Stepping up to all grain

[jkirky]

Sounds like you are on track!

My only advice, for what its worth, is try to keep your 'system' simple...

I would stick to 1 vessel- thats the main benefit of biab! Mash in the 19l, boil in the 19l, and 'no-cool' in the 19l... see Nick_JDs old thread on stovetop brewing... really does work well...

The simpler the better, IMO. Then you can always refine/modify your process later on as needed...

Good luck!

 

[kaiserben]

Back to my first batch (the calamity in my kitchen) ...

Tonight, after 9 days in the fermenter, the hydrometer reading was 1.010 (target of 1.011), so I'm guessing it's ready. Will take another reading on Friday night though.

I tasted it - expecting it to taste like infection - but it's actually not that bad. I think I may have got very lucky with it.

One thing though, is that there's a hell of a lot of sediment still floating around in suspension. Far more than I'd ever seen when kit/extract brewing. The stuff in the FV looks like miso soup.

I dry hopped this batch 2 nights ago, with a plan to crash chill Saturday morning and bottle Sunday arvo. I'd also not whirlpooled the wort after the boil (won't ever forget that again). Hopefully a 24-hour crash chill takes care of the miso soup? I don't really want to put this into secondary - I just don't have the space for more vessels.

As far the crash chill, I don't have many options here either. I'm planning on putting the FV in the bath, with a bag of ice and a blanket over FV to keep out the light. Any better ideas? Do I need to chill longer than 24 hours?

 

[kaiserben]

Update:

The gravity of that first batch ended up at 1.005 and cleared up a fair bit. It was obviously not finished fermenting at 1.010 when looking like miso soup. The sample tasted okay (a bit thin) and I bottled the batch without any probs. Will crack open the first bottle this weekend.

I brewed another stovetop batch last weekend.

I took this advice:

My only advice, for what its worth, is try to keep your 'system' simple...

I would stick to 1 vessel- thats the main benefit of biab! Mash in the 19l, boil in the 19l, and 'no-cool' in the 19l... see Nick_JDs old thread on stovetop brewing... really does work well...

And everything went like clockwork. Not Swiss precision clockwork, but good enough to have me on the right path.

 

[antiphile]

There's a lot of people responding in this thread, kaiserben, that have a lot more experience and possibly/probably experienced the same problems you've had - than both you and me (combined). That knowledge is priceless and well worth listening to.

My contribution is only to suggest you use resources that are freely available these days as well. Searches for things like BIAB on YouTube.com, John Palmer's online book "How to Brew" (which is generally very well respected), and lots of other internet resources (eg. BYO Magazine etc). Some of them might need critical evaluation, but the well known ones pass most of the "smell tests" pretty well.

It's quite amazing how well some are written and explained these days, and a little bit of learning can also be enough to know how to ask the correct questions, which is the key to getting the the answers you need.

Cheers and all the very best in your efforts in this bloody addictive and rewarding pursuit!

 

[klangers]

A similar situation occurred when I was carrying out my first all grain attempt.

Foolishly I tried to brew an imperial pilsner as my first AG beer... which meant I had to mash twice to get the volume. I had no good way of lautering so I ended up squeezing the grain bag and burning my hands rather badly.

Finally after 12 hours of hard labour, burns and frustration, the wort was at target gravity but only 15 litres (instead of 23).

The beer turned out great with some lagering and exactly what I was after.

The lesson learnt? Keep things simple - know your limits and don't try things you don't have the equipment/method for. Brewing is a millennia-aged process - don't expect to know it all initially, and respect the common methods as they've been in-place for a reason: they work.