My First Full All Grain Stout

GlentoranMark said:

I'm going BIAB from now on. I used Nimans boiler as my masher (it holds the temp just fine when its wrapped in towels) but straining the wort is hard. I ended up scooping the grains into a mash bag and squeezing to get all my wort out. It's also a lot cleaner. I've grains stuck down the back of the cooker lol, they're everywhere :)

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Did you not line the boiler with the mash bag?

MyQul said:

Did you not line the boiler with the mash bag?

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I don't have the mash bag that fits the boiler. I've only a few bags purchased out of Lakeland. I'll probably add that purchase for my next brew. In the boiler is a strainer (copper pipe with holes) that catches most of the debris but a bag would be a lot easier. I have my hops in a bag for my boil.

I've so much to buy but I add things weekly rather than have 1 big (unaffordable) purchase. I still don't have a wort chiller and its starting to get an essential purchase, but today I'm going to try a bath chill with ice.

I finally bought that trial jar! Beer tastes great but still a bit of fizz so I know it's not finished yet. FG is 1.008 and getting stronger. I'll leave it another week.

I bought a new FV so that means I can have 2 beers on the go at any 1 time.

What OG did you get?

With squinty eye's it's roughly 1.040 so around 4.2% atm

That OG refers to Nimans recipe above (not my Guinness Clone)

GlentoranMark said:

. I still don't have a wort chiller and its starting to get an essential purchase, but today I'm going to try a bath chill with ice.

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You could always no-chill in the FV. I've never owned a wort chiller

MyQul said:

You could always no-chill in the FV. I've never owned a wort chiller

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I put 3L of ice into my last beer (see above) but it didn't get it down to temp so I just left it overnight and pitched my yeast the next day (like your no chill). It's just fine btw.

I had a bit of a problem :-( Water dripped onto the electrics and the trip switch went in my House (TF for trip switches, I rememebr having to change fuses every time this happened). I reset a few times but it was my boiler. Even after drying the trip switch went so I had to cut short my boil.

Thankfully it was 5 minutes after adding my Irish Moss so I had to cut short 10 minutes. I think it will be OK and my wort is now chilling in my ice bath although the vessel is plastic and will take a bit longer to cool.

For my next brew I think I'll do an overnight mash. Reading what others have done this seems a great way to extract all the sugars.

I went to no chill method and pitched the yeast just now. As I done my calculations wrong, my batch size was 16.5L and the OG was 1.060. I dilluted it down by 5l thanks to this calculator and its now 1.046. Even though I've made a few mistakes as mentioned above I'm hoping good things from this. Simplified brews like this and Nimans recipe are definitely the way to go and my next beer is planned already, an award winning Briars Best (recipe to follow).

I just bottled Niman's Special, it ended up at 1.004 so pretty strong at 4.73%. It has a nice taste to it and I'm sure it will develop more in the bottle. Gonna try not to touch this too early as Niman's brew was 3 months in the bottle and the quality showed.

I think I'll leave my stout for a good few weeks for the same reason, it's well sealed up in my new brew vessel and I want it to mature well. In the mean time my next purchase will be used Corny Kegs, Manses Wort Chiller and CO2.

I may do a double brew next week in preparation for my Corny Kegs - one question - it may take me a while to pick up all the pieces for my Cornys, can I prime in the corny and still use it with the natural pressure of the priming gas?

Had a blast at this today "Briars Best"

3kg Maris Otter
0.35 Crystal Malt

28g Challenger 60 mins
15g Challenger 15 mins

Safale 04

Pre Boil 24.75
Batch size 19L

Everything went great but my hop bag touched the boiling element and cinged (is that how you spell it?) a little. Something to think about for future brews.

I got to use ManseMashers Wort Chiller! It came with fittings but these weren't needed for a standard outside tap hose so I took them off. Chilled in 20 minutes I could improve on that as I didn't have my tap on full blast.

The wort was darker than I expected but it looks and smells great. My only gripe was my batch sizing. I've went down the Corny route and I want 19L brews. This only created about 16L after filtering the trub out of my boil. I'd also like a few bottles to sample. Will know next time.

I'd also a bit of trub that got through, any tips?

OG ended up at 1.040.

Manse's Wort Chiller:



Myself, Manse and Niman met up today for a chat and I picked up my Wort Chiller. I made a small donation to his cause but I really can't thank him and Niman enough.

I tasted one of Niman's brews today, he gave me and Manse a few bottles each (and a bomb!) and I sampled one earlier. He's really a few notches ahead of me. His bottles were slightly disturbed bringing them home so I won't sample another for a few weeks.

I tasted Niman's recipe today and it was pretty cloudy but very citrusy. I enjoyed it and it will only improve with age.

I'll wait until I gather everything I need for my Cornys before transferring my Stout. I haven't even opened my FV for a smell yet and that's been 2 weeks but I'm expecting good things from this.

I've noticed a marked improvement in my brewing. No silly mistakes but every brew is a learning curve. I keep improving and learn something new with every brew.

Lol a bomb...
Hope the brew turns out well

I Kegged both my Stout and Briars Best on Sunday but it wasn't without problems. I'm having trouble with the fittings on my kegs - they're just too damn tight! Cleaning and sterilising took me a lot longer than bottling but I guess that's because I didn't know what I was doing. I also put some in bottles to put away.

The FG of my Stout was 1.008 giving a strength of 5% meaning my numbers messed up somewhere.



My trial of Beersmith has ran out. I found it really useful but I'm still not a fully fledged AG'er and still using other peoples recipes. I will buy it in the future but I don't think I would get my £20 worth for a while.

In the mean time, I've just discovered Wort Home Brew Calculator for Android. It's nowhere near as comprehensive as Beersmith2 but it was very easy to understand and with a bit of help from Google I've created the following recipe from a mash up of ingredients I have in the house.

Brown Porter Style

1100g Irish Stout Malt
2150 Irish Pale Malt
300g Crystal 80
300g Torrified Wheat
200g Roasted Barley
50g Chocolate Malt

25g Northdown 60 Mins
10g Fuggles 15 Mins

400ml Re-used Irish Ale Yeast

Batch Size 22L ABV 4%

The App calculated the numbers and with 2 Sparges it gives me plenty of room in my coolbox.

I may remove the Torrified wheat to use in a Blonde type beer but I'll decide when I brew and tweak the recipe to reflect my change.

I recieved my Hops from MyQul today, I'm going to place a few grams of each in a different bottle of Grolsh to work out how hops affect a flavour. When people tell me a beer is hoppy, I've still no idea what flavours I should be expecting. Grolsh is a pretty bland beer style but in smashing bottles for the home brewer. Even if the experiment fails, I'll have something for my own brews

Doing my Brown Porter, as I hinted at, I removed the Torrified Wheat to use for a Blonde Ale next week. Other than that, the recipe is the same.

I'm struggling with my Kegs, my pourer is really hard to put on and off the keg but I finally got it working albeit not fully. My regulator is the wrong kind - I was going to send it back but I couldn't resist trying it out. It's working OK but I'm having to guestimate things. In the mean time I've ordered the correct regulator from the Malt Miller. Was hoping it arrived today but alas no. I'll be able to use the regulator for pouring, it's fine for that just the initial gassing I'm not sure of.

I pulled my first pint from my kegs and what a beauty. It has no strong smells and surprisingly chocolatey. I didn't chill the beer but I can honestly say it's the best beer I've brewed to date and this is after my first pint with all the trub that gathers at the bottom of the keg after 1 weeks conditioning.



My mash is in the coolbox behind :)

I'm loving the Wort App for Android. It's totally free and calculates everything for you. Simply read up on the style and add your ingredients. Todays Porter is a mish mash of grains that need used up. Next weeks Blonde requires 3kg Maris Otter. I've also got a Schwarzebier planned which is a black lager. I'm reclaiming my yeast to cut down costs. I've spent a bit over the past few weeks on my brewing equipment, way over my budget but when I think about all those £3 pints over the years I will soon recoup my outlay.

Again thanks have to go to Clibit and Mansemasher, without whom I would never have went kegging or AG.

I've only 6g Fuggles but it won't make any difference. This is a recipe I created, not something from a book.

I've also a new FV, details to come

My new FV



I've had no luck with this as a barrel. It kept leaking and ruining my beer so I thought I'd convert it to a FV. Notice the tap is upside down and filled with steriliser

OG was 1.045 and although it doesn't look it, there's 21L.

After a bit of advise I've went off the idea of a lager until I'm ready to build a brew fridge (long time away) but I haven't went off the idea of a Dark German type beer brewed with Safale 04. I've ordered the grains for my next 2 beers, both created by me on the Wort App for Android. I'm not sure in what order I'll do these but I've a simple SMASH Blonde Ale planned along with a German Dark. I'll put up recipes next week when I do one or the other.

The yeast in my Brown Porter hasn't started yet. I had this trouble the last time I reclaimed my yeast. Reading other threads I did aerate the wort as I transferred so I don't see that being a problem. I'll give the vessel a good shake and see if that helps and give it another 24 hours.

Disaster day yesterday brewing but I should have something drinkable at the end of it.

Sorry for no photo's but I brewed a Schwarzbier Ale

3kg Munich Malt
1kg Pilsner Malt (2 row)
300g Carafe III

50g Hallertaur 60mins
10g Tettnang 60 mins

Safale US 05

First of all, I mashed in my boiler. Niman warned me that it would only clog up but I mashed before in it and it was fine. Unfortunately it must have something to do with the size of the crushed grains as yesterdays brew most definitely clogged up. That meant a transfer to a mash bag and unwanted grains left in my wort.

I think I got around it OK but then when it came to the boil I was 6L short of my target and my wort was 1040. I must have measured something wrong although it may have been a problem with the software I used. I've noticed saving my recipes in the software turns up different values when I restart it. I'm going to reinstall it and see what happens. I thought about adding more water but as the wort was 1040 I though it would dillute it too much.

In the end after the boil the wort was 1060, much higher than I expected. I also forgot to add Irish Moss but that is a minor blip.

My thermometer broke, I chipped the glass although I had a back up, it's a slow digital one. I may have sparged at a higher temperature than expected through frustration but if I have it will only be by a degree or so.

In the end I have a salvageable brew but only 16.5L instead of my planned 19L which will reduce further in the brew bucket.

It's bubbling away fine now, gonna leave this 2 weeks and then do my next brew on top of the yeast cake remaining.

If it was 6 litres short pre-boil, why not do an extra batch sparge to obtain more sugars from the grain and get your 6 litres? You might have kept it at 1040 ish with the additional sugars obtained?

clibit said:

If it was 6 litres short pre-boil, why not do an extra batch sparge to obtain more sugars from the grain and get your 6 litres? You might have kept it at 1040 ish with the additional sugars obtained?

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The brew was yesterday and the grains are in the bin. I'll run with what I have but I coul add some boiled and cooled water to beef it up a bit, I was expecting an OG of 1050 so I could bring it down to that.

I ran out of Irish moss for my stout but gathered sincve it was near black it probably didn't matter

GlentoranMark said:

The brew was yesterday and the grains are in the bin. I'll run with what I have but I coul add some boiled and cooled water to beef it up a bit, I was expecting an OG of 1050 so I could bring it down to that.

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yeah I realised it was already done but was making a suggestion for the future. However, I missed the bit about the post boil gravity being 1060 - I think I would dilute it, maybe not by 6 litres, but you'd need to taste it to check the hop bitterness I guess. You don't want to dilute it it too far and make it overly bland.