For this brew, I wanted a nice, light beer for the hot summer days ahead. ‘Course I probably jumped the gun by a month, but I was excited to brew a light session ale.
This batch will be a few firsts for me. This will be the first time using my new turkey fryer setup to brew a full wort boil. This will also be the first time brewing a full size Brew In A Bag (BIAB). My previous ale (Freezer Burn Raspberry Ale) was a small batch, stove top BIAB.
This brew went without a hitch…for the most part. I spilled a little grain while pouring it from the plastic bag. Next time I’ll transfer it to a plastic bucket before adding it to the mash. It will be much easier to control this way. I did have my first boil-over, though. Kinda wished I was in the driveway instead of my garage. But it was going to rain and I didn’t want to chance it.
My strike water was hotter than I thought. Next time I’ll remove the cover, stir, and check temp the closer I get to my target. So my mash was at 154°F instead of the target 150°F. Oh well. The Sacch rest went really well. I covered up the pot with an old blanket and it only dropped 1 degree over the hour.
I’m thrilled with my new wort chiller. I built it while the mash was resting. It cooled my wort down in 15 minutes (we have cold ground water). I wish I had built one earlier.
Lawnmower ManStyle: 6-A Cream Ale
Type: All Grain – Brew In A Bag
Batch: #6
Size: 5.0 gal
Calories:140.64 kcal per 12.0 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.042 (1.042 – 1.055)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.006 – 1.012)
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Color: 7.42 (3.0 – 5.0)
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Alcohol: 4.16% (4.2% – 5.6%)
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Bitterness: 15.4 (15.0 – 20.0)
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Ingredients:
- 7 lb Standard 2-Row
- .75 lb Honey Malt
- .25 lb Belgian Biscuit
- 1.25 oz Liberty (3.3%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
- 1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
Schedule:
- 00:03:00 Mash – Liquor: 5.72 gal; Strike: 155.37 °F; Target: 150 °F
- 01:03:00 Rest – Rest: 60 min; Final: 150.0 °F
Notes
- Based on All Grain Cream Ale by Norther Brewer (Substituted 1oz of Cluster for 1.25 of Liberty)
- I poured the grain from a plastic bag and spilled about 1/4-1/13c of grains on the floor. Uggg.
- My target mash temp was 150.0 °F. Unfortunately the strike water was hotter than I expected and the final mash temp turned out to be 154°F.
- Fermenting was hot for the first 12hrs (72 degrees). I removed the heating pad and let the ambient temp of 64°F balance it out. I shouldn’t have put the heat pad on the fermentor. Old habits from wintertime, I guess.
- Spent 1 week in primary. Racked it to 2nd on 5-8-2011. 2 weeks in 2nd.
- Bottled on 5/22/2011 with 3/4c priming sugar.
- Final gravity was 1.014 (target was 1.011) which marks at 3.66% ABV. This is actually good because I wanted lower alcohol. Not sure why I missed my mark, though. Probably due to a higher mashing temp creating more unfermentables. I tried changing mash temp in Beer Tools, but it didn’t alter my expected gravity.
- Tasted the beer when bottling. It tasted amazing. Can’t wait to try it cold and carbonated. 😀