I'm making an all grain beer...fun!

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Keither

Active Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
33
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Location
Yellowknife
After several successes with some extract beers, I ordered some all-grain kits from the Brooklyn Brew Shop. I'm making the "everyday IPA" right now. I'm just typing this as I wait a couple of minutes to go stir the mash some more... So far, so good. The mash went from being oatmeal-y to being sticky sweet and I have about ten minutes to go before I "mash out". I'm making a double batch so I'll have 2 gallons of wort to put in my little "Mr Beer" fermenter.

Well, I'm nervous, but I now have a sweet wort, so I guess that means there will be a beer of some kind in a couple of weeks.

I'm off to "mash out". Wish me luck. I barely know what I'm doing, but I'm a pretty good cook, and this is just a really complicated recipe. I'll post some pictures later.

I found it difficult to keep the mash temperature in the right range. It stayed at about 152 degrees for about 15 minutes, but then it started to cool off and after I turned off the stove, it went as high as 160 before going back down. I'm not particularly worried. This is fun!
 
It took me a while to figure out what BIAB means... no, that would be too sensible. I'm doing a BIABGSSPOTSWLOLPASAABGM (brewing in a big giant stainless steel pot on the stove with lots of little pots and strainers and a big giant mess)

I now have two gallons of a murky, reddish brown liquid on the stove heating up for the boil. So far, so good, I think, except I wish I had an even bigger pot, and I had to sparge the grain in three rounds because my strainer, which I thought would be big enough, could only hold a third of the mash at once.

The whole house smells like the railway yard in Thunder Bay a couple of weeks after the big summer grain trains start rolling through.
 
BIABGSSPOTSWLOLPASAABGM would not be my preferred process, but good luck mate.
 
Ha, thanks man, it turns out it's not my favourite process either, but I'm pressing on. I started four hours ago, there's half an hour left to the boil, and then into the ice bath. Well, the only thing I'm not too sure I did right was the sparging. I'm going to need a bigger pot and strainer next time. My beer might be a little low in alcohol. Oh well, it smells just like extract wort at this point. Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure it will turn out to be beer of some kind. I have good luck with plans and recipes. I'm feeling optimistic.
 
Welcome and good luck with your first AG.
I have a few relatives and friends living in Yellowknife... my cousin wanted me to go back with him to work for him a few years ago.
I don't like the kind of cold you guys get there, and my job of giving heat would put me in more of a cold situation than I want, :)
 
Thanks, I'll look into converting a cooler.

That was a LOT of work. But I finally got the wort cooled down and it's in the fermenter. I started at about ten o'clock this morning, and was pitching the yeast by about four in the afternoon, feeling a little beat. But now I have finished drying the spent grain in the oven for making crackers, and it's 10:54 at night. I just looked in on the fermenter, and HOLY CRAP!! It's already fermenting! It's bubbling away like crazy. Well, I guess it's going to be beer. Now the waiting begins, to see if it's GOOD beer.
 
Keither this thread is a pleasure to read! Love your postitive attitude and the hard work you put into this brew. And a cooler for a MLT is a great idea. A heck of a lot easier than BIABGSSPOTSWLOLPASAABGM! :D

Best of luck and happy brewing! :mug:
 
Well, thanks for the positive comments guys, here's what has happened so far, eight hours after pitching the yeast, there was a thick krausen layer on top of the beer. I was a bit surprised at the speed things were going, but the next morning, about eight hours after that, there was no krausen, just a creamy layer of small bubbles, but there was still lots of activity in there, the beer seemed to be rolling around turbulently without foaming much. Now, 30 hours after pitching, there is not much visible action. I don't have a gravity-o-meter, but I drew a bit off the tap on the fermenter, and although it is still milky/cloudy, the liquid tastes like beer. It's even identifiably an IPA. (I'm drinking a commercial IPA right now and it tasted similar, only the homebrew was "grainier" in taste.

Soo, I guess it must be turning out... but I've never seen wort turn into beer in only one day. I did put in both packets of yeast, I guess that sped things up?

I made two 1-gallon batches in one two-gallon fermenter, so I put both yeast packets in. I think I could have gotten away with just one. Is there any harm in using both? Everything seems to be going OK, but I'm amazed how fast it's fermenting. If I blindfolded someone and they couldn't see how cloudy it still is, they would think it was pretty good beer. I only mashed it yesterday. This seems fast.

P.S... God, I love beer. I just wanted to say that.
 
P.S... God, I love beer. I just wanted to say that.

Right on.
My only advice at this point is be patient and leave it alone for a few weeks. I know its tough, but perhaps planning you next brew will help. After all when this batch is gone you will want the next batch ready to start drinking. Ive got four kegs serving, two cold conditioning one lagering, one in the ferment chamber and about ten cases of bottles archived from previous batches, and I still am planing the next brew session. In the words of Gen. George Patton, be advancing all the time. Never retreat. Cheers.
 
After several successes with some extract beers, I ordered some all-grain kits from the Brooklyn Brew Shop. I'm making the "everyday IPA" right now. I'm just typing this as I wait a couple of minutes to go stir the mash some more... So far, so good. The mash went from being oatmeal-y to being sticky sweet and I have about ten minutes to go before I "mash out". I'm making a double batch so I'll have 2 gallons of wort to put in my little "Mr Beer" fermenter.

Well, I'm nervous, but I now have a sweet wort, so I guess that means there will be a beer of some kind in a couple of weeks.

I'm off to "mash out". Wish me luck. I barely know what I'm doing, but I'm a pretty good cook, and this is just a really complicated recipe. I'll post some pictures later.

I found it difficult to keep the mash temperature in the right range. It stayed at about 152 degrees for about 15 minutes, but then it started to cool off and after I turned off the stove, it went as high as 160 before going back down. I'm not particularly worried. This is fun!

I mash in my boil pot using a paint strainer bag. I bring the water to the "strike temperature" which is just enough above the mash temp that when I add the grain the temp drops just to the intended mash temp. then I wrap the boil pot with a couple towels to insulate it and walk away. Since I have the bag to filter the grain out I can mill it pretty fine and that give me conversion in less time. I've seen the change in less than 20 minutes as the wort goes from cloudy from the starches to clear as the starch changes to sugar. I never add heat until the bag is out of the pot.
 
Three weeks later..

Success! The beer has been in bottles for a week and is nice and clear. Two gallons of beer will get you about 16 bottles, so I used two of those 1-litre "Mr.Beer" bottles, and twelve nice cobalt-blue swing-tops. There was a great deal more "trub" in the fermenter than I am used to from extract beer, so I was only able to fill one of the 1-litre bottles half way. As a result, it carbonated quickly (I had already put the sugar in there) so I opened it early so it wouldn't detonate.

The good news is, it tasted terrific, even though it had only been carbonating for three days! That must be some super-yeast that came in the kit. My wife and I agreed it had a more complex and pleasant taste than previous brews. It was grainy, hoppy and mellow. I can't wait to open a properly conditioned bottle. The beer is a pleasant orangey-yellow color.

So right now I am mashing my second all-grain batch, this time the "chocolate maple porter" it's been cooking for about twenty minutes now, it already smells like a cross between a mocha coffee and a malted milkshake. I would drink it the way it is now. This is really fun.
 
That sounds great on both the first brew and the one in progress.

The first one, if it is good at a week should be great at 3 or 4 weeks.

I love all grain brewing using a mash tun. A little less with BIAB. (too hot, sticky and messy!)

All grain gives so much room for creativity and control. More like cooking with fresh ingredients instead of popping a meal in the microwave.

The one variety of brewing that never interested my is pre-hopped extract kits.
 
I started goofing around with changes to the recipe after my first hopped extract kit. I think I added maple syrup to a brown ale kit. I liked how that turned out, so I kept adding things to the extract beer. I like to feel like I "made" something rather than just "re-constituting" something. This all-grain thing is super fun. Its very interesting to observe the grain turning sweet as the enzymes do their work, and there is enough complexity in the procedure to make it exciting.

"RM-MN" in his post above was correct: I haven't had to adjust the temperature of the mash at all for 40 minutes now. It's dropped one degree. I don't think I'll have to add heat until I "mash out".
 
Well the chocolate porter is in the fermenter now, I must say the wort tasted great, so I'm expecting this to turn out well. I accidentally dropped the probe on my digital thermometer into the wort, so luckily I had a real thermometer as backup which saved the day. I don't think anything happened as a result of my having to go to a meeting at work just before the boil, it hadn't even cooled off all that much by the time I got home.

The grains in this one really have a chocolatey smell and taste. The mash tasted like ovaltine. I have a good feeling about this one.

This weekend I will open one of the "everyday IPA" bottles, and I'll post a picture of the beer and try to describe how it turned out.

Thanks for the advice so far guys.
 
Here's a picture of how the Brooklyn IPA turned out-it's a nice beer.

And another picture of the boiling wort from the chocolate maple porter.

IMGP0108.JPG


IMGP0087.JPG
 
It took me a while to figure out what BIAB means... no, that would be too sensible. I'm doing a BIABGSSPOTSWLOLPASAABGM (brewing in a big giant stainless steel pot on the stove with lots of little pots and strainers and a big giant mess)

I now have two gallons of a murky, reddish brown liquid on the stove heating up for the boil. So far, so good, I think, except I wish I had an even bigger pot, and I had to sparge the grain in three rounds because my strainer, which I thought would be big enough, could only hold a third of the mash at once.

Hah! My first all-grain batch was BIABGSSPOTSWLOLPASAABGM. I had a four-gallon kettle, which was big enough to boil my 3-gallon batch but too big for my digital thermometer, so I ended up doing two separate mashes in my 6-qt soup pot (funny how that seemed like a big pot until I started homebrewing).

So glad I got a 12-qt pot that's just big enough to conduct my mash.
 
Keither, if your interested in getting together for a beer to talk beer drop me a line. I just moved to Yellowknife and have my garage brewery set up. I've been brewing all grain since 97 so I may be able to help you out if need be.
 
Good on ya, Keither! My first all-grain was also a BBS kit (Belgian Dubbel). Agreed it's a *lot* more work than the extract brews I'd done before, and quite a bit messier. I made the mistake of starting after supper one night, so I wound up finishing after midnight. Think maybe I'll give that Everyday IPA a shot (I already have a couple of porters and a stout bottled).
 
My wife really likes the "everyday IPA". I'm going to make another batch as soon as I work my way through some of the other bags of grain I have here. It's got a smooth creamy aftertaste, and rich flavour. As IPAs go, it's pretty mild on the hops, but compared to the corn/rice swill they call "IPA" at a certain commercial brewery on the east coast of Canada, well there's no fair comparison, really. It could be that I'm new to brewing and was unprepared for how much better a fresh, home brewed all grain beer is than the mainstream commercial beer, but I'm quite impressed with the everyday IPA recipe. My second all-grain batch will be ready to sample later this month (I'm not going to open it until it's been a month in bottles), so we'll see what that is like.

SCUD, Welcome to YK! There are A LOT of home-brewers here, ranging from mass-quantity extract producers to semi-serious beer "connoisseurs"! Sure, I'd love to get together to talk beer. I don't have much beer left to share from my last batch but if you wait a bit we can try the next round together. I only brew 2gal. at a time because I live in an apartment.

Send me a private message with your number.
 
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