20l Stovetop All Grain Aussie Lager

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OG was 1050

I tasted the hydro reading and it was very bitter...will this die down once it all settles down etc??
 
beernorks, anyone who can predict with much accuracy the final state of the beer from an OG sample has my respect... especially considering there's yeast yet to do its thing! :D
In all seriousness, if you've added the ingredients at the right time and right place, there's very little that can go so wrong as to wreck your beer, brewing is actually quite forgiving, so just relax and have a cold one! :icon_cheers:
 
beernorks, anyone who can predict with much accuracy the final state of the beer from an OG sample has my respect... especially considering there's yeast yet to do its thing! :D
In all seriousness, if you've added the ingredients at the right time and right place, there's very little that can go so wrong as to wreck your beer, brewing is actually quite forgiving, so just relax and have a cold one! :icon_cheers:


haha...cheers

good idea..

..great idea!



one other thing...in hindsight i doubt i ended up with 18 litres after the bag hang and squeeze...more like 17 .
 
update:

nearly finished fermenting ..tasted the hyrdo sample yesterday and ..bloody hell tastes like beer!!!

and not that crappy home brew from the can taste.
Got a huge amount of sediment going on...probably rack it and gellatine in a fridge for a few days.
started at 1050 looking like being done at 1010.

Bitterness is great ....a world away from the sample I had straight from the pot.
 
..bloody hell tastes like beer!!!

That's the thing people doing K&K often don't realise - home made AG, even with very simple equipment is usually better than most of the beer at the bottlo. Mainly because the recipes are formulated with love of beer, not profit in mind.

One of the coolest aspects of AG at home is the ability to make reasonably accurate clones of some very expensive beers, meld styles to your personal tastes and even make the occasional beer that freaks the shit out of you (he says drinking a smoked beer that tastes like pea and ham soup).

The beer world's now your oyster.

Other things aside, the real secret to great beer is great yeast kept comfortable.
 
That's the thing people doing K&K often don't realise - home made AG, even with very simple equipment is usually better than most of the beer at the bottlo. Mainly because the recipes are formulated with love of beer, not profit in mind.

One of the coolest aspects of AG at home is the ability to make reasonably accurate clones of some very expensive beers, meld styles to your personal tastes and even make the occasional beer that freaks the shit out of you (he says drinking a smoked beer that tastes like pea and ham soup).

The beer world's now your oyster.

Other things aside, the real secret to great beer is great yeast kept comfortable.

Yup. The other thing is that going from K & K to anything, means separating out the hops from the malt, which has several implications:

1. You choose the hop profile from start to finish (which means actually understanding the role hops play);
2. Extract is generally in better condition than Kit goo, and you can mix this according to your tastes; and
3. As a result of not having a yeast "under the lid", more often than not this means researching yeasts, whereas "chuck it in" was the only thing one thought of. The number of times I've replied to brewers who've been doing this for a long time, but finally figured to try new yeast is phenomenal.

The biggest jump in quality I've said was going from K&K to Extract, plus hops, plus yeast. The AG jump wasn't as big, but customisability is the hugest jump. Having <i>that</i> much extra ingredients that so many malts give makes a massive difference to what you can produce. And +1 to BIAB via Nick's method (albeit I customised the method to my liking) - it really is dead simple - do the prac and then research the theory again and go back and forth until all these funky concept start to make sense. Worked for me.


Goomba
 
hey,

firstly, awesome thread, been reading the all-grain biab ones non-stop and soaking in all the info!

i just got a 19L pot from Big W, and im wondering what the maximum amount of grain/water i can get in there is?

doing an apa with:
3kg BB Ale Malt
0.700kg JW Munich Malt
0.300kg Caramalt (leftovers)

also, whats the trade off in fermentability between the ale malt and munich? think i should change the grain bill?

(i just ran out of my brewing software trial and im on a mac, so i want to wait until beersmith comes out before spending the money on another program)

cheers!
 
i just got a 19L pot from Big W, and im wondering what the maximum amount of grain/water i can get in there is?

The amount that it doesn't spill over the sides!

For your first go, fill the 19L pot up to half full - 9.5L (write all these volumes and weights down so you'll have it perfect next time) and bring that water up to strike temperature.

In another pot on another element, bring maybe 4-6L up to the same strike temperature.

Bang your grain in the 19L pot and stir - break up the lumps so none of the grain is floating.

Add as much hot water from your smaller pot as you need to bring it up to a safe level, noting how much water in total you've added with your 4kg of grain.

Next time round you'll be able to get it exactly right - with as little freeboard in the pot as you dare. You only need that extra pot of strike water to get your volume correct the first time. Measure the water accurately for your second batch, and scratch a mark on the outside of the pot and you can forget about it.

Don't worry about getting the maximum water to grain ratio - you'll still get good efficiency if the mash is a bit porridgey.
 
Or if possible - buy two big w pots and split the grain bill.

That works for me, though I was fortunate to get pot no 2 on special.

Make sure you break up the dough balls, whatever you do.

Goomba


Edit: to make sense
 
thanks for the site keifer it helps for working it all out

thanks nic: so after topping up the mash with that additional strike water, i should also still sparge with enough to fill up the pot for the boil/replace my losses from the mash, yes?

@ goomba, yeah wasn't as lucky as you were unfortunately, they were still at $20. and cheers ill make sure to do that
 
thanks nic: so after topping up the mash with that additional strike water, i should also still sparge with enough to fill up the pot for the boil/replace my losses from the mash, yes?

Your 4kg of grain will remove about 4-5L of water from your pot (after you've squeezed the bag and returned that to it).

Your sparge can't be more than this or you'll have an overflow. This method of high-gravity brewing relies on topping up the fermenter, so always err on the "less" side in all your calculations. And remember that if you're boiling your hops in 1.065 liquor, you need to up the hops by about 20% to get the desired bitterness.

Also, You only want < 16L of liquor in your 19L pot when you're bringing it to the boil to allow for foaming and expansion.

It sounds complicated until you do it. Then it sounds very easy. Just don't get pissed when you are doing it! :D
 
It sounds complicated until you do it. Then it sounds very easy. Just don't get pissed when you are doing it! :D

yeah no better way to learn than first hand experience. ill make sure i keep this thread close by

cant wait to put this down tomorrow, eager to see what this slippery slope called AG looks like! :icon_cheers:
 
yeah no better way to learn than first hand experience. ill make sure i keep this thread close by

cant wait to put this down tomorrow, eager to see what this slippery slope called AG looks like! :icon_cheers:

you wont look back, good luck :icon_drunk:
 
Au contraire - some of my best brews have been made while half cut. Maybe just not the first few - get a grip on the process, then it becomes a bit more automatic.

Whichever side of sobriety you are during mash-in though, a few beers are mandatory while brewing.

Otherwise the brewing demon sets fire to your hops and drinks all your sanitiser.
 
Au contraire - some of my best brews have been made while half cut. Maybe just not the first few - get a grip on the process, then it becomes a bit more automatic.

Whichever side of sobriety you are during mash-in though, a few beers are mandatory while brewing.

Otherwise the brewing demon sets fire to your hops and drinks all your sanitiser.
[/quote

Agreed, I have started having a brew or too now but i set the alarms on my phone to remind me when to add what.

recently i went to the gym when i was mashing, that's just wrong :icon_vomit:
 
i dont drink and brew at the same time ,mistakes can happen...sometimes the mistakes can make a top brew,or :icon_drunk:
 

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