AG#8 NZ Pale Ale (BIAB)

[windrider]

Brewed this last Sunday for my Christmas beer (not very traditional I know). Fancied trying my hand at making a NZ pale ale…

The brew went very smoothly and with the clocks going back, meant I was up early and finished by 12 o’clock. My first foray into water treatment and my mash PH was exactly where it should be. It’ll be interesting to see if this makes any difference to the beer. I’ve also got a brew fridge setup so excited to be able to control the fermenting schedule.

Going to dry hop for 3 days in primary then crash cool for 2 days. How does anyone else do this?

Style: IPA
ABV: 4.6%

Original Gravity (OG): 1.045
IBU's (Tinseth): 38
Colour: 9.5 EBC = 4.8 SRM
Mash: 90 mins at 66 C = 150.8 F
Batch size: 24 litres

Kettle Efficiency (as in EIB and EAW): 86 %

4352 grams Maris Otter 88%
298 grams Carahell 6%
298 grams Munich Malt 6%

10.5 grams Nelson Sauvin Flowers (12.1%AA) 60 mins
20.9 grams Motueka Flowers (10.5%AA) 30 mins
15.7 grams Nelson Sauvin Flowers (12.1%AA) 30 mins
10.5 grams Nelson Sauvin Flowers (12.1%AA) 0 mins
10.5 grams Motueka Flowers (10.5%AA) 0 mins
20.9 grams Wai-iti Flowers (4%AA) 0 mins
15.7 grams Motueka Flowers (10.5%AA) Dry Hopped
15.7 grams Wai-iti Flowers (4%AA) Dry Hopped


Chilling Method: No Cube Chill
Fermentation: Wyeast 1056 for 7 days at 18.3 C / 7 days at 20 C


obligatory grain shot:


mash on:


all tucked up, only lost 2°c throughout the 90min:


nice hot-break:


hop additions weighed out:


flame-out additions added:


who said you couldn’t get clear wort with BIAB:


Harvested WY1056:


Loving the new fridge:

[alexlark]

This sounds a cracking brew! I always dry hop for 7 days (usually Sat to Sat). No grassy off flavors and maximum extraction.

The last BIAB I done (3 weeks ago) I made a Punk IPA clone, first time I used water additions too as I have very soft water. As you I also achieved perfect Ph. I used Calcium Chloride and Calcium Sulfate. What did you use?

Lovely clear wort too, what kind of filter you got on your pot?

[windrider]

This sounds a cracking brew! I always dry hop for 7 days (usually Sat to Sat). No grassy off flavors and maximum extraction.

The last BIAB I done (3 weeks ago) I made a Punk IPA clone, first time I used water additions too as I have very soft water. As you I also achieved perfect Ph. I used Calcium Chloride and Calcium Sulfate. What did you use?

Lovely clear wort too, what kind of filter you got on your pot?

Thanks Alex, the only salt additions I made was Calcium Sulphate (gypsum). I’m in the same boat as you that my water is very soft.

Is that the Malt Miller Punk clone? Heard its very good! Do you crash chill your fermentor after dry hopping?

I’m using a homebrewbuilder DX filter and its superb. Coped with everything I’ve chucked at it so far (including pellets).

[injac]

Good work here mate - looks a tasty recipe. Might just add it to my list!

Where are people getting these cool dinky looking fermenters then?

[alexlark]

Yea gypsum is the main addition I used, just a touch of calcium chloride. Hope it works well for you.

It's the original Malt Miller recipe, and yep.. It's a really nice brew. Doesn't last long at all! I don't crash chill. I was looking at getting another fridge to ferment and crash chill and might in the future. What I find with these really hop forward beers is that the beer can look a bit hazy due to all the hops, it doesn't bother me though. By the time I've got it carbed and in the keg I find the last 5 - 10 pint are very clear - but taste wise no different. Nice to have really clear beer though isn't it! Just somin about it.

Not sure if you've tried it yet but a quite new hop on the market is Vic Secret. I've used it twice now and is great as a late addition and dry hop.

So with the DX filter do you recirculate the first few liters when transferring to the FV?

I was going to go with one of those gas burners too for my 33l pot but just gone down the element route. My method of transfer at the moment is a poor mans siphon so by adding the element I'm pimping my BIAB kit a bit and looking for improvements for my brew day.

[eguin]

Good work here mate - looks a tasty recipe. Might just add it to my list!

Where are people getting these cool dinky looking fermenters then?

Brew uk does them
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/brupak-30-fermenter.html

[sbond10]

Looking good there mate have ypu tried used thermawrap whilst your mashing I loss about 2 degrees with 3 layers of wrap and hat that's with the big pan

[windrider]

Good work here mate - looks a tasty recipe. Might just add it to my list!

Where are people getting these cool dinky looking fermenters then?

I will let you know how it turns out once I get to sample it.

The fermenters are really good. I liked that they are a bit wider. Find it easier to clean and when dry hopping there is more surface area in contact with the hops. I got mine from www.brouwland.com and if you need to order a few things works out cheaper than UK websites.

It's the original Malt Miller recipe, and yep.. It's a really nice brew. Doesn't last long at all! I don't crash chill. I was looking at getting another fridge to ferment and crash chill and might in the future. What I find with these really hop forward beers is that the beer can look a bit hazy due to all the hops, it doesn't bother me though. By the time I've got it carbed and in the keg I find the last 5 - 10 pint are very clear - but taste wise no different. Nice to have really clear beer though isn't it! Just somin about it.

Not sure if you've tried it yet but a quite new hop on the market is Vic Secret. I've used it twice now and is great as a late addition and dry hop.

So with the DX filter do you recirculate the first few liters when transferring to the FV?

I was going to go with one of those gas burners too for my 33l pot but just gone down the element route. My method of transfer at the moment is a poor mans siphon so by adding the element I'm pimping my BIAB kit a bit and looking for improvements for my brew day.

I make quite a lot of hoppy beers and they always use to end up with hop haze after dry hops. My last brew though I used my fridge to chill the bottles for 2-3 weeks and this dropped it almost clear and still maintained the strong hop taste / aroma.

Nope I don’t recirculate using the filter. I just do a manual whirlpool leave it to settle for 10 mins and then transfer to a no chill cube. I prefer using flowers in the boil as I find that they help filter out a lot of trub.

[alexlark]

I'm at the point with hazy beer now that I think it looks quite rustic!

Yea I've done a whirlpool too, really helps. I'm finding though that a lot of the new hops are in pellet form. Worcester Hop shop do a lot of flower hops.

[windrider]

Cracked some bottles open this weekend with friends. Have to say I’m very pleased with this brew. Not as hoppy as I was hoping but found the hops to be a lot more mellow than the American variety’s I normally use. The malt really shines through early then you get the nice fruitiness from the hops to balance it out.





Going to brew this again in January to use the hops up in the freezer. Then I fancy brewing a Munich Helles.

[sbond10]

Looks good there not brewed a real hop forward beer yet will get there tho

[D4nny74]

Looks good

[Bunglebrewsbeer]

Think this may go on the to do list. Sounds lovely!!

[D4nny74]

Would you double the hops ? With you saying not hoppy enough ?

[windrider]

For my palate I would say it’s very well balanced. You could certainly increase the later additions and it wouldn’t over power the beer. I found the bittering addition is bang on for the malt bill

Good thing with this recipe is you can get 2 x brews out of each 100G of hops