Thought I'd post this as it's my most recent brew. Managed to hit 20L @ 1.054! Because of the high volume I added an extra 300g of pale malt and introduced a "sparge" stage - dunked the bag into about 4L of mash temp water for about 10 minutes. This put my total volume up 2L and I still hit my gravity target with the "sprage" stuff measuring about 1.015 before adding to the main wort - considering this is the highest gravity brew I've ever made and with a BIAB system, I've done well! :cheers:
I've clarified what I actually ended up putting in here in case anyone wants to reference the recipe -
It turns out Pacific Gem isn't Pacific Jade btw.Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 18.00 L
Boil Size: 20.60 L
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 17.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 35.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 kg Lager Malt (3.9 EBC) Grain 47.1 %
2.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 47.1 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 5.9 %
20.00 gm Centennial [10.00%] (60 min) Hops 26.3 IBU
10.00 gm Centennial [10.00%] (10 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
10.00 gm Pacific Gem [15.00%] (3 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
10.00 gm Centennial [10.00%] (3 min) Hops 1.6 IBU
10.00 gm Pacific Gem [15.00%] (0 min) Hops -
20.00 gm Pacific Gem [15.00%] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
25.00 gm Centennial [10.00%] (0 min) Hops -
35.00 gm Centennial [10.00%] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
Efficiency, hit 74%. Pitched Mangrove Jack's Belgian Yeast because I couldn't find my APA yeast at the time...it turned up 10 seconds after I chucked it in.
Tonight I've taken the dry hops out and it tastes great, picked up about the right amount of flavour so I've primed it and sealed it. It's quite dry with a malty caramelly backbone, hot alcohol, and a good amount of pungent fruity hop oil. The hops don't blend too badly at all, the Pacific Gem adds a spicey piney note to the super fruity Centennial, so it could certainly have gone worse. 1 week in the warm before cooling and conditioning now. Here's the sample - I'm like a kid in a sweet shop.
Secondly, I brewed a Belgian Pale Ale. Nothing special here, just a regular recipe really.
+ Mangrove Jack's Belgian Yeast harvested from my previous brew (an American IPA, my dad misplaced the yeast, so had to use this. found said yeast about 10 seconds after pitching, the sod.)Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 22.89 L
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 6.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 19.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.70 kg Lager Malt (3.9 EBC) Grain 92.5 %
0.30 kg CaraGold (5.9 EBC) Grain 7.5 %
15.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 14.9 IBU
10.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
Single infusion BIAB as always, with a quick dunk-sparge in 2L water. 66c for 120 mins. Hit 1.045 @ 20L.
I've syphoned off a gallon of this in an attempt to make a christmas beer, a strong belgian dark ale with caramelized sugar and amaretto (based on the american cocktail recipe for Flaming Dr Pepper,) but I think it's bit the dust because it took a while to start fermenting again and the bubbles were huge and weird...
Oh well, let's see what happens!
