I have a few extract brews under my belt, and have been debating what to do next. I am looking toward going all grain, but at this point I don't have a tun, and have other things I want to invest in first. It looks like I should be able to do a brew in a bag with really only a bag, so I like that idea. I have been debating between 3 routes for my next beer; 1) rebrew my first batch (hefe) to see what I have learned, 2) a smash (particularly using willlamette as it is my favorite hop of the 5 or so I have used) to try to learn specific ingredients, or 3) a Scottish ale, mostly because I had a local Scottish ale and thought, wow this is good, I should make one of these. I have pretty much decided to do 2 of the three as the next two beers, and I am wondering how well this plan will work out. I am thinking about doing a Marris Otter + Willamette SMASH, with SA-04 and then use the yeast cake from that for a Scottish ale. I was thinking extract + grain for the Scottish Ale. At this point I have a few things to work through before I am ready to tackle this - I need recipes, and I need to figure out the BIAB process. I have played around with Vikeman's brewcipher to create a recipe for the smash, but I am really unsure of what kind of efficiency to use which makes it a little difficult to determine how much grain to use. That being said this is what I have come up with: SMASH: 9lbs Marris Otter 1oz Willamette @60 min 1oz Willamette @15 min 1oz Willamette @5 min Ferment with SA-04 at ambient (low 60s in my basement) At 70% efficiency that give me 1.047 OG and 35 IBU. Because brewcipher doesn't include dry yeast, I am assuming 75% attenuation, which gives FG 1.012 and 4.7% ABV. I have no ideas for a recipe for a Scottish ale, so please feel free to suggest a recipe, or a specific kit. I would like to know if SA-04 is appropriate for a Scottish Ale, or if I should pick something else for both beers. I am also not entirely clear on the BIAB process, but my understanding is you just toss the grains in, keep it at 155 (or so) for an hour or so, and pull the grains out, from there it would be the same as extract. So some of my specific questions are: Do I need to worry about burning the bag? Do you stir the grain during the mash? Do I heat the water prior to adding the grains, or add the grains then heat the water? Would there be any advantage to mashing with a smaller amount of water and rinsing the grain bag with the remaining quantity of water? Is there any great step by step BIAB site similar to how to brew that I don't know about. Are there any giant holes in my plan?
No. Yes. Yes, so no. Yes, increased efficiency, but get that sparge water to around 170 before the rinse. Yes, but I don't know where. And No, not really. 155 is a bit high (not too high) the range should be somewhere in 145-155 area. Higher for more body, lower for more alc.
For the basics, go with SSam - there are pluses and minuses to doing BIAB, more plus than minus. The biggest minus is dragging 9 pounds of grain that's soaked in hot water out of there - more like 15 pounds of 150 degree stuff there. For other info, as much as I hate to admit I frequent other forums, and hate to mention them, Homebrewtalk.com is a great resource for homebrewing of all varieties.
Try these two(all grain): 1) Sour quadruple with blackberries 2) Triple decocted pils Easy peasy, lemon squeesy.
155 is in the high range, but for a SMaSH (and I think for a Scottish ale, but I've never brewed one), I think it is totally appropriate. I think you could safely go up to 158 if you wanted a really high finishing gravity.
Al like Smash. Me Al. Smash good. Me like-um smash. I would (obviously) recommend you go the smash route. Maris otter / willamette = good, so does GP / willamette. Well GP goes great with everything. I'm a big munich smash fan too, especially if you want to make it pretty hoppy (munich/bravo was very tasty, hoppy pale-ale or mid-level IPA like hop levels). But the rule for willamette is double what you thought you'd need, then add two more ounces at flameout. Even with only nine pounds of grain, I'd use more than 3 oz willamette. It is an excellent hop and one of my favs, but it's fairly weak and subtle, so don't skimp. IMO S-04 makes everything taste "English." That's not a bad thing, but if you goal is not to make something that's English ale like, don't use that yeast. I'm also a big fan of nottingham, US-05, and windsor (attenuation / efficiency likely won't be anywhere near 75% with windsor). Low 60's ambient basement temperature is awesome. I have to use a freezer/controller to get anywhere near that number. You can't seriously brew in TX without such a setup, because ferm temp control is so important.
I like the Scottish ale idea. It's a forgiving style that lets you shoot high or low on your gravity and it will still come out an excellent malty beer. It's a crowd pleaser no matter what, so long as you ferment cool and keep the butter flavors down. If you want to run a SMaSH that's cool. I'd up the number of pounds of MO to about 11 or 12. If you do BIAB you'll probably get high 60%-72% efficiency. Have some DME on hand in case you're lower than you thought. BIAB IS, from a hip shot, an extended steeping period. You've done this with specialty grains in the past, but there's more going on in the kettle. Starches are breaking down into sugars. You WILL stir the grains at the beginning of your mash. This is called doughing in, stirring the soup, cutting the crap, so on and so forth. You would be advised to heat the 1.25 qt water/ pound of grain to about 14 degrees above your desired mash temperature. I'm assuming you'll be working on the stove and can raise the temperature from there if you're a little low. If you turn on the burner, ADD HEAT SLOWER THAN YOU THINK YOU SHOULD. You don't need to hurry and you don't want to go too hot. Temperature will come up from the bottom to the top and will be pretty deceiving what the actual temperature is. Stir constantly if you do this. I would not go above low or 2 or 3 on the heat setting. As far as using less water to start with, this leaves you more water to rinse your grains off with. Two veins here: 1. You can find a way to pour hot water across your grains into your main kettle. Possibly prop the grain bag above the kettle (tied to a 2x4) and pour the 190F water across the grains. 2. Use a second kettle with heated water already in it. Transfer the bag of grains to the second kettle to rinse the grains after your hour of mashing. Stir for about 5 minutes, and remove your grain bag. Add the 2 volumes of wort into your main kettle and move on to your boil after a gravity reading. It's totally up to you and both ways will help increase you efficiency. If you're not worried about the efficiency and you want to add 6 gal of water into your main kettle and do your mash, this is totally acceptable. This is probably the easiest way to complete a BIAB mash. Your efficiency will suffer a little but the grains will be very easy to stir. I would recommend starting with strike water (the water that will be used for the mash) at a lower temp than suggested above. I'd start around 158, maybe.
It seems like I have heard this rule somewhere before. I don't like my beers to be very bitter, so I didn't want a lot of IBUs, 35 seemed right to me. I had thought of adding another ounce at flame out, or based on your rule, 2. Would you be making the same comment it the hop schedule looked like this: 1oz Willamette @60 min 1oz Willamette @15 min 1oz Willamette @5 min 2oz Willamette @ 0 min As far as the yeast goes, my real goal is to use the same yeast for both this smash and a Scottish Ale, something in the English category sounded appropriate to me, but I don't really know what "English" tastes like (not to pick on your wording, that's the only way I've heard us-04 described). So I guess my question is would "English" be out of place in a Scottish ale? Would Nottingham or Windsor be better in that regard. I have an Irish red that I like quite I bit I used uS-05 on and wouldn't be opposed to using it again. Do you have any recipes? Everything I can find now says something about using just straight pale malt and boiling the crap out of a gallon or so of the wort to get the flavor. I am not against trying this, but I seem to remember finding something that said the flavors could be mimicked with specialty grains, but I read this prior to starting to homebrew, so I can't remember where I read it. I will probably end up with 10lbs of malt, since I think that is a somewhat standard package quantity.
That looks about right to me. Not sure about using S-04 in a Scottish ale, perhaps someone else can comment.
Thanks for the MO/Willamette recipe. I love Willamette. Best post I've seen on BA in quite a while, btw. Informative, casual, personal.
S04 would be too fruity for a Scottish ale, IMO. I'm starting to turn away from the yeast, myself. @redmaw I think you're reading up on the maillard reaction. It occurs in sugars, like toasting a marshmallow, or in toast when it caramelizes. This also occurs when boiling wort. It happens slowly and the reaction is increased with extended boils. It can also be created by boiling the first gallon or so of wort down into about a pint. You can skip this step in your BIAB if you like. More to come for recipes. I'm at work.
@redmaw I think you're underestimating how much grain it will take to make a decent APA. Most hang out in the 5>%ABV That'll cost you 10+ pounds of grain--I don't care who you are. If you get up into the IPA territory of 6 or 6.5% ABV I think this is more forgiving than being too low, albeit a true sessionable beer. I'll usually start with 10# two row, a half pound of carapils and I'll add .5# of caramel 40 or 60L. This keeps the crystal police off my back and I think it tastes pretty good this way. It's hard to find what is best for you for a BU:GU that you like. (Bittering units : Gravity units). That said you asked for SMaSH. I'd put together your favorite base malt (American or British) and pick your favorite hop or hop characteristic. Make sure the hop is potent, but not too strong so that you can get a charge at 60 min and late in the boil and still have desirable characteristics. I usually shoot for a 1.050 or 1.055 beer with at LEAST 45 IBU. A 0.8:1 - 1:1 BU:GU ratio is VERY desirable here. If I were to BIAB: 12# Crisp Maris Otter Mash at 152F for 60 min Hops: 1 oz Centennial @60 min left .5 oz Centennial @ 10 min left .5 oz Centennial @ 5 min left .5 oz Centennial @ flameout 1 pack US-05 properly rehyrdrated @ 64F Dry hop with another oz of Centennial. It will be reminiscent of 2-Hearted Ale. I think they acually use S-04, like you want to.
