BIAB#1 – Fool’s Gold Best Bitter

[Paddy Bubbles]

Brewed on 22nd Dec. I was waiting until the Christmas holidays to do my first all-grain recipe. For the first time ever, not a gram of extract will go into my beer. Not having a mash tun, or even the expertise for conducting a mash using a 3-vessel system, I’ll be using a BIAB method using my two pots. The pots are 20 litres and 10 litres and I’m slightly restricted on boil volume because I’m boiling on the gas hob. So I’ll be doing a slightly smaller batch of 15 litres because I don’t wait to boil at too high a concentration and end up with excessive kettle caramelisation. My previous partial mash efforts have been running at a pretty rubbish 65% efficiency, so for my first BIAB I’m going to use an even lower figure of 60%. If I get a higher efficiency that that, then great. The 30 IBU I’m planning will hopefully stand up against an extra couple of points on my original gravity.

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BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout – http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Bubbles Best Bitter
Brewer: Paddy Bubbles
Asst Brewer:
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 12.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 10.00 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 15.00 l
Bottling Volume: 15.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.041 SG
Estimated Color: 10.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 31.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU
2.850 kg              Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         1        87.8 %
0.160 kg              Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM)               Grain         2        4.9 %
0.145 kg              Caramel/Crystal Malt – 75L (75.0 SRM)    Grain         3        4.5 %
0.075 kg              Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)                  Grain         4        2.3 %
0.016 kg              Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain         5        0.5 %
15 g                  Fuggles [4.30 %] – Boil 60.0 min         Hop           6        12.8 IBUs
15 g                  Goldings, East Kent [4.90 %] – Boil 60.0 Hop           7        14.6 IBUs
11 g                  Fuggles [4.30 %] – Boil 10.0 min         Hop           8        1.9 IBUs
11 g                  Goldings, East Kent [4.90 %] – Boil 10.0 Hop           9        2.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg               SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast         10       -

Boil and mash conducted on the same day. I used a much higher boil volume than usual, must have been at least 15 litres, but the hob handled it just fine. I got about 11 litres into the fermenter and had to top up with some water. Fearing a very low efficiency I added water up to 13/14 litres ans took and OG reading of 1.048! Pretty good, so I topped up to the 15 litres mark. The next step will be to actually calibrate these fermenters I’m using.

30/12/2012 - Bottled using 90g table sugar. Bowled over by the sample I took from the fermenter. It’s really bready or grainy, I can’t figure out which word describes it best. Nor can I figure out what has contributed to this flavour, the torrified wheat or the biscuit malt. At this point, I’m going to guess that it’s the torrified wheat given that it’s a very traditional grain in English styles, and my beer tastes very typical and traditional. Should have a nice level of carbonation with the 90g of of sugar. It’s quite bitter, more than the 30 IBU that I was expecting. Got a FG of 1.008. Will give this 3 weeks conditioning before trying a sample. I saved 500ml of slurry that will be rolled over into another all-grain English bitter. This time, it’s going to be based on a clone of Goose Island Honkers Ale – itself based on an English bitter. This will be more caramelly with plenty of fermentables coming from wheat malt and also a little roasted barley for extra character. I’ll be using all Fuggles for this brew, though I might not have enough. In that case I’ll use some Northern Brewer for bittering.