Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[MarkBastard]

I'd use a tin (1.5L) of LME for that mate.

It'll come in just over 5% alcohol probably

 

[stugur]

So if I wanted to make 28ltrs....... what sg would I need in the stage before "Rotarua" ? or is it relative?

Thanks

Stug

 

[James_B]

Thanks to this guide I just started my first batch of AG! Mashing almost done but I've got yet another really stupid question, when they specify hops additions do you need to remove the previous one before adding the next or just keep adding and leaving them in until the end?

Thanks again, it smells so good .

 

[manticle]

Leave them.

 

[James_B]

Gah was running tap water over the pot and even though it looked like the lid was sealed etc water got in, my beautiful 10L batch is now closer to 18L ><. Oh well gonna boil it down, shouldn't have too great an effect without the hops bags in I think.

 

[fergi]

just wondering about using a large aluminium brew pot for biab, i have a 20 litre stainless pot but i have come across a 30 litre aluminium one, is there any reasons i cant use the ally pot instead of the stainless
fergi

 

[bonj]

No reason at all.

 

[Nick JD]

...do you need to remove the previous one before adding the next or just keep adding and leaving them in until the end?

As above, you usually never remove the early hops additions before the heat is turned off. I did that in this example because when I tasted the beer juice with the spoon, it was getting quite bitter - so it was an opportunity to illustrate that these things are under your control when you learn to associate the flavours of the boil with the eventual flavours of your beer. Unfortunately it's added an unnecessary level of complication which I was really trying to avoid.

So when you read a recipe, and you see "60 mins" then as the boil first starts ... add the 60 min addition and note the time. Most stoves have built in timers - it's easy to just set the timer to 60min.

So if your boil started at 4pm and you had three hop additions your notes might look like this:

4:00 10g Pacific Gem (60min)
4:40 4g Nelson Sauvin (20min)
4:55 3g B Saaz (5min) Left in.

Often you'll see "0 min" additions - these can be a few things (like going into the cold wort in the fermenter, or into the keg weeks later), but 0 min additions are always after the flame on the burner (in this case the dial on the stove) has been turned off. 0 min additions are all about the fact that your "taste" sense is primarily the nose. The best aromatic compounds in hops are light and boil off with heat.

I often have a little voile bag of hops in the fermenter. If you do this take it easy though, especially with highly aromatic hops - but give it a try. Many people throw them in when the SG is half-way between OG and FG, because even the C02 can run off with the aromas.

Some people get grassiness flavours if they use hops in the fermenter. I've found this has a lot to do with ferment temps and the yeast used. I get grassiness with galaxy and US05. With S04 and galaxy I don't get grassiness - so it seems there's more to dry hopping problems than duration.

Just like people dry hop kegs, you can individually dry hop your bottles. When you prime the bottles with sugar - drop a bit of a hop pellet in there. It'll sink into the sediment. It's a great way to get to try dry hopping flavours for all your hop collection in one brew so you know what you like.

 

[browndog]

beer juice

:blink: What's wrong with wort?

 

[RdeVjun]

:blink: What's wrong with wort?

Fair enough point browndog, however Nick started the thread as is a beginners pictorial guide to the basic processes and deliberately avoided non- technical terms so that prospective brewers might not get confused or overwhelmed by it all; from the OP:

My goal here is to not use any "brewing words".

I know when I first started AGing, for me it was hard to follow and seemed complex, in part due to terminology that I wasn't familiar with at the time and uncertainty about which parts of the various processes were actually important or significant and which bits could be left to explore later. If only I'd known how basic the process could've been, I would've started AGing much sooner and developed the BIAB technique I use now from there.
Nick has done an excellent job in keeping all the techspeak out and the process as simple as it can be, so I've no hesitation in recommending this to anyone as a starting point. Ditto with the BIAB demos that Thirsty and Spills are putting on at G&G which, if my info is correct, will be a run through pretty much the same process as Nick has described here. </plug! >
:beer:
Edit: Clarity.

 

[wynnum1]

the 15L pot if it fitted in the oven could you warm up the oven to a suitable tempeature say 67C turn off and then put mash pot in the oven for the hour

 

[Nick JD]

It's technically wrt isn't it?

 

[Nick JD]

the 15L pot if it fitted in the oven could you warm up the oven to a suitable tempeature say 67C turn off and then put mash pot in the oven for the hour

I'm thinking you mean to bring the water up to 69-71C, add your grain and then bung it in the oven, using the oven as insulation?

Yes, I can't see why not. But three things to consider:

1.) Most candi thermometers say not to use in the oven. But at the low end I'm sure it's fine. A 200C oven might not be so good.

2.) Oven's have massive elements and thermostats that don't register much lower than 100C - it might be difficult to hit 67.

3.) Towels are easy and effective.

But try it. Report back - sounds like a good idea. Maybe do a "dry" run without any grain and note the temp in and temp out.

 

[bonj]

I think what wynnum means is to set the oven to your mash temp and put your mash pot in there. I have heard of lots of people doing it this way. The oven temperature knobs are notoriously inaccurate, so set it to something like 65... that way +/- 5 degrees won't hurt you too much. If you have an oven thermometer, so much the better!

 

[Thirsty Boy]

You don't really need to worry about the oven temperature - just pre-heat the oven to its lowest setting or 70 or so degrees if you have a thermo, then turn it off when you whack in the mash pot. On your stovetop, even an uninsulated pot wont lose all that much heat over an hour - too much but not heaps - In a warm oven it'll hardly lose any temperature at all.

 

[bonj]

Good tip, thanks for the clarification, TB.

 

[katzke]

whack in the mash pot.

Funny how we all think we speak English but can not understand what the other person is saying.

With all the stupid things we see on the TV I can just see some guy saying the damn Australians have no idea how to brew. They said to Whack the pot in the oven and no matter how hard I hit it with my big hammer it did not fit.

And as to beer juice, it is totally wrong. Beer juice is what comes out of the drinker after having a few beers. What we get after putting malted grain in water at the correct temperature is diluted malt sugar.

 

[lespaul]

smashed the Dr S GA for the first brew in a bag! ended up with 10 litres...worked a treat, it was so easy, even for my 3rd brew ever. Not much mroe effort than the extracts is was doing, apart from the massive hassle finding the swiss voile!!!

so cheers heaps nick for such an easy, straight forward way of showing us how!!! :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers:

 

[bum]

It's technically wrt isn't it?

Wyrt, originally. Ye Olde English.

 

[gsmedia]

Thanks for the great post.

Just bottled my first BIAB today, and was wondering what level of carbonation is "normal". I racked after 4 days and bottled after 7 days total. When I bottled my brew was completely flat. I've mostly made wine and spirit washes previously, so carbonation wasnt really an issue.