Easy Stovetop All-Grain Brewing (with pics)

[magnj]

I took tea-bag a little too literally. I actually dunked the bag repeatedly for 5 minutes. I also mashed for only 45 minutes. I'm confident that next time I can get higher efficiency that 60%. Thanks for the great write up!

 

[darkestdays]

This is pretty cool!

I need to get the additional brew kettle, but I will have to try this in the future.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I took tea-bag a little too literally. I actually dunked the bag repeatedly for 5 minutes. I also mashed for only 45 minutes. I'm confident that next time I can get higher efficiency that 60%. Thanks for the great write up!

Don't dunk the bag. Let it sit. 45 minutes should probably do it, but 60 minutes will ensure better conversion. Also, let it sit in the sparge water for 10 minutes after stirring. This will help extract more from the grains.

 

[magnj]

Don't dunk the bag. Let it sit. 45 minutes should probably do it, but 60 minutes will ensure better conversion. Also, let it sit in the sparge water for 10 minutes after stirring. This will help extract more from the grains.

Ok, any ill effects from dunking or just poor efficiency? Next time I will definitely mash longer. I've read about strips to test conversion, what are they called?

 

[DeathBrewer]

any ill effects? just temp loss and bad mixing. It's better to let it flow around inside the pot than keep it scrunched up in the bag.

never used the strips. you can use iodophor to do a conversion test. me thinks there be a post about that in this thread, but i'm too druck right now to look for it. soryy

 

[magnj]

lol ok thanks .

 

[like2brew]

awesome post! very informative and thanks for the pics

 

[Indy418]

Great Post!

I'm thinking about making the jump to AG. I want to start off with some smaller batches, maybe 2.5 gal. to get going on my stove top.

Just a question--if I do a mini-mash like that 2.5 gal. how much water should I sparge with, or doesn't it matter? I know I'll steep my grains in 1.25 qt per lbs. of grain...but I'm not sure how much to steep in, or what my overall boil will be.

BeerSmith has been some help, but I'm still learning how to navigate.

Thanks-and great post!

 

[magnj]

@Indy418 From one noob to another, I think it is 150% of the mash volume. So for 5lbs that's 6.75qt mash and then 10.125 qt sparge for a boil volume of roughly 17qt or 4.25g.

@Deathbrewer Thanks again for this, I've just bottled my last two beers brewed with this method and they tasted great. I use a cooler to mash in and I've reached 70% on my second try.

 

[rocketman768]

Just a question--if I do a mini-mash like that 2.5 gal. how much water should I sparge with, or doesn't it matter? I know I'll steep my grains in 1.25 qt per lbs. of grain...but I'm not sure how much to steep in, or what my overall boil will be.

You first need to figure out what your boil-off rate is (mine is 0.6 gal/hr). So for me, I would need to end up with 2.5+0.6 gallons after collecting mash and sparge water for a 1 hr boil. If you are going to fix the mash at 1.25 qt/lb, then you know how much water is being added to the mash. But, about 0.110 gallons of mash water will be absorbed into each pound of grain, so you figure in that loss. Then, you would sparge with the volume of water that would get you to your boil volume (in my case 2.5+0.6 gal) since there will be no absorption of sparge water by the grain at this point.

 

[DeathBrewer]

.6 gal/hr is a pretty low boil-off. I get over a gallon, even with my light boil at the apartment. So figure 1 gallon boil-off, .1 gal/lb absorption (and round up), etc.

So for a 2.5 gallon batch with 5 lbs of grain (at 1.25qt/lb), you would want a total of 4 gallons (2.5 + 0.5 + 1):

6.25 quarts for mash water
9.75 quarts sparge water

If you want to round off (which I always do with this method), go with 1.5 gallons mash water and 2.5 gallons sparge.

I'm not longer at the apartment, btw...I move the last of my stuff out today. I think my days of stovetop brewing are just about over. I did use this method for an all-grain "house ale" in celebration of my move into the new place...I just used a burner.

EDIT: Get a nice rolling boil going and keep some bottled water around to top-off, if necessary. It'll help with cooling, too, if you keep it in the fridge.

 

[Indy418]

Deathbrewer on the new place! I'm glad you posted all your stove-top secrets before you decided to move on up.

Movin' on up... doo doo doot do...

 

[messler]

Hey... I've used a coffee grinder now a few times using this method and it's turned out fantastic. Just thought I'd let anyone who's contemplating the coffee ginder route (using this method) that it works great.

 

[whorida2002]

How do you know when the grains are done from the Mash? What does conversion look like? (Mush,thick water, etc) I tried a mini mash version and the water looked no different than if I steeped it.

 

[DeathBrewer]

You could do a conversion test (google: "conversion test iodine" or look in wiki) or take a gravity reading.

After an hour or so, conversion is probably complete using this method.

 

[whorida2002]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I went to Cal and lived in Oakland. I miss me some Top Dog!

 

[DeathBrewer]

I haven't had a good dog in a while. Might be on the agenda this weekend

 

[misteradam]

thanks a ton for this thread! I brewed my first batch of beer, all grain on the stovetop using this method. I was able to boil about 6.25 gallons of water on my electric burner for a full boil. It came out at a hair under 5 gallons, which I"m happy with.

The only thing I did wrong is pitch the yeast too hot.. my thermometer read 75, so i transferred and pitched the yeast, but it must have been in a cool spot, because my fermometer now is reading off the charts. It's a little warm to the touch.. i threw a wet towel over it, wet it with ice water and put it in a cold closet for the night.. hopefully it turns out O.K.

Thanks again for your tutorial, man!

-Adam:rockin:

 

[pizzaman]

HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAA

 

[Slainte]

DeathBrewer,

Bloody awsome post, thank you! I have brewed my last extract batch. After reading your post - I just put in an order and have 100 lbs of grain on its way. Can't wait to brew AG.

Go raibh míle maith agat! (Many thanks!)

Sláinte

 

[DeathBrewer]

HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAA

I was wondering when someone was going to comment on that

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

I'll never live in a Cul-de-Sac because it has Sac in it!

 

[pizzaman]

I was wondering when someone was going to comment on that

still laugh every time I look at it....

 

[DeathBrewer]

Looks like my threads are having a reunion, but I think it's about time I made another tutorial

 

[hcarter]

Why hasn't this one been sticky'd yet?

 

[DeathBrewer]

It was sticky'd once. Then it appears someone thought my partial mash thread was more important. Everyone still seems to be able to find it...I'm not concerned.

 

[Slainte]

Hey there DeathBrewer,

Question for ya: Once you are doughed in, and you are at your desired mash temp, you cover and wait. But do you shut the burner off, or down to low, or? All my grains showed up yesterday. I'll be brewing my first AG this weekend! Want to make sure to get it right.

Thanks again for the inspiration.

Slán go foill,

Sláinte

 

[mrjeffrey]

Great stuff. I'm also psyching myself up for my first ag. Sorry if this has been covered, but I was wondering if it would be possible to use an unmodified cooler as a mash tun and otherwise follow this method. Is there any reason you couldn't (or shouldn't) put the grains in a bag into the cooler with the strike water and mash there (assuming you could keep a steady temp). Then take the whole bag out, put the wort in a pot, and then sparge in the cooler. Then combine the wort and boil from there. I'm wondering if this would accommodate more grain and hence allow for a higher o.g. for stronger beers.

I was just trying to brainstorm ways to do a bigger beer with a 5 gallon pot. My other thought was to try a 3 gallon batch, but I wondered if after the sparge, you'd end up with too much wort and have to try to boil a lot off.

(I know it's not that difficult to make a proper mash tun, but I don't really want to go to the trouble just yet, and haven't completely figured out why all the sawed-up copper tubing is necessary.)

Thanks a lot. This thread and the partial mash one have been great inspirations for me.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Hey there DeathBrewer,

Question for ya: Once you are doughed in, and you are at your desired mash temp, you cover and wait. But do you shut the burner off, or down to low, or? All my grains showed up yesterday. I'll be brewing my first AG this weekend! Want to make sure to get it right.

Thanks again for the inspiration.

Slán go foill,

Sláinte

Turn your burner off. If you leave it on, covered, your temp will jump way up.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Great stuff. I'm also psyching myself up for my first ag. Sorry if this has been covered, but I was wondering if it would be possible to use an unmodified cooler as a mash tun and otherwise follow this method. Is there any reason you couldn't (or shouldn't) put the grains in a bag into the cooler with the strike water and mash there (assuming you could keep a steady temp). Then take the whole bag out, put the wort in a pot, and then sparge in the cooler. Then combine the wort and boil from there. I'm wondering if this would accommodate more grain and hence allow for a higher o.g. for stronger beers.

I was just trying to brainstorm ways to do a bigger beer with a 5 gallon pot. My other thought was to try a 3 gallon batch, but I wondered if after the sparge, you'd end up with too much wort and have to try to boil a lot off.

(I know it's not that difficult to make a proper mash tun, but I don't really want to go to the trouble just yet, and haven't completely figured out why all the sawed-up copper tubing is necessary.)

Thanks a lot. This thread and the partial mash one have been great inspirations for me.

Sure, it would work, but with conversions costing less than $40 with 30 minutes of effort, I would get that thing converted. You can buy kits from morebeer, northern brewer, austin homebrew or make it yourself for half the money.

My method is not intended for doing bigger beers. If I were doing a bigger beer with this method, I would use extract and step it up over time (add extract after fermentation begins.)

I use my cooler for bigger beers