Have a go at simple AG

[starseeker]

you will be fine,
You will soon gain confidence ,just take your time, at the end of your brewday ,even if you dont hit your targets, you will still have beer fermenting in your fv ,and you will be planing your next brew :)

 

[Pete9586]

Don't be nervous. We've all been there.
Take lots of notes at every step and learn from any mistakes. It's actually not that difficult and you'll nearly always have good beer to drink. It'll get easier and better with time. Keep us updated as you move along in your brewing journey.

 

[Ozzy]

Don't be nervous. We've all been there.
Take lots of notes at every step and learn from any mistakes. It's actually not that difficult and you'll nearly always have good beer to drink. It'll get easier and better with time. Keep us updated as you move along in your brewing journey.

Thank you,I appreciate the encouragement!

 

[Wobbly13]

Any online brewing videos you recommend for extract and all grain?

Ozzy checkout . The Malt Millers do some good Mini Mash kits, extract & grain, the above video demos a brew.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Thank you,I've been doing all in one kits. I'll check them out,I've an extract kit,plus a biab kit +peco boiler set up on the way from Get er brewed. And an all grain blonde ale kit with it. Slightly nervous about doing it.

BIAB is a great way to start all grain brewing and get to understand the process, simple and produces fantastic beer.
It's worth checking out the free Brewfather app to begin putting together your own recipes.
Good luck !

 

[clib]

Any online brewing videos you recommend for extract and all grain?

There used to be a video linked in the OP. It's probably gone. Zillions of them on YouTube obviously but just follow the ten steps and beer shall be forthcoming. Real beer, made from plants and fungi with your own bare hands. In your kitchen.

Don't fret the details. At this stage. If ever.

If you end up under volume, like 3 or 4 litres instead of 5, take a hydrometer reading and add water to bring the gravity down to where you want it. Google 'brewing dilution calculator'.

 

[ksmith91]

I did my first all grain brew today (first brew of any kind tbh!). It wasn't without it's struggles but it's all in the fermentation vessels and I'm hopeful

I made 10L of a SMASH Citra using BIAB; OG - 1.060 which was probably a little higher than I expected but I decided to keep with it instead of diluting down as my fermentation vessels were pretty full and don't dare overfill to see a mess in the morning! I have 2 x 5L demijohns for fermentation and plan to dry hop one and double dry hop the other, just to see how the flavour changes.

Will report in a couple of weeks when, fingers crossed, the fermentation should have run it's course!

 

[Ozzy]

Just got my biab set up from Get er brewed,with a belfast blonde ale all grain kit. Plus the extract kit.
Wish me luck!

 

[Kit-brewer]

Thanks for this. After only making kits this might just be my next project.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Just got my biab set up from Get er brewed,with a belfast blonde ale all grain kit. Plus the extract kit.
Wish me luck!

You won't need luck fella - what you'll need is a big wallet for all the kegs, malt and hops you're gonna be buying ;-)

 

[Rodcx500z]

Your not wrong breed like rabbits

 

[S.R.S]

just tried this out and everything went fine until trying to pour the wort into the demijohn and the cloth collected so much debris it wouldn't drain so ended up pouring it all in directly. The resulting wort was 4l and showed an og of 1.050, so no idea what the correct og should be now. As well as that the demijohn looks extremely murky with all the debris floating around in it.
Apart from not knowing what the abv will be, is this likely to turn out OK?

 

[Nottsbeer]

just tried this out and everything went fine until trying to pour the wort into the demijohn and the cloth collected so much debris it wouldn't drain so ended up pouring it all in directly. The resulting wort was 4l and showed an og of 1.050, so no idea what the correct og should be now. As well as that the demijohn looks extremely murky with all the debris floating around in it.
Apart from not knowing what the abv will be, is this likely to turn out OK?

Well done on your first go. Things get easier as you refine your process and troubleshoot problems. The gunk in your wort will settle so I wouldn't worry about that. Once fermentation has completed (generally people give it 2 weeks), take another reading. You can then work out the abv. Am sure it will be a great success .

 

[Ozzy]

I haven't attempted it yet I'm ashamed to say......I haven't had enough time with 2 young kids and stuff that needs done to the house etc.....
Getting my head around doing extract brews at the moment.

 

[clib]

just tried this out and everything went fine until trying to pour the wort into the demijohn and the cloth collected so much debris it wouldn't drain so ended up pouring it all in directly. The resulting wort was 4l and showed an og of 1.050, so no idea what the correct og should be now. As well as that the demijohn looks extremely murky with all the debris floating around in it.
Apart from not knowing what the abv will be, is this likely to turn out OK?

It'll be fine. It should give you an ABV in the region of 5%. You can dilute if you like. Adding a litre of water would make it approx 4%.

Getting a grain bag that drains would help. You could try one of those 25p mesh reusable vegetable bags you get at supermarkets. I think you'd get a kilo or so of grain in those.

 

[clib]

Well I've essentially been doing this simple AG brewing since I started AG. Initially 2009 but I got going properly/regularly in 2012/3 iirc. But I've just bought into a 3-way share of a Klarstein Mundschenk. I'm still brewing strong. I've made many many brews on my cooker. I stopped counting. And I will continue to do stove top smaller batches as well as 5 gallon all in one batches. What have I learned?

- that beer is not all about yeast but it is largely about yeast. The character of a beer is heavily dependent on the yeast and the fermentation.
- yeast starters are not a pain, they are joy itself, and the key to better beer. Pitch the best, healthiest yeast you can.
- there are very good dry yeasts now, but I'm mostly using liquid and reusing it so the cost is minimal. I re-culture from bottles a fair bit.
- I like hoppy brown/red/dark beers in winter. Hoppy browns and reds, darker bitters, porters.
- I like hoppy pale/dry/refreshing session ales in summer. Pale bitters, golden ales, pale ales and saisons.
- I like a medium amount of hopping - not the high quantities of American mad stuff, and not the miserly war stricken amounts that our traditional beers got stuck with. I quite often mix UK/Eu and US hops.
- I tend to start recipes with a yeast and work from there.
- I've mastered bottle conditioning! I prefer natural carbonation to forced carbonation.
- bleach kills everything!

Future plans? Just to make the best beers I can and focus on the types of beer I like best.


What have you learned, how have you progressed from simple AG, and what are your future wishes? Cheers!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Well I've essentially been doing this simple AG brewing since I started AG. Initially 2009 but I got going properly/regularly in 2012/3 iirc. But I've just bought into a 3-way share of a Klarstein Mundschenk. I'm still brewing strong. I've made many many brews on my cooker. I stopped counting. And I will continue to do stove top smaller batches as well as 5 gallon all in one batches. What have I learned?

- that beer is not all about yeast but it is largely about yeast. The character of a beer is heavily dependent on the yeast and the fermentation.
- yeast starters are not a pain, they are joy itself, and the key to better beer. Pitch the best, healthiest yeast you can.
- there are very good dry yeasts now, but I'm mostly using liquid and reusing it so the cost is minimal. I re-culture from bottles a fair bit.
- I like hoppy brown/red/dark beers in winter. Hoppy browns and reds, darker bitters, porters.
- I like hoppy pale/dry/refreshing session ales in summer. Pale bitters, golden ales, pale ales and saisons.
- I like a medium amount of hopping - not the high quantities of American mad stuff, and not the miserly war stricken amounts that our traditional beers got stuck with. I quite often mix UK/Eu and US hops.
- I tend to start recipes with a yeast and work from there.
- I've mastered bottle conditioning! I prefer natural carbonation to forced carbonation.
- bleach kills everything!

Future plans? Just to make the best beers I can and focus on the types of beer I like best.


What have you learned, how have you progressed from simple AG, and what are your future wishes? Cheers!

The jury is still slightly out for me on the subject of yeast, but that's probably because I'm always fiddling about with some aspect of my recipe/technique so it's hard to make comparisons.
What I would say though is that mash temperature definitely plays a big role in the character of the finished beer. A couple of degrees difference can mean a dry refreshing beer or a sweeter fuller bodied one :-)

 

[Oneflewover]

I'm so pleased that I found this guide and started stove top AG brewing a few years ago. The hands on approach really helped me to understand the process and I quickly got an idea of how to put a recipe for a decent-ish beer together. I do brew exclusively on an AIO now - mostly for more control over mash temp, ease of recirculation of wort through the grain bed, larger batch size - but wouldn't change a thing in terms of where I started.

Agree about the importance of yeast and how easy and rewarding it is to grow (overbuild) a starter. I've also really enjoyed mixing strains and seeing how they develop over time and use - had some very interesting results!

I know that people talk about the importance of consistency in process and results, but I couldn't care less about reproducing exactly the same beer time after time. I get that it is completely necessary in commercial brewing, but for me experimentation is central to my brewing enjoyment.

 

[clib]

I'm so pleased that I found this guide and started stove top AG brewing a few years ago. The hands on approach really helped me to understand the process and I quickly got an idea of how to put a recipe for a decent-ish beer together. I do brew exclusively on an AIO now - mostly for more control over mash temp, ease of recirculation of wort through the grain bed, larger batch size - but wouldn't change a thing in terms of where I started.

Agree about the importance of yeast and how easy and rewarding it is to grow (overbuild) a starter. I've also really enjoyed mixing strains and seeing how they develop over time and use - had some very interesting results!

I know that people talk about the importance of consistency in process and results, but I couldn't care less about reproducing exactly the same beer time after time. I get that it is completely necessary in commercial brewing, but for me experimentation is central to my brewing enjoyment.

I agree about us not needing to replicate beers. We are free to do what we want and commercial brewers who used to home brew envy us for that, I've discovered. I've done some yeast blending myself. Another way to be creative and it can be really effective.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

This thread got me started with AG, and I now have about 15 AG brews under my belt, now using an All in One.
What I have come to learn recently via the UK National comp feedback and my latest brew, is that just as much care is needed at the fermentation stage as anywhere else in the brewday. It embarrasses me to admit that previously, once the boil was done, I just breathed a huge sigh of releif and "chucked in some yeast". As I result, in hindsight, many of my brews have suffered - some more than others.
A member of my local club recently sold me their yeast starter kit (stir plate and flask) and I have made a promise to myself that I will jolly well use it from now on. There's no point going to the effort of a brew day then getting lazy with arguably the most important bit.
As someone in my club said, "Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer".