My First All Grain (mini Batch)

[redbeard]

im going to give a big thanks to sluggerdog. being a k&k hb'r, after reading sluggers post on grumpy's? (Mini Mash - Adam Symonds [hope i got that right] & realising i could do that, i did !

already had a little six pack esky & 2 reasonable size pots. ordered the grains & hops last week, picked up fri, bought a milk froth thermo, large ss strainer & 16l pot as it was on special, on sat. im glad i got the pot, as the one i originally planned to use would have barely held the mash runoff. was planning to do it sat pm but life got in the way & sun night it was. took about 4 hours, finishing just after midnight, thou after cooling & activating the yeast, got to bed just before 1

followed sluggers instructions fairly closely. ended up with about 5l & seived the wort twice. the og was 1056 thou i did use a 1.7kg can of malt and no corn syrup. put in fermentor, added 15l water & some rehydrated coopers (ale) yeast. this am it had a foamy head but not bubbling, about 26c. added some ice (to the water fermi is sitting in storage tub) & tonight it was back down to 22c. hopefully will finish by the weekend & then a week in the fridge cc'ing. i know its the 1st one but cant wait to compare it against my current k&k beers :

next time your in syd slugger, i'll buy u a beer or 2 !

 

[sluggerdog]

Cheers Redbeard, I'm glad you left the corn syrup out, it was a mistake, so was the dry enzyme but the basic idea is/was correct.

BTW I got those instructions from Dave @ GOLIATHS so some of the credit has to go to him.

Cheers!

 

[Trough Lolly]

Sluggerdog and Redbeard - Congrats on your mash's! Despite all the techo stuff written about partial and full mash brewing, when it actually comes down to doing one, it can be surprisingly easy to make. Doing a mini batch is a great way to understand the process and from here, you will want to either stay as you are, or explore larger scale production, eg, upsizing the mash/lauter tun and the kettle. That rate of change depends on how keen you are to make larger batches of beer and what the missus will let you spend!!

Regarding the mash, there are loads of good responses on this thread already, but just in case you overlooked the important points, here are a few things to remember for the next batch:

1. Your grains suck up water and don't give it back. Figure on 1L of mash water lost for every kilo of grain in the mash. You need to factor this loss rate into your mash water volume and batch sparge volume calcs. Your goal is to get enough sweet liqour out of the mashtun and into the kettle - you shouldn't have to add plain water to the kettle to bring up your pre-boil volume.
2. Try to keep good notes on what you did, particularly the temps you used in the mash. You need to hit the strike temp and it's hard to maintain a constant mash temp in a small vessel but don't get too upset if the mashout temp is low. Towels wrapped around the mashtun help. If the mashtun feels warm when the mash is on, you are losing radiated heat from the mash and that will surely lower the mash temp over time.
3. Adding the grains; I sprinkle them on the surface and let them sink by themselves - no need to pummel anything until the mash gets pretty thick and then out come the clean barbie tongs to break up the dough balls.
3. For a small batch, I sparge as follows: get a good sized metal/fine colander (the ones that look like the old car headlight covers are great for this) a soup ladle and a collection vessel other than the boiler. Scoop enough grains and liquor into the colander to half fill it. Get a cup or plastic jug and drizzle the sparge water over the grains in the colander and collect the runnings in a bucket or vessel other than the boiler. I use a Decor 10L plastic container that has markings up the sides so I know exactly how much sweet liquour I have collected from the mash. Use about 300ml of sparge water for a half colander - whatever the combo is, make sure that you have fully sparged every ladle of grains that you scooped out of the mashtun. Drizzle the water gently over the grains in a circular motion and keep moving the cup to avoid chanelling the water through the grains - you want to make sure that all the sugars are washed out of the grains - its like pouring milk on the brekky cereal! I empty the colander of washed grains into a bucket. Once you've lautered all the grains from the mashtun, you might want to repeat the process - this time 3/4 fill the colander and drizzle 300ml or stop when the strained liqour looks very pale. Once you've finished sparging, clean the colander under the tap and drape a muslin grain bag across it to act as a filter. Gently transfer the collected liqour to the boiler via the colander with the bag strainer - this usually collects any fine particles or husks that may have gone through the colander during sparging. The rest of the tiny particulates will remain in the boiler after the boil so I don't worry too much about them - I've never had harsh tannin flavours so this seems to work ok.

Cheers,
TL

P.S. By using this lautering method for small batches, I have always gone over 80% efficiency (85%+ for stouts and dark ales/lagers).

 

[voota]

Thanks for the advice guys, i just finished construction on my 2 tier/pump brewery, and i'm due to pop my AG cherry on Friday afternoon. I'm bloody excited, but i dont know if i should use some home malted grain or bought stuff (the home malted grain is a bit dodge cos our oven shat itself but i figure it would be a nice start in case if stuff it up), any suggestions, i'll post a pic soon.

 

[fergi]

hi sluggerdog, i was just wonering how your first AG came out,i know when you did it i mentioned it would be nice to hear from a k7k how much difference there was between the ag and k& k brew,how do you compare them now
cheers
fergi

 

[sluggerdog]

fergi, all went well but I have not tried it yet, am planning to try the first bottle next week, will let you know the results.

I have done 2 since then as well so hopefully they are going well.

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

AG is suprisingly easy, if you're doing a basic mash.
I went from K+K, to better kits and malt, better yeast, better brewing practices, up to all grain. The jump in quality was astounding.
I'm focussing a lot on extract now, making my own recipes with Morgans Extra Pale as a base. While excellent beer is coming out, and some have been better than all grain, I still think all grain has the wood.
At the end of the day, if you're brewing both ways correctly, all grain is going to come out on top because of the control you have (imagine doing a triple decoction o-fest... can't do it with extract) and the almost unlimited variety of grains out there. Extract, if done properly, will make awesome beer. But all grain you can really make something special. Good to see you guys testing the water.

 

[sluggerdog]

OK I cracked open my first ALL GRAIN BREW and I cannot believe how much better it is, it is amazing the differance.

AND I only used dry yeast... I'm convinsed now, I'm saving my pennies for a proper AG setup

Hops could mellow (only 10 days in bottle) a little more but other then that, AWESOME!!

RECOMMEND YOU TRY IT :excl:

 

[sluggerdog]

OK I have done a few mini ALL GRAIN brews now and I want to try somethign bigger however I do not have the boiling equipment yet so I was thinkg of doing the following:

Mashing all the grains and boiling a volume of 15 litres, once I have added this to the fermentor I will top up to 20 litres and ferment as usual.

So can anyone see any problems with this? Of course I will bitter the wort accordingly to include the top up water but is there anythign else I should concider while doing this?

If this is a bad idea then I will just do a partial and add extract but either way it seems to me it will be a similar boil with water top up...

Looking for any input before I start this.

Cheers!

 

[warrenlw63]

Go for it Slugger. :super:

I do something similar to this when making 60 litre (3 kegs) batches in a 50 litre boiler. Just boil a higher grav. condensed wort and top up in the fermenters.

Be wary of hopping levels though. May pay to adjust upwardly in the your bitterness calculations to compensate.

Rough rule of thumb would be 15-20% more bittering hops.

Good luck with it.

Warren -

 

[sluggerdog]

Thanks Warren, think I will go ahead with it, this is what I am planning to do:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 18.00 L
Boil Size: 15.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 6.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.75 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.0 EBC) Grain 93.8 %
0.25 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 6.3 %
40.00 gm Pearle [6.80%] (60 min) Hops 31.2 IBU
15.00 gm Saaz [2.50%] (20 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
15.00 gm Saaz [2.50%] (5 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
12.15 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)Misc
1 Pkgs Pilsen Lager (Wyeast Labs #2007) [StarteYeast-Lager


Is there anything I need to do for the mash or sparge differently?

Thanx

 

[warrenlw63]

Nup, just follow standard procedures.

Warren -