#15 Evil Twin Mk1

My first all grain brew. So with all the recipes around what should I choose? Google and I came across Evil Twin.

What the recipe was:

• Ingredients for 6 U.S. gallons (23 litres)
• Target Original Gravity: 1.066 (16.21 Plato)
• Approximate Final Gravity: 1.016 (4.08 Plato)
• Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
• Anticipated SRM: 17
• Anticipated IBU: 23.8
• Anticipated ABV: 6.66%
• Wort Boil Time: 90 minutes
• 12 lb (5.44 kg) British Pale Malt 3L
• 1 lb (0.45 kg) Crystal 40L
• 1 lb (0.45 kg) Munich Malt 8L
• 0.50 lb (0.22 kg) Victory Malt 25L
• 0.50 lb (0.22 kg) Crystal 120L
• 0.25 lb (0.11 kg) Pale Chocolate Malt 200L
• 0.5 oz. (14 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (20 min.) (6.4 IBU)
• 0.5 oz. (14 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (20 min.) (4.5 IBU)
• 1 oz. (28 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (10 min.) (7.6 IBU)
• 1 oz. (28 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (10 min.) (5.3 IBU)
• 1 oz. (28 g) Centennial pellet hops, 10% alpha acid (0 min.) (0 IBU)
• 1 oz. (28 g) Amarillo pellet hops, 7% alpha acid (0 min.) (0 IBU)

Yeast: A clean neutral yeast that attenuates in the mid-seventy percent range is perfect. White Labs WLP001 or Wyeast 1056 American Ale are excellent choices. A good dry yeast option is Fermentis Safale US-56. Ferment at 68F (20 C).

Directions: Single infusion mash at 154F (68C) using a ratio of 1.3 quarts water to 1 pound of grain. While you could go with a shorter boil, the 90 minute boil enhances the blood-red color. It also adds a touch more melanoidin and caramel notes. Cool the wort quickly after the last hop addition to retain as much hop aroma as possible. Optionally, dry hop with more Centennial or Amarillo if you’re a real hop monster. Carbonate to no more than 2 volumes and serve at 45 to 55 F (7.2 to 12.8 C).

Now how close I get to a recipe I like to try all depends on what is in our local homebrew shops when I come to buy. Sometimes I look for something similar in taste, or sometimes just anything – like this time.

Notes

First go with the home made cooler mash tun – and first all grain brew. I used my brew boiling pot to heat up the water for the mash tun – I can see already why people use pumps to move around heavy hot liquid. In went the malts – definitely easier with two people so I was happy when Joss came for a look and took over stirring as I added the malts. I needed some extra hot water to bump up the temperature.

So mashing was easy – just check on it every now and then, giving it a wee stir. I think a longer temperature probe that I could stick down through a hole in the lid would be brilliant – although I suppose the air temp will equalise to the water temp soon enough. Main issue was getting the initial temperature right and learning what sort of temperature drops my setup will give me.

Not sure why I am tying Fly sparging. It is a reasonably easy process with some key bits of equipment. But I have now way to keep my “hot water tank” at the correct temperature. I heated the water up and put it in my bottling bucket. Problem with that is it will have dropped temperature over the time it takes to sparge.

The boil and the rest of the brew was easy – the first 70 mins with no hop editions meant I had time to do other things.

15/9 Bottling day! I must say I was worried because it was my first all grain brew and so you put more time and effort in. It was cloudier than my previous ales, but it taste good! 120g priming sugar into 20ltrs of beer.

Tasting Notes

The beer is very cloudy which is a little off putting. It started out very sweet, but that is mellowing week after week. I guess it is not bad, but not great. A little disappointing for my first all grain. My first partial mash/speciality grain extract was a big step up in taste over pure extract, so I was a little disappointed this was not my best beer to date… at least it is still drinkable and I have not been put off trying again.