Have a go at simple AG

[brisboy]

I was finally close to a home brew shop today so picked up a kilo of Maris otter, some galaxy hops and some American ale yeast (which is what they recommended for my climate). Keen to get it on but will have to wait for a fv to become available. :)

 

[Covrich]

I have a 16 litre pot what I was thinking was going for something in the region of 3kg grains (500 or so may be speciality as I was looking at some sort of hobogblin style recipe).. Mash in 9lt water and top up with sparge water to 12-13 litres then boil with the hops. Possibly then possibly using DME and make up to 23 litres (depending on whether I decide to do this I would adjust the qtys of Hops accordingly)

Obviously this comes under possibly partial and probably warrants a separate thread but does this sound viable either way I decide?

 

[clibit]

Yes it's a partial mash, I've done this myself and it works really well. If I need quantity I do this. Or a kit with a mini mash. Otherwise I make around 10 litres of AG beer. I seem to have tired of making 5 gallon AG brews.

 

[SiMania]

I picked up some Marris Otter this week so doing this at the weekend with 50g crystal and hopping with target, citra and Nelson Suavin. I'm making it for my brother as a birthday present.

 

[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

 

[clibit]

These things happen. It's not a major problem. If the OG is too low you can always add some DME during fermentation. You could even sparge the grains again and boil the additional wort up separately, perhaps, if you are below volume after the boil.

 

[SiMania]

I'm not too fussed on the OG, if I hit 1.040 then it'll be a decent session strength beer. I'm usually very good at checking checking and checking, but assumed this time.

 

[SiMania]

Ended up at 1.040 which I can live with, just glad to get an AG brew under my belt. I pitched it straight onto the yeast cake of a cascade pale ale I bottled tonight so I expect it'll go like the clappers. I'll see my brother on 21st so by then it should be bottled and maybe ready for a sample. Thanks for the guide clibit :

 

[brisboy]

Sounds excellent!

 

[CreweBrewer]

Been reading this with interest, and I've just discovered two 5 litre demijohns in the workshop. So it looks like there'll be a couple of small AG batches on the way. Thanks for posting this up - I can't wait to get going!

Dave

 

[Twostage]

Made one :-)
Had a big brew day the other day which I'm going to write up later.
The smells were lovely. It was fascinating to see a liquid that looked like thin wall paper paste settle down into a lovely beer colour, amazing.
Took a day to get bubbling but then it bubbled faster than any of my previous brews.
The wort tasted nice too.
Deffo going to do another with a different grain or mix if grains.

Thanks for posting the recipe Clibit .

 

[will4009]

This seems like a really good starting point to give AG a try.

I have a couple of questions, can i use a standard size fermenting bin, or will there be too much head space between the beer and the lid with such a short brew? I need to buy a stock pot, haven't got too much to spend, and i am not too sure what size to go for. If possible it would be big enough to do double the quantities of the recipe. I have an aga, which i hope will be good enough to reach a boil. The issue with it will be as there is no temp control, the boil might take a while to get their and once it has be a bit vigorous.

Thanks

 

[clibit]

Yes double up abd make ten litres, Wilko doesa 15 litre pot for about £16. Prob worth getting a 15 litre FV, not too expensive. You could have a trial run with your existing fv, test the aga out. Should be ok I reckon.

 

[Sandimas]

Right, got the ingredients and the pan ready to go - tomorrow is the day.

Also gonna double up and do 10L. Recipe is going to be my own with the help of BrewMate: Marris Otter, Crystal, Fuggles and EKG. I've been extract brewing for 4 years and convinced myself I didn't have the space or time to do AG, can't wait to give this a go.

 

[Toffee]

good luck mate!

 

[Sandimas]

Done! :party:

Here's the recipe I came up with, with the help of Brewmate. 10L brew, happened to have some Crystal Malt, Fuggles & Styrian Goldings around, so just had to buy the 2kg Maris Otter (eBay) and yeast (Wilco Gervin)

- 2kg Maris Otter
- 200g Crystal Malt
- 14g each Fuggles & Styrian Goldings at start of boil
- 7g Styrian Goldings @ 45min
- 3g Fuggles & 7g Styrian Goldings @ 60min (flameout) steeped for 30 mins
- Target OG 1045 assuming 65% efficiency with the mash

All pretty much went to plan using the 15L stockpot I usually use for Extract brewing. I could've done with another big stockpot, as I mashed in it so had nowhere to put the wort, ended up using all the household saucepans then transferred it back to the stockpot after sparging.

Had about 14L of wort pre-boil. Surprised how much boiled off, ended up with only about 8L of liquid, but I gave it a decent blast at the end to get a good hot break. OG reading at this point was 1060, cooled it in the sink (4 sinkfulls of cold water each changed after 15 mins) which brought it nicely down to 21C. Added some more water to the wort to bring it back up to volume, went slightly over giving 10.5L and an OG of 1042 - very happy with that.

In total it took me 4.5 hours. Really enjoyed it and it was a great learning experience, but that was a big chunk out of the day. Will I be going totally AG now? Probably not, but we'll see how this turns out and I'm tempted to do it again, 10L brews, perhaps scaling down some clone recipes. I'll stick with Extract for the bulk of my beers but will definitely be doing the occasional AG if this turns out OK. :

 

[clibit]

That sounds great darrell, look forward to hearing how it turns out. You'll get quicker.

 

[Sandimas]

That's grain absorption too, so probably more like 3-4 litres lost in the boil.

Edit: airlock activity this morning, so looks like it was a success - now the long wait.

 

[jamesw]

If you've made a few kits and/or extract brews, why not have a go at a simple AG brew, to see the difference it makes? A small batch of AG beer is not difficult and you will discover the difference and feel the joy and pride of making it from scratch. All you need for 5 litres is 1kg of Maris Otter, or other pale malt, a packet of hops, and a sachet of yeast. You just need a thermometer, a decent sized pan and something to strain the grain from the wort. A big sieve, or a piece of cloth in a colander.

Recipe:

• 1kg Maris Otter (about £1.50)
• One packet of hops (any you like - EKG, Citra, Amarillo, Galaxy, Fuggles, First gold etc) (About £3-4, but you will only use 15g of the 100g, so cost is around 50p)
• One packet of yeast, 3g dried yeast is enough. (50p ish)

Method:

1. Heat 3 litres of water to 75C in big pan.
2. Pour in the pale malt while stirring - get rid of lumps.
3. Check temp is 65-70C - adjust if necessary with cold or boiling water.
4. Wrap a thick towel round the pot and leave alone for one hour.
5. Strain into a bucket or other vessel through sieve, or colander lined with cloth.
6. Heat another 4 litres of water to 80C and add the grains back to it. Leave 10 mins, stir, and strain the liquid to your bucket. You should have about 6 litres, which will reduce when you boil it for an hour.
7. Dispose of grains, add wort to pan and bring to boil.
8. Add 5 grams of hops when boiling point is reached.
9. 55 Mins later add 10g of hops, boil another 5 mins and switch off.
10. Cool the wort in sink, with lid on, add to sterilised FV/demijohn via sterilised sieve to catch hops, pitch yeast at around 20C.

You should get 8 or 9 x 500ml bottles of lovely beer for about £2.50.

If you've never made an all grain beer it's really worth giving this a go.

Very interesting, ive only used beer kits before but this could be interesting as i have a few demijohns (usually with wine).
would be good to experiment with new recipes at this volume too!

 

[Sandimas]

airlock activity this morning, so looks like it was a success - now the long wait.

Hmm,after 2 days airlock activity has stopped :? I know that's not a sure sign that it's done, but it was bubbling away nicely yesterday, but got cold in the house last night as I was out and the wife didn't light the fire - there's also a decent trub in the bottom of the FV.

Being a smaller volume (10L) would it ferment out quicker? Only mistake I made was possibly adding too much yeast, I scaled down all the ingredients but then added a full 11g packet of yeast, but realised too late. Any thoughts?