Have a go at simple AG

[Honk]

Clearing out the garage last week and came across a bottle from the first batch I made using instructions from this thread, back in September 16. Still tasted good in fact better than I remembered after all this time.
I've made a lot of beer and collected a lot of equipment and additional knowledge since then but it was this thread got me started.

 

[MmmBeer]

Hmm, would a 10 litre brewing bucket hold 11.5 litres without issue?, as don't think I could get away with 2, 20 litre buckets at the moment with my other half, which would be a bit of a waste anyway for small batch test brews of either 5, 10 or 11.5 litre brews.

The small buckets I use are actually 15 litres, designed for a 10 - 13 litre batch with some headspace. I think I paid about £6 for them at my LHBS.

 

[Dave 666]

My only problem is now resisting the temptation to not wait until next pay day to get more gear and ingredients for my first AG brew. But bottling my first kit brew will probably be the end of next week (if I follow the kit instructions + 2\3 days extra). So I'll want to start on the next brew pretty much straight away.

Wander if the other half knows we need a new bigger 15 litre pot?

 

[pvt_ak]

It’s addictive isn’t it ?
Between brew days I constantly find myself planning the next brew and sourcing ingredient.

Just had confirmation of delivery today of 25kg Golden Promise and a list of adjuncts for batch of Raspberry IPA I’m putting on this week.

Now for the next brew ....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dave 666]

Yep, sure is addictive and I'm only 6 days into my first brew in 20+ years. And before this thread I'd never dreamed I could be able to try AG brews without some expensive spending. And so I find myself reading as much as I can and pricing up what I need minimum bits and ingredients wise. But quick research indicates I could save a fortune over kits if or once I get the hang of things :)

 

[MyQul]

Yep, sure is addictive and I'm only 6 days into my first brew in 20+ years. And before this thread I'd never dreamed I could be able to try AG brews without some expensive spending. And so I find myself reading as much as I can and pricing up what I need minimum bits and ingredients wise. But quick research indicates I could save a fortune over kits if or once I get the hang of things :)

kit wise you dont need anything other than kitchen equipment and what you use for kit brewing. Pot wise as long as you have enough pots to boil 7 litres you dont necessarilly need to boil all the wort in one pan. I do this then doing a full 23L on my hob (I normally do 5L/10L brews using a 15L pot)
For an FV you can use one of those storage boxes you get from wilko that will hold 5L for 2 or 3 quid. They're made from polypropelene which is considered food safe. The only expense you'll really have is the hops/grain/yeast

 

[Delta3]

Out of curiosity (I've only just started looking at AG brews) could you mash a concentrated wort in a 5l pot for say a 20l brew, do your boil with the same then dilute when you put it in our fv?

Or will this totally screw up the flavour of the finished beer due to the ph's and such involved in the boil and mash?

Sorry if it's an incredibly dumb question. I realise that it must have occurred to someone but all the information I've found so far is relating to brewing to the full batch size without the explaination, which there must be a reason for

 

[MyQul]

Out of curiosity (I've only just started looking at AG brews) could you mash a concentrated wort in a 5l pot for say a 20l brew, do your boil with the same then dilute when you put it in our fv?

Or will this totally screw up the flavour of the finished beer due to the ph's and such involved in the boil and mash?

Sorry if it's an incredibly dumb question. I realise that it must have occurred to someone but all the information I've found so far is relating to brewing to the full batch size without the explaination, which there must be a reason for

No stupid questions here.

Whilst you can make a concentrated wort and dilute it down in the FV, this is called Maxi-BIAB, you wouldnt be able to make such a concentrated wort so a 20L brew fits inside a 5L pot. The reason being that you need at least a minimum amount of water to be able to mash properly to extract the sugars from the grain. So say if you only used 1L of water to mash about 4kg of grain so you could fit it all in a 5L pot, it would be so dry you wouldnt extract anything.
I think kit manufactures make the wort in the normal way then boil it down (or perhaps extract the water in some other way) so it can then fit into that little can. Rather than the other way around, which is what you are suggesting

 

[Dave 666]

I wander what size single pot as a minimum you would need in order to make a more concentrated wort for a 20 litre brew?. OK, as I've read, you can simply use multiple pots at the same time to just as good effect as a single bigger pot.

 

[Delta3]

Ah I thought I was missing something obvious, thank you @MyQul!

As @Dave 666 says, I wonder what the minimum size pot would be...

I'm rather curious about doing an all grain brew now, but I think down to size and equipment cost (getting additional pans at the cheepest) is going to limit me to Demijohn size batches for now.

 

[Dave 666]

Amazon are doing a set of 4 stock pots for £20.99, stated included sizes are 7.5, 11, 15 & 19 litre pots. Reviews are very mixed at best, mainly on the rather thin metal and base etc causing possible sticking of food. But maybe fine for brewing purposes I feel?.

 

[MyQul]

@Delta3 & @Dave 666 The minimum size pot is about 18L to do a 23L batch (I know this because thats what I used to use). I could do about a maximum of a 5.2%ABV beer. If I wanted to do a bigger beer I would have had to do a smaller batch size.

I now use a 15L pot (the wilko 12L pot but it's actually 15L to the brim. It's good quaility and not thin https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-stock-pot-12l/p/0322498 ) as I only really do 5L & 10L batches nowadays. However I can manage 23L if I want. I mash in a spare FV then using the 15L pot and a 5L pot I also have to do the boil

 

[Dave 666]

Oh I agree, no doubt you'd need a bloody big pot to do a full 23 litre brew (something I'd not do the first time I try AG) in a single pot. But at the same time I'm feeling if your looking at doing a full 23 litre brew it could be better to use 2 smaller pots than 1 massive pot?.

 

[MyQul]

Oh I agree, no doubt you'd need a bloody big pot to do a full 23 litre brew (something I'd not do the first time I try AG) in a single pot. But at the same time I'm feeling if your looking at doing a full 23 litre brew it could be better to use 2 smaller pots than 1 massive pot?.

Yes absolutely. As I explain above, on the odd occasion I do a 23L Maxi-Biab I use a 15L pot and a 5L pot. If you were to do a full volume boil for a 23L brew, however you'd need pots (2 or more) totaling a volume of about 33L

 

[MyQul]

Oh I agree, no doubt you'd need a bloody big pot to do a full 23 litre brew (something I'd not do the first time I try AG) in a single pot. But at the same time I'm feeling if your looking at doing a full 23 litre brew it could be better to use 2 smaller pots than 1 massive pot?.

I think I have mis understood your question - whether It's better to use two pots rather than one?

I'm not sure actually. I think it may just be a) easier, especially if your pot(kettle) has a drain tap, which when your getting to these size of kettles it's often a good idea. So you just open the tap into the FV when your done. You have to try to do something like 'jug' the wort out of the kettle. Not massively hard but more of a PITA than simply opening a tap.
b) It may be more fuel efficient to heat one pot rather than two. I dont know c) You need 2 decent fuel sources (such as two decently big gas rings on a hob) to boil at least 15L in two pots

Overall, thinking about it I think it's just much easier and much less PITA doing a full boil in one large kettle

 

[Dave 666]

I think with smaller 10 litre (or so) AG brews, I'd probably be more inclined to stick to that just for AG as I could (eventually and at a pace the other half won't notice overnight) have 2 separate 10 litre brews going at once (alongside the main 23 litre of cause) meaning I could tweak the same recipe slightly, hop variety\quanity etc or 2 completely different AG brews at once :)

 

[MyQul]

I think with smaller 10 litre (or so) AG brews, I'd probably be more inclined to stick to that just for AG as I could (eventually and at a pace the other half won't notice overnight) have 2 separate 10 litre brews going at once (alongside the main 23 litre of cause) meaning I could tweak the same recipe slightly, hop variety\quanity etc or 2 completely different AG brews at once :)

Just to throw something else at you. If you were struggling to do a full AG 23L brew you could do something called a mini mash which is a bit like making your own kit.
Basically you would do 10L or so of AG (but add enough hops for 23L reciepe) and then add the rest of the OG points using DME or LME and top up to 23L in a full size FV. A bit like a kit

 

[Dave 666]

I think I have mis understood your question - whether It's better to use two pots rather than one?

I'm not sure actually. I think it may just be a) easier, especially if your pot(kettle) has a drain tap, which when your getting to these size of kettles it's often a good idea. So you just open the tap into the FV when your done. You have to try to do something like 'jug' the wort out of the kettle. Not massively hard but more of a PITA than simply opening a tap.
b) It may be more fuel efficient to heat one pot rather than two. I dont know c) You need 2 decent fuel sources (such as two decently big gas rings on a hob) to boil at least 15L in two pots

Overall, thinking about it I think it's just much easier and much less PITA doing a full boil in one large kettle

Yeah, partly thinking a massive pan to do 23 litre brew in a single pan would be more problematic heating and steady temperature wise. Even the biggest ring on our gas cooker would seem to small once you go above 15 litre pots and might take an age to heat compared to 2 smaller pots or half the mix etc.

 

[Dave 666]

Just to throw something else at you. If you were struggling to do a full AG 23L brew you could do something called a mini mash which is a bit like making your own kit.
Basically you would do 10L or so of AG (but add enough hops for 23L reciepe) and then add the rest of the OG points using DME or LME and top up to 23L in a full size FV. A bit like a kit

To much to think about lol, but certainty gives much food for thought. But also thinking if or how that might affect the finished brew or could be fun to play with 2 different malts in a single brew.

 

[MyQul]

Yeah, partly thinking a massive pan to do 23 litre brew in a single pan would be more problematic heating and steady temperature wise. Even the biggest ring on our gas cooker would seem to small once you go above 15 litre pots and might take an age to heat compared to 2 smaller pots or half the mix etc.

Ah right, I see what you not seeing here. You wouldnt be able to do a full boil 23L using a 33L pot (thats the smallest recomended size, if affordable its recommended to use a 50L pot) on your hob. Unless you have one of those fierce wok burner (@Clint has one and therefor able to do a full boil in his kitchen, but then again his cooker and hob is bigger than my whole kitchen ) . What people usually do is use a gas bottle and burner outside or a powerful induction hob like a 3000kw buffalo induction.

As mentioned I used to use an 18L pot and that was definately the biggest pot my large gas ring could handle