Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[leiothrix]

Does anyone know anywhere in Sydney where you can get decent sized pots for cheap? I've tried the Big W at Macq Park and Warringah Mall but with no luck.

Although the restaurant I used to work for is closing down soon, maybe Ill see if they want to sell their bit pots...

Allquip at St Peters. Of course it depends on what you mean by "decent sized" and "cheap"

Rob.

 

[mkstalen]

I got a set of 4 stock pots from "oo" although they were a little cheaper from memory then they are at present.
http://www.oo.com.au/Stainless_Steel_Stock..._-_4_P33151.cfm

 

[BjornJ]

Downloaded and read the guide last night, that is a brilliant document!

It shows in an easy-to-follow way how simple it can be to get started and give it a go without having to buy all kinds of stuff.

It explains in simple terms what to do without focusing overly on the 'why's' and muck around with absolute best practise for this and that, which we mostly argue about anyway :lol:
And it includes words like bung and hole, plus some very good advice on bucket color I had to learn the hard way..

Great work, will definitely be forwarding this one to friends who think brewing all grain is so much harder than making kit beers,






thanks
Bjorn

 

[RobboMC]

I think the limit to being able to hold a rolling boil on the bigger electric elements might be about 25L (with ~18L in it). That said, I haven't tried any bigger - you might be able to rolling boil 40L on a stovetop ... those big elements must be a kilowatt or two. Some maths geek could probably calculate how many watts are needed for the volume.

The 19L pots work beautifully if you can find one. Tried KMart?

No need for a maths geek, just trial and error;
stick a big pot on your stove top, fill with 10 litres of water and bring to boil.

Now get your jug and warm 2 more litres of water to about 65 deg C ( mash temp ) and add.

Keep doing this with your jug until the water in the big pot goes off the boil.
don't forget to count how many litres of water you have added.

Yes, you probably should do this with a proper wort and hops to get the EXACT answer,
but are you then going to tip it down the sink? Plain water will give you a pretty good estimate
of when the element limit is.

SAFETY WARNING SAFETY WARNING

HOWEVER, once a flat mate melted the internals out of a cooktop by making soup with a big pot,
electric stovetops may not be rated at 100% for very long. Try and use an element tHat's furthest away
from the control panEl of knobs, the heat coming off your big pot can melt this stuff.

 

[Florian]

The 19L pots work beautifully if you can find one. Tried KMart?

Found a 19L at Big W today for $20, had to search a little bit, they seem to hide them so people buy their more expensive ones.
Also found a nice little digital cooking thermometer which measures accurately to .1 degrees for $22. This will replace the stupid candy thermometer I bought just two weeks ago with a very unprecise 'watch type' indicator.

Am now ready for 20l AGs!

 

[barneyb]

Found a 19L at Big W today for $20, had to search a little bit, they seem to hide them so people buy their more expensive ones.
Also found a nice little digital cooking thermometer which measures accurately to .1 degrees for $22. This will replace the stupid candy thermometer I bought just two weeks ago with a very unprecise 'watch type' indicator.

Am now ready for 20l AGs!

Was the thermometer from Big W too? Looks like I might have to go on a Big W mission this weekend.

 

[Florian]

Was the thermometer from Big W too? Looks like I might have to go on a Big W mission this weekend.

yep, all big W. The thermometer was hidden away in a corner too, away from oven thermometer etc.

Florian

 

[barneyb]

yep, all big W. The thermometer was hidden away in a corner too, away from oven thermometer etc.

Florian

Awesome, I went back to Warring Mall Big W and found the stock pot. Got the last lid too!

I also found a digital thermometer for $18 but I think it is a different one to the one you got. It was a Pyrex one but it didn't say anything about being .1 degree accurate, and it only displays whole degrees. Still I tested it in a small pot of boiling water and it hit 100C just as it started a rolling boil so I think it is accurate.

A successful weekend, hopefully I'll get to do my first AG next weekend.

 

[Nodrog]

what an awesome thread, lots its way in the middle there slightly, but got back, and good on PP for getting it put right as well.

So my first post here after lurking for a while, and after reading this I reckon I will give this AG thing a go, got 2 kits under my belt and really want to 'make beer' now.

budget is minimal, but time is not, and I really believe in getting a good number of small brews done to learn a bit before going for bigger qties.

I have access to an 8 litre stock pot, so guess I can boil 5-6 litres comfortably. I'm prepared to try this much work for just a small batch to see if it works, so couple of q's:


Will the recipe work ok just scaling it all down?

LHBS sells crushed grains, do they need grinding finer than that for BOIB?
if so, what about using the old fashioned pestle and mortar to crush the grains?

the 8 litre pot is a prized kitchen accessory of SWMBO, and is one of those 'expensive brands'.
Can anyone promise me that boiling beer juice won't wreck the pot?

if yes to the above I reckon I can get AG for less than $10+ingredients, and that's NZ dollars-

 

[JestersDarts]

Can anyone promise me that boiling beer juice won't wreck the pot?

>>>>>>

G'Day Gordon -

Yeh pretty sure your pot will be fine - unless its made out of chocolate.

 

[Nodrog]

yeah, thought it was a dumb question after i asked it!
def not chocolate, that bright shiny stuff, so should be ok

Can anyone promise me that boiling beer juice won't wreck the pot?

>>>>>>

G'Day Gordon -

Yeh pretty sure your pot will be fine - unless its made out of chocolate.

 

[JestersDarts]

yeah, thought it was a dumb question after i asked it!
def not chocolate, that bright shiny stuff, so should be ok

Nah not a dumb question - Just tell swmbro that if it tarnishes, she'll just have to scrub harder..

 

[stm]

LHBS sells crushed grains, do they need grinding finer than that for BOIB?
if so, what about using the old fashioned pestle and mortar to crush the grains?

Wouldn't recommend mortar and pestle to crush anythying more than say 200g of grain. Cracked grain from LHBS will be fine - does not have to be crushed finer for BIAB, but BIAB doesn't give you a stuck sparge if the crush happens to be finer than normal. (What is BOIB? Is that a new invention?)

 

[Nick JD]

A pot will tarnish after a few brews ... and napisan doesn't get it off - maybe a dilute acid might. Grab a 19L pot and dirty the crap out of it.

Any recipe can be scaled to any size. The smallest brew I've ever done was ~3L in the "fermenter" - which was a 4L juice container. Pretty easy come bottling ... I just poured some of it into a 2L PET and the rest into a 1.25L PET.

Just divide all the ingredients and equipment by the same number - including the yeast.

 

[Nodrog]

thanks nick,
I have a healthy respect for those kitchen appliances, comes from being rumbled with 500g of salt peter in a food processor a bit over 20years ago I think. We were dumb, but luckily not dumb enough to put the whole mixture in the processor at once.

So will keep a look out for 20l pot and try to do the job properly shortly after the next paycheck.

BOIB- put that down to a typo...
no doubt will be back once a suitable pot is secured.

 

[barneyb]

For my first BIAB Im going to try 2kg Joe White Export Pilsner, 200g Carapils + hops.

My questions are:

1. Is there anything wrong with this grain bill?

2. Do I keep the same strike temp as the original post (70C)? What determines strike temp? The amount of grain/water? The type of grain? Or do we always try and keep it around 70C for a 67C mash?

 

[Nick JD]

For my first BIAB Im going to try 2kg Joe White Export Pilsner, 200g Carapils + hops.

My questions are:

1. Is there anything wrong with this grain bill?

2. Do I keep the same strike temp as the original post (70C)? What determines strike temp? The amount of grain/water? The type of grain? Or do we always try and keep it around 70C for a 67C mash?

1. No.

2. Strike temperature is dependant on the volume of the water in the pot, the weight of the grain you are about to dump in, and the temperature of the grain. Go here and plug into their Strike Temp Calculator these three things ... and the mash temp you want. It does it for you.

Which brings us to mash temperature. The best way to describe this without complicating it is 70C mashes will make a lot of stuff that's thick, unfermentable and sweet ... where as a 62C mash will make stuff that's thin, highly fermentable and dry. Around 65-66 there's a little bit of both happening, so you'll get a nice middle range beer with a bit of body, and a nice amount of dryness and alcohol.

The other thing about mash temperature that's important is the speed the enzymes can break up the long starches into small sugars gets slower the "cooler" the mash. Most of the starches are sliced up into sugars in 20 minutes at 70C; at 62C you want to leave it for an hour and a half at least. All chemical reactions are faster when it's warmer.

Do a google search on the "saccharification rest" for more info.

 

[donburke]

I think the limit to being able to hold a rolling boil on the bigger electric elements might be about 25L (with ~18L in it). That said, I haven't tried any bigger - you might be able to rolling boil 40L on a stovetop ... those big elements must be a kilowatt or two. Some maths geek could probably calculate how many watts are needed for the volume.

The 19L pots work beautifully if you can find one. Tried KMart?

i have what i consider a decent electric stove and it has no problem boiling 17 litres in the 19 litre big w pots

BUT it would NOT boil 28 litres in a 40 litre pot when I tried

a gas stove might be a better chance

 

[Nick JD]

i have what i consider a decent electric stove and it has no problem boiling 17 litres in the 19 litre big w pots

BUT it would NOT boil 28 litres in a 40 litre pot when I tried

a gas stove might be a better chance

Good info.

 

[batemanbrewer]

This is a great guide for beginner AG'ers Nick. In one of your first posts you should edit in a link to a recipe so that beginners can see how it matches up.

Once again, great read, wish I'd had this when I started.