Move To All Grain For Thirty Bucks

[Spork]

Great thread.
Just new to brewing and thought I'd be doing kits and bits for quite a while.
This has me thinking though. Can it really be so simple?
Might try a BIAB much sooner than I had thought.
Sort of been looking for an excuse to get a 2nd fermenter, even if it's just a 15 litre one. Already have thermometer, gas burner ans suitable overhead beam to put a pulley on...

One question though.
Is whats posted in the first few pages all thats needed for this brew? Hops, grain, water and yeast? No need to add sugar / LME or other fermentables unless I want to raise the OG?

 

[bum]

One question though.
Is whats posted in the first few pages all thats needed for this brew? Hops, grain, water and yeast? No need to add sugar / LME or other fermentables unless I want to raise the OG?

Dude. This is like the most chopped down version possible. If you tl;dr on this one you should think about sticking with the tins a bit longer.

 

[kelbygreen]

No, AG is all grain which is all grain. Malt extract is made from malted barley or grain then it goes threw a process to extract the water. AG is using malted barley but you mash it and you make the wort to the right OG so you ont have to turn it into liquid malt or dry malt you use the malt from the grains its the same malt they use but heavily unprocessed

 

[Bribie G]

Beer: Malted grain, hops, water, yeast, polenta.

Forget the polenta for now, I'll tell you later h34r:

It's what's been happening since

 

[Spork]

Thanks bum, read the first 10 or so pages, couldn't see anything else strictly related to the "recipe" so I jumped to the end. I thought it was probably the case (that no other fermentables needed to be added) but I wanted to double check is all. Also, I'm stone cold sober (SWMBO's idea) at the moment, so my attention span for 27 page threads might be affected.
ps: got another "tin" in the post, so won't be doing an "AG" until I have at least 2 K&K's to my name.

 

[RdeVjun]

Is whats posted in the first few pages all thats needed for this brew? Hops, grain, water and yeast? No need to add sugar / LME or other fermentables unless I want to raise the OG?

Yep, that's it. Well, after you get the kettle and BIAB bag that is, then with those very ingredients- it is indeed an all- grain method. In some circles it might be considered a bit of a sawn- off, however principles are principles... :icon_cheers:
A limitation with this particular method (i.e. this guide) is that it yields about 10- 12L of beer, however there's ways to up that to 20- odd L with relative ease. Link below and search for the Maxi-BIAB variation, alternatively 20L Stovetop should get you there.
Having said that, there's nothing wrong with small batches to begin with, there's nothing quite as disappointing as drinking our way through a whole 23L batch of crap AG beer... :angry:

Edit: Ah Polenta- Our favourite adjunct- Goes well with grits for breakfast!

 

[mh971]

.......In some circles it might be considered a bit of a sawn- off, however principles are principles......

I like that some may consider it the sawn-off approach, in fact i'm thanking you for the term RdeVjun, i'll use that. Given that there are some big award winners in the BIAB ranks it shows a sawn off gets the job done like anything else.


If it hadn't been for this thread I wouldn't have started AG ( many thanks Nick). After reading it I bought my $20 big W pot, grabbed a couple of metres of voile from spotlight (still use it as a flat square - no need to get fancy and sew it) and gave this a crack, and have never looked back.

The only other single step I made that improved my beer by this degree was introducing temperature control. If you want to make good beer you need to have a plan of how you will maintain desired ferment temp for the style you're brewing - this is easier for some depending on geographical location and fermeter location. I have to use a temp controller and an old fridge.

 

[felten]

Great thread.
Just new to brewing and thought I'd be doing kits and bits for quite a while.
This has me thinking though. Can it really be so simple?
Might try a BIAB much sooner than I had thought.
Sort of been looking for an excuse to get a 2nd fermenter, even if it's just a 15 litre one. Already have thermometer, gas burner ans suitable overhead beam to put a pulley on...

One question though.
Is whats posted in the first few pages all thats needed for this brew? Hops, grain, water and yeast? No need to add sugar / LME or other fermentables unless I want to raise the OG?

The process of mashing is just as simple as outlined in the OP, if you follow the instructions completely. The steep learning curve comes in with understanding the various ingredients, all the complex physical and chemical changes going on, and how/why it actually works so you don't **** it all up if you alter something.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

don't forget to add some whirlfloc, Irish moss or koppafloc at the end of the boil as per the directions on the pack, it will help dropping any nasties out and leave them in the kettle.

As another poster has suggested getting tempreture control as soon as you can even if your still doing kits, yeast can produce strange flavours when under stress!!

How To Brew is another great resource.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Two things I see with this thread (which helped me get started):

1. It demystifies the physical process of getting wort from grain and makes one realise that powdered/liquid malt is only mashed grain that has been reduced. So it takes away the scariness of that; and

2. You will get the result if you follow it, and from there, it is way easier to piece together the theory. As felten said, you can treat it like a connect the dots to get the picture, and you'll get the result from that recipe, but if you want to construct your own recipes, you need to understand the theory. However, it is considerably easier to understand the theory if you've done a bit of the prac. Concept to practice becomes easier to connect.

And as bob said - temp control is the most important thing in the whole process. My confidence took a battering over summer, because I'd never brewed in summer before and hadn't realised how much nasty flavours the summer heat (even in an airconditioned house) produced.

I've just bottled a pale ale last night that smells normal and has had cooler temps applied to it, and hoping it tastes as good as it smells, because you don't like to feel like you've made progress, only to feel like you are making irreversible mistakes.

Get an STC-1000 from ebay, an old fridge, wire it up (or get an electrician mate to do it as I have). Keep the yeast in its ideal range. Yeast is the most important ingredient, as it is yeast that converts wort to beer.

Goomba

 

[alizzan]

Agreed, Raja.

I just did my first partial last night, and while I didn't get the efficiency I had hoped, the entire process was so much easier thanks to Nick's method. I would really like to see it make it to the articles section, as I think that if there's anything that will get people to make the switch from K&K/Extract brewing like I did, it's this article. That, and Nick has a wicked sense of humour. I'm looking forward to trying a full AG with this and seeing how DrSmurto's GA turns out.

 

[chrs24]

Hi Guys,

I've been doing this this morning. I've just boiled the wort and have added the simcoe @ 10:22am AEST.

Just a quick query, do I leave the gas stove at full ball to keep the rolling boil or can it go down alittle?

I assume the lid should be on to keep bad stuff out, pictures have it off to actually see inside I assume?

If i'm boiling it for an hour, what stops it evaporating?

Thanks guys!

 

[Tim F]

It's better to keep it at a nice rolling boil if you can, and leave the lid off. You will lose some to evaporation, just a fact of life - people factor that in when calculating volume. Here's a link with some more on why you boil uncovered: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/DMS

 

[chrs24]

Much appreciated, thank you!

*runs to the kitchen to tap the lid off*

 

[Spork]

Just ordered the ingredients, and a few other bits and pieces, from one of the site sponsors.

 

[yum beer]

Ordered my stuff today, brew next Friday if all goes to plan...fingers crossed.

 

[Spork]

So while that's coming up to temp (aiming for just over 70C) lets get the hops sorted. Here's 10g of Simcoe, a good hop for bittering.
And about 7g of Riwaka (or D Saaz) for some flavour - we'll add this later in the boil.

I notice you use Simcoe pellets, and Saaz leafs / flowers.
I could only get Simcoe flowers and Saaz pellets.
Do I need to adjust quantities or times to account for this, or are they essentially the same?

 

[manticle]

Rule of thumb - 10% more flowers by weight (dried) than pellets, at least as far as bittering goes. Many brewing software programs will adjust for you.

 

[Spork]

Thanks Manticle. So, 11g Simcoe flowers instead of 10g pellets. Do I reduce the D Saaz (pellets) by 10% also? 6.3g?
Just trying the changes in BrewMate, I guess whatever gets closest to the original IBU.
The original gives 40.2 IBU's.
With mine (11 and 6.3) it gives 40.3 IBU's. Close enough.

 

[kelbygreen]

nop keep flavour the same.