which ingredients do I add & when?

[sion]

I have purchased a 'Old Speckled Hen' mash kit (for my first 'all grain') that makes 40 pints / 22L, including the following ingredients - Maris Otter Malt, White Sugar, Crystal Malt, Black Malt, Yeast Safale s-04, Challenger Hops, East Kent Goldings Hops & a Protofloc tablet

The method I plan to following method - http://homebrewmanual.com/brew-in-a-bag/

However, I have a few more questions before brew day:

1) My stock pot is 20.25L, therefore I plan to use half the ingredients, to produce 20 pints / 11L. When preparing the brew pot, I intend to fill with approx. 28 pints / 15.4L of water. Does this amount sound about right?

2) After heating the water to the target mash temperature (the instructions say 75 - 80C) of the recipe and lining the pot with the bag, what do I add from my ingredients, at this stage?

3) After the wort is brought to the boil and left for the 'hot break', I understand I need to additional hops for the last 10 minutes - again, what do I add from my ingredients, at this stage?

4) To prepare the yeast, I need to add the dried yeast to 200ml sterilised water, cover and add to the fermenting bucket when it has cooled (the instructions say 18 - 20C). I have VWP Cleaner Steriliser. Do I just pour it in and stir? I assume the sterilised water does not affect the taste.

Any advice on the above would be much appreciated.

I have included an image of the ingredients and links to the instructions below.

Thanks

...............
Sion

http://https://1drv.ms/i/s!AhhIYJZ_QHLvgwHK6uMX6PCM5PDE

http://https://1drv.ms/i/s!AhhIYJZ_QHLvgwJIHy8Ylq8EyCn3

 

[Linalmeemow]

1) http://biabcalculator.com/

2) All the grain, none of the hops. I think the start temperature may be a bit high too, though I'm not a BIAB brewer. You want to aim for a mash temp of 65-70 degrees once you added the grain, and I don't think that amount of grain will bring the temperature down that far.

3) The kit you bought should have a hop schedule. I'd expect an addition at 60 minutes then some in the middle and toward the end of the boil but each style (and even each brew) has different requirements.

4) If you're using dried yeast you CAN rehydrate it but there's really no need to. Cool the wort to around 20c and just sprinkle the dried yeast straight into the wort. If you're only doing a half batch you'll have more than enough yeast to ferment it out.

 

[Fil]

Have a great brew day, its a bit daunting to start with but once you have 1 brew under your belt it all starts to fall into place and make a lot more sense..

and if in doubt ASK!!

#1 DONT USE THE WVP to sterilise the water for the yeast hydration!! that sanitiser is bleach based and when used to clean your bucket etc needs at least 3 good rinses to remove residual chemicals that will ruin your beer, its nasty expensive stuff, your much better off using generic unscented laundry oxi for cleaning and a no rinse sanitiser like PPA, starsan, or videne.

As for the sterilised water for the yeast hydration use water thats cooled from a kettle that you boiled, the boiling will kill virtually everythig in it and thus sterilise it just ensure its cooled right down befoer you use it to hydrate the yeast, too warm and it can kill em,

as for the volumes of water to use simply halve the volumes for the full kit


and for the mash you want to add all the grains well mixed. you can leave out the sugar, (where did you get an ag kit with sugar??)


your after a mash temp of 66-67C generally a strike temperature (hot water temp) of 71-72C should get you a mash temp of 66-67c, if not tweak it with additions from an off the boil kettle and jug of cold water and up/down the strike temp for the next brew.. Your 1st brew with any equipment will be a fact finding mission discovering how the equipment all works together

I wuold urge you to strike @ 71c especially if your using the same pot to heat up the liquor, as if so you wont need to heat up the pot with the strike volume.



as for the hops in the boil, the recipe that came with the kit should indicate which hops to add and when, some hops can be added for the full 90 minute boil others at different intervals and its part n parcel of the recipe to dictate which hops are added when.. contact the kit supplier if you dont have this info, basically its 50% of the hops for a half sized brew..

the hops in the boil the longest will add the bittering those added later and for short periods or even at flame out are there to add more aroma and nose to the brew than bitterness,


Good job you asked about the sterilised water for the yeast.. Otherwise sounds as if your well on your way..

one further suggestion i have is to try to maintain the mash temp with insulation such as pulling the pan off the stove and keeping it in a cardboard box full of packing beans for the mash duration rather than truying to maintain the temp with heat input from your stove, If you heat any grain over 85C you will denature it or kill the enzymes we are trying to encourage to create our fermentable wort with..


Also before brewing pour all your breweing water into a bucket and treat it with a crushed campden tablet (1 tab will treat upto 50l) this will neutralise any chlorine or chloromides in the water that could have a negative TCP type flavour impact on the beer (no im not a chemist google it .. )

 

[Dutto]

It looks okay so taking your points one at a time:

1. Doing the brew in two batches is okay (it's just double the work and double the time) and therefore the +/-14.5 litres of water to start sounds fine.

2. Obviously, weigh the grains so that you are using 50% of each then, as a general rule, add the coarser grains first and follow them with the finer grains later.

3. Again, weigh out the hops to give 50% of each (Bittering and Aroma) and break the Protofloc Tablet in two at the same time.

In line with the Instructions:

o Add the Bittering Hops when the wort comes to the boil and leave them in the wort for 100 minutes (90+10). The pan should be uncovered for the whole boil to let the "nasties" escape. (It is the smell and the steam from this stage that gets most of us banished out of the kitchen and/or out of the house!)

o Add the Aroma Hops and Protofloc Tablet (in your case half of one) after 90 minutes of boil and boil for a further 10 minutes.

o After a total of 100 minutes, stop the boil and start the cooling operation to 10-20 degrees.

It's at this stage that you have to separate out the hops and the stuff that has flocculated out of the wort before putting it into a Fermenting Vessel. Many moons ago I used to filter out the hops before cooling by passing the wort through a sieve on it's way to the fermenting vessel. Doing it whilst the wort is hot minimises the chance of infection.

It is also at this stage that you will begin to wish you had bought a bigger pot because you now have to start everything all over again to get the full 40 pints!

4. The "Sterilised Water" used to rehydrate the yeast has absolutely NOTHING to do with the VWP! You will need to stick a kettle of water on, let it boil to kill any bacteria it may contain and then let it cool to 18-20 degrees before using it to rehydrate the yeast; in a vessel and using a spoon that was first sterilised with the VWP.

On other elements of the kit:

A) I always use Hop Bags so that I don't have to filter out the hops from the wort after the boil.

B) As with most kit instructions the fermenting stage is wildly optimistic so look for two weeks as a minimum to ferment the wort.

C) I don't bother racking the brew into a second FV after 3 days; mainly because I use a hop bag and the wort is pretty clear when it goes into the FV.

I hope this helps. Enjoy. :thumb:

 

[Leon103]

I don't think there is a need for a 100 minute boil. Never done longer than 90 minutes

 

[cheapbrew]

Usually kits have labels saying 60 mins addition, or bittering hops and 15 min addition, or flavour/aroma hops.
Which kit is it with these useless instructions?

 

[sion]

Usually kits have labels saying 60 mins addition, or bittering hops and 15 min addition, or flavour/aroma hops.
Which kit is it with these useless instructions?

The kit is 'Burnley HomeBrew Old Speckled Hen Mashkit'.

The instructions are not very clear, espiecally for someone trying 'all grain' for the first time.

However, I think I am getting closer to understanding what I need to do (thanks to you guys).

 

[Dutto]

I don't think there is a need for a 100 minute boil. Never done longer than 90 minutes

I agree. :thumb:

I only added the extra 10 minutes once even though the instructions use the term "add for the last 10 minutes" twice (hops and Protofloc) after saying "boil for 90 minutes".

My bad!

 

[blawford]

The kit is 'Burnley HomeBrew Old Speckled Hen Mashkit'.

The instructions are not very clear, espiecally for someone trying 'all grain' for the first time.

However, I think I am getting closer to understanding what I need to do (thanks to you guys).

Is the grain in the kit in lots of different bags or in a single bag? If all in one bag then make sure the bag is very well mixed before you start, they may have put all the base grain in first and then the others on top, if you then tip it out you could end up with a weird divide in the grain between the two brews.

 

[sion]

Is the grain in the kit in lots of different bags or in a single bag? If all in one bag then make sure the bag is very well mixed before you start, they may have put all the base grain in first and then the others on top, if you then tip it out you could end up with a weird divide in the grain between the two brews.

The kit is in lots of different bags.

A picture should still be available in the original post (unless the forum mice have been at it!!)

 

[blawford]

The kit is in lots of different bags.

A picture should still be available in the original post (unless the forum mice have been at it!!)

Not the kit, the grain in the kit. It isn't possible to see from the picture.

 

[sion]

The grains in my kit are:

Maris Otter Malt (3.875kg)
Crystal Malt (400g)
Black Malt (29g)
Challenger Hops (35g)
East Kent Goldings (13g)

 

[Fil]

The grains in my kit are:

Maris Otter Malt (3.875kg)
Crystal Malt (400g)
Black Malt (29g)
Challenger Hops (35g)
East Kent Goldings (13g)

the grains are:
Maris Otter Malt (3.875kg)
Crystal Malt (400g)
Black Malt (29g)

your Hops are:
Challenger Hops (35g)
East Kent Goldings (13g)

probably just a typo but its an important distinction.

you add the grains to your mash. the mash and sparge(rinse) provide the preboil liquor, you add the hops to the boil..

having had a quick look at what google spat out for "Old Speckled Hen AG recipies" most have way more complex hop bills..

to make things simple i would treat the challenger hops as the full boil addition and the EKG as the late