My first all grain brew

[Crafty_Brewer]

I made my first batch of beer today.

I was going for an ESB, but I think I ended up with an English Barleywine.
I had my spreadsheet for an ESB worked out, but left it on my desk at work (doh!). I do however own a copy of "How to Brew". It has a simple formula in it.... 1 lb of grain per 1.5 quarts of water. I am shooting for 1 gallon batches. Ok, so here's what I've got:

9 quarts of water (city water, tastes clean, treated with Campden)

5 lb Marris otter
1/2 lb Victory
1/2 lb Crystal 20l

1/2 oz East Kent Goldings at 60min
1/4 oz Fuggles at 15 min
1/2 oz East Kent Goldings at 5 min

1 packet of Safale S-04

My mash method was stovetop BIAB, no sparge. I did squeeze the bag.

I am using a polarware 5 gallon economy kettle, and a lows 5 gallon paint strainer. I had no boilover issues whatsoever. I had a little too much headspace, so I had to fire the burner to hold the mash temp.

Strike water at 163, hit mash temp of 152; held at 150-156 for 60 min (had to fire the burner and stir twice)

Boiled for 60 min, with hop additions at 60, 15, and 5...I plan to dry hop towards the end of conditioning...probably just toss the left over hops in (1/4 oz EKG, 3/4 oz Fuggles).

Started with 9 quarts of water
Pre boil: 7 quarts (grain absorbed 2 quarts....1/3 quart per lb)
after the boil I had 4 quarts left (boiled off 3 quarts)

I used an immersion cooler to drop the temp from boiling to 62F in 17 min.

Then I poured in the fermentor, aerated it, and pitched.

I re-hydrated the yeast in 1 cup of water (city tap, campden treated, boiled, cooled to 100F, sprinkled on top. Let sit for 30 min, swirled to suspend, pitched in the fermentor)

I am keeping it cool in a swamp cooler. The fermentor is reading 66 on the strip, the water is 56.

Range for S-04 is 53.6-77....ideally 59-68.

My yeast "poofed" in the warm water before it hit the fermentor....so I should have some happy yeast.

BG 1.071
OG 1.112

Beersmith's estimations:
SRM 15.2
IBU 41.8
estimated FG 1.044
estimated ABV 9.1%

All that being said...it looked like wort, smelled like wort, samples tasted like sweet wort. As long as I have enough happy yeast in there it should make beer....hoping the high gravity doesn't kill em all. I used 1 pack for 1 gallon...so should be alright, considering I think I re-hydrated them properly.

What do you think? Viable beer? English Barleywine? Or just a too big ESB? It is definitely not to style by ESB guidelines... but the IBU, SRM, OG, and ingredients match up with what BJCP has listed for an English Barleywine.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I even took some pics

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Woot! The airlock is bubbling....we have bubbles after 2 1/2 hrs.

 

[cluckk]

Quote: "1.5 lb of grain per quart of water"

Do you mean 1 pound per quart and a half of water?

Looks great. Good job.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Quote: "1.5 lb of grain per quart of water"

Do you mean 1 pound per quart and a half of water?

Looks great. Good job.

Thanks! And yes, 1 pound per quart and a half of water...my bad. Edited to fix it.

 

[cluckk]

I figured you must have meant that because that would have been one heck of a thick mash.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I figured you must have meant that because that would have been one heck of a thick mash.

For sure. Even so, it was still more than what I had intended. I was hoping for an OG of 1.060, but ended up with 1.112.

Instead of 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain, I may try 2 or 3 quarts per pound.

Or even doing a sparge. With the no sparge, I got all the high OG "first runnings". My efficiency is estimated to be about 57% with this one. I will probaby shoot for a 2:1 water grain ratio, and do a sparge.

 

[cluckk]

I usually do 1.25:1 for mash thickness and batch sparge. My mash efficiencies run 84%+. As you tweak your system and your techniques things only get better. Welcome to the obsession.

 

[morticaixavier]

It's gonna be a bit under hoped at <40 IBU for that gravity but it'll be beer. maybe week heavy or old ale? (more old ale given the yeast)

plenty of yeast,

1.5qt/lb is a good thickness for batch or fly sparging but for BIAB or no-sparge it's pretty thick. not a recipe forumulation so much as a mash thickness number.

malt will give your roughly 36 points per lb per gallon so 1 lb of grain in 1 gallon of beer will be ~ 1.036 with perfect efficiency at say 75% brewhouse efficiency a 1 gallon batch of beer would want ~2.25 lbs of grain. to get your desired pre boil volume (~7 qts) with .3 qt/lb absorption:

7 + (.3*2.25) = ~7.7 qts (7.675) so that's a mash thickness of 3.544 qt/lb which is fine for BIAB. some folks go as high as 4 qt/lb with no problems.

 

[smyrnaquince]

1.5 qt/lb is a mash volume that you would sparge after. For BIAB, you would put the mash + sparge water in all at once. Either way, you were way low on water volume so yes, your OG would be high.

For BIAB, try going to www.biabrewer.info and getting the BIABacus. It will calculate all your quantities. Tell them smyrnaquince sent you.



Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Because I was basing my formulas on typical 3 vessel ratios for a mash, which do not include the sparge water (and I neglected to adjust for this); I had roughly double the appropriate amount of grain.

My next batch will again use 9 quarts of water, but this time I will use a 3:1 ratio instead of a 1.5:1 ratio....as I am adding both the mash and sparge water all at once.

Attempt #2 will be:

9 quarts of water
3 lbs of grain (assuming a 1.060 beer)
about an ounce of hops (depending on what I brew)

The grain will absorb about a quart, and I will boil off 3 quarts, leaving 5 quarts for the fermentor...which happens to be a 2 gallon bucket.

Even though I completely fudged the OG...not by a little...by an epic amount.... I learned a lot. I did some more research, and I can now calculate my Grain Bill (based on how big a beer I want), Total Water, Efficiency, SRM, ABV, and IBU. And had a load of fun.

The first batch is a little more than 24 hours in, and is vigorously fermenting, fermentor temp has stayed right at 64 F all night, and all day at work. With the OG this beer has, and the ingredient list, I'm just going to go ahead and call it an English Barleywine.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Kind of an old thread now...but I just racked the Barleywine into secondary. It sat for 3 weeks in primary.

OG: 1.112
FG: 1.021

estimated ABV: 11.9%

It was nice and clear racking it over. I drank the sample... it was oh so tasty. It was malty, somewhat sweet (but not sicky sweet) with caramel and floral notes. It was warm going down too...but at 11.9% it should be. The Safale S-04 did a good job, I thought for sure they would croak in the alcohol.

I'm going to give it two weeks in secondary, then its time to bottle.

 

[woodsy]

Crafty,

Cookie drying rack to drain the bag.. brilliant!

:rockin: