A lot of home brewers, as I did, start out by making kits and adding sugar. Then they move on to adding malt extract instead of sugar, or a mix of both (eg brew enhancer). At some point many people start adding hops, usually by adding dry hops to the fermentation, or maybe be making a hop tea, or boiling some hops for a short length of time to extract some flavour and a little bitterness.
I am a big advocate of using grains instead of additional malt extract, even if you are not doing all grain. I think it makes a big difference, and it saves a lot of money too. Mashing (soaking) grains and adding the wort to a kit or to some extract is called a mini mash, or a partial mash. A kit is simply hopped extract, so they are both the same, except that if you use unhopped extract, you need to bitter the beer with hops by boiling them for a suitable length of time.
Mash
In a nutshell, you start the process by soaking grains (mashing) in about 3 litres of water per kg at a mashing temperature - between 63 and 69*C is ideal - for 45-60 mins. A mesh or muslin bag enables you to lift the grains out. You need to keep the pot wrapped up at this stage, I use a towel, to hold the temperature as steady as possible (I later realised that putting the pot in the oven at 50C was a lot easier!). Large pots of hot water cool very slowly, I have never lost more than 3*C in one hour, and that was without wrapping the pot!
Sparge
Then you rinse (sparge) the grains with more hot water at 75 - 80*C to extract as much sugar from the grains as possible. Either:
a) move the bag to another vessel containing the hot water, leave for 10 mins and then stir and remove the bag. Or
b) simply place the bag on a colander on top of your pot as you lift it out and then rinse with the hot water by pouring it through.
Boil
You boil all the wort you create, with any hop additions, usually for one hour. You can then either:
a) add the extract to the pot and stir it in, and pour the wort into your FV through a sieve (to catch the hops) into your sterilised FV, then top up with cold water. Or
b) add the extract with water in the FV and stir as you would a kit, and then pour your grain wort in through a sieve, and top up to the required level. It's that simple.
Once the temperature has fallen to 20*C, take a hydrometer reading and pitch the yeast.
Grains
You will need pale malt, such as Maris Otter, Golden Promise, Pearl, Halcyon or lager malt. You can also add other grains to alter the flavour and colour of the beer if you wish. Common grains are crystal, amber, Chocolate malt, black malt, roast barley. You can add wheat malt. Or Munich, Vienna, rye or brown malt. Mashing means you can use any grain you like.
Here is a guide to doing partial mashes with kits, with a few recipes:
http://www.babbrewers.com/files/story/2003/04/Partial_Mash_Talk.pdf
No Pain All Grain
This method led me to realise I could do all grain very easily, on a smaller scale, by cutting out the extract and additional cold water part of the process. I have tried all sorts of ways of making beer cheaply, and I now use this method to make 10 litre all grain brews - great beer, cheap and easy. No fancy equipment required. Just a 15 litre pan, £16 from Wilkos, and a bag, which I made from muslin, to hold the grains and make straining easier. 10 litres in the FV gives me about 18 x 500ml bottles, or 27 x 330 ml, which I use for stronger brews.
For 10 litres I use about 2 to 2.5kg grain which costs £1.60 per kg, 20 - 80g hops which mostly cost £2.25 per 100g from Worcester Hop Shop, and I re-use yeast several times. Even a £6 liquid yeast is good value if you use it 6 times, or more. And good yeast is crucial to good beer.
Fantastic beer for very little cost. And I've learnt loads about beer ingredients and brewing technique. But basically you soak grains, rinse, boil with hops, cool, pitch yeast. Any mug can do it.
Brewing Software helps a lot
I use free software called Brewmate to calculate quantities. It is easy to use. You put in the ingredients and quantities etc and you can then adjust the batch size and it recalculates. Or you can find recipes on the net and adjust the quantities. Most American recipes are given in 19 litre quantities, so you could halve them for 9.5 litres. But download Brewmate, it will teach you loads. And it stores recipes you enter.
Recipes?
This site has a recipe section at the top of this page. You can use all grain, partial mash or extract recipes. I do some partial mashes but mainly all grain, cheaper and the best. There are many recipe sites on the web. Posters on here will suggest recipes they like.
I found the following site really useful for my brewing method and also some good tried and tested recipes:
Homebrewing
Crash Cooling
When fermentation has finished, you can crash chill a small 10L FV in the fridge, so it clears well and packs down. A day or two is usually enough, even overnight.
Crushed or Whole Grains?
I have a basic grinder that cost £25 but I sometimes buy crushed malt. Using ready crushed just speeds things up, but whole malt keeps longer. I tend to buy crushed pale malt to save my arms, and the time, and other grains whole, as they tend to hang around longer and you only need to crush a little. But just buying crushed is fine, just don't buy crushed in bulk.
A step by step 20 litre brew using grain and extract - Partial mash / Partial boil step by step recipe
.
I am a big advocate of using grains instead of additional malt extract, even if you are not doing all grain. I think it makes a big difference, and it saves a lot of money too. Mashing (soaking) grains and adding the wort to a kit or to some extract is called a mini mash, or a partial mash. A kit is simply hopped extract, so they are both the same, except that if you use unhopped extract, you need to bitter the beer with hops by boiling them for a suitable length of time.
Mash
In a nutshell, you start the process by soaking grains (mashing) in about 3 litres of water per kg at a mashing temperature - between 63 and 69*C is ideal - for 45-60 mins. A mesh or muslin bag enables you to lift the grains out. You need to keep the pot wrapped up at this stage, I use a towel, to hold the temperature as steady as possible (I later realised that putting the pot in the oven at 50C was a lot easier!). Large pots of hot water cool very slowly, I have never lost more than 3*C in one hour, and that was without wrapping the pot!
Sparge
Then you rinse (sparge) the grains with more hot water at 75 - 80*C to extract as much sugar from the grains as possible. Either:
a) move the bag to another vessel containing the hot water, leave for 10 mins and then stir and remove the bag. Or
b) simply place the bag on a colander on top of your pot as you lift it out and then rinse with the hot water by pouring it through.
Boil
You boil all the wort you create, with any hop additions, usually for one hour. You can then either:
a) add the extract to the pot and stir it in, and pour the wort into your FV through a sieve (to catch the hops) into your sterilised FV, then top up with cold water. Or
b) add the extract with water in the FV and stir as you would a kit, and then pour your grain wort in through a sieve, and top up to the required level. It's that simple.
Once the temperature has fallen to 20*C, take a hydrometer reading and pitch the yeast.
Grains
You will need pale malt, such as Maris Otter, Golden Promise, Pearl, Halcyon or lager malt. You can also add other grains to alter the flavour and colour of the beer if you wish. Common grains are crystal, amber, Chocolate malt, black malt, roast barley. You can add wheat malt. Or Munich, Vienna, rye or brown malt. Mashing means you can use any grain you like.
Here is a guide to doing partial mashes with kits, with a few recipes:
http://www.babbrewers.com/files/story/2003/04/Partial_Mash_Talk.pdf
No Pain All Grain
This method led me to realise I could do all grain very easily, on a smaller scale, by cutting out the extract and additional cold water part of the process. I have tried all sorts of ways of making beer cheaply, and I now use this method to make 10 litre all grain brews - great beer, cheap and easy. No fancy equipment required. Just a 15 litre pan, £16 from Wilkos, and a bag, which I made from muslin, to hold the grains and make straining easier. 10 litres in the FV gives me about 18 x 500ml bottles, or 27 x 330 ml, which I use for stronger brews.
For 10 litres I use about 2 to 2.5kg grain which costs £1.60 per kg, 20 - 80g hops which mostly cost £2.25 per 100g from Worcester Hop Shop, and I re-use yeast several times. Even a £6 liquid yeast is good value if you use it 6 times, or more. And good yeast is crucial to good beer.
Fantastic beer for very little cost. And I've learnt loads about beer ingredients and brewing technique. But basically you soak grains, rinse, boil with hops, cool, pitch yeast. Any mug can do it.
Brewing Software helps a lot
I use free software called Brewmate to calculate quantities. It is easy to use. You put in the ingredients and quantities etc and you can then adjust the batch size and it recalculates. Or you can find recipes on the net and adjust the quantities. Most American recipes are given in 19 litre quantities, so you could halve them for 9.5 litres. But download Brewmate, it will teach you loads. And it stores recipes you enter.
Recipes?
This site has a recipe section at the top of this page. You can use all grain, partial mash or extract recipes. I do some partial mashes but mainly all grain, cheaper and the best. There are many recipe sites on the web. Posters on here will suggest recipes they like.
I found the following site really useful for my brewing method and also some good tried and tested recipes:
Homebrewing
Crash Cooling
When fermentation has finished, you can crash chill a small 10L FV in the fridge, so it clears well and packs down. A day or two is usually enough, even overnight.
Crushed or Whole Grains?
I have a basic grinder that cost £25 but I sometimes buy crushed malt. Using ready crushed just speeds things up, but whole malt keeps longer. I tend to buy crushed pale malt to save my arms, and the time, and other grains whole, as they tend to hang around longer and you only need to crush a little. But just buying crushed is fine, just don't buy crushed in bulk.
A step by step 20 litre brew using grain and extract - Partial mash / Partial boil step by step recipe
.
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