Yeah, good point Nick, 100% base malt batches are a challenge that I'd like to see more brewers take up. Probably getting a bit OT here, but many of mine are just so in a bit of a quest to get more familiar with the malts and see what their capabilities really are and with techniques such as decoction and caramelisation plus by fiddling mash profile, water chemistry and hops, some pretty amazing and diverse flavours can be achieved. Quite a while back I was getting a bit frustrated with spec malts and wasn't quite getting the flavours I thought I should be, but was also overwhelmed by the diverse range available and I figured I would have no chance of exploring them all so I logically started looking at the base malt instead. Plus I was looking initially to emulate TTL which is reputedly 100% GP...To be honest - most of my brews are simpler than the example brew here. A SMaSH ale with only a 60 minute addition is beer that has nothing to hide behind. Producing great "simple" beers IMHO is harder than fancy ones once you've got the technique (and know your gear inside out) down pat.
Hi rday, firstly congratulations on taking the AG plunge, it should be very rewarding! B)I'm planning on doing my first BIAB this weekend, stepping up from extract brews. One thing I am not real sure about is water volume. I have a 20 l stockpot, so I plan on bumping up the volume to about 15 l. So I mash at 15 l and when I mash out, say I have 12 l left. Do I then top up to 15 for the boil? And after the boil, I'm down to about 13 l, do I top up again?
I'm planning on doing my first BIAB this weekend, stepping up from extract brews. One thing I am not real sure about is water volume. I have a 20 l stockpot, so I plan on bumping up the volume to about 15 l. So I mash at 15 l and when I mash out, say I have 12 l left. Do I then top up to 15 for the boil? And after the boil, I'm down to about 13 l, do I top up again?
It's easy to top up at any time - even in the fermenter with cold water. It does no harm and gives you very accurate control of your OG.
Remember to recalculate your gravities according to temperature! 1.035 @ 65C is something like 1.060... hot liquids become thinner.
Mate, go for it. I did this method, with a different recipe, and made a full 20L batch, making up the difference in sugar with some LDME. Its easy as... just watch for boil-off. I boiled 10-12L (whatever NickJD recommended) and ended up with only 5L of wort. It doesn't matter too much to your gravities, as you top up with water anyways, but it messes with your IBU's and hop utilisation (I think).Well I was scared of AG until about an hour ago. I reckon I'll give this a go. I've got a decent pot I reckon I can use & a grain bag a mate gave me. I'll need a small fermenting vessel, I don't really like the idea of the cube in case I get some eager krausen that can't be gotten off without elbowgrease. I need a thermometer as well. I steeped some spec grains on Sunday using guesswork. Probably not best practice.
Well I was scared of AG until about an hour ago. I reckon I'll give this a go. I've got a decent pot I reckon I can use & a grain bag a mate gave me. I'll need a small fermenting vessel, I don't really like the idea of the cube in case I get some eager krausen that can't be gotten off without elbowgrease. I need a thermometer as well. I steeped some spec grains on Sunday using guesswork. Probably not best practice.
The other thing I was thinking of is to do a 9L batch, stick that in the fermenter, chuck some glad wrap over the top & do the other half of my batch on the hotplate, put that in with the 1st lot & pitch some yeast. I assume there's several reasons this is a bad idea.
I'd add the yeast to the first batch as soon as it's cool enough. Then you can easily add (with no splashing) another half to it while it's fermenting. I've done this before and it works fine - but it's better to buy another fermenter of some sort (like a $10 Bunnings container) and then you can have two different beers and be one beer closer to perfection.
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