After four kits I have now made the step up to all grain and living in a two bed flat have gone with the the BIAB method.
Thought I would keep it simple to start with, a very simple low gravity pale ale/bitter. Working with Beersmith 2 went with a 60 min mash and a 60 min boil.
10l batch
1700g Pale Malt
200g Light Crystal Malt
10g Challenger @ 60 min
10g Challenger @ 30 min
SG of 1.034 with approx efficiency of 75%
Looking to get down to 1.008 which should give me 3.4%
The trial jar sample I took to check on the gravity tastes much better than any of the kits ive done so far. Cant wait to bottle and start drinking this.
Post #2 made 13 years ago
Pumpkin,That is great that you can taste the difference already. Brewing a quality beer with a kit is a lot harder than brewing a quality beer with all-grain - you need a lot of luck in kit brewing.
One trick with brewing a light beer of the style you are brewing is to mash them at a high temperature (69-70C) but use the same weight of hops as you would use if the batch was full-strength. What this does is gives the beer more body whilst the additional hops balance out the extra sweetness.
Unlike the kit beers, you will be able to drink that recipe quite quickly - no waiting around for it to improve in the bottle.
Have fun with it
,PP
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Post #3 made 13 years ago
I mashed at 68C in the end, which is what beersmith advised.
The next batch of this I brew I am going to up the hop additions, i did find the trial jar sample a touch sweet, not massively or enough to ruin the beer. Just a touch too much for the style.
I have noticed its pretty much done fermenting already, its only been in the FV for 3 days.
The next batch of this I brew I am going to up the hop additions, i did find the trial jar sample a touch sweet, not massively or enough to ruin the beer. Just a touch too much for the style.
I have noticed its pretty much done fermenting already, its only been in the FV for 3 days.
Post #4 made 13 years ago
PE, there are a few other things I should have mentioned yesterday sorry...
Try to do a 90 min mash and a 90 min boil if you can. The 90 min mash will give you more form your grain and the 90 min boil can correct some problems that may appear in a 60 min boil.
In that recipe, there are no aroma hops. On your next one, look at doing hop additions at say 75 mins, 15 mins and right at the end of the boil to give you some aroma.
Don't respect software too much as there are a lot of errors in the software out there. For example, while the recommendations for certain bodied beers are lower in Beersmith 2 than they were in Beersmith 1, they are generally still too high for light and medium bodied beers. The suggestions made by BIABrewer.info were, and still are, 62 C (144 F) for light bodied beers, 66C (151 F) for medium-bodied beers and 70 C (158 F) for full-bodied beers. Your pale ale, if brewed at normal strength, really should have been mashed at 66 C.
These things are not big deals at all so there is no need to worry. One thing you can do though before your next brew is post your recipe plan up here and we can let you know if there are any tweaks we can see.
PP
Try to do a 90 min mash and a 90 min boil if you can. The 90 min mash will give you more form your grain and the 90 min boil can correct some problems that may appear in a 60 min boil.
In that recipe, there are no aroma hops. On your next one, look at doing hop additions at say 75 mins, 15 mins and right at the end of the boil to give you some aroma.
Don't respect software too much as there are a lot of errors in the software out there. For example, while the recommendations for certain bodied beers are lower in Beersmith 2 than they were in Beersmith 1, they are generally still too high for light and medium bodied beers. The suggestions made by BIABrewer.info were, and still are, 62 C (144 F) for light bodied beers, 66C (151 F) for medium-bodied beers and 70 C (158 F) for full-bodied beers. Your pale ale, if brewed at normal strength, really should have been mashed at 66 C.
These things are not big deals at all so there is no need to worry. One thing you can do though before your next brew is post your recipe plan up here and we can let you know if there are any tweaks we can see.
PP
If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!
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- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
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