Have a go at simple AG

[MyQul]

Very true! This was a bit of a gamble brew, I had the hops, yeast and grain and wanted to do something with them, and didn't have any other pellet hops left.

Good point about the flavour, I had thought about the bitterness but didn't consider on the flip side it could end up too sweet.

Well you'll know for next time and can adjust to you're tastes by trial and error

 

[the_quick]

Thanks to clibit for this simple recipe. I have brew before on few occasions, but last time it was disaster.

Done this one with First gold hops and S04 yeast, using Crystal malts. Went for bigger quantity - 4KG.

After 1,5 week drained into bottles, looks already quite good, maybe bit cloudy - but will see in few weeks.

How long do you usually wait to drink your beer?

 

[Meza]

I had a go with this recipe this eveningView attachment 16569

Used 1.2kg of Marris otter and 90g of frozen fresh hops scrumped this summer from a Cotswolds pub garden. Rehydrated half a pack of Mangrove Jack's M44. Got 6l in the demijohn at 1.050 SG. Took just under four hours all in. Let's see what comes out.

Day 0 SG 1.050
Day 0 - day 3 fermenting at 18C.

Day 4 Dropped to 17C, airlock stopped, Krausen disappeared,yeast dropped out

Day 5 set up waterbath, only coming halfway up beer level in FV, at 23C. SG 1.012

Day 6 SG 1.010 stirred and rocked FV to redistribute the yeasties (wakey wakey). No success

Day 11 SG 1.010

This is where I'm at now, beer is a bit sweet! (As MyQul suggested)

What can I try to rescue something drinkable out of this please guys?

 

[MyQul]

Day 0 SG 1.050
Day 0 - day 3 fermenting at 18C.

Day 4 Dropped to 17C, airlock stopped, Krausen disappeared,yeast dropped out

Day 5 set up waterbath, only coming halfway up beer level in FV, at 23C. SG 1.012

Day 6 SG 1.010 stirred and rocked FV to redistribute the yeasties (wakey wakey). No success

Day 11 SG 1.010

This is where I'm at now, beer is a bit sweet! (As MyQul suggested)

What can I try to rescue something drinkable out of this please guys?

View attachment 16805 View attachment 16806

You could add some amylse enzyme (which you can get off ebay) which would drop the FG further and dry it out more. Or you could add some hop tea which will add some bitterness to balance out the sweetness (plus as an added bonus more flavour)

 

[terrym]

@MyQul
Based on the OG and current SG, @Meza has got 79% attenuation which is about right for M44 according to the Brewers Friend calculator. I've never used it myself but I understood that adding amylase was likely to dry it out by a big margin, and I'm sure I have read on here folks have gone down to just above 1.000, so it's to be used with caution. Or am I'm talking rubbish?!

 

[MyQul]

@MyQul
Based on the OG and current SG, @Meza has got 79% attenuation which is about right for M44 according to the Brewers Friend calculator. I've never used it myself but I understood that adding amylase was likely to dry it out by a big margin, and I'm sure I have read on here folks have gone down to just above 1.000, so it's to be used with caution. Or am I'm talking rubbish?!

I've never used M44 and tbh didnt do the attenuation calc. I was just basing my comment on Meza saying his beer tastes sweet.

You're right amylase will dry the beer out a lot

 

[SteveH]

I'm a beginner but fwiw my brews have tasted sweet-ish when bottling or drinking the gravity sample, but absolutely fine after bottling and carbonation for a few weeks.

 

[cushyno]

From SG 1.050 to FG 1.010 seems pretty typical. That shouldn't be classed as a sweet beer by normal standards, just about right I'd say.

 

[Johnboy2417]

I just bottled my first a.g. pretty much following this recipe doubled. There were a few little mistakes on the way. Rather than a brew bag I was using a muslin sheet so when transferring from the stock pot to the fermenter it slipped in slightly dumping some of the hops in with it. I only assume that'll add to the flavor though.

O.G was 1.040 and finished at 1.006. I figure I'll crack the first bottle Christmas day and use the Christmas period to brew another.

 

[Ashman]

I had a go at an all grain IPA kit I received for Christmas. I used a pasta pot from Sainsbury’s (6L) with a hop bag from Wilko. The kit included 1.4kg of mixed malts. I think I made an error as after sparging with 1L I measured the pre boil gravity as 1.03 at 5.5L. I tasted the wort and it was sweet. I then boiled with the timed hop additions to 4.5L and cooled and gave a reading of 1.065. Although the kit then said to add water to 5L as it didn’t include a hydrometer (so no targets) I just left it at 4.5L 1.065. I think it was meant to be 5.7% 5L with 1.4kg malts.

My question is in a pre boil gravity measurement a lot of mixing is required (normally I mix pre adding yeast) ? I think I may of measured mostly the sparge gravity from the surface? I should be able to
Work backwards from the post boil gravity reading to get the error.

 

[MmmBeer]

My question is in a pre boil gravity measurement a lot of mixing is required (normally I mix pre adding yeast) ? I think I may of measured mostly the sparge gravity from the surface? I should be able to
Work backwards from the post boil gravity reading to get the error.

The mass of sugar dissolved in your wort will be the same pre-boil as post-boil, so if you measured 1.065 post boil, you can estimate the pre-boil SG by multiplying the .065 by final volume and dividing by the pre-boil volume. E.g. 0.065 x 4.5 / 5.5 = 0.053, implying a SG of 1.053. It won't be perfect, but a reasonable approximation.

 

[JohnB]

@Ashman Hi Ashman, I had this problem (I'm new to AG) but I solved it by doing a test boil - I think it was MyQul who suggested it. Find out how much liquor you boil off in one hour add that to your final volume to get a total pre-boil volume. Once you have your pre-boil volume you can use the boil-off calculator on Brewersfriend to get your gravity calcs right pre-boil. Hope that helps, but it's just the way I went with this problem; there may be other ways.

 

[Crappyfish]

Is it possible to add too much water to BIAB when doing AG as my water seems to boil off quite alot during the process and I am a bit worried about diluting the wort too much.

 

[MyQul]

Is it possible to add too much water to BIAB when doing AG as my water seems to boil off quite alot during the process and I am a bit worried about diluting the wort too much.

Yes and no. What I mean by this is, is if your boil of is high, then adding a corresponding amount of water to account for this wont effect your brew. But if you add too much water that that isnt boiled off/absorbed by the grain or hops then this will dilute your hops/ibu to produce a too too sweet beer. Basically what Im saying is, you cant add too much water as long as your calcualtions for boil off and hop/ grain absorbtion account for it

 

[Crappyfish]

Thanks for that exactly what I wanted. Seems to me it's a bit trial and error to start with and write everything down ready for the next brew.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks for that exactly what I wanted. Seems to me it's a bit trial and error to start with and write everything down ready for the next brew.

When you first start AG it takes a couple of brews to 'dial in' some of the variables with the kit your using.

 

[Ashman]

Of the 4.5L I managed to bottle only 7 500ml bottles. However, I tasted the hydrometer sample and dregs and wow it’s totally different beast to my extract brew! It was meant to be a 3 hop IPA but tasting there’s a fruityness complex layers of flavours that seems to change in the mouth. I’m not sure it’s an IPA though but I’m pretty excited if this is what is possible with all grain / biab!

 

[matt76]

Of the 4.5L I managed to bottle only 7 500ml bottles. However, I tasted the hydrometer sample and dregs and wow it’s totally different beast to my extract brew! It was meant to be a 3 hop IPA but tasting there’s a fruityness complex layers of flavours that seems to change in the mouth. I’m not sure it’s an IPA though but I’m pretty excited if this is what is possible with all grain / biab!

+1 on the difference between extract ama all grain, i found the exact same thing.

7 bottles is good going from 4.5L IMO. My AG#2 was 5L and yielded 8 x 500ml, and I've just bottled two different 12L batches, each of which yielded only 19 x 500ml.

Main question is what will you brew next

 

[Ashman]

+1 on the difference between extract ama all grain, i found the exact same thing.

7 bottles is good going from 4.5L IMO. My AG#2 was 5L and yielded 8 x 500ml, and I've just bottled two different 12L batches, each of which yielded only 19 x 500ml.

Main question is what will you brew next

The first thing I did was I went out and got another pasta pot from Sainsbury’s (£18). These are just over 6L to the brim and worked well for me so will aim for 10L batches. On recipes I have the Greg Hughes book.

 

[IRBrew]

Hi, My first post here. I'm just getting back into brewing after a break of about 20 years. I've only ever brewed from extract kits but I really like the look of this method, particularly the idea of doing more smaller batches. I would like to do some 10 litre brews using this method. A few questions:

I'm assuming a 15L pot will be adequate?
Any reason not to use BIAB?
Anyone like to suggest some nice stout recipes that would work with this method

Cheers!