Newbie At Brewing, Tips?

[Phizinza]

Hi, I'm new to brewing. I've helped my dad a few times brewing coopers kits. But thats pretty much all I've experienced.
My soon to be brother in law's brother brews beer, nice beer. I had one of his weizenbock's and I really would like to attempt to make something similar. It looks like going for a style like this can't be done with a kit. So I've found a few recipes and online stores with all the ingredients. Most of the ingredients don't come in extract form so it has to be grain.
Anyhow, I only have simple brewing equipment at my disposal and I'm not too keen on spending big as I have no money for that. I've read quite a lot and watched a lot of videos on youtube etc on how the whole process works. Just wondering if you have to use things like a strike pot, mashing pot and boil pot with custom gas burners coming out your eyeballs or if it can be done on a stove with a couple of large pots? Is a heat transfer really needed? When I bottle a beer like this, I do it like a kit and use sugar or glucose in each bottle? Seems most people keg so the remaining steps for bottling are missing on all the recipes I've seen.
And finally, am I getting in over my head? I never like starting at beginner level, I prefer coming in a few steps up and learning quickly. Do my research before hand and give it a good proper go.
Oh, and is there must have items when AG brewing that aren't needed with kits or extract brewing?

 

[captaincleanoff]

read into BIAB (brew in a bag)

for a new brewer wanting to get into AG, it is considerably easier than traditional methods

 

[glennheinzel]

Welcome to a brave new world.

As CaptainCleanoff noted, BIAB is the quickest and easiest way to get into All Grain brewing. The link below has pretty much everything you need to know-

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=22

 

[stowaway]

Welcome to a brave new world.

As CaptainCleanoff noted, BIAB is the quickest and easiest way to get into All Grain brewing. The link below has pretty much everything you need to know-

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=22

Or hold for the latest BIAB documentry under production. filming begins on sunday.

 

[Phizinza]

Wow, you guys are quick. Thanks.
I remember seeing a video of this, but I didn't realise what it was for or why they were putting it all in bags. It makes sense now. Reading that PDF now. Cheers!

 

[bconnery]

You could definitely do a weizenbock as an extract with specialty grains beer.
By all means start collecting the equipment etc for your chosen method of AG if you want to go down that path (and it is a good one ) but you can start making a weizenbock now if you want to...

As a general rule searching US based sites is a good way to go for extract recipes as the method is much more common over there...

I won't post the recipes I found as there were plenty but if you search using google for: weizenbock recipe extract you'll find heaps of ideas to get you started...

 

[Adamt]

Something that no-one has mentioned so far is fermentation control.

For a style like weizenbock, fermentation is probably the most important step to getting the right characteristics. You'll likely best-off using a quality liquid yeast and keeping good control over fermentation temperature. I'd work on that before worrying about before looking into AG (not instead, but before ).

Hopefully Les the Weizguy will pop up, he's (probably) the top weizen guru on the site and he has brewed a lot of extract-based weizens.

 

[Bribie G]

Doing a partial or 'mini' mash is a great way to build some skills. I used to do all grain in the UK and have a good basic knowledge but like you I'm not really in a position to get four ring burners, hot liquor tuns etc just yet.

For a partial mash, there's heaps of information on the Forum but briefly here's my basic equipment:

A three and a half litre jug, thermometer and esky:


Couple of stockpots and some strainers:


What you see in the photo is a kilo of English Lager malt (milled) which has been mixed with 2 litres of hot water to give a mashing temperature of 68c, in a water bath of 68 - 70c. Put the lid on of course and check every 15 mins or so as the temps will need to be adjusted by adding boiling water. Mine is an old genuine Esky Esky and has brilliant insulation. After an hour, tip mash into the big strainer and drain into the big stockpot, using plenty of hot water to flush the fermentable sugars from the grain - this is known as sparging.

To the big stockpot add the liquids from speciality grains you have also been steeping (in this instance I had 300g carapils steeping separately, it gives extra body and flavour). Then add some Light Dried Malt extract or liquid malt extract plus whatever hops you are using, bring up to, say, six litres and then boil at a steady rolling boil for an hour, adding extra flavouring hops at 30 minutes then aroma hops at 50 minutes.

Meanwhile in the small stockpot bring the remainder of your malt extract, including a beer kit if you are using one as a basis, to the boil. Tip into fermenter. Take the large stockpot and strain through the hop bed (I use hop flowers here, not pellets) into the fermenter as well.

Basically done.

People on the forum will have all sorts of variations on the above but the core of the business is getting the mash temperature accurate for the correct time.

FYI the brew in the photo was (24 L)

1kg UK Lager Malt
300g carapils steeped
1.5 kg LDME
1 Morgans Canadian Light kit - a great lager base IMHO

Green bullet hop flowers 20g for the full hour and two Saaz plugs at 55 mins.
A lager yeast.

Happy brewing - I get all my ingredients (except kits) from CraftBrewer our sponsor.

 

[TidalPete]

Never done BIAB but that is a great response to a new brewer BribieG. You are to be congratulated. :super:
Welcome to the Forum Phizinza.
Is your soon to be brother-in-law's brother a member of this forum? If so, who? Just curious mate.

TP :beer:

 

[Phizinza]

I'm not sure if his on this forum, might be as his won a few awards in SA.
Also, this will sound completely noob but when you say extract do you still mean grain? Malt grain?

 

[Bribie G]

No, generally it means Malt Extract, which is a gooey substance about the consistency of thick honey. There is a spray dried version - light or dark - which is easier to handle. It's basically the extract that has been produced by a company such as Coopers or Morgans going through the full malt mashing process for you, and then concentrating the end product in exactly the same way as making condensed or evaporated milk. Problem is that although it is easy to use and gives quite good results making beer, it doesn't have the full flavour profile of doing it yourself, and lacks body. You can get wheat malt extracts as well.

Compare Nescafe instant coffee and a nice flat white from an espresso cafe and you'll get the idea.

http://www.coopers.com.au/maltExtracts.php