Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[Nick JD]

Mod edit: here is the pdf link with photos. I did this on a tablet, if the link isn't hot, I'll edit on a pc when I can:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=37683

Recently, I showed a friend how I do All Grain brewing and he was astounded at how simple and inexpensive it was.

So I thought I'd put it online for those who want to have a go, but are reluctant to buy the gear. It's a good way to see if AG works for you because you have most of the gear already.

If you have a big stock pot you'll only need to buy a meter or two of Swiss Voile and a candy thermometer. Geared up.

This is a real AG brew - of only 9 liters, which is great for those starting out, because it means a higher turnover; things are learned quicker, and you don't get stuck with large amounts of "practice beer"...

I've made this 9L (a carton; 24 stubbies; 12 tallies) for about $6. My goal here is to not use any "brewing words".

Let's get into it.

I've got 2kg of Aussie ale malt and whacked it through the coffee grinder. It takes about ten minutes to process (I take it to a fine flour because I'm brewing in a bag). You can buy this grain for $60 for 25kg. That's $2.20 a kg.

And here's 100g of carapils, 50g of carared and 20g of carafa 3 ... the carapils gives foam, the carared maltiness and the carafa colour and a nuttiness.

So we'd better put some water on the stove. Here's about 10 liters in a 15L pot of hot tap water being brough up to temp.

 

[Nick JD]

So while that's coming up to temp (aiming for just over 70C) lets get the hops sorted. Here's 10g of Simcoe, a good hop for bittering.

And about 7g of Riwaka (or D Saaz) for some flavour - we'll add this later in the boil.

 

[Nick JD]

After about ten minutes when we check the temp of the water it's about here:

Which is bang on. Because the grain is cool (25C) it lowers the temperature of the water a bit - so if we want the mash to be about 67C, then we need slightly over 70C water.

So we throw in the voile square. Turn off the stove's element here.

And bang in the grain.

 

[Nick JD]

At this stage it's good to get your potato masher and actually "mash". All the grain is lumpy and crunching it into the bottom breaks up these lumps pretty damn quick. Don't spend more than a minute or two doing this. Then whack the lid on.

And dig up three towels - the bigger the better. Fold them in half and drape them over the pot.

Pour yourself a beer. Congrats - you just mashed.

BTW - beer above has 30% rice. Damn fine - hints of creamed rice in the malt profile. Props to BribieG. Rice is nice.

 

[tourist]

You forgot to boil and ferment.

 

[Nick JD]

Now we have an hour of smoko. A good time to write the recipe down so if it's good - we can make it again.

Note the chronometer, the time the grain went in is important. We need to let it stew for an hour.

Fast Forward >>

We take the towels off and KABOOM, a wonderful aroma hits. Check the temperature.

Not bad. Wen't in at about 66C came out at about 63C. That'll do us just fine.

So we arap a bit of twine around the cloth and string 'er up.

 

[MarkBastard]

Don't forget to tell them to turn the burner off before putting the swill voile square on.

 

[Nick JD]

You forgot to boil and ferment.

You forgot to be patient.

 

[Nick JD]

Don't forget to tell them to turn the burner off before putting the swill voile square on.

Thanks, ya *******.

Turn off the element before you put the mash on. A constant temperature is key.

 

[MarkBastard]

Thanks, ya *******.

Turn off the element before you put the mash on. A constant temperature is key.

Mate I'd edit that back into your post about mashing, if they're using gas they'll be a bit disappointed when the voile catches on fire hahaha.

Good guide so far mate.

 

[Nick JD]

Then we dump the bag of grain into a green bucket. You can use a blue one, but I strongly recommend a green one.

And like Einstein and his relativity kerfuffle ... stuff gets bent by mass. This bending makes the sweeet, sweet beer-juice fall into the greeen bucket.

 

[Nick JD]

Give it a squeeze. Go on. You want to.

Now your hands are mildly burnt, put on some washing-up gloves and squeeze like you are milking Daisy with your best farmer's wife dress on. Shit goes everywhere - be careful.

Then pour a liter of 70 degree water into the bucket and dunk the bag. Then let it drain.

 

[fergi]

Nick can ya post a bit quicker, stop drinking beer in between posting, i am really enjoying this article, well done mate
fergi

 

[Nick JD]

Now we can put the squeezings back into the pot and we're back to when we started, except the water is chocka full of delicious barley sugaz.

So let's see what we have here. I got 1.032 @ 60C. According to this that's 1048 - which is just about marvelous.

So let's fire up the element to eleven. And put the lid on - you may think it'll boil over, but it won't because the electric element is gutless. But, watch it anyway until you know your stove.

 

[Nick JD]

Nick can ya post a bit quicker, stop drinking beer in between posting, i am really enjoying this article, well done mate
fergi

Geez, Fergs .. I'm in sixth gear down conrod straight here!

 

[Nick JD]

After about twenty minutes we have what I like to call "Rotorua".

Time to do two things: scrape off that brown crap and add those simcoe hops we saw earlier.

 

[MarkBastard]

How do you scrape off hot break nick?

 

[Nick JD]

Here's where I keep my heat-o-meter at. Yours might well be different. I'm using the bigger element on the electric stove.

That's a rolling boil.

Time for a taste. HELL YEAH. Bitter enough after 42 minutes (you get to know bitterness if you taste when boiling, that you can remove the hops when you think it's there even if you've added too much).

So I added my D Saaz flavour hops.

For 15 minutes. Tastes wonderful.

 

[Nick JD]

How do you scrape off hot break nick?

A big ol' spoon.

 

[tourist]