For my second attempt at BIAB, after the Stone & Wood replica, I decided to go with a popular NEIPA recipe. The beer is meant to be cloudy orange, with big juicy fruity notes and a nice thickness to it.
This time around, I decided I needed to control the fermentation temperature a little better. I picked up an Inkbird ITC-308 Wifi digital temperature controller and hooked it up to an old bar fridge with a heating element in order to keep the temperature stable. The controller seems to be working very well, it keeps everything at a steady range and allows me to monitor temps from an android app as well as adjust temperatures as need be.
I also decided to pick up some calcium sulfate after reading that brisbane tap water lacks in calcium and sulfate. Adding a teaspoon of this to each 20-25L brew should improve the water chemistry and improve the final product.
NEIPA BIAB
Grain Bill:
4.2kg German – Pilsner
1kg German – Wheat Malt
500g Flaked Oats
200g Corn Sugar – Dextrose – (late addition)
150g Rice Hulls
160g Canadian – Honey Malt
50g German – Acidulated Malt
Hops:
80g Amarillo
80g Citra
70g Galaxy
10g Warrior
240g Total
Yeast: Mangrove Jack M44 US West Coast Yeast – 10 G
Priming: 2.25 volumes (4.5g of table sugar)
Fermentation Temp: 19-22°C
Water treatment: calcium sulphate (4g)
Starting Volume: 27L
Pre-boil Volume: 25L (No Sparge)
Fermenter Volume: 20-211L
Mash in: 67 for 90 mins
Mash out: 78 for last 15 mins of 90
Boil: 60 mins
Hops
10g Warrior Boil 60 min
Whirfloc Boil 15 min
Dextrose (2oog) Boil 15 min
5g Amarillo Boil 5 min
5g Citra Boil 5 min
5g Galaxy Boil 5 min
25g Amarillo Whirlpool at 80°C 20 min
25g Citra Whirlpool at 80°C 20 min
15g Galaxy Whirlpool at 80°C 20 min
50g Amarillo Dry Hop 3 days into Fermentation
50g Citra Dry Hop 5 days (stable gravity)
50g Galaxy Dry Hop 5 days (stable gravity)
Readings:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.035
SG: 1.052
Target FG: 1.015
This brew had a few hiccups along the way. Firstly, I accidentally heated my mash to about 80°C (what could be considered a mash-out temp) a little early into the mash. I feel like this probably didn’t get me all the sugars I wanted, making the pre-boil gravity a little low. Secondly, I wasn’t able to source the yeast I researched and had to go with a US west coast yeast, which should hopefully do the trick. Everything else in the process went pretty smoothly. I was able to get my wort temperature down a lot faster this time around by buying a couple bags of ice. Straining the wort into the fermenter was a little annoying given all the hops, and probably something I should improve on for next time. I definitely need a new fermentation fridge as well, given the one i’m using is very old, probably will die any day and doesn’t quite fit my fermenter with airlock attached. Further down the line I’d like a better pot to control the mash temperature better and make the process a bit faster, currently it takes way too long to heat the water up and i’d prefer a 40L so everything could fit a little better.
In 3 days (13/09/19) I’ll chuck in the first dry hop addition (50g Amarillo) and then at day 5 i’ll throw in the second addition (50g Citra, 50g Galaxy).
(14/09/19) Just put in 50g of Amarillo hops. Gravity was approximately 1.015, around the target of 1.015 FG. Looks good, vibrant orange with nice cloudiness. Smell is very tropical, fruity and juicy. Will add the rest of the dry hop additions in a couple of days. Upping fermentation temperature to 21°C
(16/09/19) Second dry hop addition is in (50g Galaxy 50g Citra). Will be bottling on the 22nd.
(20/09/19) Gravity stable at 1.015 (Target hit).
(21/09/19) Bottled. Gonna leave it to age/carbonate for 2 weeks probably before refridgerating.
(4/11/19) Never using Ikea bottles again. Four of them broke and the 1L bottles hardly carbonated at all though. Also probably shouldn’t have cold crashed or used a whirfloc as the beer wasn’t very cloudy at all. Taste was pretty good though on the better bottles. Juicy, very drinkable and very hoppy.