20l Stovetop All Grain Aussie Lager

[Fodder]

I should add, the only reason I went for this grain bill, is at the start of the thread a couple of peeps mentioned using exactly the same grain bill as used in the original post, but by using the Coopers yeast and fermenting at ales temps, it should create something fairly close to the Coopers Pale Ale.

This just so happens to be my go to beer and I figured I may as well give it a crack so searched for a couple of recipes which seem to fit (eg: the 4kg of BB Ale Malt is still the main show, with just a few smaller additions of something else to give it a boost). I've also only just realised, but its not stated as being a CPA clone recipe, but what the hell, it cant be far off...

I've also recultured the Coopers yeast for the first time. Surprisingly simple, yet effective...well, yet to pitch it so we'll have to wait and see, but if the starter is anything to go by there is definately activity of the good kind and quite obvious growth in yeast numbers (the sludge at the bottom seems thicker everytime I give it a swirl).

Needless to say, I'm just a little excited about the whole thing and can't wait to get cracking come Sat morn.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My Base house Pale Ale:

Get beermate or go onto beercalculus.hopville.com and punch in:

for 25L (easy to divide), assuming you do chill (but beermate has a no chill button for adjustment):

5kg Perle Malt
.5kg of a spec malt (usually a combination of caramunich I or crystal, plus something like rye or wheat)

find a hop or two you like (I like Citra and Nelson Sauvin, especially better, Cascade seems to be a great choice and generally very popular (and cheap))

Use enough of highest AA% hop at 30 minutes to give you 15IBU
Use enough of the two hops you like at 10 minutes to give you 10-15IBU

US-05 or Notto yeast.

It's a basic formula that can be repeated across most base malts, spec malts and hop varieties and when you've done it a few times - dead simple.

I'll post one that I like:

5kg Perle Malt
.3kg Briess Red Wheat Malt
.2kg Rye Malt

15g Nelson Sauvin (11.4%) at 30m - 14IBU
20g Citra (11.1%) at 10m - 8IBU
20g Nelson Sauvin (11.4%) at 10 min - 8IBU

US-05 ferment at 16-19 degrees (ideally).

 

[Nick JD]

Coopers Ales are all about their yeast. You could have any pale-ish grain bill with bland hops boiled for 60 minutes and as long as you use their yeast, it'll taste pretty close.

And don't forget to filter your trub through a square of swiss voile sitting in a flour sifter or colander on a bowl and freeze it (I use old yoghurt containers). Then you've got a great starter wort - just needs to be brought to the boil and cooled before you use it.

I don't recommend using more than 4kg of grain in your 19L pot. After about 3.6kg, the efficiency (amount of grain extraction) plummets.

 

[Fodder]

So I went about my 1st AG stove top yesterday and all seems to have gone well. Its now the next day and I've not long transfered to my fermentor and pitched yeast.

I do however have a couple of quick questions...

First, it seems that after my boil and cool, I had less than 10L of wort left in my pot. My 'sparge' was a bit crappy, due to 6L of water and a full grain bag not fitting into an 11L pot. So some spillage and loss of volume was had at this step. Probably about 2L, if im generous. But I believe I had about 15L to 16L in the boil after a quick top up with some more sparged water...

The cold break material was well and truely not settled at the bottom of the pot this morning and even with a colander it seems most of it went into the fermentor. I just saw you recommend filtering through more swisse voil and a colander, so will do that next time. After topping up to 22L (I was aiming for 20L but got carried away) OG was 1.032. Which seems a little low...

Im not sure how to work out my efficiency from these numbers but my 16L of wort at the boil was 1.062 @ 20 degrees.

So, what could I do next time in order to up the efficiency?

I must admit that I did have more than 4kg of grain too...grain bill is posted on the previous page...

Any ideas about how to work out efficiency, and what I could do to get better results next time???

Thanks!

 

[Nick JD]

If you had 16L of 1.062 then diluted to 22L you will have 16/22 of 1.062 ... or 1.045.

So to get 1.032 you've either topped up to 25L+, measure your SG at boil incorrectly, or left liters in the pot.

I'd work out why you had 16L of 1.062 and then 22L of 1.032 first. Numbers don't add up.

Unfortunately you will be ending up with a really watery, bodyless, flavourless, lite beer.

 

[Fodder]

Oh well...im not all that fussed about what ill get out of it...its the 1st go so I get what I get. Obviously room for improvement...

Certainly 22L in the fermenter, not 25L+.
The SG reading I am taking as correct. I took the sample once all liquids combined in the pot, and starting the boil. Refridgerated it till @ 20 degrees, then read the hydro as being 1.062.
I left about 1L in the pot when transfering to the fermenter.

My measurements on the 16L for the boil may be off...perhaps less volume than I estimated. If it was 15L, 14L or even less does that make the numbers stack up better? E.g: more concentrated in the sample...thus giving a higher reading?

My mash in temp was 65, mash out was 63.5 after 70mins...if that makes any diff?

 

[Nick JD]

Oh well...im not all that fussed about what ill get out of it...its the 1st go so I get what I get. Obviously room for improvement...

Certainly 22L in the fermenter, not 25L+.
The SG reading I am taking as correct. I took the sample once all liquids combined in the pot, and starting the boil. Refridgerated it till @ 20 degrees, then read the hydro as being 1.062.
I left about 1L in the pot when transfering to the fermenter.

My measurements on the 16L for the boil may be off...perhaps less volume than I estimated. If it was 15L, 14L or even less does that make the numbers stack up better? E.g: more concentrated in the sample...thus giving a higher reading?

My mash in temp was 65, mash out was 63.5 after 70mins...if that makes any diff?

I'd say your pot volume might be lower than you think - it's handy to get a texter and fill the pot to 10L with tap water and mark on the outside the volume, then keep going up to 18L. It's especially handy when you're doing stepped mashes having accurate volume measurements. An even quicker way to get your pot volume marks is if you have digital bathroom scales - put them ouside and fill the pot with a hose. 1L = 1kg.

It'd a good idea to get an SG and volume reading in the fermenter, before you dilute with cold tap water ... then you can get the OG you want exact.

It's easy to over dilute when adding water - I've done it a few times. What yeast are you using?

 

[Fodder]

My smaller 11L pot has got markings on already so thats easy, but the bigger 19L one doesnt. Marking that one up will be the next move by the looks.

I've recultured some Coopers Pale Ale yeast and its bubbling away nicely so thats working fine. But as you say, going to be a bit thin/flavourless and low on alco%...

 

[super_simian]

Buy a SS ruler and work out how many mm=1L. For my Big W pot, it's 15mm (averaged). Bingo, no need to try to mark the pot.

 

[keifer33]

The BIAB Calculator on http://www.biabrewer.info/ is very helpful for different temperatures of water.

 

[craigo]

i did a half size stovetop biab i ended up with about 8 or 9 litres of beer the sg after i put into fermenter was 1060 at abot 26 degrees i was aiming for about 1048 will this make any difference to my finial product? and did i get a higher og because of the evaporation of the wort during the boil could i have added more water to the wort to bring the sg down before fermenting?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Depending on mash temp (and therefore how much sugars are fermentable in your wort), you may end up with a high abv% beer. At the very least it's gong to be big.

Don't worry, my first stovetop BIAB was "big" (ended up at 7%). Great beer, and I've learnt much since.

Get brew mate, use the dilution calculator and add the required boiled water to rbing it to the SG that you want, if that's what you want to do.

Or leave it and have high abv% beer.

The choice is yours - this is why AG is waaaaay better - you are much more the master of your own brewery.

Goomba

 

[craigo]

thanks mate i dont mind big beers i just didnt no if it would effect the taste or not it was mashed in at 66 for an hr it droped to about 63 then i mashed out at 77 for 10 mins.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

It'll have lots of malt flavour and a higher amount of alcohol - if left as is.

 

[craigo]

i think i will leave it and see how it tastes this way i will learn what the effects are when i stuff up as long as it is drinkable i dont mind. time to start looking for another recipe to put down.

 

[Nick JD]

I think I need to do a thread on the mathematics of dilution.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I think I need to do a thread on the mathematics of dilution.

Don't worry. I'm an auditor - but I know that not everyone is going to "get it" - it's easier to say "get brewmate for free and let it do the maths".

I couldn't be bothered explaining it.

Goomba

 

[craigo]

i did use brewmate and followed it to a t but i didnt sparge the grain maybe thats where i went wrong im not sure.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

i did use brewmate and followed it to a t but i didnt sparge the grain maybe thats where i went wrong im not sure.

use brewmate, use the tools menu and find the dilution calculator if you want to increase your volume but decrease the FG to 1.048.

Goomba

 

[Nick JD]

use brewmate, use the tools menu and find the dilution calculator if you want to increase your volume but decrease the FG to 1.048.

Goomba

If you have 9L of 1.060 and want X liters of 1.048,

60/48 = 1.25

You need to increase the volume by 1.25,

What's 1.25 times 9L?

11.25L ... so you need to add 2.25L of water.

This reliance on software to do rudimentary calculations has me worried about the edumacation system.