spectre6000
Member
More than a decade ago, I did some extract brewing, but it didn't really scratch the itch that needed scratching. I like high gravity stouts, barleywines, and similar. I don't drink much, so when I do I'm happy to splurge for quality. Being able to have the control to get exactly what I want is great. That said, I know these sorts of beers are difficult, so I don't want to have to drink a hundred bottles of mistakes for all the attempts it's going to take to get it right (a single 5 gallon batch would easily last me a full year, and probably longer). I recently discovered BIAB brewing, and that is exactly what I needed to be able to do what I want to do! I got all the stuff, and yesterday brewed my first all grain beer. I'm brewing micro-batches of ~1 gallon. At that size, I can brew in my kitchen, bottling isn't a big PITA, ingredients are cheap, less/smaller/cheaper equipment is needed, etc., etc.
After a little googling, I landed on this as my initial recipe to explore. It's a little on the complicated side, but the 1.070 OG is on the heavier side, and thus more likely to be something I want to drink. I followed it to the letter minus the adjuncts. I had to guesstimate a bit with the hops due to lack of a sufficiently accurate scale (which I ordered in the moment, and will be on hand for the next brew). My intent is to brew it up, see how it is, and then start playing around with individual variables until I get it where I want it. Eventually, I'll get around to the adjuncts.
It mostly went off without a hitch. Actually, the whole process went much smoother than expected to the point that I was able to simultaneously bake up a loaf of spent grain bread for dinner! My one big complication is that my burner simply isn't hot enough to get a really good boil. It boiled all right, but there was zero danger of any boiling over at any point... Just enough of a boil to unquestionably be a boil, and no more. Another potential... factor, though I'm not aware of any complications that may have been caused by it, but I'm throwing it in anyway just in case, I'm at ~7K' altitude.
So the mash went off without a hitch. The recipe says to get the strike water up to 164°, which should cool to mach temp at 155° when the grains are added. I only got down to 157°. Eventually (~30 minutes) the thermometer read down at 150°, at which point I turned the burner back on to low, and stirred, but the burner likely didn't have time to have any effect, as just stirring brought it back up to 156° more or less for the rest of the mash.
This is where things start to get a little funky, and why I mentioned the above details as I did.... Upon completion of the 60 minute boil, my gravity was 1.056 (target is 1.070) and volume was much more than needed. My pot isn't marked for volume graduations (yet), but it was just clearly too much for my fermenter. I removed the hop spider, and continued boiling. At 15 minutes past the hour mark, I measured 1.064. From there, I figured I had gained .007, so another 15 minutes could get me another .007 and put me on the money... unless there was a curve to the rate, so I did another check at 10 minutes for 1.065... So the curve was getting shallower. From there I gave it the rest of that 15 minute interval plus all of the next. So at a total boil time of 1:45, I measured and got 1.076... I overshot. Higher gravity is what I'm after, and I didn't really feel like adding more water just to have to try again to get it right, so I just went with 1.076.
Even then, when I poured it into the fermenter, instead of the recipe's prescribed 1.3 gallon final volume, I got 1.5 gallons!
So, now that the mostly unnecessary backstory and slightly more necessary details have been divulged, here's the thing I can't quite figure out. I looked up the sugar potential of the grains in the recipe at the volumes used, and I got a brewhouse efficiency of 82%. I don't know if sugar potential is on the grain hoppers at the supply shop. I didn't know to look, and still don't know if that's even a thing. I looked up all the sugar potentials on a table on the internet, so this is a possible source of error, HOWEVER, that would be a pretty significant error...I think had my burner been more powerful, and I was able to get down to the expected 1.3 gal, it would be even higher (I didn't write it down, but I think it came out to 95%). There's no way I have a 95% brewhouse efficiency.
The next question (one which I may find out in a month and change) is what this prolonged boil will do. Again, I removed the hops according to the timer, so they didn't steep any longer, but whatever was in the wort had plenty of time to do things during the subsequent 45 extra minutes of (mild) boil. What effect, if any, will this have on the finished beer?
The final question is how to adjust for the next attempt. If I start with a lower strike volume, will that reduce my mash efficiency? Should I treat the problem where it is (the boil) and give my boil a 30 minute head start at volume reduction before starting the hop schedule? Is it even something worth addressing? If the extended boil doesn't hurt anything, it's just an extra step to do at the end..
After a little googling, I landed on this as my initial recipe to explore. It's a little on the complicated side, but the 1.070 OG is on the heavier side, and thus more likely to be something I want to drink. I followed it to the letter minus the adjuncts. I had to guesstimate a bit with the hops due to lack of a sufficiently accurate scale (which I ordered in the moment, and will be on hand for the next brew). My intent is to brew it up, see how it is, and then start playing around with individual variables until I get it where I want it. Eventually, I'll get around to the adjuncts.
It mostly went off without a hitch. Actually, the whole process went much smoother than expected to the point that I was able to simultaneously bake up a loaf of spent grain bread for dinner! My one big complication is that my burner simply isn't hot enough to get a really good boil. It boiled all right, but there was zero danger of any boiling over at any point... Just enough of a boil to unquestionably be a boil, and no more. Another potential... factor, though I'm not aware of any complications that may have been caused by it, but I'm throwing it in anyway just in case, I'm at ~7K' altitude.
So the mash went off without a hitch. The recipe says to get the strike water up to 164°, which should cool to mach temp at 155° when the grains are added. I only got down to 157°. Eventually (~30 minutes) the thermometer read down at 150°, at which point I turned the burner back on to low, and stirred, but the burner likely didn't have time to have any effect, as just stirring brought it back up to 156° more or less for the rest of the mash.
This is where things start to get a little funky, and why I mentioned the above details as I did.... Upon completion of the 60 minute boil, my gravity was 1.056 (target is 1.070) and volume was much more than needed. My pot isn't marked for volume graduations (yet), but it was just clearly too much for my fermenter. I removed the hop spider, and continued boiling. At 15 minutes past the hour mark, I measured 1.064. From there, I figured I had gained .007, so another 15 minutes could get me another .007 and put me on the money... unless there was a curve to the rate, so I did another check at 10 minutes for 1.065... So the curve was getting shallower. From there I gave it the rest of that 15 minute interval plus all of the next. So at a total boil time of 1:45, I measured and got 1.076... I overshot. Higher gravity is what I'm after, and I didn't really feel like adding more water just to have to try again to get it right, so I just went with 1.076.
Even then, when I poured it into the fermenter, instead of the recipe's prescribed 1.3 gallon final volume, I got 1.5 gallons!
So, now that the mostly unnecessary backstory and slightly more necessary details have been divulged, here's the thing I can't quite figure out. I looked up the sugar potential of the grains in the recipe at the volumes used, and I got a brewhouse efficiency of 82%. I don't know if sugar potential is on the grain hoppers at the supply shop. I didn't know to look, and still don't know if that's even a thing. I looked up all the sugar potentials on a table on the internet, so this is a possible source of error, HOWEVER, that would be a pretty significant error...I think had my burner been more powerful, and I was able to get down to the expected 1.3 gal, it would be even higher (I didn't write it down, but I think it came out to 95%). There's no way I have a 95% brewhouse efficiency.
The next question (one which I may find out in a month and change) is what this prolonged boil will do. Again, I removed the hops according to the timer, so they didn't steep any longer, but whatever was in the wort had plenty of time to do things during the subsequent 45 extra minutes of (mild) boil. What effect, if any, will this have on the finished beer?
The final question is how to adjust for the next attempt. If I start with a lower strike volume, will that reduce my mash efficiency? Should I treat the problem where it is (the boil) and give my boil a 30 minute head start at volume reduction before starting the hop schedule? Is it even something worth addressing? If the extended boil doesn't hurt anything, it's just an extra step to do at the end..