Yeah, that’s a good starter and sums up my experience today making the above beer! You know how you can sometimes get yourself into a situation through ignorance and its only using hindsight you realise how close you came to F**ing it all up? Well that was me today.
Taking a mental note to self that next time I decide to do an IRS I will have bought a REALLY BIG mash tun and not tried to do it with a daft wee 23 ltr job. Please note my brewhouse efficency below, that’s not a misprint. On ‘normal’ beer I hit 76 to 78% consistently.
Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 24.00 L
Boil Size: 28.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.085 SG
Estimated Color: 83.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 79.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 57.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
6.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
1.70 kg Barley, Flaked
1.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
1.00 kg Amber Malt (22.0 SRM)
1.00 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
0.50 kg Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)
0.50 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
1.50 oz First Gold [8.30 %] (90 min)
2.00 oz Northdown [8.50 %] (90 min)
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (20 min)
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (10 min)
0.32 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
1.27 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
5.07 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days)
2 Pkgs Windsor Yeast
60 minute mash
90 minute boil
Also next time I do it I will know just what a ridiculous amount of wort the grains retain at this volume of grain. But hey that’s nothing compared to the amount of wort that 5.5oz of hops will hold back! In the end I have around 3 gallon of IRS from a kettle which at end of boil looked to be around the 24 ltr mark. So get this, I managed to turn 12.2 kgs of grain into around 13.5 ltrs of beer. That’s almost a 1:1 ratio and that’s really poor to say the least.

Don’t get me wrong I had a great time doing it, loved every minute, I just wish I could kick my own arse for getting such a poor result at the end! I can say that I have not tasted a wort like this one before, quite something.
I’ll post the photos and the story tomorrow.
P.S Super Styrian hops, what a smell, first time today.

Edit 18:00 Just walked into the garage. The airlocks bubbling like a mad thing and i can smell dark treacle in the air. I didn't put any in though! Thats the first time a beer has knocked down ALL the smell of whatever other beers are fermenting in the garage at the time.
