Homebrewing

[rtaylor]

Yeah that was my though and 10 or 12 litres is much more manageable, but most of the topics on BIAB say you do a full liquid mash. I can't see how that is possible with the standard size fermenting bin which is what most people use.

 

Do you find the temperature of the mash goes up? I hope it will still be ok but my mash seemed to rise to over 70 a couple of times. I had to top it up with cold water to try and bring it down. I think it was because I didn't have the sensor in the right place and it was in a cold spot so the thermostat kicked the element in. Apart from that the STC1000 worked perfectly and I'm sure it was just down to me not setting the sensor in the right place.

 

I've now insulated the bin to try and keep a more stable temperature. I'm going to order some more grain and do bitter and bottle it for my own consumption. So I'll do some more fine tuning and try another one.

[Zapp]

Yeah that was my though and 10 or 12 litres is much more manageable, but most of the topics on BIAB say you do a full liquid mash. I can't see how that is possible with the standard size fermenting bin which is what most people use.

 

Do you find the temperature of the mash goes up? I hope it will still be ok but my mash seemed to rise to over 70 a couple of times. I had to top it up with cold water to try and bring it down. I think it was because I didn't have the sensor in the right place and it was in a cold spot so the thermostat kicked the element in. Apart from that the STC1000 worked perfectly and I'm sure it was just down to me not setting the sensor in the right place.

 

I've now insulated the bin to try and keep a more stable temperature. I'm going to order some more grain and do bitter and bottle it for my own consumption. So I'll do some more fine tuning and try another one.

 

Admittedly I have no knowledge of BIAB, but cant see how a full liquor mash can be squared with the interplay between the water chemical profile and the malts used. I'll do some reading.

 

The temp of the mash will rise during the mash period toward the start, but it should only be by a degree at most. It is important to make sure the mash is as homogenous as possible, and to take readings from several points and average it out. It is a good idea to put your thermometer all the way to the bottom of the mash and bring it half way back up, as this will give you your best bet at a true reading.

 

Your issue with the element kicking in is one of the reasons why I wouldnt personally go down that route. The ability to add heat to the mash is really only of use if you are trying to perform temperature-stepped mashes so as to gain specific characteristics in the beer. For the purposes of making a decent ale, a well insulated mashtun and a single infusion mash hitting a temperature of around 65-67 degrees is really all you need.

[Muddy Funker]

You'll need to increase the size of your boiler if you're going for single vessel, I made mine out of this http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/60_ltr_Fermenting_Bin_Lid.html#.Uyx-oo-P-PI

 

That way you can start with the total volume of water and fit tons of grain in without any bother.

If you insulate it well enough during the mash you'll lose little to no heat. Mine is wrapped in memory foam then covered in a sleeping bag as per the pics. It doesn't even lose a degree over an hour and a half.

 

You don't really want elements kicking in during a mash, well not if you can help it.

[rtaylor]

Well the brew has been in the barrel for 7 days and according to Dave Line's recipe for Guinness after 7-10 days to sample it.

 

I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far, it still needs to develop a bit more body but the flavour is pretty good, good chocolate notes coming through from the chocolate malt.

 

Cheers again for the advice in getting the boiler set up.

[Zapp]

Sorry to keep coming back with slightly bad news, but Dave Line's recipes were written some time ago and the malt and hop extraction values he uses are a bit bizarre in some cases. There are conversions available online to make them work better, or you could get a copy of "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" by Graham Wheeler, which is an excellent resource for new all grain and extract brewers, and comes with lots of good, ready to go recipes.

 

You can also download for free Wheeler's "Beer Engine" program, which allows you to tailor the recipes to account for variables like hop bitterness, and make your own brews up.

[rtaylor]

All advice is very much appreciated.

 

I didn't actually follow Dave's recipe it was a lot closer to Muddy Funker's one. Just going on his "sample after 7-10 days". It's possibly a bit sweeter than it should have been which I guess is down to the higher temperature mash. Still very drinkable though, which is the most important point.

 

I will certainly have a look at Graham Wheelers book and the beer engine, although I suspect it won't work on Mac computers.

[lister22]

just started all grain did a timothy taylor all grain kit from lovebrewing

just put my all grain second brew into pressure barrel today that is a guinness clone from copper kettle brewing

both biab

the timothy taylor is nectar

[Zapp]

copper kettle brewing

 

 

A good friend of mine.

[Blunderbuss]

Another brew day, my second AG and a few more lessons learned.

 

I've done a light session "Summer Ale" 3.8 ABV. Mostly pale with some crystal malt, East Kent Goldings and Progress hops. Brew generally went OK, apart from struggling a little to get water temps right. On my first AG my mash was too cool so I had to use a kettle to adjust. This time I over compensated so it was a little too hot and I had to add cold water to adjust. Also I didn't quite chill the wort enough before putting it in the fermenter and a s a result I had to wait a couple of hours for it to chill enough to pitch

 

But! Every day's a school day. I'm keeping copious notes of everything I do and hopefully learning loads with each brew. I treated my water properly this time, after having it analysed. instead of just winging it with a Campden tablet like last time.

 

A question for the experienced brewers. When measuring the temperature of your strike water, mash or wort, where do you place the thermometer? I seem to get big variations (5 or 6 degrees) depending where I take the temp. I'm using a digital food thermometer with a probe.

 

I sampled a bottle of my first AG, a 6.2% IPA yesterday and it's excellent, improving nicely all the time

[Guest cookoff013]

if you put the probe by the heating element you`ll get hot readings.

[Blunderbuss]

if you put the probe by the heating element you`ll get hot readings.

 

Yep, sussed that, but it still varies a lot when the elements are off, or in the mash.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Blunderbuss

[Tallshort]

Going to give nettle beer a shot this week, been told its easy enough......

[Zapp]

 

A question for the experienced brewers. When measuring the temperature of your strike water, mash or wort, where do you place the thermometer? I seem to get big variations (5 or 6 degrees) depending where I take the temp. I'm using a digital food thermometer with a probe.

 

If you are using one of the old style glass thermometers, which is what I prefer, there should be a small horizontal line 2-3 inches from the bulb before the temperature graduations. This is the dip line, and shows how far to immerse it.

 

If not, the most important thing is to be consistent and take the temp from as near to the same depth and position as possible each time. Once you consistently measure the water temperature, you can by keeping records adjust this until you can consistently hit your mash temperature. That is far more important than the relative difference between the top and bottom of the boiler for example, since as long as you are getting 66 degrees once the grain is added, who cares?

 

The only enemy of consistency here is the temperature of the grains. For example, at the micro we strike (transfer mash water to the mashtun) at 75 degrees. We know that this will give us 73 degrees in the mashtun, which during winter will give us 65 once the grains are added. This is consistent since the liquor to grain volume is scaled. Clearly though, once summer comes and the grains warm up, they wont take as much heat out of the water and so a further adjustment must be made by slightly lowering the strike temperature or waiting while the water cools post transfer.

 

The good news is that by keeping records you can work out exactly where you need to be.

[rtaylor]

Going to give nettle beer a shot this week, been told its easy enough......

I've just posted asking if anyone has given it ago. I will let you know in a week if it's drinkable. It's quite hard on the back picking enough for the recipe (mine needed about 900g for 4.5L).

 

The gorse flower wine I've got on the go seems to have a lot more potential.

[Tallshort]

Will do thanks. Do you use the Cream of Tartar etc?

[rtaylor]

No didn't use any cream of tatar, no additives at all.

 

As for the beer, the stag-do is over. We're all still alive and not blind. A great success by all accounts. I will be doing another AG brew soon, hopefully with a smoother mash process but it doesn't seem to have suffered because of it.

 

If anyone is interested I put it in a pressure keg and charged it with Nitrous oxide capsules rather than CO2. It did seem to give a good head with much finer bubbles. Not as fine as Guinness draught but maybe I was expecting a bit much.

[Guest cookoff013]

update,

 

i put a woodfords kit on "nelsons revenge" to quench my thirst during the upcoming football tournament.

 

i also added alittle more malt as the kit is supposed to do 36pints.

 

also i have / am fementing with safal05 and it is a monster. it fermented crazy for 6 days. now it has slightly slowed down.

[hedd-wyn]

Just got a batch of Oak Leaf wine brewing . Anybody ever tried it? Or tried making it?

 

Picking and trimming the leaves was a bit of a pain but the smell of the must was quite pleasant.

 

Only 14 months to go before I get to try it :(

 

edit - swear word that wasn't detected by the filter oops

Edited May 12, 2014 by hedd-wyn

[leeds chimp]

I have just put on 12 gallons of different wines...cherry, pomagranite, mixed berries and a few others ....

[Guest cookoff013]

do any of you beer brewers use a dual strain yeast to help flocculation?

 

i love US-05 as a brewing yeast. it runs like a champion and it can seriously eat through alot of malt. i`m brewing 6-8% beers and there is alot in suspension when i come to bottle and produces alot of sediment.

i only add a tiny ammount of sugar to condition the beer, 1/2tsp per pint.

 

i`ve been told i can use 2 yeast, notty and us05, to get 80% attenuation and good flocculation ie abusing 2 strains.

 

anyone done this.

 

i`m really impressed with 05, it just ramps down that malt. but doesnt compact as well as nottingham.

last time i used nottingham, the beer was virtually bright out the fermenter.

[Zapp]

Not heard of that, sounds a bit hooky. I use Nottingham for almost everything, but if I were to use something that doesnt floc well like US-05 I'd just gelatine fine it in the primary fermenter a few days before racking to the bottling vessel.

 

Basically, get some of the little sachets of unflavoured powdered gelatine that the supermarkets sell. Pour into about 300ml of water and leave for 10 mins, and then heat to 80 degrees, stirring all the time. As soon as it hits 80, take it off the heat and stir it gently into the beer. It will drop the yeast out over a few days into a fairly stable sediment which you can then rack off of carefully. This will ensure you have much less yeast going into the bottles, which will help a lot in giving you a stable sediment, and you wont get the problems you would encounter with 2 part finings where you will never get a stable sediment.

[Thunderbird]

Have to say that I was very impressed with Blunderbuss's Woody Walloper and (was it an IPA, the slightly stronger one?) when I tried them at the 'wolds bash. Both different but very good in their own way. If anything I think I preferred the weaker, session one better (WW), which is not like me.

 

Indistinguishable from something you would pay £2.50 a bottle for in a shop. Top hole old man.

[Blunderbuss]

Cheers Duncan, the Woody Walloper was a 3.8% ABV summer ale. The other was a 6.2% American IPA hopped with Simcoe and Citra. I prefer the later but the strength is deceptive, as it goes down too easily!

[ian g]

am really intrested in having a go at this just a bit put off looks complicated is this kit any good from ebay or can you make it up yourself for cheaper http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beer-from-grain-complete-starter-kit-/370563941576?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&var=&hash=item56475504c8#ht_0wt_0

[Fatcatsplat]

Very, very expensive!!