Easy Stovetop All-Grain Brewing (with pics)

You're welcome.

Awesome, I was starting to wonder why you couldn't just mash with a grain bag over the stove. You just pushed me over the edge! Time to dig up a recipe and try my hand at AG.

Thanks for the post DeathBrewer, very helpfull.

One question I wonder if anyone can help me with. I was making a really simple pale ale using these steps. After adding grain, my floating therm read 154, after sixty minutes it read 152 so I thought all was well and went on with the brew... But my gravity reading at the end was only 1.034 instead of the 1.044 calculation promash said I should get. Anybody have any ideas why I got so little conversion?

Thanks!

luckydevil said:

Thanks for the post DeathBrewer, very helpfull.

One question I wonder if anyone can help me with. I was making a really simple pale ale using these steps. After adding grain, my floating therm read 154, after sixty minutes it read 152 so I thought all was well and went on with the brew... But my gravity reading at the end was only 1.034 instead of the 1.044 calculation promash said I should get. Anybody have any ideas why I got so little conversion?

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What was the grain bill? What efficiency did you enter in promash?

This really should be stickied...

SumnerH said:

What was the grain bill? What efficiency did you enter in promash?

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The grain bill was 8 lbs of 2 row and half a pound of briess caramel 10... Figured I'd start with a pretty simple recipe. I entered 75 percent for efficiency. If my math is correct I only got about 60 percent... Although boy did my kitchen smell great! (well, I thought so, swmbo didn't agree ;-)

luckydevil said:

The grain bill was 8 lbs of 2 row and half a pound of briess caramel 10... Figured I'd start with a pretty simple recipe. I entered 75 percent for efficiency. If my math is correct I only got about 60 percent... Although boy did my kitchen smell great! (well, I thought so, swmbo didn't agree ;-)

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80% efficiency is pretty good for this sort of technique; you can pull 85-90 if you're really dialed in, but 60-65%ish seems reasonable for a first-timer.

A huge part of getting good efficiency out of BiaB-style techniques is crushing a lot finer than for a traditional mash, FWIW.

I've been thinking of making EdWort's AG Haus Pale Ale but (excuse my excessive noobness but...) the directions in this thread and the directions in EdWort's Mash section are confusing. I'm not really sure how to "convert" the Haus Pale Ale (HPA) for this stovetop method.

For example, the HPA recipe says "Single Infusion mash for 60 minutes at 152 degrees." Is this the same as DeathBrewer's post #2 (of this thread)?

Then HPA recipe says "doughin 3.5 gallons ".... is this the same as DeathBrewer's mash in process (posts 2/3)? Also, DeathBrewer posted a target temp of 166F but then said he kept it at 153F...?

Not really sure what goes where and when?! Anyone?

166F is the water temperature before adding grain, 153F is the mash temp with the grain added. Ed's Haus Pale works out great using this method.

I did a Hefeweizen a week ago and got a miserable 61% efficiency, by far my worst since using the stovetop method. I was advised by the LHBS that I wouldn't need the rice hulls since they are really only there to help the sparge. Is that what did it?

Dear Death,
dude, I embarked yesterday on my 1st stovetop partial mash experience, using some 6-row and some toasted oats, among other steeping grains. It wasn't perfect, I've gotta get a bigger better grain bag, but I kept my temps pretty steady, and I NAILED my OG!!!:rockin:1.074 on the dot!
thanks for all the advice and info on here, it wasn't too hard! oatmeal stout in the carboy!

c

DR:

Thanks very much for the pictorials, they helped me immensely for my first AG. Gotta say, I was dang surprised when, after about 65 minutes or so, I looked in my stock and said, "Wow... wort!"
After I added hops, even the SWMBO asked if I were making a different beer... all I said was that I had bought a store-bought cake, and done one from the a box, now I'm making it from flour. She has no problems with AG once I explained it like that.

Excellent analogy! More grain really gives the character you need for a great beer.

Glad this method is still working as well for everyone else as it still is for me. I made a rye stout (among others) for a wedding and it was the most popular drink of the night. It was a partial mash, but it was the easiest of the batch to brew and it turned out the best.

I used the partial mash, used the munich (wheat) dry yeast and did an extract addition about a week in to step it up. Great head, nice mellow roastiness, full-bodied, but not overpowering...about 6%. Hey, he said he wanted one dark, strong beer for the heavyweights...

Anyway, this method works just as well as any other as long as you have patience. Perhaps the only thing more important is the water. So look into pH. I purchase filtered water, at the moment, and fill up plastic containers. One could look into a filter or finding another source to clarify water.

No matter what, check the pH, and adjust if needed. 5.2 stabilizer is a great way to go, and is available everywhere online. Check it out.

Great thread DB. BTW, I love the knife holder, I can't believe noone else has commented on it.

I am planning my first AG batch, a Belgian Tripel. I'm planning on 13 lbs of grain. I have always used two 5gal pots for my PM batches to allow for a full boil so I'm trying to figure out how to do that with your method, so here is my plan...

Use both pots to heat about 2.25 gals each to 166. Add 6.5lbs of grain to each pot and mash for 60 mins. I'm thinking I will put the pots in a large cooler to keep the temp up. After 60 mins I will sparge each sack of grain separately. Here's my big question...will it affect my efficiency much if I sparge both bags in the same pot of water? I want to boil about 7 gals (3.5 in each pot) to end up with just over 5gals. So, 4.5 gals in the mash minus 1 gal left in the grain means my sparge would be 3.5 gals. If am I better off splitting that in half and sparging each bag separately or sparging them one after the other in the same 3.5 gals?
Also, I dont really have a pot big enough to sparge 6.5 lbs of grain in 3.5 gals of water. Do you think I could heat the water in the stove and transfer it to a 6.5 gal fermentation bucket for the sparge?

Thanks for all the info so far and I look forward to your thoughts on the above.

rtockst said:

t . . . how hard is it to formulate your own recipes? I know I can think of something I would like to brew and know what types of grain and hops I might use, but as far as the amounts... I have no idea.

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look up some clone recipes of commercial examples you like, or just recipes of that style. that should get you in the ballpark.

++++ Stickie. This is a very educational thread with great photos. Come on, give it the glue...

I am in the boil using this method right now!! I missed my mash and sparge temps..oops. But I figure it takes a bit of practice to get everything down. Thanks for the awesome thread!:rockin:

Yeah, hitting your temps is probably the only difficult thing with this method (besides perhaps avoiding spills ). I'm sure it will turn out great. Glad to be of service

What is the down side to using this method vs some of the tower-like setups using mash tuns and stuff? Is there one?

You'll probably get better efficiency with some of the other systems.

Thanks for getting my all grain addiction started DeathBrewer. I used your method as the starting point for my first all grain batch today. Here's how i did it...
I have 2 five gallon pots and I was brewing a tripel so I had to modify your techniques a little. I started with 2.5 gallons in each of my pots and brought them up to 160F. My target mash temp was 148. After splitting my 14lbs of grain into two even amounts I put a bag and grains in each pot and hit 149F in each pot. I covered the pots and put them in a large cooler. After 75 mins the temp was down to 144 so next time I will pre heat the cooler. While the grains were mashing I started heating 3 gals of sparge water. The trouble here was that I had to split the sparge into 3 different pots so hitting 185F in all three pots was hard.
When the mash was done I poured the sparge water into a 5 gal brewing bucket and put both bags of grains in there. The temp dropped quickly and by the end of 10 minute sparge I was down to 155. I split the sparge water between the two wort pots and ended up with just over 3.5 gals in each. I brought the wort to a boil and added my hops.
In the end I had a 1.082 og which is 72% efficiency, not bad for my first attempt. I was planning on 65% but shot at the lower end of the style in case I did better than expected.
Things I will do differently next time...
1. Pre heat the cooler so I maintain mash temp better.
2. Get a pot big enough to heat all of my sparge water in, using 3 different pots was hard, but, the way my brew bucket sparge vessel dropped temp I could have just gotten all 3 pots boiling, poured them in the bucket and let it sit for a few minutes to get down to 185.
3. Insulate my sparge bucket so it is much easier to hit my sparge temp - I could not keep the temp of that bucket up.
4. Use more sparge water or sparge each bag of grain separately - I ended up slowing my boil in the last 30 mins so not to boil too much away. I could have started each pot with with 4 gals to boil and ended with 2.5 gals after 60 mins - I have a very hot gas stove.
I'm a little concerned about meeting my target fg of 1.014 so that's why the low mash temp but that's not important in this thread.
Next up is an IPA with 14.5 lbs of grain so it doesn't get any easier.

Many thanks to DB for this thread. This past Sunday I completed my 3rd 5gal. batch with this method and I love it. I managed to get 6.25 gallons to a rolling boil (biggest volume yet), however I usually keep the lid partially on in order to achieve the rolling boil and it gets all foamy and rises. This time I decided not to cover it in order to avoid potential off flavors from the condensation dripping off the lid. I still achieved a rolling boil, but it wasn't as vigorous as I'm used to with the lid partially on. There wasn't a heady foam billowing toward the edge of the pot as usual. It was a little foamy, but it reminded me more of boiling pasta water in terms of its characteristics. So I'm wondering how, if in any way, this might affect the beer's outcome.
Also, I've done a quick internet search and wasn't able to find it, but perhaps someone here can answer this: how do I calculate the efficiency of my conversion? Is there a simple formula, or are you using software like beersmith to calculate it?

I am trying this method out this weekend. Got most of the equipment over the weekend and ordered all of the ingredient yesterday. All I need is one last trip to the LHBS on Thursday to pick up a couple of remaining items. brew day is Saturday. This is the recipe I am trying:

English Mild
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.43 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 79.91 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 11.42 %
0.25 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 5.71 %
0.13 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.97 %
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 17.0 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.035 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.19 %
Bitterness: 20.4 IBU
Est Color: 18.0 SRM

Great post! I've been interested in trying out some small batch SMaSH beers to get more acquainted with different hop profiles. This looks like a perfect and simple approach.

DB this is a super-awesome post and is definitely the technique I will use for my next batch which will be my 3rd (still at the extract stage).

But I have a question, and maybe this is more of a general question unrelated to your specific technique. But is there any technical reason why the hops need to be boiled *with* the wort? In a case like this, were you have limited space/capabilities, could you boil the hops in a separate amount of water (still according to the recipe's hop schedule) then add that hop water to wort (which would also be cooled down by the time the hops were done).

I found this link: http://selfsufficientish.com/index.php/home-brew/206-simple-and-cheap-beer-made-with-real-hops and it appears he is doing the hop boiling separately.

Is the rationale for boiling the hops with the wort that if you don't the wort is vulerable to infection? Is that a reasonable concern or is it over-cautious?

From what I understand, you won't get the utilization without wort. While it's true that the thicker the wort, the lower the utilization, it also doesn't work well in water.

Just ran a search and found this:

http://***********/stories/wizard/article/section/121-mr-wizard/867-how-can-i-get-better-hop-utilization

On the surface this may seem like an easy question. Since hop utilization decreases as wort gravity increases it seems logical that one solution to the dilemma faced by extract brewers who boil concentrated wort is to boil the hops separately. This may sound attractive but one downside to this is that the quality of the bitterness and the extraction of plant substances from the hops are reportedly different when hops are boiled in water compared to boiling in wort, and the differences are not for the better.

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I am in the middle of my second attempt at this method. I will say that practice definitely helps here...I missed all my temps on my first attempt but this time I am being more patient and it is working fantastic! Mashing at the moment at a steady 152 degrees for the past 30 mins!!

Deathbrewer kicks a**!!

Also, I have been RDWHAHB for the past hour so maybe I am more excited about it than last time!

UTbrewer said:

I have been RDWHAHB for the past hour

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awesome :rockin:

I too must commend you Death on a fine tutorial. I did my first AG last Saturday with this method and I have an English Mild (well sort of FG was a bit high at 1.040, but it is beer) fermenting away as we speak. I am planning a second brew maybe this weekend.

I have a question. I want to try using this technique, but I need a grain bag. I was going to place an order with Austin Homebrew, but they don't have the exact same size bag as you used. There is a large coarse nylon bag (20" x 22") and a jumbo coarse nylon bag (18" x 32"). Which of these two would you recommend? Or should I get something else entirely??

Thank you.

Either one would work but I would go bigger. The only problem you might have is fitting an 18" bag around your pot, but I think it will work.

Instead of those overpriced grain bags, I really like the paint strainer bags you can buy in 2-packs from Home Depot or Lowes. It costs $2-$3 for two of them.

What I like to do is layer two of them on the pot. The first one I use to mash the grains, and the second stays in when I pull the grains out, and receives my hops additions when I bring it to a boil.

Many people go with the paint strainer bags and they seem to work well. That's a great suggestion.

If I get a paint strainer bag, do I want the 5-gallon size?

Thanks.

Yes, get the 5 gallon size. You'll find them with the paint sprayers.

i have harvested 110 gallons of wheat on the small farm i live on and (newbie to all grain) was wondering if i can use the wheat to make a beer with?

Hell yeah! Raw wheat makes for a great Witbier!!

I'm interested in trying this but still not sure I'm up for it. I collected my thoughts and had a few questions which I don't think were covered here (if so, apologies in advance):

1. If you were to try this for the first time, what might be a good style to start with? Off the top of my head I thought a recipe kit with a low grain weight to make it physically easier. But would lighter brews be easier than darker ones?
2. Should this only be attempted if you know the numbers or formulas? For example, I read the part about determining the amount of water and I think it was related to calcs found using ProMash. What if you're not using something like that or don't understand all the numbers yet. Should you just stay away for a while? Or can I just go with the approximate values and still be fine?
3. This was probably covered but where to the specialty grains fit in the process? I don't remember seeing that and many of the kits I look at include them.
4. Any tips on pouring? One physical aspect that has me concerned is transferring a lot of hot liquid to / from other containers. I've seen too many incidents with hot liquids and I have a healthy concern about transfers.

pretzelb said:

I'm interested in trying this but still not sure I'm up for it. I collected my thoughts and had a few questions which I don't think were covered here (if so, apologies in advance):

1. If you were to try this for the first time, what might be a good style to start with? Off the top of my head I thought a recipe kit with a low grain weight to make it physically easier. But would lighter brews be easier than darker ones?
2. Should this only be attempted if you know the numbers or formulas? For example, I read the part about determining the amount of water and I think it was related to calcs found using ProMash. What if you're not using something like that or don't understand all the numbers yet. Should you just stay away for a while? Or can I just go with the approximate values and still be fine?
3. This was probably covered but where to the specialty grains fit in the process? I don't remember seeing that and many of the kits I look at include them.
4. Any tips on pouring? One physical aspect that has me concerned is transferring a lot of hot liquid to / from other containers. I've seen too many incidents with hot liquids and I have a healthy concern about transfers.

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I have only done this once (try number 2 this weekend ), but I will try to help. My experience before this was 1 extract beer, so if I can make the switch I think just about anyone can.

1) I would definately try a smaller beer (or even do less than 5 gallons) for a first time. Less grain means smaller volume require for the mash and sparge pots as well as easier when draining the bag as it gets heavy. As for darker beers over lighter ones, it doesn't matter. Darkness (color) of the beer is determined from the type of grains put in and not the amount of grains. My first attempt was a 2.5 gallon English Mild. Nice rich brown color and an estimated OG of 1.035 (ended up at 1.040). Smaller beers = smaller OG.

2)Do you need to know the formulas? Kinda, there is a little leeway, but not a lot. My suggestion would be to download the trial of Beersmith. That is the program I use and it helps a lot figuring out what amounts of water and with recipe creation. Especially with AG brewing, software is a huge helpful tool.

3)Specialty grains go into the Mash Pot along with all the other grains. Basically the grains you mash in with will be all the grains for the recipe (base + specialty)

4)As for pouring, all I can say is do it carefully. I just poured from one pot to the other with a little help from my girlfriend. Take it slow and you should be fine. As for transferring into my primary after cooling I use an auto-siphon.

I hope that helps.

This is great thread... Havent read through all of it, so not sure if this has already come up, but Im wandering why it hasn't been made a sticky already...

Hey DB, just wanted to thank you for this tutorial. It helped me to start my AG adventure this past weekend. I used a similar style to yours, except my boil kettle is too small, so I had to tweak a few things here and there. If you're curious as to how I did it, check it out: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/all-grain-brewing-extract-brewing-equipment-pics-142648/

Thanks again!