Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[mh971]

Legendary OP.

I wonder how many people this has got into AG

 

[bum]

I could only get Simcoe flowers

Where from?

 

[argon]

Where from?

Precisely my thoughts... Can't be US Simcoe?

 

[Spork]

/blushes.
Got that arse about didn't I. :unsure:
Simcoe pellets - check.
Saaz flowers - check.
Oops. original recipe it is then.

 

[argon]

Carry on

 

[Bribie G]

Legendary OP.

I wonder how many people this has got into AG

I was talking with RdeVjun on Thursday about the way AG has developed - particularly in the UK (we were discussing Dave Line's books). In the UK nearly every brewer started off with a Ritchie BruHeat electric boiler,


for which a snug grain bag was developed and sold as an extra. Because the Bruheat can only handle 4 gallons or so it wasn't any use as a full-volume-water method, you had to do a sparge and the bag was only ever regarded as a way of disposing of the spent grain afterwards without having to spend fifteen minutes digging the grain out with a scoop whatever.
Dave Line almost made the mental leap, why not hoist the bag..... almost.

If that had happened back in the 70s then the Maxi Biab as practiced by Nick and RdeV would have - I bet - become really the default method of doing AG at home. I used to do a full pressure barrel (around 20L ) brew in a bedsit boiling the bruheat on a toilet seat with the window open. B) and it was dead simple.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

.... got me into AG.

What about the bastardised methods of BIAB (which I have one of)? It caused a bit of a debate with Pistolpatch and the like as to what was true BIAB.

I think the big thing is, subtleties over method aside, is that it gets people using true grain, hops, yeast and water to make beer (and polenta h34r: for bribie, rice for me). It introduces concepts such as mash temp, sparging, boil times and the like (I couldn't be bothered listing them all).

Regardless of what it is, this is true AG brewing - it contains all the factors that make it so - regardless of the tools used. And proves that making fermented barley juice with hops isn't as hard as some would like to make it seem.

Goomba

 

[Nick JD]

Funny thing about the original recipe was exactly zero thought went into it, as what I wanted was to use a broad range of ingredients - to showcase a dark malt, a crystal malt, a dextrin malt, hop pellets, hop flowers ... and of course a base malt. To let the new AGer see most of the usual ingredients in one batch.

The beer comes out okay, but I never thought so many people would copy the actual recipe. It's pretty obvious now most would.

Glad to hear people are still getting something from this thread.

I'm using a variation of this method still (16-18L batches) and today making what has become my house lager.

16L
3.3kg Weyermann Boh Pils
0.1kg Melanoidin
23g Hallertau 60min
37g Hallertau 20min
S189 @ 12C raised 1.5C every 2 days.

 

[Deebo]

Thanks for the instructions Nick JD. After about 5 years of kit brewing (only occasional partial mashes) this has finally convinced me to give AG a go.

I still need to find a couple of big pots or possibly a crown urn but I have a couple of questions regarding the process for anyone knowledgable.

I have downloaded brewmate and made this recipe http://www.brewmate.net/recipes/iSpvz9wVFZCJZZnmwN3e.xml. I know its pretty far from a traditional pilsner, I really just want to make a lager with some nelson sauvin hops as I have them available and quite like the knappstein lager (I did find a recipe for knappstein using search, http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=518454, but wanted to keep to just a few grains and keep it fairly light in colour)

Questions:
1). If I only manage to get a 20L pot or urn how would I adjust the recipe to a different volume? (I have only just started trying out brewmate today so excuse my ignorance in using it, perhaps this is a simple setting that I adjust, trying to change strike water volume didnt seem to work for me)
Do I just use less water in the mash / boil and top it up when I put it in the fermenter? (or is this going to throw out the efficiency?) I noticed in the 20l recipe you just used 12L of water and 6L in the other pot for sparging)

2). Do I chuck the whirlfloc in with the hops at 15 min?
Or once the hops time are up pull them out and then put in the whirlfloc and wait 15 minutes ? (does putting whirlfloc and a time into the spreadsheet actually do anything other than just remind me? Is the time just to work out evaporation?)

3). Any suggestions on the recipe regarding hop addition times or the ammount of grains? (I do have some cascade which I did think about adding but not sure on which hops to add and when)
Will 500g carapils add too much body for a lager?

 

[kelbygreen]

OK 1 I found beersmith good for me enter your equiptment in there. For me 32lt mash tun 19lt pot. Put in a single infusion mash of 13lts and it will calculate the sparge (make sure its a singe sparge). You have to top the fermenter up as you are doing a 21lt batch in a 19lt pot so you will boil down to about 16lts. beersmith works it all out for you, With BIAB I find you get more mash liqueur then traditional methods as you are hanging it to drain. but might only be couple of lts while the brew is getting to boil drain the grain and add it once or after boil starts it wont matter. set your efficiency to 67% I got 65% first few brews but get 70% now so thats a happy medium.

put half a tablet of whirfloc in 15 mins from the end of the boil so flame out is 0 min whirlfloc is 15mins. putting it into software does nothing but tell you its added. for brewsmith if I want a 21lt batch and expect 2lts of trub I set the batch size to 23lts and set the kettle loss to 0

ok you got nelson sav and cascade do a APA style you can use eather with bittering, flavour and aroma but id go NS bittering and a mix for flavour and aroma

 

[Spork]

Did this recipe today.
Made a couple of n00b mistakes though.
Decided to chill my wort and get things started. Chilled OK, but when I poured it into my FV a lot of the solid crap (trub?) went with it. Rather than waiting overnight for it to settle and try repouring I plunged ahead. I figure this crap will settle out during fermentation, otherwise I will add finings.
Next time, I'll wait longer for the solids to settle, or maybe filter. If my understanding is correct, whirlpooling would help if my stock pot had a tap, but not really any use when I'm just pouring from the pot.
My other n00b **** was with the yeast.
I thought to myself. 1/2 size batch, just use 1/2 the yeast and save the other 1/2 for the next (1/2 sized) batch. Fair enough, but how will I measure 1/2 of this foil packet I think to myself. I grab my 500ml pyrex jug and sterilise with boiling water and tip it upside down to drain / dry. It obviously didn't dry enough by ther time I measured 1/2 the yeast (using some scales) into it, as a fair bit of the yeast stuck to it when I went to tip it into the FV. As the jug was sanitised, I poured some wort in via the tap on the FV, swirled it around, and poured this back into the FV. Didn't seem to move the yeast, it was still stuck in the jug.
Hope I didn't contaminate my beer. If I did, live and learn.
Hope I didn't "underpitch". Still have 1/2 a sachet though if it isn't doing anything tomorrow.
Given all that, the wort tasted good, the hops especially had some nice flavours, and although it was all a bit sweet I guess fermentation will remove most of the sugary tastes. It's now fermenting @ 17.5 - 18.5c. I had some fun. I learned a bit. I may have even made a drinkable beer!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

<snip>
ok you got nelson sav and cascade do a APA style you can use eather with bittering, flavour and aroma but id go NS bittering and a mix for flavour and aroma

I'd go with cascade at 60 for bittering, not nelson, as 60m nelson I find can be harsh. I love Nelson, but find it really shines at 10-30 minutes.

My last pale ale was:

10g Nelson at 30m
20g Nelson at 10m
(I'd put in your cascade here) 30g cascade at 10m
Dry hop 20g cascade.

Good luck

Goomba

 

[bignath]

60m nelson I find can be harsh. I love Nelson, but find it really shines at 10-30 minutes.

I agree. I use NS alot, and my hop schedule when using it (admittedly as a SMaSH beer) goes along the lines of:

20lt batch:

15g @ 30min
10g @ 15min
10g @ 0min

Dry Hop w/ 20g @ 7days.

Cracker of a hop if it's not overdone!

 

[Nevalicious]

Legendary OP.

I wonder how many people this has got into AG

Right here... This along with alot of other reading got me AG'ing for sure

Pictures are worth a thousand words... Big ups to NickJD

Nev

 

[Hubert]

Legendary OP.

I wonder how many people this has got into AG

Another convert here. Was doing k&k for about 6 months. Did my first AG a couple of weekends ago, had a fair bit of loss through the boil and ended up with a light (3.1%) beer. Second attempt last weekend was much better. Used a red bucket for the sparge and the expected ABV is around 6%.
Process will take time to get used to, but it has made the transition to AG soooooooo easy.

Thanks again for the destructions Nick JD.

 

[bnaujok]

Legendary OP.

I wonder how many people this has got into AG

Me too (on second ever brew). :icon_cheers:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I agree. I use NS alot, and my hop schedule when using it (admittedly as a SMaSH beer) goes along the lines of:

20lt batch:

15g @ 30min
10g @ 15min
10g @ 0min

Dry Hop w/ 20g @ 7days.

Cracker of a hop if it's not overdone!

Absolutely. I find that if you are really conservative, it can behave with other hops, but generally works well by itself. I find that Bairds Perle works better than Pilsner malts with it.

Recently used it with Citra (23g leftover at 10m) and it was a cracker. Dry hopped with a tiny bit of leftover saaz and tettnanger.

My freezer is never empty of Nelson - NEVER!

Goomba

 

[Spork]

Had a taste of mine today when checking the gravity. I think it's finished! SG 1.013. Smells great, tastes pretty bloody good too! Not as clear as I'd like, but I put that down to some errors on brewday, which I will learn from and hopefully avoid next time. This time round, some gelatine may be in order, but I'll see how it looks in another week when it's due for bottling. Racking and / or crash chilling are other too options I suppose.

 

[colonel]

Well, after reading this thread 30 times (thanks Nick!), I finally got with the program and had a go.

Pretty well followed the method exactly, although perhaps not as neatly (I had **** going everywhere).

Only 8 degrees in the shed, but the LPG burner worked fine.

Seems like a good way to have a first crack at AG.

Big thanks to NickJD for posting this thread, and all the constructive posts from then on.

Cheers

 

[colonel]

Further to my last post, when I poured it into the fermenter, I noticed that I only had 6 litres!

Thinking that that was a lot of mucking around for 3 drinks, I made a midnight decision to bung in another 2 litres of tap water before pitching the yeast.

Have I done wrong?

(before I did this, the sg was 1.070, and after adding water, it was 1.064)

Anyone have any comments?