Have a go at simple AG

[MyQul]

Could you tell me where you get your maris otter from, at that price? Cheers

Clibit no longer is an active member of the forum. If you note the date of the OP it's now five years old so the price of grain would have gone up. Grain is cheaper the more you buy, so is cheapest when bought as a 25kg sack (although it's appreciated you probably wouldnt be buying a 25kg sack when first starting out with AG. Its best to buy jjust 'pale malt' as this is cheaper than MO and you probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway

 

[Skittlersteve]

Clibit no longer is an active member of the forum. If you note the date of the OP it's now five years old so the price of grain would have gone up. Grain is cheaper the more you buy, so is cheapest when bought as a 25kg sack (although it's appreciated you probably wouldnt be buying a 25kg sack when first starting out with AG. Its best to buy jjust 'pale malt' as this is cheaper than MO and you probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway

Thanks. Did note date, cheapest m,o I could find was 5 times that! (cost of drinking terrible) lol Cheers

 

[venkman100]

Thanks. Did note date, cheapest m,o I could find was 5 times that! (cost of drinking terrible) lol Cheers

Hi, I get mine in person from Lovebrewing in Chesterfield. I know that postage bumps up the price, but just looked at website. £30 For 25 kilo's plus £7.96 delivery to Nottingham. Still only £1.51 per kilo. A lot of grain but see if anyone local to you wants to share.

 

[ClownPrince]

Could you tell me where you get your maris otter from, at that price? Cheers

£1.17 on thehomebrewcompany at the moment:
https://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.u...d-base-malt-c-69_222_223.html?page=1&sort=20a

 

[obscure]

The big cost on small orders is always shipping, but geterbrewed does Maris Otter for £1.06/KG. However basic shipping with them is £5.95.

They do have a custom grain kit option which lets, you get the exact amount of hops you want so the basic recipe with Mosaic hops, Maris otter and s-05 yeast comes in at £5.08 (£11.03 with shipping to the UK), and a mosaic smash is in my view a lovely beer.

 

[Skittlersteve]

The big cost on small orders is always shipping, but geterbrewed does Maris Otter for £1.06/KG. However basic shipping with them is £5.95.

They do have a custom grain kit option which lets, you get the exact amount of hops you want so the basic recipe with Mosaic hops, Maris otter and s-05 yeast comes in at £5.08 (£11.03 with shipping to the UK), and a mosaic smash is in my view a lovely beer.

Just as a thought, SWMBO has a vacuum sealer! Would it be ok to seal & freeze the grain in, say, 1kilo bags?would this affect flavour etc?

 

[MyQul]

Just as a thought, SWMBO has a vacuum sealer! Would it be ok to seal & freeze the grain in, say, 1kilo bags?would this affect flavour etc?

It's fine to do it but you dont have to. When I buy a 25kg sack of crushed grain I bag it up into zip lock bags (of about 2kg each), making sure the ZLB is filled as much as possible to exclude as much air as possible. I then just keep these in a 60L barrel. The grain is fine until I finish the sack which is many months later

 

[Skittlersteve]

It's fine to do it but you dont have to. When I buy a 25kg sack of crushed grain I bag it up into zip lock bags (of about 2kg each), making sure the ZLB is filled as much as possible to exclude as much air as possible. I then just keep these in a 60L barrel. The grain is fine until I finish the sack which is many months later

OK! thanks MyQul

 

[venkman100]

Just as a thought, SWMBO has a vacuum sealer! Would it be ok to seal & freeze the grain in, say, 1kilo bags?would this affect flavour etc?

Yes. I use Ikea ZL Bags. The big ones hold 3 kg. Then put those back in the big bag the grain came in. Well not quite all of them

 

[Skittlersteve]

Yes. I use Ikea ZL Bags. The big ones hold 3 kg. Then put those back in the big bag the grain came in. Well not quite all of them

I know where you're coming from! Lol

 

[dillz2003]

I know where you're coming from! Lol

Ah! Another Gloucester chap.

I buy crisp marris otter in 25kg sacks. Last sack I bought before Christmas was £19.60. I collected it in person from Charles Faram hop merchants just outside Malvern. If you email them they will sort you out.

The marris otter has a really long best before date, I split it into 3kg ziplock type bags I bought on amazon. It keeps for ages.

 

[Skittlersteve]

Ah! Another Gloucester chap.

I buy crisp marris otter in 25kg sacks. Last sack I bought before Christmas was £19.60. I collected it in person from Charles Faram hop merchants just outside Malvern. If you email them they will sort you out.

The marris otter has a really long best before date, I split it into 3kg ziplock type bags I bought on amazon. It keeps for ages.

Hi, yes where abouts is the place near Malvern? Might be interesting to do a split & share some! I've not tried AG yet! So not too sure how much I'll need

 

[dillz2003]

Hi, yes where abouts is the place near Malvern? Might be interesting to do a split & share some! I've not tried AG yet! So not too sure how much I'll need

Their site is in the middle of nowhere, down the end of a farm track. Pop the postcode WR13 5BB into Google maps and you'll see what I mean.

25kg does me about five or six 23 litre brews so a sack only lasts me around 6 or 7 months. The sacks have a really long best before date, the last one I bought before Christmas is best before 30/09/2021, so i take with a pinch of salt all the stuff spouted on forums about crushed grain not lasting long. Maybe dark malts go stale quicker, but if the manufacturer thinks their grain is good for nearly 22 months then even though the bag is opened, as long as I store it well in airtight bags then I don't see why it won't keep a good while. Personally I like to use up grain within a year and have never noticed any problems. Others may have different opinions of course.

If you do go to all grain and find yourself brewing frequently enough, I'm more than happy to collect a sack for you when I go to get mine. Won't be going again now though until the Summer.

 

[MyQul]

. Maybe dark malts go stale quicker,

Id say dark malts would last longer because they've had more of the moisure removed during the kilning process. I vaguely remember a post on a forum about someone who had a big amount of black malt that lasted them years and years

 

[dillz2003]

Id say dark malts would last longer because they've had more of the moisure removed during the kilning process. I vaguely remember a post on a forum about someone who had a big amount of black malt that lasted them years and years

Interesting! And makes good sense. I'm not at all surprised based on my own personal experience. I think I store my grain exactly as you do, press seal type bags with all the air squeezed out in a large plastic bin. I use one of those blue airtight grain bins, with the metal clips around the lid, so no chance of it getting damp. I've never experienced any problems with stale grain, it keeps for ages.

 

[obscure]

I tend to buy kits using Geterbrewed custom grain kits and find that crushed malt tends to still be just fine she used a couple of months after purchase, stored in bags in a dry cupboard.

Maybe my taste buds aren’t good enough to tell the difference, or I’m just not keeping it long enough to go stale. Plus reading the comments here I am really tempted to go for a 25KG sack of base malt (as previously was put off the thought f buying in bulk on the grounds of thinking I would need to buy uncrushed and a grain mill). 25 Kilo would likely last me 9-12 months.

 

[nige]

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]

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 beer does this make? What abv is it? How long does it take to become drinkable, your recipe has maris otter grains yet method start with adding pale malt liquid and stir to get rid of lumps, do you mean dme? Is this better than any kit?. I'm interested in trying this but I want to know more about it. 10ltt has to be a minimum brew size for the effort and time surely.

 

[obscure]

What beer does this make? What abv is it? How long does it take to become drinkable, your recipe has maris otter grains yet method start with adding pale malt liquid and stir to get rid of lumps, do you mean dme? Is this better than any kit?. I'm interested in trying this but I want to know more about it. 10ltt has to be a minimum brew size for the effort and time surely.

1KG will give an APA of about 4-4.5% depending on efficiency as for taste depends a lot on the hops I made this using Maris Otter with Mosaic hops which works rather well, (it’s a hop common in American style IPA’s).

The good thing is with this method is as previously mentioned it scales well double the volume and you get 10L and works just fine.

 

[nige]

Thanks, I will have a go at something like this.

 

[MyQul]

25 Kilo would likely last me 9-12 months.

A 25kg sack would last that long, as long as you do something like I do. i.e bag it in zip lock bags, with each ZLB filled to capacity (the ones from ASDA I use hold about 2kg each) to exclude as much air as possible. Then kept in a 60L barrel to keep it in the dark. The one other thing you could do is keep it somewhere cool like a cellar. But you dont have to. I dont as I have no ability to and 25kg sack lasts me fine until I've used it all.