Will this still be OK?

[Chrissyr63]

Hi

so my 2nd BIAB and not sure if it has gone right.

Recipe was

Grain
3.3 kg United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale 83%
250 g United Kingdom - Crystal 6.3%
175 g Torrified Wheat 4.4%
150 g Biscuit 3.8%
100 g Brown Sugar 2.5%

3.98 kg Total

Hops
35 g Fuggles 60 min 4.77 18.31 Leaf Boil
35 g East Kent Goldings 30 min 5.6 20.1 Leaf Boil
20 g East Kent Goldings 0 min 5.6 7.94 Leaf Aroma

12g of Irish Moss at 15 mins left

Mashed at 65-70c for 30 mins in 12l (tesco still) water. (Think this is where I first may have gone wrong as I couldn't keep the temp very stable).
Then dunk sparge twice with hot 3l of water.
Then kept the pan topped up to about 15l (about max) as the boil went along (60 mins).Left hops steeping for 30 mins and then cooled in the sink as quick as I could. Filtered into the fermenter topped up with more bottled water and then a good stir to get air in.

Originally used a Wilko Gervin yeast straight on top of fermenter but this did not seem to take after about 30 hrs so I added a started S04 (with some of the wort and
a bit of brewing sugar). Reason for this is that I need to leave this for two week unattended so wanted it to at least start. (So is this my next error?)

Plan is to let brew for two weeks (I have put a aquarium heater set at 20c and covered with a duvet as the house will not be heated) and the I will put into priming bucket and hopefully bottle\barrel end June. Usual carb for 2 weeks and then leave for 2 more.

Hoping it turns out OK.

As a separate question - do people think I could but into a fermenter and add finings on a Friday evening and then bottle on the Sunday afternoon or is that too soon? Only at thelocation for the weekend.

Thanks for any advice.

C

[Redimpz]

the heater and duvet is questionable. it is June after all. Should be no issues with leaving it unattended, in fact it is probably a good thing as nobody will be lifting the lid to look at it etc.
mash time could be a little short, most recipes call for 90 mins, (I do 60 mins myself). good practice is to heat the water a bit hotter than you need to allow for temp drop when you add the grain, stir it well and cover it with that duvet to keep the heat in.
only issue with topping up the boil is if it is cold water you use as this stops it boiling, as you are using bottled water you could do the boil and use the bottled water to top up and dilute to the desired strength at the end,( this would also help with the cooling.)
the only other observation I would make is that maybe your first yeast would have worked eventually, or maybe you could have used the S-04 at the beginning. other than that I think it'll be fine.

[Chrissyr63]

hi Redimpz,

thanks for the reply
Even over the last few months where I keep the buckets is always quite cool - 10-15c unless heated - so I thought it would have problems fermenting so low.
I top up the boil with the sparge water which I heat in a pan first then bottled water boiled if I run out of that.
Yes in hindsight I should have just used the S-04 but wanted to try another yeast. Just a bit of a wobble cos I new I needed to leave for the two weeks and didn't see any yeast action - maybe a bit more patience next time.

C

[Bribie]

Duvets are good for insulation but can develop pockets and "caves" around the vessel where excessive heat can leak out into the voids until it all stabilises. A better insulation is a kid's size sleeping bag that slides over the vessel more tightly, and THEN wrap in a duvet and wrap the whole thing in a couple of bunjee straps. The resulting thing looks a bit frightening but does the job I lose around two degrees over an hour, but most of your conversion has happened in the first twenty minutes anyway. No need to heat during the mash.