FIRST POST! 1st All Grain Brew Question

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RippaBitta

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Hi All,

I have used this site extensively in the past for gaining information in the art of home brewing and have finally made an account.

After many extract home brews and recently partaking in partial mashes using the BIAB method, I jumped in the deep end a few weeks back and decided to give All Grain Brewing a crack.

It all started with a bag of whole raw barley which I scored as it was left overs from some experimental diets which we were formulating at work, I work for the government in agricultural science so grain is a plenty. I decided to try and malt my own barley as I thought I could save a buck or two by just putting in a few days of work....I steeped the grains, got them to chit and dried them once I was happy enough with the amount of germination. In total I malted 30kg of barley. The malt was crushed using a corona mill.

The brewing process itself went quite smoothly, I used a 55lt mash tun. The only issue I ran into was the volume of liquid at the end which I had to boil for my hop addition (50g of Vic Secret @ 60 min and 50g of El Dorado @ 20 min). I ended up with around 25 litres of wort and topped up to 45l with cool water in my fermenter, this gave me an OG of 1.040...I put the wort on to ferment for 13 days. My FG was 1.004 so around 4.8% correct?

I bottled it all up and gave one a try just the other day, only 4 day post bottling..I'm not an alcoholic i just wanted to see whether what I created was either GOLD or RUBBISH...now I should of mentioned that all the malt I used was just regular untoasted malt...the basic of the basic...this was more of an experiment to find out what beer tastes like straight from malting to brewing.

Ok...so I poured my glass of my first all grain brew and it was as pale as a frog's arse...almost Hogaarden pale...good head and carbonation. not too much on the nose...the flavour is clean and crisp but has a slightly strange after taste...but the aftertaste is similar to a beer I have had in the past..I cant put my finger on it. :blink:

I wanted to know whether anyone else has ever malted their own barley and made a batch with it untoasted etc and how did it taste?

After the first glass I tried I felt a bit dissapointed due to the flavour but once I started my second glass the aftertaste did not bother me so much and almost disappeared. I even added a lime wedge which helped it along :kooi: . I know this beer is still very young so a few weeks bottle conditioning could change the flavours.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, I fully enjoyed the whole brewing experience and now have a new appreciation for beer :D .

Cheers,

RippaBitta :p
 
It's possible the after taste is simply the priming sugar that the yeast hasn't processed yet. Considering you only gave it 4 days I wouldn't judge its flavour just yet.
 
Cheers guys,

I forgot to mention I used 15kg of my homemade malted barley to the mix and than added in a kilo of dextrose at the end of the boil.

Fingers crossed it comes out alright, its still drinkable just a bit odd. How long do most people let their all grain brews condition in the bottle before consuming?

Cheers,

RippaBitta
 
15kg is a lot of grain! I'd usually have a grain bill around 5-6kg for a 23L brew. I usually wait about 3 weeks before cracking one open, then realise it needs more time, try again at 4 weeks and keep drinking only to realise at 8 weeks that this is how long I should have waited!
 
Prince Imperial said:
only to realise at 8 weeks that this is how long I should have waited!
......and then you have none left...... :ph34r:
 
Cheers guys,

Yeah 15kg grain bill to make around 48 litres.

I will try and be patient with my finished product :D

RippaBitta
 
Yob said:
I assume you are constrained by kettle size hence the massive dilute in the FV?
This was one of my reasons for the massive dilution.

My mash tun holds 55L, I added around 40 litres of strike water and sparged with an additional 10. I ended up with about 35 litres of wort (Pre-Boil), after the 60 min boil I ended up with around 28 litres.

The OG was considerably high so I added water until I reached my desired gravity of 1.040.

My current boil setup is very ghetto and included a 20 litre pot on the BBQ wok burner and 3 additional pots on the kitchen stove. I am deciding what method to use for my next brew as I found the "Ghetto" method too messy.

I have seen on Youtube many home brewers boiling their wort in plastic containers fitted with an element, this would be quite a simple setup for me to create as I have quite a few 70L High Density Polyethylene (Food Grade) tubs which I could use. It just seems wrong to use plastic to boil in but if it's common practice within the home brewing world than who am I to say whats right or wrong, if it works and if its safe than thats good enough for me.

Does anyone else use plastic vessells fitted with elements to boil their wort?

Cheers,

RippaBitta
 
Have a look for bucket of death. It has been done here and there but I wouldn't say is exactly common practise.

Plenty of ways to skin a cat though.
 
HAVE A LOOK AT : cd's old electric wort boiler : in Google
Well worth a look to get your answers on Plastic Boilers,I have 2 and did not find any problems...
One is a Fowlers 20 lt.The other i made with 2 jug elements in a 36 lt. HDPE Chlorine bucket from
my Daughters Swimming Pool throwaways...You can turn one on or two on ...
PJ
 
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