Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[Nick JD]

My questions are before I launch into this:

- I plan to use a food processor to crack the grains - anyone done this with success before?

- As I am using a lager yeast (S-23), would I still use the whole packet for this 9L batch as I will pitch and ferment at about 12C.



Thanks, I can't wait to give this a go!

Not many people have had luck with food processors. Coffee grinders work because they are designed to crunch hard-as things ... processors are better suited to soft things.

If you're buying grain in small batches - they'll mill it for you for free. Only worth getting a mill if you are buying 25kg sacks.

A whole pack of S23 in 9L is perfect. If it was an ale yeast, use half.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Thanks for the replies.

I will be doing at least a 60 min boil.

I don't have a coffee grinder - might have to see what other appliances will work - blender??

Also, I assume instead of placing the pot in the garage overnight I could just dump the wort straight into my fermenter and into the brew fridge to cool? Then when at 12C pitch the yeast?

Great stuff again Nick JD!

 

[paulmclaren11]

One more question... I have read some people have been getting less than 9L when pouring into the fermenter. Do I understand correctly that once I have drained the grain bag and bring the wort to the boil for hop additions I can add more water then to get a bigger volume? How much is suggested to add in?

Cheers.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

You should end up with greater than 9L.

Seriously, download brewmate (www.brewmate.net) for free. On the "brew day" calcs, it'll give you your starting volumes, how much water for mashing and how much you'll end up with pre and post boil.

If your boil is more vigorous, you'll end up with 9L. Take a gravity reading, use the water diluation calculator (in the tools menu) to calculate how much OG you'll have by diluting it back to 9L.

Goomba

 

[Nick JD]

Blenders don't work well either - they're for blending liquids. Get your grain milled when you buy it.

Learn about hot and cold breaks. If you want to transfer the hot wort to your fermenter to cool then you'll need to seperate it from the hot break (that the whirlfloc tablet caused to precipitate out) by whirlpooling. If you cool in the pot (which is completely sterile) then the hot break will settle and you can decant the wort off it. Hot break looks like cottage cheese. Cold break looks like yoghurt. The cold break will be on top of the hot break. Cold break into fermenter is okay; hotbreak not.

You need to be able to measure the SG at various stages of making AG beer. Measure your pre-boil SG. Measure your post-boil SG. Write all this down - information is power. You can then use it in conjunction with your newly-learnt techniques to make them better.

Roughly, and SG of 1.050 will make a 5% beer. 1.035 a 3.5% beer.

To dilute 8L of a 1.062 wort to make a 4.2% beer you need to find the final volume:

62/42 = 1.47 So you need 1.47 times 8L to make a 4.2% beer.

1.47 x 8 = 11.76, or another 4L of tap water.

Now make beer.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Thanks again - will report back how it all goes this weekend.

 

[mrTbeer]

Thanks for taking the time to write all this up and the 20L thread also. It's people like you guys that make ahb a cool community to be a part of.Nice surf pic by the way is it you? Looks bigger than a goldy wave.
I use a 15L fermenter and 9,10,12 L kegs so the 9L recipe would work well for me as im not targetting 20L like most. (i bottle the remainder in grolsch bottles) Also I have just bought a 19L bigw ss pot. (So cheap @$19!) i note In your original thread you've done it all with a 15L pot.
1. Can I simply scale it up to achieve 12 or 15 L after boil in a 19L pot?(I've had too many extract boil overs as I was using a 8L pasta pot before and my ceran stove is a bit peaky) What is the safe limit for a boil for a 19L pot?
2. If buying a biab bag for the 19L pot what size do you recommend. I'm thinking the craft brewer one might be too big? Should I just start with a square of voile from spotlight?
3. Is there a practical/cheap way to put a tap on the big w pot or is it more trouble than it's worth? The tack welded handles make me nervous if there is 15kg of boiling wort inside. I might yet make an investment in an urn but am on a budget after buying another surfboard.
4. How do I add pic to show with my name?
Thanks in advance if you get around to answering my q's.Tim

 

[PhantomEasey]

Just finished pumping out my first AG BIAB, a simple MO / Nelson Sauvin SMaSH in the second-hand 20ltr urn I procured recently.

Massive thanks Nick for the inspiration / explanation that demonstrated to myself and many others that the gateway to AG brewing is not as daunting, expensive or troublesome as it may appear in the beginning. Also, thanks to ThirstyBoy and his mate (forgot his name, sorry!) for holding the demo at G&G last month, picked up the last few tricks I was after to enable the leap.

This site has been a wealth of information for me over the past cpl months since I got into homebrew; can't wait till I'm experienced enough to contribute more.

Time to start the countdown clock for when this bad boy is ready to drink!

:beer:

 

[Nick JD]

1. Can I simply scale it up to achieve 12 or 15 L after boil in a 19L pot?(I've had too many extract boil overs as I was using a 8L pasta pot before and my ceran stove is a bit peaky) What is the safe limit for a boil for a 19L pot?

My safe limit for boilovers with my stove and the BigW 19L pot is 14L. I can turn my element to eleven and simply walk off - I think only once did I have a splash leave the pot - and I boil very vigorously. That said, some people report struggling with the boil and others about boilovers ... so it's the stove's wattage that counts.

Most of my batches have 3.5kg of grain. With my efficiencies, this gives me roughly 14L (pre-boil) of 1.050-1.060. By the end of the boil this is about 10-12L but then I dilute in the fermenter with cold tap water to an SG that most suits the recipe - say 1.044 for a Boh Pils (~17L) or not dilute it at all for a 1.075 IPA. Basically, my grain size it set, my volume isn't. Most brewers set their volume and tweak their recipe. High gravity brewing with limited resources is the other way round or your beer is compromised.

2. If buying a biab bag for the 19L pot what size do you recommend. I'm thinking the craft brewer one might be too big? Should I just start with a square of voile from spotlight?

The bag needs to be able to have the pot inside it. Read that again - I meant to type it that way. Big bags are no problem and will mean you can then use it for upgrading to a bigger system. If you buy the voile, it's 1.2m wide - so get 1.5m of it and use the offcuts to make big hop bags for the boil and little hop bags for keg hopping.

3. Is there a practical/cheap way to put a tap on the big w pot or is it more trouble than it's worth? The tack welded handles make me nervous if there is 15kg of boiling wort inside. I might yet make an investment in an urn but am on a budget after buying another surfboard.

I highly recommend using this technique to learn brewing. It's not a method to make beer as much as it's a method to learn how to make beer and to see if it's for you, the whole AG thing. Personally, I'd keep the Stovetop method simple and spend your money on a big urn or kettle.

4. How do I add pic to show with my name?

Go CTRL-F and search this page for "My Controls".

 

[paulmclaren11]

Okay.... I have just finished my first crack at this method.

I will post a few comments on how it went and my methods, hopefully I can improve next time...

Used the good old breville powermax blender - worked a treat to crush the grain... well it was more like flour by the end of it. Only took about 10 mins.

Strike temp was about 71c, Mash in at 67c and came out at 64c - was pretty happy with that.

Pre boil SG was spot on as per Brewmate (great program!)

Then I placed the pot into my brew fermenter fridge over night to cool. Was 22c this morning - perfect.

However, I only ended up with about 5lts into the fermenter - I was a bit dissapointed. I did leave a fair bit of crud in the bottom of the pot - perhaps a bit too much?

Next time I think I will just cool in the sink with some ice - is there evaporation issues with leaving it overnight?

Anyways used the water dilution program in Brewmate and topped it up to 8lts - beer will be more of a mid strength lager now - thats okay I mainly brew mids.

The biggest difference between the normal extracts and AG was the time. It took about 4 hours. Hopefully for my 8ltrs of beer it will be worth it!

It was a good day and I hope it turns out okay!

Cheers.

 

[Nick JD]

Nice one Paul. One thing to note though is you didn't make 8L of AG beer ... you made yourself realise that you can make AG beer. The beer is just a bonus. And it'll be great beer. If it's for you, do another couple of small batches and then splash out of some full sized gear.

Next time try this:

13L of strike water in the 19L pot. 66C mash.

3.5kg of Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner grain
100g of Weyermann Melanoidin

23g Czech Saaz for 60 minutes
37g Czech Saaz for 20 minutes

S189 @ 12C

When you pull the grain bag squeeze it like buggary and then rinse it with 2L of hot tap water, squeeze again and return this to the pot, then top up the pot to 14L with boiling water from the coffee kettle.

Measure your SG once it's at 14L - you should have around 1.055.

Dilute it to 1.042 in the fermenter - probably be about 16L. Best. Lager. Evah.

You can pour the fluffy cold break into the fermenter, just leave behind the cottage cheese looking stuff right at the bottom. You'll lose about 750ml, half of that is hot break, half is good wort. It's a good idea to put some swiss voile in a sieve and sit it in a bowl and pour your hotbreak into the voile. In about 30 minutes it's passed through and you should have about 300ml of clear wort. Bottle it in plastic and stick it in the freezer - it's great for making yeast starters, or for chucking in the next same/similar recipe's boil.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Thanks Nick JD I can't wait to see how my first attempt tastes. I feel it all went well and your instructions are really to use for anyone not sure about trying this out. Seriously, the only thing I had to buy was the grain and the swiss voile (cheap as). It was a great look into how AG is done.

Your recipe looks very tasty and with summer pretty much here (its 35c in Perth today) would go a treat. I only have a 15 ltr pot... I would need to scale back or buy another pot.

As an aside, it there such thing as a extract to AG recipe converter (and vice versa). I will still mainly do all extract with a 1 month old on the go time is of the essence these days!

 

[Silo Ted]

Blenders don't work well either - they're for blending liquids. Get your grain milled when you buy it.

My hardcore blender turns grin to dust in seconds. Not practical in the slightest

Mills are so cheap, anyone serious about making beer at home needs access to a mill

 

[Nick JD]

My hardcore blender turns grin to dust in seconds. Not practical in the slightest

Mills are so cheap, anyone serious about making beer at home needs access to a mill

I'm serious about making beer and I don't use a mill.

Folks, you can get by without a mill - unless you are not using a bag. Nothing wrong with grinding your grain to dust using this method.

Mills are NOT cheap. They are hundreds - and that's without the motor to run it. A coffee grinder is cheap - probably even free if you already have one. There have been awards won by people who didn't own mills.

There's a lot of other gear you should buy before a mill if you're starting out - and remember, Ted ... this is for people starting out. This isn't Move to AG for $250 because you bought a mill.

I've put probably over 200kg of grain through my little coffee grinder (the one used in this thread). It nails a kg in 3 minutes and that's taking my time.

 

[Truman42]

BUMP...Why isnt this a sticky?

 

[MarkBastard]

Mills are so cheap, anyone serious about making beer at home needs access to a mill

That is definitely not true and I'm not sure why you'd say that in a thread for beginners.

I've made plenty of all grain brews over the last two or so years and have never once owned a mill or been inclined to.

If your local home brew store offers to crush and vacuum seal your grain for you, then it's a matter of weighing up the negatives and positives. Having a mill at home may give you flexibility to create a recipe on a whim, and may result in reduced grain cost per kg as you can buy in bulk, however you'll then also need to worry about grain storage and possible spoilage over time etc.

This is without looking at mill alternatives such as what Nick has talked about in this thread.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Hello ,

I wanted to test my understanding of doing a partial using the BIAB method in this thread.

Do I understand correctly that:

I can mash 2kg of grain in 10L
Do a 60 min boil/hop additions in the 10 L and then at the end of the boil add say 1.5kg of LDM to make it up to 22L?

 

[MarkBastard]

Hello ,

I wanted to test my understanding of doing a partial using the BIAB method in this thread.

Do I understand correctly that:

I can mash 2kg of grain in 10L
Do a 60 min boil/hop additions in the 10 L and then at the end of the boil add say 1.5kg of LDM to make it up to 22L?

That's correct. And you only really add the liquid malt extract at the end so that it melts in to the brew easily. You could add it to the fermenter if you wanted to like a kit.

 

[Nick JD]

...add say 1.5kg of LDM to make it up to 22L?

As long as you remember to calculate your spec malt and hop amounts at the 22L volume it'll be great beer.

 

[paulmclaren11]

so basically i can get a 22lt Ag recipe and sub about 2kg of the base malt with the ldm and leave the hops and spec malts the same?