20l Stovetop All Grain Aussie Lager

[Xarb]

I got one of the ALDI coffee grinders and it seems to work well. Although I only tried it on a small amount as my grain was already cracked by my LHBS.

Also put down another batch using my spare fermenter as a sparge vessel and it worked surprisingly well. The only problem was when I moved my ~77C water to the fermenter it cooled down to 70C. When I put the grain in for sparging the temp settled at 75C so Im a little confused what the overall temp goal of the sparge water is. Should the end result with the grain be 75C or should the water be 75C before adding the grain? Or does it not matter too much?

 

[Bribie G]

As posted elsewhere, the free software Brewmate has a heap of useful calculators including strike temperature. Highly recommended, in fact I'm using BM now instead of BS as it does what I want it to quicker and dirtier :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

Or does it not matter too much?

Hot sparge water in 3 vessel brewing is used to basically kill the mash. The hot water (hotter than mash temp) "denatures" the enzymes that convert the starch into sugaz. It stop them working - so the sugars you have at the end of your mash are the sugars you intended to produce, and only them.

In 3V brewing it takes a long, long time to get your runnings out of the mash tun. In this time the sugaz you were aiming for may be different to what you get because it took 40 minutes to get them all out and into your kettle.

With stovetop brewing it takes on a few minutes to get your sugaz out - so you could even sparge with hot tap water. You're "flushing" the bag, rather than trying to halt the sugaz ratios (maltriose:maltose:sucrose:glucose etc).

Something like that anyway.

 

[Xarb]

Yeah I just started using BeerMate and am loving it. I knew to use it for my mash strike temp, just didn't think to use it for my sparge water temp.

Thanks for the info Nick, I think I need to read the sciencey part of my How to Brew book and figure out exactly what is going on.

 

[Nick JD]

If you do a stovetop batch with 3.3kg of grain you don't need to sparge at all. Just squeeze like buggary and chuck the grain.

Still gets 70% efficiency and ol' Pistol Patch will be happier for it as you are then doing correct BIAB.

Good for 3.5-4.0% beers or for the ones where 250g of sugar are called for.

Sometimes I can't be arsed sparging and instead I throw in 250g of Chinese Rice Malt ($1) instead.

 

[boriskane]

hey again, havent been on here or brewed since december due to work and travel so my plan for a brew tomorrow has left me itching to start AG again.

im planning to make an english strong/old ale of sorts in my 20L pot using 6kg of grain. can someone link me to a similar post or tell me how much water/temperature i should be mashing with to ensure a reasonable mash efficiency?

cheers guys,


boris


ps check out my hersbruckers, i missed out on harvest so the majority if not all of them are brown

 

[Nick JD]

im planning to make an english strong/old ale of sorts in my 20L pot using 6kg of grain. can someone link me to a similar post or tell me how much water/temperature i should be mashing with to ensure a reasonable mash efficiency?

You need a bigger pot.

4kg of grain is the limit of this setup before your efficiency starts to go out the window.

You can mash twice - where you do your second mash in the first mash's liquor - but this effects some aspects of the beer a little.

You can do two, 3kg mashes. Doing this you will get phenomenal efficiency, but you have to mash twice and boil twice - essentially you make two strong 10L beers the same and ferment them together.

Or get a bigger pot

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

You need a bigger pot.

4kg of grain is the limit of this setup before your efficiency starts to go out the window.

You can mash twice - where you do your second mash in the first mash's liquor - but this effects some aspects of the beer a little.

You can do two, 3kg mashes. Doing this you will get phenomenal efficiency, but you have to mash twice and boil twice - essentially you make two strong 10L beers the same and ferment them together.

Or get a bigger pot

Or 2, like I have. They just fit on the stove.

Goomba

 

[boriskane]

You need a bigger pot.

4kg of grain is the limit of this setup before your efficiency starts to go out the window.

You can mash twice - where you do your second mash in the first mash's liquor - but this effects some aspects of the beer a little.

You can do two, 3kg mashes. Doing this you will get phenomenal efficiency, but you have to mash twice and boil twice - essentially you make two strong 10L beers the same and ferment them together.

Or get a bigger pot

Or 2, like I have. They just fit on the stove.

Goomba

yeah i was afraid of that, i made an attempt with a 5kg/13.5L and my efficiency was shot to bits, so i guess that confirms it.

ive got a 15L pot, reckon that will take 3kg+9L for the mash? then i could run two at once and shave some time off.


boris

 

[Nick JD]

I've done this a few times. Yeah it's a bit of a hassle, but I enjoy the process and I don't make big beers all that often.

Make a 10L batch of high gravity liquor, boil and add hops and all that.

Cool it and add it to the fermenter - add the yeast. 10L of 1.070 (or whatever) with the yeast breeding up nicely just about to start fermenting.

Make another 10L batch the next day - exactly the same recipe.

Pour it on top of your last 10L.

20L of 1.070 beer with a ripping healthy yeast already having a headstart. It's like you made a 10L starter.

 

[boriskane]

I've done this a few times. Yeah it's a bit of a hassle, but I enjoy the process and I don't make big beers all that often.

Make a 10L batch of high gravity liquor, boil and add hops and all that.

Cool it and add it to the fermenter - add the yeast. 10L of 1.070 (or whatever) with the yeast breeding up nicely just about to start fermenting.

Make another 10L batch the next day - exactly the same recipe.

Pour it on top of your last 10L.

20L of 1.070 beer with a ripping healthy yeast already having a headstart. It's like you made a 10L starter.

yeah actually, that sounds much better.

that, and i dont have two bags.

haha cheers for that quick refresher, i think im back up to speed. boiling the water as i type! wish me luck

 

[Nick JD]

If you are going to introduce the second half of the batch when the first is already fermenting hard - rack it in very gently with a sanatised hose so you don't add oxygen.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

yeah i was afraid of that, i made an attempt with a 5kg/13.5L and my efficiency was shot to bits, so i guess that confirms it.

ive got a 15L pot, reckon that will take 3kg+9L for the mash? then i could run two at once and shave some time off.


boris

Big W 19L pots for $20. I got the second on special for $12. 2 lots of voile and after turning on the stove, I remove the knobs to fit the two pots fine.

I love Nick's method, but got frustrated when I drank through 9L (12 tallies) of a fantastic brew and found I had none left. And it was a lot of effort to produce 9L.

I now have an esky mash tun and still use the BIAB bags to help with draining it and sparging. The esky does make it easier by meaning I'm not hoisting bags, but you certainly could stick to BIAB, never have to shell out for more equipment and still continue producing great beers.

The only thing to note with 2 pots - divide the hops up evenly when doing the boil - it encourages hot break on both batches.

Goomba

 

[boriskane]

cheers for the tips

yeah i think ill have to pick up that 2nd pot from bigw. hopefully theres a special on.

all went pretty smoothly today for the first half of the batch:

got 6L from the mash, then sparged for an additional 3L.
so 9L boil of 1.068 wort, then lost 1L to evaporation. anyway, was pretty spot on.
woke up the yeast then pitched it when the wort got down to ~20.

lets hope it has a busy night

cheers again


boris

 

[Amber Fluid]

A fantastic resource and has given me incentive. I would love to see this thread airlocked or even as a wiki.

It is a great incentive to start AG which I will do once I get rid of my 17 cans of goo.

Thanks Nick, very much appreciated.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

I agree with you amber, Nick's thread was the one that pushed me over the edge and into AG. It's all downhill from here for you mate, good luck on your first AG :icon_cheers:

 

[Tim F]

Or 2, like I have. They just fit on the stove.

Goomba

I did my first AG in a stovetop pot too but it was a pretty cheap upgrade to go to a 40L pot. I reckon I found mine for $80 in a hardware/fishing store, seen them in continental grocers too. Then a 2 ring burner for about $20-30 which just runs off your BBQs gas bottle and you're set.

 

[Brown_hound]

I did my first AG in a stovetop pot too but it was a pretty cheap upgrade to go to a 40L pot. I reckon I found mine for $80 in a hardware/fishing store, seen them in continental grocers too. Then a 2 ring burner for about $20-30 which just runs off your BBQs gas bottle and you're set.

Is a 2 ring burner powerful enough to get 40lt to a solid boil mate?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I did my first AG in a stovetop pot too but it was a pretty cheap upgrade to go to a 40L pot. I reckon I found mine for $80 in a hardware/fishing store, seen them in continental grocers too. Then a 2 ring burner for about $20-30 which just runs off your BBQs gas bottle and you're set.

I'll upgrade eventually, it's more convenient if nothing else. But I picked up the 2nd pot cheap, and I can make good AG beer with this setup, so it works adequately for me.

Goomba

 

[Tim F]

Is a 2 ring burner powerful enough to get 40lt to a solid boil mate?

Yeah mine works fine, it is a little slower than a bigger one obviously but it runs fine off a standard lpg reg and I can get a 30L batch to a good boil in around 20 minutes.