Experimental batches?!

[ThirstyNomad]

Hi -

Can someone give me any tips on how they experiment with various brews? For example - I want to play around with some porters and stouts. Do you halve/quarter batches, perfect that - then move to larger batch sizes?

Cheers,

Sean

 

[jppostKW]

i do kitchen all grain test batches using a 2 gallon round cooler mlt i got for 10 bucks i converted it with a braid same way that flyguy did his 10 gallon and a 12 quart pot for 1.5 gallon brews in split 1 gallon growlers. use beer smith to make recipes if i like it i will scale up to 5 gallons if not im out 10 bucks. sometimes i will split the 1.5 gallon batch and use different yeasts in the growlers or ferment at different temps. dry hop one etc.

 

[CharlosCarlies]

My normal batches are 10g and I often do 5g batches for recipe testing. I just tried BIAB on my stove-top the other night and it was quite enjoyable, so I might start doing that since it saved me about an hour compared to a normal brew day.

 

[ThirstyNomad]

Thank-you, some great ideas there.

 

[14thstreet]

i do kitchen all grain test batches using a 2 gallon round cooler mlt...and a 12 quart pot for 1.5 gallon brews in split 1 gallon growlers.

I am thinking about doing this as well. What amounts of grain are you able to mash, how much water are you using for the mash and for sparges?

 

[HarkinBanks]

I do 1 gallon BIAB all grain test batches on my stove. They are really easy and get great efficiency. I just scale the recipe down from 5 gallons to 1 gallon. The Northern Brewer website and the Brewing Classic Styles book are great places to get some ideas for recipes that I might not want to brew 5 gallons but want to try. I can get a stovetop BIAB 1 gallon batch done in a shade over 2 hrs. I buy my grain and hops in bulk so I can do a quick brew after work. I ferment in all sorts of 1 gallon PET-1 bottles.

I dough in at my strike temp, cover, put the pot in the oven at 150 degrees to hold the mash temp. After an hour, take out the pot, heat to mash-out at 170 degrees, stir, remove the grain sack and let it drain the entire boil suspended on my cabinet. Then boil, add hops, chill, pitch and ferment as usual. It's a great way to test a beer quickly and without a ton of effort.

 

[jppostKW]

@ 14th street I did a smoked porter and mashed 4 lbs of grain for a starting gravity of 1.071. 1.25 quart per pound dough in with 5 qts. mash out with a little over a quart of 180 and batch sparge with 4.5 quarts for 2.10 gallons in the kettle my boil off rate is higher in this setup than with my 5 gallon setup.

 

[14thstreet]

Thanks guys. That looks to be around 70-71% efficiency for that smoked porter, not bad at all. I've never done BIAB before, yet alone no-sparge brewing. I'd like to keep batch sparging so if I do find a recipe I like, I can easily scale up and expect something similar or something I can control for in my process.

 

[HarkinBanks]

You'd get 74.5% efficiency with BIAB, and a lot less effort

Come on, I know you want to try it....sparging is so last year.

 

[jppostKW]

You'd get 74.5% efficiency with BIAB, and a lot less effort

Come on, I know you want to try it....sparging is so last year.

maybe last millennium

 

[HarkinBanks]

maybe last millennium

.....totally last millennium :fro:

 

[14thstreet]

Yeah, I know. Gotta change one thing at a time, I'm still young and stupid, or old and stubborn?