im going to give biab a go in the next couple of weeks but im going to use the stove top method in a 19l pot and hopefully getting 9 or 10 litres of beer at the finish im just wondering how much water do i start of with and is there a grain to water ratio to follow for full strength beer?
How Much Water Do I Use
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Muscovy_333
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Depends on the type of grain and how efficient your process is...
I have a loose 1kg grain to 5kg water rule to get around 1.040 O.G., but i use a 3V system and a 32 litre boil pot and get pretty good efficiency.
Do your mash, boil it down, chill off the minimal amount of wort to 20C in the fridge, take a reading with your hydrometer and see how well you went.
For your first go you may have to add some dextrose back to achieve your target O.G.
Everyones process is a little different.
The Biabers amongst us can probably give you better advice
I have a loose 1kg grain to 5kg water rule to get around 1.040 O.G., but i use a 3V system and a 32 litre boil pot and get pretty good efficiency.
Do your mash, boil it down, chill off the minimal amount of wort to 20C in the fridge, take a reading with your hydrometer and see how well you went.
For your first go you may have to add some dextrose back to achieve your target O.G.
Everyones process is a little different.
The Biabers amongst us can probably give you better advice
download the calculator from biabbrewer.info
it will have all the info you need, you just need to put in your pot size and SG and how much beer you want to be left with and away you go. Just remember to record everything as you go so you can tweak the spreadsheet to suit your brewing. The spreadsheet will get better for you the more you brew and record.
EDIT: typos
technoicon
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i'd suggest getting beersmith or similar.
I had a 30l urn and used to use about 15l of water.
you can always brew a higher gravity beer then water it down later to get 23l..
I would be looking at about 2.5-3l per kg. what ever your pot can hold. i'm guessing you have read Nick JD's thread about this?
I had a 30l urn and used to use about 15l of water.
you can always brew a higher gravity beer then water it down later to get 23l..
I would be looking at about 2.5-3l per kg. what ever your pot can hold. i'm guessing you have read Nick JD's thread about this?
Nick JD
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Do this:
Add 3.5kg to 12L of water (at your calculated strike temp) and get rid of any doughballs. Write everything down. Strike temp, mash temp, water volume, grain temp, any weird things etc etc.
At the end of your mash, squeeze the crap out of the bag and retun it all to the pot. Pour 2L of hot tap water through the bag, squeeze again and return this to the pot. Pot should have 10-11L of wort in it.
Add hot tap water, or boiling coffee kettle water until it's at 14L. Measure your SG at this point. Then you will know the final volumje fo your batch. Boil and add hops.
The reason for all this guesswork and writing is that ... you (and I) don't know what your efficiency will be. You might get 14L of 1.055; you might get 14L of 1.045, and this will affect your final dilution in the fermenter.
High gravity Stovetop brewing is about tweaking the volume in the fermenter.
Remember, you need to calculate your Strike Temp (mash water), the IBUs (bitterness) you will expect from the hop additions, correct any SG readings for temperature, and your dilution rates in the fermenter. Learning all this will give you a better appreciation for brewing than the folks who use beersmith to do the thinking for them. This helps with future recipe formulation and advanced mashing techniques.
Get stuck in! Don't worry about it too much - you'll make beer - but write everything down! This will let you isolate problems and fix them next time. If you just brew-by-numbers you will take longer to understand some of the finer points of AG. These finer points are the difference between good and great beer.
I don't recommend using beersmith initially as it abstracts your learning process by feeding you numbers you didn't calculate manually (that relate to your gear and your techniques).
Add 3.5kg to 12L of water (at your calculated strike temp) and get rid of any doughballs. Write everything down. Strike temp, mash temp, water volume, grain temp, any weird things etc etc.
At the end of your mash, squeeze the crap out of the bag and retun it all to the pot. Pour 2L of hot tap water through the bag, squeeze again and return this to the pot. Pot should have 10-11L of wort in it.
Add hot tap water, or boiling coffee kettle water until it's at 14L. Measure your SG at this point. Then you will know the final volumje fo your batch. Boil and add hops.
The reason for all this guesswork and writing is that ... you (and I) don't know what your efficiency will be. You might get 14L of 1.055; you might get 14L of 1.045, and this will affect your final dilution in the fermenter.
High gravity Stovetop brewing is about tweaking the volume in the fermenter.
Remember, you need to calculate your Strike Temp (mash water), the IBUs (bitterness) you will expect from the hop additions, correct any SG readings for temperature, and your dilution rates in the fermenter. Learning all this will give you a better appreciation for brewing than the folks who use beersmith to do the thinking for them. This helps with future recipe formulation and advanced mashing techniques.
Get stuck in! Don't worry about it too much - you'll make beer - but write everything down! This will let you isolate problems and fix them next time. If you just brew-by-numbers you will take longer to understand some of the finer points of AG. These finer points are the difference between good and great beer.
I don't recommend using beersmith initially as it abstracts your learning process by feeding you numbers you didn't calculate manually (that relate to your gear and your techniques).
me I do the same everytime now.
approx 4 kgs grain into 12 litres water
at the end of mash I sparge with 6 litres of water. ( I do this so I have enough water to keep my element well and truely covered...it is one of those over the side ones).
then fill the 19 litre almost to the top then put my element in and boil it...add hops. etc.
so far ....beer every damn time...awesome!
some are 4.5% some are 5.5% ...no problem. It's not like I have customers complaining about it.
approx 4 kgs grain into 12 litres water
at the end of mash I sparge with 6 litres of water. ( I do this so I have enough water to keep my element well and truely covered...it is one of those over the side ones).
then fill the 19 litre almost to the top then put my element in and boil it...add hops. etc.
so far ....beer every damn time...awesome!
some are 4.5% some are 5.5% ...no problem. It's not like I have customers complaining about it.
