Grand Brew-nefied Theory

[westonweiss]

Greetings!

I noticed that a lot of the brewers on this site either come from a scientific background or take an active interest in the Chemistry side of brewing, which for me is possibly the most interesting part, as a Biochemist (well actually I'm an Engineer now but I started off in the natural sciences).

Has anyone (or can anyone) devise a protocol template to carry out AG brewing as an (idiots) step-by-step guide like you would expect in a laboratory protocol?
Recipes are clearly abundant on the internet but carrying them out the first time can be a little daunting when you just have a list of ingredients. It feels a little like being given a parachute and being told to jump..... as dramatic as that sounds

I know there are a couple of posts on here which more or less spell things out for you but I would really like all the information required in one place, ready to go from the off, which can be adapted for all recipes..... does this exist?

Granted this sounds like I'm being incredibly lazy, this is something that I will devise myself if it isn't already out there but I thought it might be worth asking? Everyone is told to make notes during brewing, has anyone dissected these notes into a "grand brew-nified theory"?! :idea:

 

[clibit]

I reduced the process down to this very simple method which gives you the process in a nutshell:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

 

[westonweiss]

Thanks Clibit. I had already seen this one and although it is pretty clear, you may underestimate what an idiot I can be, especially in a panic. For example:
"10. Cool the wort in sink, with lid on, add to sterilised FV/demijohn via sterilised sieve to catch hops, and top up the level to 5 litres if necessary. Pitch yeast at around 18 - 20C."

Presumably before pitching the yeast I need to hydrate and prime the yeast right? I would literally carry out steps 1-9 without thinking about the yeast, then get to step 10 and realise there is an extra 20-30 minutes of work to do, all the while my brew is sat there and I wouldn't know if that is ok or not? Hence the panic.

If this needed to be done I would right this into the protocol further up the list e.g. "7. Dispose of grains, add wort to pan and bring to boil. At the same time prepare two jars labelled "yeast" and "sugar". Fill these with approximately 20 ml of boiled water in each and allow to cool"..... or whatever it should be.

Granted this is probably common sense and comes as second nature to an established home-brewer. Maybe I am going over the top with this kind of thing? I just don't want to waste copious amounts of beer. That has got to be good reason enough to inquire?!

 

[Covrich]

The problem you have is, since you are literally going be a process by process step.. You cannot really do this with All Grain..

Take 10 kit brewers and look at what they do and they will be mostly the same

Take 10 All grain brewers and equipment setup, size of target batch , size of pots, cooling methods.. ingredients / recipe used , also yeast used will quite possibly reveal 10 very different process setups..

Many things such as strike water quantities and sparge water quantities will vary setup by setup where is is a little trial and error I think before we fully get it right.. Some people will have a more vigorous boil than others therefore evaporation rates will vary.

Most processes in AG can be broken down and done or achieved in a variety of methods which suit the individual..

 

[westonweiss]

i.e. there is no right answer and I need to learn by trial and error. Understood.

Thanks guys, newbies like me appreciate your patience

I still reckon that subtracting in a few X's and Y's it would be possible to come up with some kind of protocol. I will endeavor to find something and share with the forum. Might be useful to newbies.....

 

[Covrich]

i.e. there is no right answer and I need to learn by trial and error. Understood.

Thanks guys, newbies like me appreciate your patience

I still reckon that subtracting in a few X's and Y's it would be possible to come up with some kind of protocol. I will endeavor to find something and share with the forum. Might be useful to newbies.....

Well once you have a setup which you're established with, yes you can pretty much itemise every process, but there will always be variables.. the amount of water I put in my large pot will vary based upon the grain bill.. a 6% brew will require closer to 6KG of grain and that will absorb closer to roughly 6 liters (some find its more or less than that) which will reduce.. If I was using 4 kg of grain the amount of water would reduce.

Brewing software is helpful for this because you can tweak in your settings and then it will calculate strike water quantities and temps ect..

But I for example use a 50liter pot where I do a true BIAB style brew where I put my full volume of water and sparge in.. A lot of people here for example use peco boilers and you cannot do that, so you need to split this process and do a seperate sparge in a seperate vessel.. Some will mash in a tun ect.. and so forth..

Your exact protocol will ultimatley have a few areas which won't apply to many AG brewers..

 

[westonweiss]

I see what you mean now. It is not a case of one size fits all, and it sounds like a good brewer needs to be very adaptive! Perhaps the best practice for me then, like you said, is to establish my set up and try to standardize what I can. More simply than that I need to start making some decent notes - I assume thats what you guys all do?

I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of some good software then please, that isn't Brewers Friend?! I have issues with Imperial units! .... Ideally something either for my Windows laptop or my iphone?

Thanks

 

[Covrich]

I see what you mean now. It is not a case of one size fits all, and it sounds like a good brewer needs to be very adaptive! Perhaps the best practice for me then, like you said, is to establish my set up and try to standardize what I can. More simply than that I need to start making some decent notes - I assume thats what you guys all do?

I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of some good software then please, that isn't Brewers Friend?! I have issues with Imperial units! .... Ideally something either for my Windows laptop or my iphone?

Thanks

I use brewmate which is an older version of brewers friend.. When I tried brewers friend it seemed broke to me..

Brew mate you can change to metric ect (I suspect you can on brewers friend too if it is now working).. you can when you're ready change things such as evaporation ration and gran absorption ect.


What size batches are you planning on making? I think that is probably the starting point because batch size will heavily influence your equipment setip and therefore influence your processes.

 

[westonweiss]

Great, I will give that a go. Thanks Covrich.

Well I have a FV and a keg with capacities at 30 Litres each, but I suppose they're not my limiting factors when it comes to AG brewing - I have 2 x 10L stainless steel (stockpot) pans, I just need to work out the best way to move solutions around without loosing any I guess? I have plenty of bottles too so I guess the sensible thing to do is to actually develop a small scale recipe that I like and then scale it up? Yes, that's what I will do! What do you think would be a sensible starting point?

Cheers

 

[geetee]

I also come from a chemistry lab background (Pharma) recently made redundant and happy to spend more time making beer.In my job I was used to SOPs where you literally followed the written instructions however there are some steps where people may differ however the Process is identical

One of the things I thought was to put a step by step guide in a binder that people can follow and could even be used to demonstrate and train people.
the headings for such a protocol would include the following
Introduction
Objectives
Equipment
Materials
pre-requisites ( yeast starter?)
Process flow template which can vary accoring to your kit
Results
Outcome

I believe that the scientific approach could be softened to allow non scientists to follow as an "idiots guide" and would give a step by stp but customisable approach

 

[clibit]

I get the point about adding yeast, I wrote that guide with kit and extract brewers in mind, though you can simply sprinkle the yeast on the beer and leave it to do its thing - which i could've made clear I guess, for total newbies.

 

[westonweiss]

:party: TOTAL NEWBIE :grin:

 

[clibit]

:party: TOTAL NEWBIE :grin:

Plenty of people have tried that method successfully, including total newbs! Some have asked questions before launching into it, naturally.

 

[westonweiss]

Yes, don't worry, I'm not questioning your recipe integrity by any means, just my own Total Newbie perspective on what could go wrong - this is from a guy who has brewed 4 beer kits and STILL follows their instructions to a tee!

At the end of the day scientists are just people who are good at following a list of instructions. Not unlike Ron Burgundy, if it is on the teleprompter, we will read/do it :rofl:

 

[HisDudeness]

With most beer kits its probably best not to follow the instructions but that's a whole different conversation!

 

[ManseMasher]

Beersmith is a very useful tool. Not free, but incredibly adaptable to your own personal equipment.