Have a go at simple AG

[HarrowBrewer]

I've just finished my second go at this, I'm a fan of maltier, slightly sweet bitters (born and raised on Gales' HSB) so after a lot of fiddling around with online recipes I tried this for a 5 litre batch:
1kg maris otter
75g pale wheat
15g black malt
10 g chocolate malt
Mash with three litres of water at 66.7 for an hour
Sparge with 4 litres at 80 degrees for ten minutes.
4.5 g challenger at boil
2.5 g fuggles at boil
3g challenger and 3g fuggles at 55 minutes.
Chilled in the sink, strained into a demijohn and pitched 5g of Safale S04.
My OG was 1060, I lost a bit more in the boil than I had anticipated, so I topped up with some water to reach 1050. It tastes and smells good so far. It's a lot of fun, and a very good introduction to techniques and flavours!

 

[Daz1200]

I have had my first attempt at this AG brewing, did come up against a couple of issues.

I used 980g of Pale Malt
140g Crystal Malt
5g Belma hops for 60 minutes of boil
10g Belma hops for 5 minutes of boil

Heated 3.4 l water to 75oC and added the malt, temperature was still at 72oC after adding the malt so had to add a little cold water to get it down to 70oC.
Left this for 60 minutes, then strained into a bucket, added the grains back to 4l of water at 80oC for 10 minutes.

Added all this liquid...about 7 litres to the boil pot. Took a gravity reading and it was only 1026, now at this point I am beginning to think I have done something wrong. I was expecting the gravity to be up around 1050, I started the boil and added the hops and I decided to try and raise the sugar content by adding 150g of honey.

Boil over and wort cooled, I took another gravity reading which was 1046, still lower than I expected. added yeast and 12 hours later its fermenting well.

My other issue was the length of time it took to cool just sitting in the sink, I am planning on making a immersion wort chiller fo next time.

 

[clibit]

That quantity of beer should cool pretty quickly in a sink of cold water. Change the water when it warms up, and swirl the water around the pot occasionally.

Not sure why your OG was low, but it can vary depending on the grain used and how well crushed it is. When you put the grain in the second batch of water make sure you stir it well before straining. Perhaps try putting all 7 litres of water into the mash, mash for 45 mins, then put the heat on and stir while you raise the temp to around 78C. Then remove the grains and carry on heating up to the boil. This might improve your OG, give it a try.

 

[Covrich]

That quantity of beer should cool pretty quickly in a sink of cold water. Change the water when it warms up, and swirl the water around the pot occasionally.

Not sure why your OG was low, but it can vary depending on the grain used and how well crushed it is. When you put the grain in the second batch of water make sure you stir it well before straining. Perhaps try putting all 7 litres of water into the mash, mash for 45 mins, then put the heat on and stir while you raise the temp to around 78C. Then remove the grains and carry on heating up to the boil. This might improve your OG, give it a try.

Is that what they call a mash out?? having a thinner fuller volume liquid mash then you sparge in the same water. I have heard about that.. When I get a bigger pot or a boiler I might try that instead of a seperate sparge in the FV..

 

[clibit]

It's a BIAB. Mash out is just raising the temp of the mash to stop enzyme activity, can be done with any kind of mashing, either by applying direct heat or by adding hot water.

You could remove the grains while heating up to 78C and then put the grains back in for 5-10 mins, stir well, lift bag up, drain, and ditch the grains.

 

[Daz1200]

That quantity of beer should cool pretty quickly in a sink of cold water. Change the water when it warms up, and swirl the water around the pot occasionally.

Not sure why your OG was low, but it can vary depending on the grain used and how well crushed it is. When you put the grain in the second batch of water make sure you stir it well before straining. Perhaps try putting all 7 litres of water into the mash, mash for 45 mins, then put the heat on and stir while you raise the temp to around 78C. Then remove the grains and carry on heating up to the boil. This might improve your OG, give it a try.

I may give this a go with my next batch, once this batch has finished fermenting I plan on getting another brew on the go.

Would a slight increase in the quantity of grain raise the gravity?

 

[clibit]

Of course. More grain = more sugar = higher gravity = more alcohol. :thumb: :drunk:

 

[MyQul]

It's a BIAB. Mash out is just raising the temp of the mash to stop enzyme activity, can be done with any kind of mashing, either by applying direct heat or by adding hot water.

You could remove the grains while heating up to 78C and then put the grains back in for 5-10 mins, stir well, lift bag up, drain, and ditch the grains.

You dont even need to bother removing the grains - I've done it loads of times. As long as you contiually stir while heating up the pot you wont melt/burn your bag

 

[birdy]

What abv will this be

 

[clibit]

About 4.5%, but depends on how much sugar you get from the grains, and the exact volume of beer you end up with.

 

[Sandimas]

I decided to have another go at this: learnt a lot from the first attempt, which I've just bottled but didn't finish as low as I'd have liked due to a stuck brew. House has now warmed up a bit so hopefully this one won't stick.

Recipe based on what ingredients I had lying around, didn't really have enough Maris Otter so upped the ABV with a bit of extra brewing sugar:

10L brew
Maris Otter - 1.7kg (81%)
Crystal Malt - 300g (14%)
Brewing sugar - 100g (5%)
Cascade - 24g @ 60mins
Cascade - 18g @ 10 mins
Cascade - 14g @ flameout
Cascade - 14g dry hop
Yeast - Safale US-05 5g
OG 1047
Bitterness IBU 59

Main difference from last time was using a bag for the mash, and two big pans instead of one (one borrowed from a mate), one for the mash and the other for the sparge and boil. These really improved things and I've finished the brew feeling a lot happier than last time, in total it took 4.5 hours. I guess this is technically BIAB?

Ingredients

Mash:

Sparge:

Boil:

After the Hot Break (think I got it):

Ready to pitch the yeast:

 

[clibit]

Nice one! Lots learnt already! Looks very similar to me brewdays.

 

[Sonnal]

Mine's been in the FV for a week now and has finished at 1012 from 1047. I'm going to leave it for another week for the yeast to do it's housekeeping and then bottle. How long does it need to condition? I guess I will leave it for 10-14 days in the warm to carb up but how long wil it need after that before it's good enough to drink? I believe AG doesn't need as long as kits in general.

 

[clibit]

They are often good to drink as soon as they're carbed. Sometimes need longer, especially darker brews with roasted grains. Pub cask ales are usually very young.

 

[Sonnal]

That's great, thanks Clibit. Means that I can experiment a bit without tying up bottles etc for too long and of course, less time to wait before I can drink it. Finding the whole AG thing fascinating. The more I read, the more interested I become.

 

[clibit]

Me too! If you whack loads of hops in the hops can be pretty in your face at first. Which some people like - others hate.

 

[CreweBrewer]

That's great, thanks Clibit's. Means that I can experiment a bit without tying up bottles etc for too long and of course, less time to wait before I can drink it. Finding the whole AG thing fascinating. The more I read, the more interested I become.

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes. When I picked up a copy it was £3 from Amazon. It's a fascinating read.

I've been sampling my first brew from Clibit's recipe and I'm blown away by the quality. I can only brew 10L at a time but because it ferments and matures so quickly I can brew more often. I really enjoy the process so it's a win win :-D

 

[Sonnal]

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes. When I picked up a copy it was £3 from Amazon. It's a fascinating read.

I've been sampling my first brew from Clibit's recipe and I'm blown away by the quality. I can only brew 10L at a time but because it ferments and matures so quickly I can brew more often. I really enjoy the process so it's a win win :-D

Thanks CreweBrewer, ordered the book. I only did the 5l version as I hadn't ordered enough pale malt but it smells great. Going to try 10L when I've freed up the small FV.

 

[Ste]

After my first attempt at trying something similar to this method, am ready to try again.
Will be following this more closely and hopefully not ending up with flapjacks
Got a kg of pale malt and some mosaic pellets and the left over mangrove jack ipa yeast, from first brew.
Really looking forward to having another another bash!

 

[yeastinfection]

i keep seeing the mention of demijohns for this,,, wont the fermintation spit itself out the top?

p.s im so keen to do this.
im a little dissapointed there is no local hbs for us in cov,,,postage bums the deal alittle