficiency of 79%! With my terrible mash and sparging technique that's pretty amazing. I'm sure the two sparges are the reason it worked as well as it did. Next time I'm gonna go with a single batch of beer and a much more reasonable grain bill but I think this was a good experience. I may make my tradition a parti-gyle brew every October now.
