First AG BIAB - Citra SMaSH Pale Ale

[IrishBeerSnob]

Heh, i'm sure about using the stock pot - at 6 quid of course I am!

I can't read the symbols on the tag to see if stainless or aluminium to be honest.

Just have to get a mash bag now and the grains and am sorted.

[mr hoppy]

Just looking at the first post again - I know you talk about skipping extract, but there no shame in using a wee bit of the stuff. If you add a kg or two of extract 5 mins before the end of the boil and top up your fermenter with tap water you can do a full 20l brew length without to much hassle and minimal flavor impact: just make sure that you have enough base malt in the mash for it to convert!

[molc]

I never got the point in partial. If your mashing, what's the difference in just mashing everything as its the same time and also cheaper to boot. Enlighten me

[Bubbles]

It's all about the volume of grain you can handle. Long before biab became popular people were using partial mashing to mash grain in pots.

[mr hoppy]

Yep, all-grain is cheaper if you ignore the cost of the equipment. 

You can do a 10 - 15 litre partial mash on a stove top whereas a full BIAB mash might be pushing it which means an electric boiler or gas which (in the short term) costs more than a bit of extract. I never did kits and I transitioned from extract to all-grain by doing a couple of stove top partial mashes using the exact same equipment as for extract. In fact I continued to use a little DME to true things up til I got a handle on my all-grain efficiency so it was a fairly seamless transition.

Incidentally I scratched the feck out of a ceramic hob with an aluminum pot one time, so be careful if that's what your thinking of doing.

[Bubbles]

You also have some of the advantages of all grain (especially the full range of grains which have to be mashed) without having to heat large volumes of water, saves time, power, cleanup effort etc.

Partial mashing produces just as good results as all grain for many beer styles. The big drawback is the cost of malt extract and lack of control around mash temps. For me, partial mashing was a huge leap upwards from extract/steeping in terms of beer quality.

[molc]

Consider me enlightened. A world without BIAB *shudder*

I was considering BIAB but went with a mash tun so I could mash bigger beers as well. Got a second element for my boiler over the Xmas so finally full volume boils are not taking an hour to get going. The difference is like night and day! Now I'm just waiting for the Eureka moment when I taste a superior all grain batch

[mr hoppy]

Well BIAB is just PM with a bigger pot

[Bubbles]

Yeah, people were doing BIAB before some clever aussie decided to put a name on it! 

[Parky]

@ IrishBeerSnob - sorry, I seem to have derailed your OP with all this talk of stock pots 

No joy getting one in Dunnes though, I even had the long suffering Mrs Parky look in the branches in Dublin city centre, but alas to no avail. I decided to bite the bullet anyway, and ordered a 13.5L SS pot from Amazon, which will be ideal for 5 - 10L batches.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buckingham-Deep-Induction-Stock-Glass/dp/B0049MPIJ8

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... 

I plugged the recipe in the OP into Brewmate and came up with the following -

Citra SMaSH Pale Ale


Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           10.0
Total Grain (kg):         2.000
Total Hops (g):           34.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.044  (°P): 11.0
Final Gravity (FG):       1.011  (°P): 2.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.32 %
Colour (SRM):             5.5   (EBC): 10.8
Bitterness (IBU):         40.6   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes):      60

Grain Bill
----------------
2.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (100%)

Hop Bill
----------------
10.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
10.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
14.0 g Citra Pellet (11.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (1.4 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05

• The estimated ABV in Brewmate is coming out as 4.32% rather than 5.7%, so may want to recheck the figures entered in Beersmith, maybe volume is slightly off, giving a much greater ABV. But 2kg would certainly be fine for a 10L brew.
• Bitterness is coming in at approx. 40 IBUs, which will be similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (37 IBUs), if you're looking for a comparison.
• If your first hop addition (bittering hops) is at 45mins, then I would only boil for 45mins, no need for the full 60. Personally, I would boil for 60 and add the bittering hops at the beginning of the boil. This will give you slightly more bitterness (44 IBUs), so you may want to reduce the amount of hops to reach your original bittering level. That being said, maybe 44 IBUs would work out great, all depends on your own tastes.
• I've entered the Alpha level of the Citra hops as being 11.1%, but you'll have to check the AA% on your actual hops and enter that to get accurate bittering levels, adjusting the amount of citra accordingly.
• I would certainly dry hop, it can give a lovely fresh aroma, and you can't go far wrong with citra anyway.
• I find using the oven at it's lowest temp setting to be a convenient way to maintain mash temp. when brewing small batches, although I keep it slightly lower than 65^oC, as the temp can build - 55^oC or there abouts works well. I check temp. and stir gently every 15 mins also, to ensure everything's on track, but that's just me.
• The only other tip I can give you from my own experience with small batches is not to use the full packet of yeast (11.5g). Instead, for a 10L batch, use half the pack (6g) and rehydrate before use.

You can take the above with a pinch of salt - most important thing is to just give it a go and find out what works for your own tastes and your own setup. Sounds like it'll be a really nice brew, let us know how it all goes on brew day 

[IrishBeerSnob]

Cheers lads - i don't have the space for a full AG set up yet -
So want to dip my toes in with BIAB

I'm aiming to make 10L batches appx - fill two demijohns and use US05 for one and West Coast Yeast in the other to see the difference.

I'm using gas hob to be honest.

I'm not that au fait with Beersmith to be honest so it's possible i've input stuff wrong. luckily we've a Homebrew meeting tonight and i'll get John (Blueshed) to talk me through it

[molc]

Here's a recipe I did recently for an all citra brew. It's not a smash though, so not sure if it will suit you. http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,8463.0.html

[IrishBeerSnob]

Thanks mate

Looking forward to experimenting with SMASH then go onto other things

[biertourist]

Another thing (mentioned way down that thread) is that oxy / w5 are bleach is not recommended for aluminium.

Bleach is not recommended for stainless either.  Probably the ONLY sanitization method that I can think if that you're not supposed to use with stainless.  -It pits stainless.


Adam

[IrishBeerSnob]

No citra, so substituted out for Amarillo
And, using 2.5Kg of grain to bump up abv

Revised Recipe

2.5KG Maris Otter
12g Amarillo @ 9.2% 60 Mins
12g Amarillo @ 9.2% 15 Mins
2g Irish Moss 10 Mins
12g Amarillo @ 9.2% 0 Mins
Mangrove Jack US West Coast Yeast

Beersmith Giving IBUs of 44, ABV of 5.4%