how much grain.

[gingerhammer]

I have decent amounts of pale malt and crystal.I would like to do a mini mash for a coopers bitter kit.But I dont know the amounts to use.Any help would be great.

 

[hairybiker]

Sorry I don't understand what you are needing?
You have a KIT beer and want to mash it?

 

[gingerhammer]

I have a coopers kit.I want to mash some base and speciality malts and add it to the kit.Just not sure of the amounts,however craigtube have a video of minimash,so ill watch that to get ideas about ammounts.Glad to take on board some ideas.

 

[Duxuk]

A kilo of pale malt, when mashed will add somewhere in the ball park of 10 points of gravity to a 23l brew. I just worked this out in my head so it may be wrong! But lets face it, if you make an AG with 5 kg of pale malt it will be 1045 to 1055 (ish).
The crystal will add sweetnes and I often find that 10g/litre suits me. Of course your kit will already have sweetnes. I would also do some hop tea if you are increasing gravity to keep the balance. A simple way would be to boil some hops, maybe 10g, for an hour then add 30g as dry hops after the initial fermentation has died away. OOOoooooooooohhhhh! I can taste it already!

 

[gingerhammer]

Cheers Andrew,1kilo of pale with 500g of crystal it is.Also got some fuggles to dry hop with.might use some cascade for the tea.Just bottled a youngs harvest pilsner that I added honey to.Dry hopped it with some saaz.will have to see how she turns out!Thanks again.

 

[pittsy]

Cheers Andrew,1kilo of pale with 500g of crystal it is.Also got some fuggles to dry hop with.might use some cascade for the tea.Just bottled a youngs harvest pilsner that I added honey to.Dry hopped it with some saaz.will have to see how she turns out!Thanks again.

you know you need to mash for around 60 mins ? to extract sugars . Otherwise drop the base malt and use around 200g of crystal steep for 30 mins and it will add flavour and colour only .

 

[Duxuk]

I usually mash for 90 mins just to make sure! For 1kg I heat the water in an 8l lidded pan to low 70's C , add the malt and keep it in the oven on a low setting to maintain the temp. throughout.

If you have some cascade I'd be tempted to add it to your hop tea at flameout and let it steep with the lid off (to avoid too much effect on the AAa) for about 20 minutes. It's been working fantastically for me, producing the best beers I've ever made. There are very few beers which you can buy which come anywhere close.

 

[gingerhammer]

Thanks fellas,gonna be a couple of weeks before my bottles are empty to rack it....schlurp!might brew next weekend.