BIABrewer.info

Hi All,
have done my first Mini Biab and have found an unexpected grain flavour to the resulting beer.
Smells & tastes very much like a open bag of malted grain. Nothing offensive and certainly not an infection.
Noticed it at bottling and have tried it after 2 weeks and still present.

My process was basically a hybrid of the Commentary here and the process from the "go all grain for $30" over on AHB, to suit my equipment as it is now and to get a feel for the process. I have enough grain to do 5 batches to allow calibration of my equipment, but wanted to see what thoughts were around as to the flavour.

Recipie

2 kg Aussie ale malt
0.1 kg carapils
50 gms Carared
20 carafa 3

10 ltr brew length

60 min mash at approx 67 deg
60 min boil

Cheers

Any Hops ? If there were no hops I'm sure it would taste "Malty"..

Good Day, I think the conversion did not complete.

Did you get the Specific gravity after the boil, as it went to the fermentor?

I had a similar problem with some older grains, they lost thier emzyemes

Sori guys yes hops were Galaxy 10gm at 60m and 10gm at 10m.
As I said its not sweet malt/caramel flavour though thats there... its literally dry grain smell.
I've had another extract brewer try it who noted it as well but said it had "potential" assuming it dissipated.
gravity going in was 1.048 @ 22 dec celcius I forgot to take it at end of boil and adjust. The calculator and Brewmate suggested it would be 1.053 so conversion not perfect.
I'll give it a go again on the weekend and be a bit more accurate and report back.

Hefeclown,

When I started brewing I frequently forgot things and generally messed up on just about everything. So I started making a check list of things to remember and in what order to do them.

What yeast did you use?

I brewed a Coopers Pale Ale once that was supposed to have recultured yeast in it. That yeast failed and I had to pitch a different one instead (US05). When I tried this beer it tasted very grainy. The taste stayed throughout the beer however, it did get better with age and I got a little bored with the flavour so I dry hopped it with some cascade and it was better.

HC

Yep new plan is to use the walkthru from here and check each step as I go.
When you're used to Extract and specialty grain maybe be a little over confident I guess.

used US05 never noticed anything unusual before.
Did Coopers Pale recently using harvested Coopers Yeast and got the Banana esther which I believe is not unusual.
Anyway still doing hop test dry extract batches trying to find the Holy Grail but I'm backing up Sunday for another go.

Yeah, I haven't noticed the graininess with any other beer just the Coopers grist and hopping.
I think that the amount of hops in an APA or similarly hopped beer is enough to mask or even compliment the grainy taste that US05 can leave behind in a beer that has 25g of bittering hops and nothing else.

Congrats on your first crack Hefe .

Here's a few thoughts that might be of help...That is great to see you are committed .

If the grain is already crushed, try and use it sooner rather than later and store it as dry and cool as you can.

Avoid a 60 minute mash. The extra 30 minutes does make a difference. Besides saving 30 minutes, there is zero advantage to a 60 minute mash, only penalties.

You'll get some odd readings on these 5 brews but if they worry you, post them up and we'll see if something major is going wrong.

However, the most important thing when looking at numbers (or flavour characteristics) in all-grain is to make sure you have a thermometer that reads well at mash temps. My best advice here is to never rely on a single thermometer - the more the merrier .

PP

Ok so I had my 2nd go last Sunday with some Assistants, which may or may not have been a good idea.
Same recipe, Strike temp at 72, covered up and insulated with a sleeping bag @ 68 deg.
Quick dunk sparge with 1 ltr 70 degree.
Squeezed and liquor added to the pot.
Balance of initial water (2.8) ltr added to pot.
Pre boil gravity was 1.030 as expected, brought to boil and hopped to the same schedule.
Had an Assistant malfunction (broken hydro)so didn't get a post boil gravity.
Pitched onto a just bottled Hallertaur ale yeast cake and it started fermentation activity by the next morn.
This time no evident Grain smell, so perhaps some success.

A couple of questions I tried to use the calculations at the bottom of the spreadsheet to begin the fine tuning
but my end of boil volume was 11.4 ltr when the formulas indicated it should have been 12.6 ltr.
It frustrated me at the time but upon reflection would it indicate that the evap rate is higher??

Hefe

Hi Hefe,
Yep, sounds like your evap rate is higher than the standard figure in the calculator.
Which is obviously dependant a lot on your heat source.
Something you can just adjust once you get a few brews under your belt.
Your post boil gravity might be a bit higher than expected...not necessarily a bad thing .
Cheers,
Jake.

ok so perhaps I could do a full boil of the quantity of water and measure the evap or just wait for the next brew and ensure I get the right measurements. Ehh why waste the gas I spose.
Did check the gravity and it was 1.010,so I'm guessing I missed the o.g. a little but a quick taste indicated it was a better brew than the 1st. I'll try and get another done this week with some additional accuracy.