Have a go at simple AG

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Mqul how comes fuggles with a lower IBU come first? I'm in the middle of the brew
now. Just done fuggles at 60.

Edit . To EKG
 
I did my 4th of these simple brews tonight and must have been getting a bit cocky. All has gone ok, except that i have now realised that i have transferred the boiled wort into the fermentation bucket without straining out the hops. I am yet to add yeast as it is sat in my newly built brew fridge cooling down the last few degrees to get it to pitching temperature.

So, should i risk straining it into another container and then back into the fermentation bucket to remove the hops, or just pitch the yeast as it is?

Bottled this tonight. Tastes pretty good, and is lovely and clear, but the extra hop trub has cut down the amount of finished beer i got out of it. I managed to get just over 8 litres as opposed to my normal 10. Tastes lovely though so quite relieved after i thought i had cocked it up!
 
Bottled this tonight. Tastes pretty good, and is lovely and clear, but the extra hop trub has cut down the amount of finished beer i got out of it. I managed to get just over 8 litres as opposed to my normal 10. Tastes lovely though so quite relieved after i thought i had cocked it up!

Its good to know hops that fall in the FV don't ruin the beer. I was worried too
 
The beer is now almost two weeks in the bottle. I used 630grams of dextrose rather than the jars of malt. I'm bit disappointed much with this choice. It was a bit lazy. Not many people trying to stick to the mini mashes add sugar. Especially not this much. I'm hoping it doesn't come out thin. I feel like gettin another one on. But a small batch AG with no sugar.
 
hi everyone

bottom line is ive lost my plans on strike water volume and sparge. I know theres ways of finding out with calculators but I thought this would be a quicker way, plus as im adding a kit to it the partial mash (extract? im not boiling the kit, adding after boil) I realise theyl be people out there who know a good guide to bittering and sugars required for a good standard taste (coopers real ale)

plan is to partial mash (extract) BIAB for a 21 litre batch using a 15l pot using:

1 kilo maris otter,
200g crystal
200g amber
50g roasted barley
150g torriefied wheat
1.7kg coopers real ale
680G Raynors malt extract (similar to Holland barrets one)
25g fuggles
25g EKG

the plan was to follow the first post on this thread from clibit but use 5 litres of strike water as I have more grains. Mash all grains at 65c for 60 mins

rinse over the grain with two litres of hot water (70C) for sparge

BOIL
fuggles 25g - 60mins
EKG 15g - 15mins
EKG 10g - 0mins (flame out)

im planning on adding the raynors malt to the boil 10 mins before the end and the kit to the primary fermenter

ive just gone on brewers friend and put the recipe in. ive substituted the kit for 1.7kg of dark liquid malt. I would copy and paste it but its causing issues. its showing 1.049 OG, 1.011 FG, 4.99 ABV, IBU 8.30

BIT CONCERNED about the IBU so low..

if theres any advise id gladly take it. cheers guys

The Coopers Real Ale kit will provide 29 IBUs to a 23L batch, so 32 IBUs to a 21L brew. Add the 8 from the Fuggles and you have 40, which is pretty high number for a British Bitter.

The Coopers kit bitterings and colours are something I printed out when I did a lot of Partial Mash brews. The source I got it from quoted a website morgansbrewing.com.au as a source of all the coopers kit specs for PM purposes.

I can confirm that a 10-15L AG plus a Coopers kit makes very good beer indeed. The IBU and Colour numbers really help with recipe planning.
 
Doing this now for my first AG brew. Made it slightly smaller to do a boil in my 5lt stockpot. Could do separate pans but decided for my first brew a boil size of 5lt will do. Using Maris Otter ale, Fuggles hops and Safeale s04 yeast. I will be using a 5lt demijohn as an FV so wanted a little under 5lt batch so this seems about right. Should be ready for a proper taste around the end of January.
 
Doing this now for my first AG brew. Made it slightly smaller to do a boil in my 5lt stockpot. Could do separate pans but decided for my first brew a boil size of 5lt will do. Using Maris Otter ale, Fuggles hops and Safeale s04 yeast. I will be using a 5lt demijohn as an FV so wanted a little under 5lt batch so this seems about right. Should be ready for a proper taste around the end of January.

Awesome! got a recipe sorted yet? I often do 5L batches on the stove to test recipes before I waste time/materials for a 20L brew. I use the Buckingham 8L pot from Amazon. It's great but thin, really need to wrap it up to stop mash temp from dropping.
 
All done and in the garage in a 5lt demijohn next to my FV with a Muntons Gold Conkerwood Black Ale in it. I scaled down a bit from the original recipe as I mentioned in my last post. I did 2.1 lt then 2.7lt for the mash with 760gms Maris Otter Pale malt. Just realised I forgot to scale the hops down so may get a hoppy final beer. OG 1.047 and I tasted the bit drawn for the reading, could certainly taste hops and I now know why. I have an estimated 3.5-4lts of beer from the 4.8lts at the start of the boil. Very easy to cool it quickly in the sink at this small batch size.

I've added about 4gms of Safeale s04 yeast. Will that be enough? The one thing the original recipe doesnt say is how much yeast to use.

Brewers friend recipe builder says targrt FG 1.012, ABV 4.62%. Of the styles it matches I think I'll say this is a British Golden Ale, but it matches others as well.
 
A tsp is about 3g/ a quarter of a packet - so your 4g will be fine.

Hope you enjoy your finished product.

SWMBO hated the smell so I "had to" upgrade and move outside...
 
17 Bottles of my first ever AG brew, following the recipe on the first page of this thread :thumb:

Maris Otter, East Kent Goldings, Water, Gervin Yeast. SIMPLES! :lol:

Dry hopped for 5 days before bottling. My Christmas present to myself. Happy Christmas me!

I would encourage anyone to give this a go.

WP_20161211_16_14_27_Pro.jpg
 
Right, this is on the boil now with
2kg of marris otter
220g of crystal
50g of chocolate malt
Mashed for 90 min at 66 but had to adjust the temp at half way through as it fell to 60 need a better thermometer!
25g of challenger @60 min
8g of galaxy @5 min
10g of Citra @ flame out
5g of ekg @ flame out.
Hoping to get 10l into fermenter.
Any wish to make any change to the late addition hops?
 
I had the ekg and chocolate malt left from an attempt at a Coopers chocolate stout so thought I'd throw it in. Sparged with 3.5l of water at 80c. Not sure how much mash water there was because I had to mix hot and cold to get Temps right. But seems to be about 10l in a 15l pot!
 
17 Bottles of my first ever AG brew, following the recipe on the first page of this thread :thumb:

Maris Otter, East Kent Goldings, Water, Gervin Yeast. SIMPLES! :lol:

Dry hopped for 5 days before bottling. My Christmas present to myself. Happy Christmas me!

I would encourage anyone to give this a go.

View attachment 7337
Yes the how to is a classic :thumb:
 
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. A bag that fills the pan and,drapes over the sides and holds the grains, made from muslin or voile, is ideal. You also need a hydrometer to check the gravity before and after fermentation.

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 5 to 10g of hops, depending on your hoppiness requirements, 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, and top up the level to 5 litres if necessary. Pitch yeast at around 18 - 20C.

[Measure the amount of water added if you top up the FV, and add this amount to the sparge water next time you brew]

Here's a youtube video that shows the method quite well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPRLc9-C73Y

You should get 8 or 9 x 500ml bottles of lovely beer for about £2.50. It takes me about 3 hours start to finish, making 10 litre batches in this way (see below).

10 Litre option: You can just double all the quantities and make 10 Litres, which is what I do most of the time, it's a good amount of beer. About 18x500ml bottles, or 27x330ml bottles. You just need a 15ish litre pot.

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

What ABV does this achieve?
 
Just over 4% if you hit 65-70% efficiency.

Generally I find each of (base) malt in a full 20-23 litre brew adds 1% abv.

Mash temperature and the amount of speciality grain alter this.
Eg my last 2 brews
Leftover pilgrim porter
4kg pale, 200ish g of dark crystal and 200gish of roasted barley mashed at 66-67°c gave 3.5%
Get back to the ship simple ipa
5kg pale 200g rolled oats mashed at 63-64°c gave 5.5%
 
Just over 4% if you hit 65-70% efficiency.

Generally I find each of (base) malt in a full 20-23 litre brew adds 1% abv.

Mash temperature and the amount of speciality grain alter this.
Eg my last 2 brews
Leftover pilgrim porter
4kg pale, 200ish g of dark crystal and 200gish of roasted barley mashed at 66-67°c gave 3.5%
Get back to the ship simple ipa
5kg pale 200g rolled oats mashed at 63-64°c gave 5.5%

Cheers, I've just learnt my first lesson. Brewers friend stated 35% efficiency( I thought this was based on my initial input) so added 200g sugar...wrong! :doh:. Wanted around 4% and now have a 6.7% Strong English Ale.
 
I mashed at the top end suggested of 70°. Fermentation stopped at 1.020. I was then told that mashing at that temp will cause the release of non-fermentable sugars and doing it a couple of degrees lower will release more fermentable sugars giving a lower FG.
 
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