This year I decided to do an all grain version of my Christmas Ale that I previously made using extract. The previous beer had been very popular at beer tastings due to its subtle level of spicing and liberal contribution of cascade hops. I used the same amount of 'Carafa 1' grains along with 6kg of base malt and 500g of torrified wheat to aid head retention. I also added a small amount of chocolate and black malt to add some additional complexity to the beer. Given that I was using 2011 harvest (1 year old) hops I decided to up the hopping regime significantly with the addition of Columbus hops in addition to the cascade in the original recipe.
 |
| First runnings with a much thinner mash my normal level |
I have been having consistently poor efficiency since I have started all grain with efficiency's typically in the 45 to 50% region which is very low. I have spoken to other brewers with the exact same mash tun as mine and they are getting efficiencies in the mid to high 70's so it is definitely down to either the ingredients or the water that is causing my low efficiencies. For this brew I bought a tub of the PH 5.2 buffer solution as my previous all grain mash seemed to have a slightly higher mash PH of 5.9 rather than the recommended 5.2. Unfortunately it didn't make any difference as the pre-boil gravity indicated that the efficiency was still below 50%.
 |
| Ingredients |
 |
Warming up the yeast
|
Here is the final recipe:
Recipe: Christmas Ale MK2 TYPE: All Grain
Style: Fruit Beer
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 61.8 EBC SRM RANGE: 9.8-98.5 EBC
IBU: 50.5 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.081 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG
FG: 1.018 SG FG RANGE: 1.006-1.024 SG
BU:GU: 0.622 Calories: 476.4 kcal/l Est ABV: 8.3 %
EE%: 70.00 % Batch: 19.00 l Boil: 26.38 l BT: 60 Mins
---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------
Taste of Christmas!
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 -
Total Grain Weight: 7070.00 g Total Hops: 165.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6000.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 84.9 %
500.00 g Carafa I (663.9 EBC) Grain 3 7.1 %
500.00 g Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 4 7.1 %
50.00 g Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 5 0.7 %
20.00 g Black Malt (Stout) (1333.0 EBC) Grain 6 0.3 %
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash Step Add 24.02 l of water at 165. 154.0 F 60 min
---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 61.0 F/120.0 F
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD BOIL CHEMICALS BEFORE FWH
Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 11.94l) of 168.1 F water
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.068 SG Est OG: 1.081 SG
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
15.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop 7 18.7 IBUs
60.00 g Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 8 23.2 IBUs
0.45 kg Honey (Boil 45.0 mins) Other 9 -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
2.00 Items Star Anise Petals (Boil 15.0 mins) Spice 11 -
4.00 Items Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 12 -
3.00 Items Cloves (Ground) (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 13 -
2.00 tsp Vanilla Extract (Boil 10.0 mins) Spice 14 -
0.50 Items Cinnamon Stick (Crushed) (Boil 10.0 mins Spice 15 -
40.00 g Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 16 3.4 IBUs
50.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 2.0 Hop 17 5.3 IBUs
---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 05/12/2012 - 14.00 Days at 67.0 F
Secondary Start: 19/12/2012 - 10.00 Days at 65.0 F
Style Carb Range: 2.00-2.80 Vols
Bottling Date: 19/12/2012 with 2.4 Volumes CO2:
---NOTES------------------------------------
Heated strike water to 175. Mashtun already heated with hot tap water.
Temperature a little high at 156, added ice to bring it down to 154. All day mash
No comments:
Post a Comment