Gluten-Free Brew Day #2 June 25 2020, 0 Comments

So after making a decent but not great IPA, I decided to give the Jonesin' for Buck EyePA another try. I switched up a few things but kept a lot of the process similar (changes highlighted below)

The Recipe

  • 13lb Pale Millet Malt (up from 12lb)
  • 2lb Munich Millet Malt
  • 2lb Goldfinch Millet Malt
  • 1lb Medium Crystal Millet Malt (was 2lb)
  • 1lb Light Crystal Millet Malt
  • 1lb Rice Hulls
  • 2 oz Columbus (1 @ 60, 1 dry hop)
  • 2 oz Azacca (1 whirlpool, 1 dry hop)
  • 2 oz Mosaic (1 whirlpool, 1 dry hop)
  • 2 oz Chinook (1 whirlpool, 1 dry hop)
  • US-05 Dry American Ale Yeast
  • 1 cup corn sugar (bottle conditioning)
  • 1 tsp Irish Moss (@ 10)
  • 1/2 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient (@ 10)
  • 1/2 tsp Gypsum (@ 60)
  • 3 Gallons Reverse Osmosis Water (Rest Tapwater)
  • 1/2 Campden Tablet (20 min before heating water)
  • Brewing enzymes

The big change from batch one to batch two is the usage of brewing enzymes. I am adding some enzymes to help with the efficiency with the mash. The last batch was give or take 50% efficiency, so we're hoping for a bit higher with the enzyme usage. 

One other change is that instead of digging around the internet for a bunch of different free brewing calculators, I'm using Beersmith for the first time (this will be relevant later).

As for the flavor profile of this beer, I'm still looking for a very hop-forward beer, big but not overwhelming bitterness, and lots of fruit, pine, and dank flavors and aromas.

The Mash

The mash went great! Sort of. Here's a quick breakdown of the mash specifics:

  • 90 minute mash
  • Mashed in with 7.75 gallons of H2O at 162, was 158 by the end of the mash
  • Batch sparged with 3.5 gallons of H2O at 170
  • Pre-boil gravity of 1.051 (1.048 anticipated)
  • Pre-boil volume of 7.75 gallons (7.25 anticipated)

The great part of the mash was the enzymes! When I opened up the mash tun, I could just tell that the starches had been converted. The wort looked like the countless of other brews I've done over the years. A definite change in appearance. And the yield was much higher. I think I went from a 50% efficiency to a 70% efficiency, which is great!

The not so great part of the mash is that I can't read. Like I mentioned earlier, this is the first time I was using Beersmith. When determining how much mash water to use, I accidentally looked at the "Mash Volume Needed" field instead of the "Tot Mash Water" field. Which means I had an extra 1.5 gallons of water in there. And since I'm only using an 8 gallon kettle, I just went into the kettle with .5 gallon of extra wort and dumped the rest.

The reading error also meant I overshot my mash temperature a little bit, so I had to add some cold water to compensate.

The Boil

As mentioned, I extended the boil by about 30 minutes to compensate for the extra volume. It was probably about 10-15 minutes too long, because I ended up being about 1/2 gallon short of the volume I was shooting for. 

I added an ounce of Columbus hops and some gypsum when I started the 60 minute timer and added irish moss and yeast nutrient with 10 minutes left in the boil. The boil went smoothly, no surprises, nice rolling boil the whole time.

Post-Boil

I whirlpooled for 30 minutes, cooling the wort down to about 185F before starting the whirpool and adding an ounce each of Azacca, Mosaic, and Chinook hops. Went into the fermenter with about 4.8 gallons of wort, an original gravity reading of 1.064, and a temperature of 70F. 

Lessons Learned

  • Learn to read more carefully! If I had just read more carefully, my volumes would have been pretty spot on (I'm guessing)
  • Enzymes are you friend. I'll definitely be utilizing the enzymes moving forward. I think the beer will have more body, flavor, and will definitely be more economical.
  • Volume measure for boil kettle. I need to create a dip-stick that allows me to check the volume in my boil kettle. 

I'll be back in a few weeks to discuss how this batch turned out and what we'll try for brew #3. Happy (gluten-free) homebrewing!

Smoking Side Note

Like I often do when I brew (or have a full day off), I threw some meat on the smoker on brew day #2. I made some beef short ribs. Seasoned them with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Smoked them using post oak wood on the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker at ~260F for about 3.5 hours, wrapped them in butcher paper, returned them to the cooker for another 3.5 hours, and then rested them for an hour or so.

They were quite tasty. The fat really rendered down, they had a great bark, but the top layer (away from the bone) was too dry. I should have probably either wrapped earlier or started spritzing with some liquid. But the meat in the middle and by the bone was legit.

Haven't decided what I'll cook on brew day #3, but it'll probably involve some part of a brisket...