While my mead is fermenting, I decided i’ll make my second ever batch of beer. This time I decided to scale things up to 23L and go with an all grain Pacific Ale BIAB (similar to Stone and Wood). For this I bought a 35L brew pot as well as a 30L plastic fermenter with airlock and thermometer. The specs of the Pacific Ale are as follows:
Date: 24/5/19
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20L (fermenter volume)
Boil Size: 25L
Mash: 30L at 66 °C for 60 min
Target OG: 1.046
Target FG: 1.008
Target ABV: 5.05%
Grain Bill
Pale Malt: 2.6kg
Wheat Malt: 1.6kg
Carapils Malt: 100g
Hops
10g Galaxy boil 30 min
10g Galaxy boil 0 min
60g Galaxy 5 days (dry hop)
Yeast
1x Safeale US-05
Optimal fermentation temperature: 20°C
So brewing didn’t go 100% to plan. I broke my hydrometer so I wasn’t able to take an OG reading, but I assume its in the ballpark of 1.045-50. I also didn’t expect the mash and boil to heat up so slowly, so that took a while. Also cooling the wort took forever, i’d probably add ice next time to cool it down faster. Other than that the first all grain BIAB went great, can’t wait to taste the results. Given i’ll be dry hopping for 5 days, i’ll be doing my dry hopping in about a week if all goes to plan and fermentation kicks in nicely.
Gravity reading 5/6/19 – 1.006
Approximate ABV: 5%
Just finished bottling my baby. Smell is amazing, heaps of mango and passionfruit, just very fruity all together. Ended up getting about 23 tallies which should be ready to taste in about 2 weeks (22/6/19)
Tasting notes: Carbonation didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it, with most bottles being a bit under-carbonated. Smell has lots of tropical fruits. Taste was a little lackluster but still got some nice fruits, citrus and a touch of sweetness out of it. Definitely think controlling the temperature better could have helped this one, as well as starting fermentation at a lower temperature.
