Have a go at simple AG

[SiMania]

Bad start. I took on of the 1Kg bags of Maris Otter and poured it into the 3L of water, thought it wasn't a lot of water then looked at my bag with the rest of the grain (I'd bought 5Kg). There were 6 x 500g bags there meaning the bag i'd used was a 2Kg bag!

In with another 3L of water and it's mashing away nicely at 65C.

xOnly problem is my pan is only 11L so I can only sparge with about 4L or I'll risk a boil over. So it won't be very efficient, I'll end up with 10L somehow.

I've got a 32L boiler arriving on Monday so I won't make this mistake again.

Recipe from Beer Engine is

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 4 lbs. 6.5 oz 2000 grams 97.60%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 2.40%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Chinook Whole 12.40% 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.3 oz 8 grams 16.70%
Citra Whole 14.70% 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 20.80%
Amarillo Whole 10.40% 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 20.80%
Citra Whole 14.70% 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 20.80%
Amarillo Whole 10.40% 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 20.80%


Final Volume: 10 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.50% ABV
Total Liquor: 16.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 5.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 45.5334404 EBU
Colour: 12 EBC

Update on how this went.

I bottled 19 bottles and kept one for me, 18 for Mark.

I tasted mine after a Week or so, carbonated and cleared well, nice dry finish that I was after but bitterness was short lived on the palette but nice taste.

I visited him a few weeks later and he poured me one on arrival, wow, it was everything I expected it to be, the bitterness lingered and was as happy as we both like it.

He was really happy with them and his wife kept sneaking a bottle for herself too.

Next year is his 40th so I'll be hoping to better this one somehow.

 

[davemorton]

Ha ha ha!
The amount of people here who are creating very decent brews is surely a sign that homebrew is booming and adding to the beer revolution happening at the moment.
With all the talk of the current boom in 'craft' brewing in the UK I wonder if any changes will be made to the legalities of homebrewing?

I was wondering about this the other day. I have read a few posts about people talking about the legalities of selling their beer, and all the hoops they would have to go through.
A local home brew shop will make up your wine kit for an additional price, so in essence you are buying their home brew wine. You buy the kit from them, pay for their time, and you get 6/12 whatever bottles of ready made wine. Perhaps another angle to investigate.

 

[Padawanrob]

just want to give a big shout out for @clibit ..... since I joined the forum and looked at this post I have successfully brewed lots of all grain small batch beers, I have enjoyed experimenting and creating my own recipes, the beers brewed have been outstanding and very fresh tasting, I haven't stepped up to larger equipment but I want to ask if I do a partial mash and also use 3kg DME could I then brew in my 14ltr pan and back fill with fresh water to complete a 21ltr brew?

 

[clibit]

Yep, there's a partial mash recipe How to guide here...


http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50780

 

[MyQul]

......and a thread with partial mash receipes completed by forum members here

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=55390

 

[Wicks]

Another update, the first brew after two weeks cold conditioning and has been tasted! Does not look the best, still cloudy and no head when poured but the main thing is the taste which is great. This taste is definitely better then the first bottle I had before it went into the garage.

The carbonation is good but lacking the head, I was probably cautious with the fermenting sugar, it's very drinkable like this though, I do find some of the shop bought bottles a little gassy. I used the method of adding the fermenting sugar (as a liquid) to the bottling bucket before syphoning in the beer on top of it.
One question I have is how do I know how much beer I have in my FV so I can work out the sugar for the bottles? There is a scale down the side of the FV bucket but it says "guide only". Just wondering if there is a more accurate way of doing it?

Here is a pic of the beer

The second brew the Brown Porter from the Greg Hughes is looking good. I had a taste from the hydro sample jar and wow, looks like it's gonna be a good one.

 

[clibit]

How much sugar did you use, and how much beer approx was there? (I go for 5g per litre most of the time now).

You could calibrate the FV yourself with a permanent marker, by adding water a litre at a time.

Did you make Irish moss or whirfloc?

You can get a much clearer pint, with a great head. The head should improve with time, I would get it back into a warm place. But the taste is the biggy. You're up and running :thumb:

 

[Wicks]

You could calibrate the FV yourself with a permanent marker, by adding water a litre at a time.

Now why didn't I think of that? Thanks :-)

I didn't bother with any finings, maybe I should if I want my friends and family to try the stuff!

For the sugar I went for 2.5g of demerara per litre. I put 13g of sugar in for 5 Litres. I actually only bottled 4.83L in the end.

 

[clibit]

OK. Next time, chuck some Irish moss or whirfloc in the boil with 15 mins left. It's a no brainer. And use at least 4g sugar per litre when you prime. I'd go 5g, and decide whether that is too much or too little.

Two minor adjustments, you've cracked the big stuff. :thumb:

 

[wfr42]

Our biggest pot can hold 4 litres (5 to the brim) with space for boiling/grains. Will this be bock enough?

 

[clibit]

Not really no. You could mash in something else but you need to be able to boil about 7 litres to end up with 5.

If you boiled 4 litres you'd probably end up with about 2.5 litres. You can get a 12 litre pot from Wilko for �£17. Or look around the cheap shops.

 

[wfr42]

Thanks for the quick reply, thought that was the case. Will keep my eyes peeled and pick my time for a new purchase....

 

[Wicks]

Had a taste of the Brown Porter I made adapted from the Greg Hughes book using the clibit method. Wow, this is good stuff. Such a nice roasty aftertaste. Really enjoying making beer, AG#3 is already in the fermenter, English IPA from the same book.

 

[Hopplehammered]

A number of months ago this thread inspired me to have a go, so I got a boiler, bag and coil from the HBC and haven't looked back. I'm on BIAB batch 7 and all have been great.

I should have came back earlier to thank Clibit and share my experiences, so please excuse my lateness in contributing.

I took some photos of todays brew (Courage Directors clone from Graham Wheelers Camra recipies).

Apart from the kit I got from the HBC with my equipment (Extra Special Bitter, which was amazing), all my efforts have been from Wheeler, and all excellent. The Brakspear bitter was the closest clone I've brewed yet, to the extent nobody could tell which was home brewed and which purchased. Summer lighting was also very close to the original, although mine was stronger (NOTICEABLY, as I found out at a BBQ after necking it like a lager). Others such as Exmoor gold were really tasty, but only similar in style.

Anyway, photos of todays brew.

Water filled into boiler the evening before to save time and ensure no leaks, 2 layers of camping mat on boiler for insulation during heating.

Strike temp 71 reached, so started to dough in. The suspended bucket really helps, but my next improvement will be to have a strap at the bottom of the bucket, so I can tip it one handed by pulling on a rope, keeping the other hand free for stirring.

Insulate and insulate again. Temp 66.7 at start of mash - 66.2 at end o mash. Happy days! I keep the t/c in during mashing so I can check all's OK, but so far I haven't lost more than 0.5 on a 90 min mash,

Post mashing, before removing the bag to dunk sparge in 5L of approx. 80 degree. Note the forceps, really do hold the bag tight at the level required to ensure it's off the element and quick to remove too, if a little warm.

Just as it comes to the boil. Hop Spider has a mesh tube formed from Ikea nylon undyed net curtains rolled around a 2L drinks bottle, then knotted one end, cut and cable tied around the spider. ��£6 a pair of the nets, larger hole size than voile and enough in two curtains for 100 brews I'm sure. My initial two all grains just formed a sock from the same material with the hops in each, but the spider makes it so much easier and quicker to add multiple additions

Start of cooling. Cooled in jus over 20 minutes to below 30, but I never stopped stirring! My next improvement will be a further upstream coiling coil immersed in a large ice bath, immediately before the wort cooling coil

Wort cooled,I lift the boiler and pour into the fermenter through a filter. All my brews before this one used a piece of voile for a filter strapped around the fermenter neck, but it can block and take a time to pour, so this time I used an extra large sieve, sprayed with star san. We'll see what the difference is, all beers so far have been very clear, but that is probably more to do with the time I leave in the fermenter and bottle bucket syphoing. The voile filer definitely removed more of the cold break.
Fermenter placed in the brewrobe - when we moved to this house the existing wardrobes were removed, and relocated to make brewrobes, toolrobes and rodrobes

SG of 1.053, slightly higher than the recipe, but I'll live with that!

Temp controlled (heating only) by an STC100 onto a hotplate. Fermentation start temp of 25.7, so I'll leave the door of the brew robe open until late tonight. Six hours after pitching the yeast (US-05) fermentation is well underway, pressure in the vessel, and a bubbling airlock.

I'll leave this for 2-3 weeks, before transferring to a bottling bucket (keg). See arrangement below from a previous bottling. I winch the keg to a height on a 6:1 pulley and just before the level reduces to the tap, I raise the bottom on the keg via another rope strapped around the base of the keg. I can fill right out to the last 100ml.

All cleaned for another day!

The difference between these BIAB beers and kits is worth every bit of the effort. I have AG worry now, the worry that I might have a stock out before my next AG batch is ready, where I live it's not easy to get real ale in a hurry. I still do kits, but that's for times there's a lot of people round, the AG is special.

Many thanks Clibit, before your demo I'd always incorrectly assumed all grain was a pain, and took a full day. My brew day, with 90 min mash and 90 min boil can be complete by lunch with an early start.

 

[MyQul]

Great post, Hopplehammered. What yeasts have you been using on your clones?

 

[Hopplehammered]

Great post, Hopplehammered. What yeasts have you been using on your clones?

I've been using dried yeasts, mainly S-04 and US-05.

I do plan to start looking at different yeasts, but am trying to learn (taste) the different hop varieties and grain options first. I choose the Courage Directors (I've never tasted the original) as it has a not too disimilar grain bill to the Old Speckled Hen clone, but has target for bittering, as has the Guinness clone. So my plan when this latest batch is ready is to see if I can identify which characteristics are shared (if any) and which are not, and what impact the different grains have on the hops.

My next batch will be one of the Everards clones. They have similar hops in challenger and fuggles to some of the other clones I've brewed, but have torrified wheat in the grain bill, so I want to see if I can see what difference that makes. I've also enjoyed many's a good night in Leicester at away games.

 

[MyQul]

I made the Courage clone from GW's book as one of my first AG's but I used a high attenuating yeast (nottingham) which munched it way through all the sugers (especially the table suger) and made it too dry.

 

[clibit]

Thanks hopple. :thumb:

 

[Ian_Newson]

First post on this forum, but just wanted to register my thanks. Between this guide and a mate at work I've already brewed three different recipes. I've gone way off the beaten path with all of them, except for the last, but that's part of the fun, isn't it? I'm already prepping the recipe for my fourth.

My remaining kit beer has been going down extremely slowly since...

Thanks clibit! (And Darren)

 

[Wicks]

Just taken a hydro reading of the brew number 3, English IPA and again just like brew no 2, the Porter, i'm 0.7% over the predicted ABV. I'm guessing this is due to not topping up the wort with water to the predicted volume I had in my calculator spreadsheet?
I was expecting 9.61L into the fermenter but actually got 8L. Does that difference sound about right to raise the ABV by around 0.7% ?
Should I mess with my method? I don't mind a stronger beer! My OG always seems higher than the recipe and FG about spot on.