1st All Grain

[DoctorBob]

Went for it last night and did my first all grain!

It was a Dr Smurto's Golden Ale but with cascade hops. I tasted some of this at a FNQ brewday & it was top. Thanks Shane.

4.8kg Pilsner Malt
1.6kg Pale wheat malt
1.6kg Munich 1 malt
0.5kg Caramunich 1 malt
Cascade HOPS 45g (3 plugs), 7% AA, @60mins
30g (2 plugs) as fermenter stuck in the fridge (kind of no chill see below)
15g (1 plug) with yeast
2 x 11.5g Safale US05 yeast
1 x whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins.

TARGETS:
40litres
OG 1047
FG 1012
ALC 4.54%
70% efficiency
30 - 40IBU (bit tricky with no chill method as HOP utilisation continues after flame out)

Used a 59L stockpot, 3 ring burner, mashed 40L plus grain at 64 - 65C for 1 hr in a swiss voile "bag"(maintained by applying a bit of heat evry 15mins whilst stirring as I have no insulation on the pot). Went for the lower mash temp to give a more fermentable wort, and a less sweet beer.
Heated up to the boil and added approx 10L water boiled on the stove to bring the volume up.
Boiled for an hour.
Transferred to 2 x 30L fermenters (sanitised with bleach to make sure) by syphoning. Screwed lids on, fitted airlock with no liquid in, put a clean teatowel on top, and stuck in the beer fridge set to 20C to cool. Left for 24 hrs, till 23C, OG 1050, added aroma hops, stirred to airate & pitched yeast.
Ended up with 36.5L . Not sure what efficiency this is or even how to calculate it! Still to read that section of Palmer.

Wish me luck!! Can't wait to taste.

Thanks to all those at the FNQ brew day for the advice & letting me watch & learn.

 

[raven19]

Great to hear, another one enters the dark side! Congrats on AG brew #1.

What have you got planned for brew #2 ?

Brown Ale or Robust Porters go down nicely this time of year. :icon_cheers:

 

[DoctorBob]

Great to hear, another one enters the dark side! Congrats on AG brew #1.

What have you got planned for brew #2 ?

Brown Ale or Robust Porters go down nicely this time of year. :icon_cheers:

was thinking of a Yorkshire bitter or a Dunkelweizen...

 

[jyo]

Nice work!

 

[raven19]

was thinking of a Yorkshire bitter or a Dunkelweizen...

Noice!

Best bit of advice I could give is to get the next batch happening asap - you have to keep the stock levels high!

 

[shimple]

Top Stuff. You will never go back!!!

 

[zebba]

Chances are you do have insulation for your pot. I've been wrapping mine in a few old towels. New towels would work just as well. Or sheets

Last few brews I've lost only around a degree over the hour of mashing. Mind you, I heat with electric so I can wrap the towels around the pot prior to turning the heat off. If I only wrap them after I've turned the heat off, I tend to lose a couple of degrees over the first 5 minutes, so in your case I'd mash in a degree or two higher, then wrap the towels around it and walk away

 

[Nick JD]

I've done a couple of 70C, 15 minute mashes now with great success/efficiency (used dextrose/candysugar to balance the thick wort) and for that length of time I don't even worry about insulation. For 62C, 90 minute mashes I use 5 towels.

 

[Bribie G]

Genuine recycled BribieG photos:

It's an electric urn, I know that some urn BIAB brewers go to torturous lengths to apply heat during the mash, using false bottoms etc to avoid scorching the bag. Me I just use and old sleeping bag and then wrap the whole thing in a feather doonah I bought cheap from Woolies a few years ago and walk away for 90 minutes.




The other use for the doonah is for ale fermenting, I can do two ales at a time and even during the summer have no problem holding them at 19-20 degrees with a couple of frozen PETs swapped daily. I now have a temperature controlled fridge I use that mostly for lager brewing and still do my ales under the doonah, even in the Winter which can get a bit chilly even in SEQ but the insulation keeps the brew at a steady temperature as opposed to 'swinging' from day to night in the garage.



I reckon that would work ok in Cairns if you don't yet have a temp control fridge setup.

 

[DoctorBob]

I've done a couple of 70C, 15 minute mashes now with great success/efficiency (used dextrose/candysugar to balance the thick wort) and for that length of time I don't even worry about insulation. For 62C, 90 minute mashes I use 5 towels.

Hi, thanks for the comments,

How did they taste? If I have it right higher temps give more bigger unfermentable sugars, so a sweeter beer.

Why did you go for a 15 min mash? Just for speed? Again I thought an hour was needed to get the enzymes doing their thing and breaking starches into luverly fermentable sugar molecules.

 

[DoctorBob]

Genuine recycled BribieG photos:

It's an electric urn, I know that some urn BIAB brewers go to torturous lengths to apply heat during the mash, using false bottoms etc to avoid scorching the bag. Me I just use and old sleeping bag and then wrap the whole thing in a feather doonah I bought cheap from Woolies a few years ago and walk away for 90 minutes.

View attachment 38166
View attachment 38167

The other use for the doonah is for ale fermenting, I can do two ales at a time and even during the summer have no problem holding them at 19-20 degrees with a couple of frozen PETs swapped daily. I now have a temperature controlled fridge I use that mostly for lager brewing and still do my ales under the doonah, even in the Winter which can get a bit chilly even in SEQ but the insulation keeps the brew at a steady temperature as opposed to 'swinging' from day to night in the garage.

View attachment 38168 View attachment 38169View attachment 38170

I reckon that would work ok in Cairns if you don't yet have a temp control fridge setup.

Just nipping down to Woolies, back soon!

 

[Nick JD]

Hi, thanks for the comments,

How did they taste? If I have it right higher temps give more bigger unfermentable sugars, so a sweeter beer.

Why did you go for a 15 min mash? Just for speed? Again I thought an hour was needed to get the enzymes doing their thing and breaking starches into luverly fermentable sugar molecules.

They taste great. To my tongue, those longer sugaz from higher temperature mashing don't taste "sweeter", but they are a lot "thicker" if that makes sense. I add a lot of dextrose when mashing high to compensate and end up with a pretty decent drop.

I went for a 15 minute mash just to see if it would convert. It did, and the beer was good - so I keep doing it. The reason I don't leave it longer is at 70C something like 90% of the stuff that will convert, has in 15 minutes ... so it's really a matter of, there's no point leaving it in...

I strongly recommend it for people trying to produce "nice" low alcohol beers. Just leave the sugar out.