MBM30075
Well-Known Member
I like the control I have over a batch of all grain. It allows me to go cheaper, but still turn out quality beer. It also allows me to really fine-tune what taste I want. What I don't like is how long and involved the process is. I recently did an all-extract batch on my stove and was reminded how fun and quick brewing can be.
So, with that in mind, I was toying with ideas of how to simplify all-grain brewing. I know that the idea I came up with causes decreased efficiency (which, in turn, drives the price of a batch up), but I'm wondering what other consequences (good and bad) occur as a result.
So, I was brewing a simple Bavarian Hefeweizen.
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Ingredients:
5 lb. Belgian 2-Row
5 lb. German Wheat
.5 lb. Munich
.5 oz. Tettnang (3.8%)
Danstar German Wheat yeast
***************************
I have a 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler that I use as my mash tun. I doughed in with 3.5 gallons water. My mash temperature started at 154 and ended 60 minutes later at 152.5. I re-circulated several quarts of wort until I had reduced the particles a good bit, but still didn't have clear wort. So, I ended up passing the runnings through a filter into my boil kettle. I don't yet have a good way to measure large volumes of liquid (I'm working on it!), so I'm not sure exactly what volume of wort I drew off. I added 3 gallons of water to the kettle and began my boil as usual.
I ended up with somewhere between 3.5 and 4 gallons of wort at the end of my boil. I expected an efficiency of about 50%, and if I got 4 gallons of wort at the end, then I hit my target OG of 1.049.
Sweet wort tasted good; color was right on; activity commenced within 4 hours of pitching.
I know that my efficiency suffered, but I'm OK with that, especially considering that this brew still only cost $22. If I get 4 gallons of nice hefe, I will consider this a victory!
I'm wondering (besides waste) what other consequences there are to this technique. Obviously, I couldn't create a very high-gravity batch using this setup, although I'm considering a 2nd mash tun, which would allow me to mash up to about 28 pounds of grain. So, I get that I'm not maximizing my efficiency, but what does that do?
I've heard that this will result in a maltier, richer beer. Since I know you can over-sparge and get tannins and other undesirables in your wort, is this a "safer" route? Does sparging pull out anything else that my method misses?
One more question: When I cleaned out my mash tun and removed the grains and false bottom, it became very clear that my false bottom had not done a very good job; I had about 50%+ of my dead space filled with grain! If this is the case, am I wasting time and effort using the false bottom? Should I just forget the false bottom and send my wort through a filter into my brew pot? That would speed up the time from when I crack the spigot to when I'm done draining, right?
Thanks!
So, with that in mind, I was toying with ideas of how to simplify all-grain brewing. I know that the idea I came up with causes decreased efficiency (which, in turn, drives the price of a batch up), but I'm wondering what other consequences (good and bad) occur as a result.
So, I was brewing a simple Bavarian Hefeweizen.
***************************
Ingredients:
5 lb. Belgian 2-Row
5 lb. German Wheat
.5 lb. Munich
.5 oz. Tettnang (3.8%)
Danstar German Wheat yeast
***************************
I have a 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler that I use as my mash tun. I doughed in with 3.5 gallons water. My mash temperature started at 154 and ended 60 minutes later at 152.5. I re-circulated several quarts of wort until I had reduced the particles a good bit, but still didn't have clear wort. So, I ended up passing the runnings through a filter into my boil kettle. I don't yet have a good way to measure large volumes of liquid (I'm working on it!), so I'm not sure exactly what volume of wort I drew off. I added 3 gallons of water to the kettle and began my boil as usual.
I ended up with somewhere between 3.5 and 4 gallons of wort at the end of my boil. I expected an efficiency of about 50%, and if I got 4 gallons of wort at the end, then I hit my target OG of 1.049.
Sweet wort tasted good; color was right on; activity commenced within 4 hours of pitching.
I know that my efficiency suffered, but I'm OK with that, especially considering that this brew still only cost $22. If I get 4 gallons of nice hefe, I will consider this a victory!
I'm wondering (besides waste) what other consequences there are to this technique. Obviously, I couldn't create a very high-gravity batch using this setup, although I'm considering a 2nd mash tun, which would allow me to mash up to about 28 pounds of grain. So, I get that I'm not maximizing my efficiency, but what does that do?
I've heard that this will result in a maltier, richer beer. Since I know you can over-sparge and get tannins and other undesirables in your wort, is this a "safer" route? Does sparging pull out anything else that my method misses?
One more question: When I cleaned out my mash tun and removed the grains and false bottom, it became very clear that my false bottom had not done a very good job; I had about 50%+ of my dead space filled with grain! If this is the case, am I wasting time and effort using the false bottom? Should I just forget the false bottom and send my wort through a filter into my brew pot? That would speed up the time from when I crack the spigot to when I'm done draining, right?
Thanks!