Done with kits

[Wingnutt73]

See I guess this is where i am getting confused because I do use grain in a Bag. But I guess not to the same amount. I have added to them for my own experience and experimentations. IE I dry hopped one and have added some other flavoring ingredients to another. Both turned out great.

I understand I should take it slow and I am studing on the how to's and what not. I'm currently reading "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd Edition" I guess I feel like it has been stated in this thread that I am reading and following someone elses instructions and want to make the whole process more my own.

I was planning on starting 2 more batches this weekend. I may just stick with the kits again and try and experiment more with them this time around. Thanks again.

 

[andy6026]

no intention of hijacking the thread here, but i am also reading The Complete Joy... (3rd) and am finding it quite disappointing. There seems to be enough left out that had I relied solely on it and my common sense I'd have a disaster fermenting in my basement right now.

 

[BansheeRider]

I am afraid to do all grain. Also I don't know what kind of equipment I need to do it. It all seems confusing, even partial mash. I've done about 4 extract kits and would like to try all grain. It seems I need a lot of money too just to get started.

 

[dstranger99]

I love BIAB !! I even got a 7.5 gallon Turkey fryer to use on my next one, and will use my old BK to sit the bag in after the mash....My first BIAB is ready to bottle this Saturday 3/23.

 

[dstranger99]

See I guess this is where i am getting confused because I do use grain in a Bag.

You may be referring to steeping the grains, and not mashing.... ??

 

[dstranger99]

I know. But there are a lot of recipes I've looked into that call for 1.5 lb. of LME. I go to the brew store and see 3.3 lb cans. So, do I just not make that recipe? Do I waste $5 of LME?

Then don't use LME, use DME and just weigh out the amount you will need.

 

[DougK]

I am afraid to do all grain. Also I don't know what kind of equipment I need to do it. It all seems confusing, even partial mash. I've done about 4 extract kits and would like to try all grain. It seems I need a lot of money too just to get started.

If you have a kettle large enough for full boils, all you need is a cheap strainer bag (some people use paint strainer bags) to do a brew in a bag all grain brew.

 

[unionrdr]

...or if you only have,say,a 5 gallon kettle,then do what I do-partial boil,partial mash BIAB. I do 5lbs of grains (about 50% of fermentables that equals about 3lbs of DME),& 3lb DME or 3.3lbs LME at flame out to get OG's from 1.044-1.055. With nothing more added to my equipement than a 5G paint strainer bag & a cake cooling rack to go in the bottom of the pot so the bag/grains don't burn.
*Almost forgot,another member listed this handy conversion chart y'all will find handy-http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/
Also look at my today's post in the thread "how many liters in a gallon" for some handy conversion formulas.

 

[Clonefan94]

I am afraid to do all grain. Also I don't know what kind of equipment I need to do it. It all seems confusing, even partial mash. I've done about 4 extract kits and would like to try all grain. It seems I need a lot of money too just to get started.

All-grain is a lot more intimidating than it should be. I was the same way as you. I put it off, in belief that someday I would be able to sit in on someone else's brew day and get a feel for it. Well, my kids' sports and the one guy I know who does all-grains schedules could never meet up. Finally, he just told me to do it. Gave me links to the water calculators, etc and picked out an easy recipe to get started on. I haven't looked back.

Granted, there are still a ton of things I still am learning, but it honestly made me enjoy the process of brewing even more. It adds about 2 hours on to my brew day, but honestly, the options it has opened up on recipe tuning and refinement have been invaluable.

 

[BansheeRider]

...or if you only have,say,a 5 gallon kettle,then do what I do-partial boil,partial mash BIAB. I do 5lbs of grains (about 50% of fermentables that equals about 3lbs of DME),& 3lb DME or 3.3lbs LME at flame out to get OG's from 1.044-1.055. With nothing more added to my equipement than a 5G paint strainer bag & a cake cooling rack to go in the bottom of the pot so the bag/grains don't burn.
*Almost forgot,another member listed this handy conversion chart y'all will find handy-http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/
Also look at my today's post in the thread "how many liters in a gallon" for some handy conversion formulas.

I am interested in doing this since I have a 5 gal BK. Can you steer me in the right direction as to where I can learn to do this? I'm trying not to hijack this thread I also have the 5 gal paint strainer bags that I use for straining my wort.

 

[unionrdr]

I am interested in doing this since I have a 5 gal BK. Can you steer me in the right direction as to where I can learn to do this? I'm trying not to hijack this thread I also have the 5 gal paint strainer bags that I use for straining my wort.

I started doing it with midwests' PM Cascade Pale Ale kit with premium yeast. They list all the ingredients by type & weight as well. So I just started using my mixtures of their 5lbs of grains with either 3lbs of plain DME or 3.3lbs of plain LME. Midwests' directions are pretty good. But the one thing I changed was adding the LME at the end as a late extract addition. Since 50% of the fermentables come from the freshly mashed wort,I just use that for all hop additions. It keeps the color light & the flavors clean. That is one well balanced pale ale kit for $25! Feel free to PM me when you do try PM for on the spot help...
By the way,I mashed their 5lbs of grains in 2 gallons of spring water,sparged with 1.5 gallons of same for a 3.5 gallon boil. This is PB/PM BIAB after all. I top up with ice cold spring water in the fermenter to total recipe volume.

 

[BansheeRider]

I started doing it with midwests' PM Cascade Pale Ale kit with premium yeast. They list all the ingredients by type & weight as well. So I just started using my mixtures of their 5lbs of grains with either 3lbs of plain DME or 3.3lbs of plain LME. Midwests' directions are pretty good. But the one thing I changed was adding the LME at the end as a late extract addition. Since 50% of the fermentables come from the freshly mashed wort,I just use that for all hop additions. It keeps the color light & the flavors clean. That is one well balanced pale ale kit for $25! Feel free to PM me when you do try PM for on the spot help...
By the way,I mashed their 5lbs of grains in 2 gallons of spring water,sparged with 1.5 gallons of same for a 3.5 gallon boil. This is PB/PM BIAB after all. I top up with ice cold spring water in the fermenter to total recipe volume.

Awesome easy enough. I go on their website now and see what the instructions say and I'll probably piece together the recipe at my LHBS. Thanks again!

 

[unionrdr]

One more thing-I also place a cake cooling rack in the bottom of my SS BK/MT to keep the bag & grains from burning on the bottom.

 

[BansheeRider]

One more thing-I also place a cake cooling rack in the bottom of my SS BK/MT to keep the bag & grains from burning on the bottom.

I looked at the instructions and it appears I need 3 pots. I only have one 5 gal kettle. I'm not sure if I have two more pots large enough for mashing and sparging. What does your cooling rack look like? Also why do I have to put the grains in a bag? Why can't I just poor the grains freely into the mashing pot since I have to use a strainer anyways?

 

[unionrdr]

You could,but that's why you'd need 3 pots instead of the 2 I use. The cake cooling rack is just a round wire grill-like thing that'll fit in the bottom of my BK/MT. Then the bag goes in. The paint strainer bag is rolled around the lip of the kettle. I then lash my floating thermometer to one of the kettles handles & inside the pot to keep an eye on mash water temp. After stiring the grains to get out dough balls,& get them evenly wetted,I cover it & wrap it up in my hooded thinsulate lined winter hunting coat for the 1 hour mash.
I use a 3G kettle to heat sparge water while it's mashing. Two kettles instead of three.

 

[BansheeRider]

You could,but that's why you'd need 3 pots instead of the 2 I use. The cake cooling rack is just a round wire grill-like thing that'll fit in the bottom of my BK/MT. Then the bag goes in. The paint strainer bag is rolled around the lip of the kettle. I then lash my floating thermometer to one of the kettles handles & inside the pot to keep an eye on mash water temp. After stiring the grains to get out dough balls,& get them evenly wetted,I cover it & wrap it up in my hooded thinsulate lined winter hunting coat for the 1 hour mash.
I use a 3G kettle to heat sparge water while it's mashing. Two kettles instead of three.

When mashing do you have to cover the pot? The instructions say a thermometer is not needed, just don't boil the water.

 

[ericbw]

I like your food analogy way better than mine!

And when you think about it, who is getting their sugar from cane or beets to make cookies? Milling your own flour? Churning butter? No, most of us buy the things that require a lot of work to get. It's the same with extract vs grain.

Still, I think it's odd that the cans with hopped LME are called "kits" because it's really more like "mix" or something. A kit should mean a box with the components in it: DME/LME/base grains, specialty grains, hops, yeast, adjuncts. But the key factor is that you put it together.

 

[unionrdr]

When mashing do you have to cover the pot? The instructions say a thermometer is not needed, just don't boil the water.

Boy,those instructions ar really missleading. going over 170F is def not good for the mash. Or steeping either,for that matter. Mash temps start at like 147F,& go up to 160F. The higher the temp,the less fermentables. Covering the pot during the mash holds heat in. I wrap it up to keep the mash temp where I want it. You need a thermometer to tell what the mash temp is,which is way below boiling. You can't tell just by looking at it.

 

[WannabeBeerNerd]

I do it with 2 pots also, a 3 gallon to mash and my 7.5 to heat up the sparge water and boil. The 3 gallon holds 6lbs grain and 2 gallons water perfectly with almost no head space and I only lose 2 degrees during an hour mash using a few towels to insulate it. Guess I technically use a third"pot" to hold the bag off to the side when I'm done and then add whatever seeps out to the boil.
I thinks it's in the beginning brewing forum as a sticky, but DeathBrewer has an excellent pictorial tutorial that cleared up a lot of the confusion for me and made BIAB an easy next step with almost no added investment...$4 for paint strainer bags and $50 for the 7.5 pot (and a burner should I ever need it) both at Home Depot

 

[Ridire]

I guess I don't have a problem with kits, per se. When I agreed with the OP, I was really saying that I am done being 100% dependent on extract brewing because I find it limits my ability to do recipes that are not kits. I want the ability to do all grain so that I can really follow a recipe with no compromises. That is why I tried a BIAB batch my last beer. It went pretty smoothly, assuming the beer turns out alright (it is in fermenter right now). I am planning to get/make a tun but if the BIAB turns out really well, I will be in no hurry to go with the tun (I don't plan to go bigger than 5 gallon batches anytime soon).

 

[unionrdr]

Ok,that makes more sense to me. But the only thing that bugs me about BIAB is the finer crush needed for it to get good efficiency. I don't have a grain crusher. I've been using an old mini food processor half filled with grain. Then pulse three times,about 2 seconds per pulse. This gets great efficiency. Come fridge time,the clear bottles of beer get wicked chill haze that's still slightly present even after 3 weeks fridge time. So I finally broke down & ordered some Five Star Super Moss to settle that stuff out long before bottles get involved.
I def need a grain crusher to get a more accurate crush for BIAB. That's the only limitation of BIAB. you can't keep vorlauffing to set the grain bed as you would in a regular mash tun. So the crush becomes critical in my experiences.

 

[Ridire]

Ok,that makes more sense to me. But the only thing that bugs me about BIAB is the finer crush needed for it to get good efficiency. I don't have a grain crusher. I've been using an old mini food processor half filled with grain. Then pulse three times,about 2 seconds per pulse. This gets great efficiency. Come fridge time,the clear bottles of beer get wicked chill haze that's still slightly present even after 3 weeks fridge time. So I finally broke down & ordered some Five Star Super Moss to settle that stuff out long before bottles get involved.
I def need a grain crusher to get a more accurate crush for BIAB. That's the only limitation of BIAB. you can't keep vorlauffing to set the grain bed as you would in a regular mash tun. So the crush becomes critical in my experiences.

Thanks to this board, I learned that (a little late but still learned it). My efficiency on the first BIAB attempt was only about 63%. I had no idea why. People on this board were nearly unanimous in the belief that it was the crush of the grain. I have since purchased a mill.

 

[unionrdr]

That,& I also learned that stirring the mash to get the grains evenly wetted was also part of getting good efficiency. Live & learn...