Back to Basics Challenge!

A reminder of the rules:

All Grain only
Any Beer Style you like
1 to 6 Litres final volume
Any Malts allowed
Any Hops allowed
Any Sugars allowed
Any Yeast allowed
Copper & Keg Finings allowed
No Homebrewing equipment (or commercial JamesB) to be used with the exception of your thermometer, scales and fermenting vessel (demijohn).
No Brewing Software to be used.
Pictures must be taken of each stage of the brew.
Campden Allowed.

Good Luck!

I give you it's a thread, but not very sticky :wha:

Edit for the Closing date

All beers are to be posted to Tubby shaw before the end of Feb, if you want feedback on the brews.
Pm him for the address

And any beer that reaches him early will be drank early so I am told

Wez said:

No Homebrewing equipment (or commercial JamesB) to be used with the exception of your thermometer, scales and fermenting vessel (demijohn).

Click to expand...

:lol:

It's ok, I think I'll give this one a miss.

Haven't even got enough time before xmas to get a brew on for myself.

Wez, I'm confused!
Love to have a go, but how can you brew AG without a boiler?

evanvine said:

but how can you brew AG without a boiler?

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Use a sauspan Jim. :thumb:

davesiv said:

evanvine said:

but how can you brew AG without a boiler?

Click to expand...

Use a sauspan Jim. :thumb:

Click to expand...

Like a 100L stockpot :whistle:

Thanks Dave and AM
I get the idea now, you can use things that are not dedicated to brewing.

Like a tea urn and a coolbox?

/me goes rummaging in the garage...

To be picky, can you use Sod Met instead CT's?

Well mines been mashing away for about 1 1/2 hors time sparge :party:

Pics to follow later today.

Me Cave Man UGGG!!

Caveman Make Beer!

Anybody want to buy a 10g brewery with herms?
I've had so much fun this morning!!!
Thanks Wez!!!!!

Oh the recipe was some Pale around a kilo a big pinch of crystal a small pinch of roast barley and a small pinch of chocolate. Looking of a dark brown ale and think I got it..
A small handfull of progress full boil and another small handfull of fuggles for 15

Looking for something like an old english ale

I do admit to checking the OG just so I know what it's abv will be.

Came out at ..........................Not telling :hmm: :rofl:

Did they have tomato ketchup in caveman times MD. :rofl:

Anybody that knows me, will know I can not Give up my ketchup!!!!

Great day by the looks :thumb:

Lager malt: 590g
Amarillo Hops: 4.5g (AA 9.5%)
Brew length: 2800 ml (0.75 US gallons)

According to Palmer, 1 pound of lager malt raises the OG of 1 gallon (US) of water by 37 points.

So:
453g of malt raises the OG of 3.78 liters of water to 1.037.
I had 590g (1.3 pounds) of lager malt, and wanted to make 2.8 liters (0.75 US gallons).

Palmer gives the calculation to predict OG of wort:

Predicted OG rise * weight of malt in pounds / gallons (US)

In this case:
37 * 1.3 / 0.75 = 64.13
I doubt I’ll get this much efficiency, so I’ll work out the hop IBU for 1.050 OG using the tables and calculations on this page:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html

AAU = Weight (oz) x % Alpha Acids (whole number)
IBU = AAU x Utilization x 75 / Volume

…I came up with 4.5 grams of hops will produce 35 IBU.

Actually you can work backwards from the IBU you want which is easier.
Get the Utilization from the table; 60 min boil at 1.050 SG is 0.231

So,
AAU = IBU * volume / 75 / utilization
(The 75 in this calculation is a constant)

35*0.75 / 75 / 0.231 = AAU 1.5151

Weight = % Alpha Acid / AAU,

AAU= 1.5151
% Alpha Acid = 9.5

1.5151/9.5 = 0.159 ounces
1 oz= 28.35 g
0.159 oz = 4.5g

Simples….

Weigh the grain, add hot water,

And chuck in the oven at 65-70*C for an hour.


Batch sparge with the whole brew length, in this case 2.8 liters of water at ~75*C.
Pour through a sieve into boiling vessel.


Boil up for an hour. Add the hops after it’s boiled over (or you could be more careful and make sure it doesn’t boil over). Add Irish moss with 15 minutes of boil time left.


Cool in sink full of cold water. Nice cold break. The ratio of break to beer was about 1:1.


Shame I couldn’t filter it off. My beer looks like mud.


Made up to 2.8L in demi john, OG 1.030. Pitched with dried GP yeast.

The boil off was way more than the 10% I predicted (rather foolishly). The boil off was about 2.4 liters over the hour. If I were to do this again I would use double the amount of water.

NB: There is about 1.5” of trub at the bottom of my demi john.

Yeah I had the same problems with my trub too. Hopefully the yeast will pull it all down or I'll skim some off the top.
Mine went 3 hrs and went mad 2" of yeast head already :shock:

Nice pics varnish . . . but does not all the calculations sort of miss the point of the back to basics challenge .. . :lol: . . . What if you didn't know the yield of the malt or the AA content of the hops . . . as the brewers in the 19th century didn't . . . They would use X quarters of malt per Barrel and a hopping rate of Y lbs per barrel, and had no idea what the gravity or bitterness was likely to be.

I'm looking forward to having a go at this one . . . probably use my home grown fuggles for it as well . . . . . . I think a stout .. . . Got to do something to hide the break material :lol:

I thought the calculations were the point of the challenge.
Showing that you don't need calculators or software to come up with beer recipes.

Okay aleman, go proper old skool and don't use a thermometer.
You could add X amount of water to boiling water to get the strike temp.
I was going to do that, but thought better of it.

Bones Crimbo Brew :

600g pale malt
10g chocolate malt

Hops:
10g first gold 90 mins
5g 15 min
irish moss

Nott yeast

Target: 5 pints@ 1042