My First Partial Mash Brew

After looking at the site I thought I would post my first brew.

I am following the Double Daphne recipe from Ken Shales “Brewing Better Beers” Book, my parents gave me. The book was tried and tested by my parents over 5 years, Christmas could be messy, and gives recipe for making good drinkable beers from DMS.

The beer is the simplest in the book and was recommended by my Dad as a good starting point for home brewing. The author says it is not a light ale, nor a proper pale ale, or a bitter. Original gravity is stated to be 1.052, and my mum says it comes out around 5 to 7%.

Ingredients (U.K. Units)

Makes 4 Gallons

3/4lb. Crystal malt (pre-cracked)
2lb. D.M.S
2oz. Hops (Kent Goldings)
3lb. Granulated sugar (from supermarket)

Good ale yeast

Water treatment: 1 level teaspoon full of plaster of Paris

Step 1
Boil all water for mash for 15 minutes.

Step 2
Take 1 1/2 gallons or more of water (my boiler needed more to operate, so I used 3 gallons). Add all but the sugar to the water bringing to the boil, and hold for 30 minutes.

N.a.
I have a mashing boiler, and uses a spargeing bag to stop ingredients burning to the element. However I would add the DMS slowly as the mash boils, so it dissolves quickly and doesn’t sink to the bottom of the boiler.

If using a pan, keep stirring the mash to stop the ingredients burning, and add the DMS slowly as above.

Step 3
Strain off onto the sugar making up to 4 gallons washing the grains with some of the water.

Step 4
Cool to 25 C and add the yeast as directed.

Step 5
After 24 hours skim off the foam, after that checking 2 times a day and skimming as needed.

Step 6
After 7 days siphon off in to air locked 1 or 2 gallon demijohns and leave a week.

Step 7
Bottle adding 1/2 to 1 tea spoon of granulated sugar. Bottle condition for a minimum of 10 days, but best after 3 weeks to a month.


At the moment I have got It happily fermenting away, and will pots back when it is time to rake it into the demijohns.

Ken Shales “Brewing Better Beers” book is a real got start to home brewing if you can get it (seen 1 copy on Amazon UK).My parents and there friends can recommend most of the beers.

If you have any questions, pleases pop up a post.

Dave

Dave, I wish you the best on your quest. That book is ancient though, with LOTS of outdated advice. If you are looking to expand your knowledge, go to www.howtobrew.com Its a free internet based book and would be a better resource to learn from.

BigB Thanks for the link. Good information, especially about the hopping units.

All I know is it is quite drinkable, by 80’s standards, and it was a better bet than a brew kit.

The primary fermentation went well, needed a good skimming after 24hr and 1 to 2 times a day after that. After the 6th to 7th day the fermentation visibly slowed, 1/2 to 1/4 less foaming.

Raked off into 1 gallon (UK) demijohns , which have been bubbling nicely for 4 days.


N.B.

As all good plans this was thrown together with a friend over a day or 2, so if it taste ok I am a happy man.

The link you gave and the cost of DMS will get me full grain brewing in no time.

BigB said:

Dave, I wish you the best on your quest. That book is ancient though, with LOTS of outdated advice. If you are looking to expand your knowledge, go to www.howtobrew.com Its a free internet based book and would be a better resource to learn from.

Click to expand...

Actually the online version is even outdated at this point. It's the 1st edition. I think edition 3 is in print now. Plenty of information has been updated and some of the suggestions are serious changes to the process. Btw you dont need to scrape the foam off.. It falls back by itself.

You're directions seem a little odd. Are you actually boiling the grains for 30 minutes? In the future you probably want to steep them in 155 degree water then remove before the boil. You risk extracting tannins by boiling, although I see a lot of folks on here who accidentally boiled grain and it turned out okay.

Not quite sure I understand step 3 either. I guess by "strain off onto the sugar" it just means you put the sugar in the pot you are straining into? This step makes me think that you did boil the grains, otherwise you wouldn't be straining and rinsing grain at this point.

I take it DMS is a dry malt extract, most of us think dimethyl sufide when we hear DMS.

With the 60% table sugar it's probably going to be quite dry, and maybe a little cidery. That's a heck of a lot of your fermentables from sugar, but it's your beer so if you like it that's what counts.

One last suggestion, I think it's hard to get consistency measuring teaspoons of sugar per bottle. IMO you're better off batch priming or using Coopers drops or some such product.

chickypad said:

You're directions seem a little odd. Are you actually boiling the grains for 30 minutes? In the future you probably want to steep them in 155 degree water then remove before the boil. You risk extracting tannins by boiling, although I see a lot of folks on here who accidentally boiled grain and it turned out okay.

Not quite sure I understand step 3 either. I guess by "strain off onto the sugar" it just means you put the sugar in the pot you are straining into?

I take it DMS is a dry malt extract, most of us think dimethyl sufide when we hear DMS.

With the 60% table sugar it's probably going to be quite dry, and maybe a little cidery. That's a heck of a lot of your fermentables from sugar, but it's your beer so if you like it that's what counts.

One last suggestion, I think it's hard to get consistency measuring teaspoons of sugar per bottle. IMO you're better off batch priming or using Coopers drops or some such product.

Click to expand...

I think you missed the boat on this one. Sounds like its brewed already. I agree the instructions followed are very old fashioned. Get the new version of Palmers book and have some fun with it.

No I saw he already brewed it. I was trying to make suggestions for next time. He hasn't bottled yet it sounds like.

Thanks for the advices Draken and Chickypad.

Draken said:

Btw you dont need to scrape the foam off.. It falls back by itself.

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The book and my Dad recommended the skimming to limit the yeast taste of the finished beer, until I know what flavours I am after. Plenty of time to fun now I have the gear.

chickypad said:

You're directions seem a little odd. Are you actually boiling the grains for 30 minutes? In the future you probably want to steep them in 155 degree water then remove before the boil. You risk extracting tannins by boiling, although I see a lot of folks on here who accidentally boiled grain and it turned out okay.

Click to expand...

The recipe said to do it so I did, just till I fined my feet. Also the book was printed when getting hold of malted grains was very difficult. The crystal malt is supposed not to need its sugars converting by mashing due to the way it is processed.

chickypad said:

Not quite sure I understand step 3 either. I guess by "strain off onto the sugar" it just means you put the sugar in the pot you are straining into?.

Click to expand...

Yep that’s it. Pour the hot mash onto the sugar to dissolve it.

chickypad said:

I take it DMS is a dry malt extract, most of us think dimethyl sufide when we hear DMS.

Click to expand...

The DMS described in the book, is a type of syrup malt extract. I can not fined the meaning of the acronym at the min, However I think it has something to do with getting a type suitable for brewing, when home brewing had just got going in the U.K..

chickypad said:

With the 60% table sugar it's probably going to be quite dry, and maybe a little cidery. That's a heck of a lot of your fermentables from sugar, but it's your beer so if you like it that's what counts.

Click to expand...

After a bit of research, like I said I did it a bit on impulse and a dislike for paying duty, you can brew almost like the big beer companies. It really has come on leaps and bounds, £40 for 25kg of malted grains delivered to my door, and some of the European stuff you can get is gob smacking. Just give me 12 months!

chickypad said:

One last suggestion, I think it's hard to get consistency measuring teaspoons of sugar per bottle. IMO you're better off batch priming or using Coopers drops or some such product.

Click to expand...

Been looking into that and your advices sounds like the best plane for accuracy and simplicity.

I have just got my brewing notepad, thermometer, and hydrometer, so my next brew will be more accurate when I post it up.

Thanks ones more for the help and I will be posting the bottling step soon.

P.s.
The airlocks are slowing in there bubbling and the beer is clearing nicely. I did get a bit too much sediment in the last demijohn, but onwards and upwards.

Draken said:

Actually the online version is even outdated at this point. It's the 1st edition. I think edition 3 is in print now. Plenty of information has been updated and some of the suggestions are serious changes to the process. Btw you dont need to scrape the foam off.. It falls back by itself.

Click to expand...

You are right, it is a little out of date, but for the most part the information is pretty current. I just suggested it because it was free, more current than what he was using, and would provide a really solid foundation. But of course, the third edition would be even better... along with "Yeast" by Chris White and Jamil Z.

"DMS" Dried Malt Syrup? Just a guess considering the age of the book.

Mongzilla said:

BigB Thanks for the link. Good information, especially about the hopping units.

All I know is it is quite drinkable, by 80’s standards, and it was a better bet than a brew kit.

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Good to hear you are enjoying your beer. That is the important part, afterall. We all may be pretty opinionated as to the best or proper way to do things, but if you enjoy what you make, that is all that really matters! So enjoy the hobby, the learning process, and most of all the end result of your labors!

Not to Hog topics.

Ok, so my first, sort of, partly mash is working away and a couple of days off bottling, So I am looking to have ago at my first all grain brew partly mash.

The thing is, what to brew; seriously.

I like almost all beer, ale…est. Although I am not a fan of most stouts and porters.

I have very soft water, 0 I think on the u.k. scale so lager’s would be good. Howe ever I do not have the gear at the moment.

I am in the U.k. so and have found a good site for my ingredients (will post if I cannot get the item), so if the units are U.S. pleas state this ( no pun intended).

So what simple recipe would you recommend.

Mongzilla said:

Ok, so my first, sort of, partly mash is working away and a couple of days off bottling, So I am looking to have ago at my first all grain brew partly mash.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're looking for with "all grain brew partly mash". Your first batch was what we call "extract brewing". A partial mash contains grains that convert to fermentable sugars (using "base grain") and an all-grain brew would be made out of grain only.

Do you want a recipe with only grain, or do you want a recipe with some grain and some malt extracts?

If you specify which way you want to go, we can give you some excellent recipes!

Hi Yooper.

Yooper said:

I'm not sure what you're looking for with "all grain brew partly mash".

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Missed the "or" out from “all grain brew partly mash”, should have read all grain brew or partly mash. Had one too many when typing the post.

But after looking at more of the site I think all grain is what I would like to try.

Any more information, just ask.

Mongzilla said:

Hi Yooper.



Missed the "or" out from “all grain brew partly mash”, should have read all grain brew or partly mash. Had one too many when typing the post.

But after looking at more of the site I think all grain is what I would like to try.

Any more information, just ask.

Click to expand...

If you like Bass, here is a good recipe that is similar: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/bass-co-pale-ale-30388/

Thanks Yooper, looks good.

So I am going to brew 5.5 U.S. Gal of this ale, which will be around 4.25 U.k. Gal. From the notes in the post I can halve my grain bill to give me the correct ratios. Giving me the grain bill below:

9 lb of Pale Malt; 2 Row. (what dos 2 Row mean?)
1 / 2 of Crystal Malt.
0.75 Oz of Roast Barley.

I can not obtain the flaked corn or the honey malt, what could I replaces them with?

Apart from those 2, I can get all the rest of the ingredients for the recipe, Is it looking ok?

My other question is.

My mash tub has a thermostatically controlled electric heating element, and I uses a spargeing bag to holed my grains. The tub has to be filled to 3 a minimum U.k. Gal. to be safe to uses.

So would I be better using all of my water for the mash from the start, or calculating the spargeing water needed. I could push a 5 U.k. Gal. brew if it would be better, although room is a bit limited.

What advise could you give me on this.

Also could some one post some links to calculating; spargeing water mash water ratios and strike and spargeing water temperature. I can not get a search bar when I click the link.

Thanks

Well I bottled my first beer last Sunday, and its been sat for 6 day is a nice warm places, not too warm. Just another 8 days till I can have one and pop the rest in the cellar for a week of 3.

The beer looked and smell just fine during bottling , and the 20 year old crown capper worked a treat.

Had one screw-up; as I did not calculate my water loss and had to top one of the carboys up a bit. So my friend and I have 4 bottles of small beer and we were half a gallon shy of the 5 gallon target. Will chalk that one up to experience.

Post when I crack a bottle

Hi.

Just a quick update on my first brew:

I opened my first bottle after about 3 to 4 weeks of bottle conditioning. I think I opened the first bottle little bit too early as the beer was still slightly sweet, and carbonation was poor.

After about four or five weeks, had a spell of warmer weather, the beer was well carbonated, held a good head and was very drinkable.

The first couple of bottles were slightly sweet reminded me of Newcastle Brown ale. After around the 4 to 5 week mark the beer became much drier and crisper was still slightly more body and malty flavour than a larger.

I would give their SRM value for the colour of the beer to be about 20 to 21, but due to not being able to create a proper cold break the beer was still slightly cloudy and susceptible to freezer haze.

The order of the beer was a mild malty sent, and a hint grass from the hops. Due to the long hop boil some of the lighter notes of the hops were lost. But the beers sent was very pleasant and similar to other bought beers. I have had.

The first couple of bottles I opened to taste, were under condition and lacked carbonation. Due to some of the primer sugar not been converted by the yeast, the beer was slightly sweet with a nice mouth feel and enough body for this class of beer.

After the bottles that condition the 4 to 5 weeks, they were truly ready for drinking. When I popped the caps on the bottles. There was definitely plenty of carbon dioxide, leading to a reasonable head that lasted for about half a glass. Almost all of the sweetness had gone leaving a beer with a very dry finish but still a nice malty taste.

All in all I will say this is a very good beer, for anyone first starting out brewing. The process is very forgiving and requires only simple ingredients and equipment, but gives a very drinkable overall beer.

Hope this helps;
Dave.