First A.g Using What I Have Lying Around.

[Mitcho89]

Hi guys,

I'm very keen to try my first all grain batch. I've gotten a few bits and pieces but not enough to do things "by the book" so I was hoping to improvise. I've got 4kg of Pilsner malt, PoR hops, 200g carapils and 200 chocolate/cystral. I have a large viola bag, a 25L esky and a 25L boiler that was from a turbo 500 still I'm borrowing off my mate.

My worry is the size of the boiler, for a 21L batch I'm pretty sure I need atleast 30+L for a boiler for a bull size boil.... I don't have a tap on the esky because it's my partners so I was thinking - Could I get away with BIAB style in the esky, with about 12L of strike temped water for the mash, remove the bag of mashed grain and place into boiler, do the the sparge with 8L in the boiler, just boil and hop the sparge for an hour and add that with the original mash water to my fermenter?

Sorry guys for the very hard to read post..... I have so much sh!t rattling in my head regarding this all grain business and it's starting to scare me haha.

If it helps I have a mashmaster fridgemate mkII that I can use to control the boiler.

Cheers in advance,

Mitch.

 

[RdeVjun]

Sure can do that sort of thing, without the esky it is sometimes known as Maxi-BIAB which is a 19L stovetop method for 23L brewlength, it has a sparge, over- gravity boil and dilution in the fermenter, but all the action takes place in the boiler. I don't see why it wouldn't adapt, the 25L boiler would make it a real cinch. However, seeing as its your first all- grain, I'd encourage you to do a stock BIAB, it is a very simple process with no bells and whistles, finds any faults in your system before stepping up to bigger batches and more complex processes.
There's a few guides and calculators available at the link below, here on AHB there's Nick JD's $30AG thread and 20L stovetop which is similar to Maxi-BIAB, I'd look at adapting those and leave the esky for keeping the end product cool. :icon_cheers:

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

Hi Mate

You'll need to boil the whole volume.

I'm not exactly sure what a turbo still boiler looks like. But if it has a large opening I'd just mash and boil in the boiler and forget about the esky. Because your boil size is limited you can either make a smaller batch or aim for a higher gravity and dilute with water when you add to the fermenter. Have a search around for "Maxi Biab" something like this.

As far as a recipe goes from your ingredients I'd make an aussie style ale or lager (depending on what yeast you use). use your pilsner malt, 50-100g of the crystal and bitter to 25-30 ibu with the por. too easy.

Cheers

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

ha too slow.... like RdeVjun said :lol:

 

[Mitcho89]

Alright guys you've talked me into it! Here goes nothing haha.

 

[Mitcho89]

I think I'm playing with it too much, I might go for the esky next time. I'm stirring it every few min because with the boiler turns itself back on to raise the temp ever so slightly, I'm worried that it's putting too much heat into the grain.....

What should I do lads? Just turn it off at 66 and leave it?

 

[felten]

Probably a little late but... Yep, just turn it off next time, and wrap it up with a doonah or some kind of insulation. It shouldn't drop too much over an hour to worry about.

 

[Mitcho89]

Just finished it off lads and it turned out bloody good. at 19L and all the bits and pieces plugged into BeerSmith2, it'll be 4.8% with a bitterness of 28.6 IBUs. The efficiency is a little crappy at only 67% but I'm not too sure how to get it higher at this stage...

Ok I admit, I'm hooked. I just tasted the wort as it cools (currently at 32C') and it smashes any brew I've made before. Might give Smurto's golden ale a crack on Monday!

Thanks again for your help.

 

[manticle]

67% is fine, especially for a first. Consistency is more important than high numbers and working things out, bit by bit to get consistent, good beer is what it's all about.

 

[RdeVjun]

Not sure which method you used, but 67% is quite OK which ever way you went, so congratulations! :icon_cheers:
Don't bother with active heat control, use insulation is my advice and practice. It isn't worth the bother as passive lagging just waltzes it in over an hour, plus you don't have to faff around stirring it. Just wrap it up and leave it be, have a beer, come back an hour later and lift the bag- it has dropped maybe a degree, often less if you pre- heat.

 

[Mitcho89]

Had a read before I think what made the efficiency so low was the very little sparge water I used, If I had a bigger pot I would have used about 15-20L of water for the sparge and heavily reduced during a long boil. Can't wait until the next one i try!

Thanks for the positive words too everyone.

 

[bignath]

67% is fine, especially for a first. Consistency is more important than high numbers and working things out, bit by bit to get consistent, good beer is what it's all about.

Yeah, I'd much rather be hitting 60% each time than sometimes 80%, sometimes 70%, sometimes 60%.

 

[Mitcho89]

Haha good stuff. Stupid me just realized the storage for all my brew paraphernalia is a 40L esky. Looks like tomorrow a 50L stock pot is in the cards along with the fine ingredients for a batch of the good doctors golden ale I'm hope I'm not rushing into the good sh!t too quick.

 

[Bribie G]

My second AG brew won first place at a mini-comp
Nowt wrong with hitting the ground running.

:icon_cheers:

 

[Mitcho89]

Wow good for you Bribie! Have to say this all grain business I'm thoroughly enjoying. I love cooking, I love a good quality drop and I love tinkering in the shed. Life is good