PajasOtter
Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2021
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 10
Hi,
I recently brewed my first BIAB (no sparge) beer, after having brewed three batches of 4 litre partial mash kits before. The result is, well, quite disappointing and I would like to ask for troubleshooting advice.
Here's the recipe and data:
Fuller's ESB clone
Batch size: 20 L
OG: 1,060
FG: 1,013
ABV: 6,2 %
IBU: 43
Malt
90 % (5 kg) Crisp Maris Otter
10 % (555 g) Crisp Crystal 150
Hops
60 g EKG at 0 min
30 g EKG at 60 min (heat off)
Yeast
2 packages of WLP002, no starter
Here's the brewing steps:
- Heated 26,5 L tap water to 71 degrees C, pH 8,21. See water data below.
- Added 5 kg Maris Otter and 555 g Crystal 150.
- After 30 min, the temp hade dropped to 65 degrees. Heated to 67.
- Took a pH sample: 5,88. Added 1 ml lactic acid (80 %).
- New pH sample: 5,5.
- After 60 min mashing, I let the bag drop for ten minutes over a grate.
- New pH sample: 5,47.
- Heated to 100 degrees (took 40 min).
- Pre-boil volume was 23,5 L.
- Added 60 g EKG.
- Boiled for 60 minutes.
- Shut off heat and added 30 g EKG.
- After about 5 minutes, I started cooling with home-made immersion chiller.
- When at 21 degrees, I transferred the wort to the fermentation bucket. (This was a bit tricky and I lost a bit on the way).
- Volume: 18 L. OG: 1,060.
- Added two packages of WLP002 and shook the bucket by hand to add oxygen.
I kept the fermentation bucket in room temperature for 14 days and attached a tape thermometer to the bucket's outside wall. The temperature fluctuated between 19 and 21 degrees C (66-70 F).
When bottling, the FG was 1,013 and pH was 4,33.
I added 2,5 volumes of table sugar for priming. This equalled to 17 L (removed 1 L of trub) * 5,9 g = 100 g sugar.
The stored the bottles in room temperature under a blanket and now about three weeks have gone.
Result and questions
I tested a bottle about 1,5 weeks in and it was very low carbonation. So I turned all bottles over once and back, to set the yeast in suspension.
Next test was 2 weeks in, and now the carbonation was good. However, the taste.... well, it's very alcoholic at first. Although I've read a lot about acetaldehyde, diacethyl, esthers and so on, I have no experience in tasting them... so, all I can say is that it doesn't taste so good. I don't think it's infected though, just, well, not so pleasant to drink. It's boozy and the body is thin. There's no sourness or moldness to the taste. I hope it's just higher alcohols and that storing it a while will tune it down, but I wanted to ask if you can see anything wrong with the recipe or the procedure.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I didn't skip anything essential. Oh, speaking of which, here's the water analysis (I did not adjust anything except pH; there was so much new to learn that I wanted to keep it a bit simple):
Calcium: 20 ppm
Magnesium: 5,2 ppm
Sodium: 22 ppm
Chloride: 15 ppm
Sulfate: 10 ppm
Bicarbonate: 94 ppm
Sulfate/Chloride ratio: 0,67
Hardness: 71
Alkalinity: 77
Residual Alkalinity: 60
Thank you very much!
I recently brewed my first BIAB (no sparge) beer, after having brewed three batches of 4 litre partial mash kits before. The result is, well, quite disappointing and I would like to ask for troubleshooting advice.
Here's the recipe and data:
Fuller's ESB clone
Batch size: 20 L
OG: 1,060
FG: 1,013
ABV: 6,2 %
IBU: 43
Malt
90 % (5 kg) Crisp Maris Otter
10 % (555 g) Crisp Crystal 150
Hops
60 g EKG at 0 min
30 g EKG at 60 min (heat off)
Yeast
2 packages of WLP002, no starter
Here's the brewing steps:
- Heated 26,5 L tap water to 71 degrees C, pH 8,21. See water data below.
- Added 5 kg Maris Otter and 555 g Crystal 150.
- After 30 min, the temp hade dropped to 65 degrees. Heated to 67.
- Took a pH sample: 5,88. Added 1 ml lactic acid (80 %).
- New pH sample: 5,5.
- After 60 min mashing, I let the bag drop for ten minutes over a grate.
- New pH sample: 5,47.
- Heated to 100 degrees (took 40 min).
- Pre-boil volume was 23,5 L.
- Added 60 g EKG.
- Boiled for 60 minutes.
- Shut off heat and added 30 g EKG.
- After about 5 minutes, I started cooling with home-made immersion chiller.
- When at 21 degrees, I transferred the wort to the fermentation bucket. (This was a bit tricky and I lost a bit on the way).
- Volume: 18 L. OG: 1,060.
- Added two packages of WLP002 and shook the bucket by hand to add oxygen.
I kept the fermentation bucket in room temperature for 14 days and attached a tape thermometer to the bucket's outside wall. The temperature fluctuated between 19 and 21 degrees C (66-70 F).
When bottling, the FG was 1,013 and pH was 4,33.
I added 2,5 volumes of table sugar for priming. This equalled to 17 L (removed 1 L of trub) * 5,9 g = 100 g sugar.
The stored the bottles in room temperature under a blanket and now about three weeks have gone.
Result and questions
I tested a bottle about 1,5 weeks in and it was very low carbonation. So I turned all bottles over once and back, to set the yeast in suspension.
Next test was 2 weeks in, and now the carbonation was good. However, the taste.... well, it's very alcoholic at first. Although I've read a lot about acetaldehyde, diacethyl, esthers and so on, I have no experience in tasting them... so, all I can say is that it doesn't taste so good. I don't think it's infected though, just, well, not so pleasant to drink. It's boozy and the body is thin. There's no sourness or moldness to the taste. I hope it's just higher alcohols and that storing it a while will tune it down, but I wanted to ask if you can see anything wrong with the recipe or the procedure.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I didn't skip anything essential. Oh, speaking of which, here's the water analysis (I did not adjust anything except pH; there was so much new to learn that I wanted to keep it a bit simple):
Calcium: 20 ppm
Magnesium: 5,2 ppm
Sodium: 22 ppm
Chloride: 15 ppm
Sulfate: 10 ppm
Bicarbonate: 94 ppm
Sulfate/Chloride ratio: 0,67
Hardness: 71
Alkalinity: 77
Residual Alkalinity: 60
Thank you very much!