Easy Stovetop All-Grain Brewing (with pics)

[DeathBrewer]

Oh god, another thing my girlfriend can be pissed at me for stock piling in my closet...random large rocks I find when hiking.

My friend talked about the exact rocks you're supposed to use. If I ever remember to talk to him about it, I'll post.

 

[agenthucky]

My friend talked about the exact rocks you're supposed to use. If I ever remember to talk to him about it, I'll post.

Awesome! Not only does it require a correct type of rock, I have to be able to find it!

Graywacke is the traditionally used rock from a historical perspective, but the requirements are:

(1) can take the thermal shock of being heated and cooled
and
(2) will not interact chemically with the wort itself.

Some rocks will change the pH quite a bit, along with rub off in the beer.

 

[EricT]

Used this method yesterday brewing my first AG, BM's Centennial Blonde Ale and it worked like a champ. A lot more work involved than using extract but fun regardless. Its been about 14 hours since I added yeast and the thing is bubbling like mad just fermenting away. Cant wait to try it. thanks for the tutorial Death Brewer.

 

[AirborneBrewer]

That look seriously easy. I'm at 30 day in primary on my first extract and I have two more kits to do. But you made AG look very simple to do without all the equipment. I think I'm going to try this after I finish my two kits. thanks DeathBrewer, you the man.:rockin:

 

[DeathBrewer]

Glad to hear some new people are trying it! Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[AirborneBrewer]

What recipe would your suggest I try for my first AG stove top?

 

[Grimster]

I jumped right in with an Imperial Stout, had lower than expected SG but the brew turned out fantastic, honestly probably the best beer I've ever had. And I drank them young too haha (I always seem to drink my brews young)

 

[DeathBrewer]

What recipe would your suggest I try for my first AG stove top?

It really doesn't matter...you can make any beer you want! What beers do you like?

 

[AirborneBrewer]

I like all beers. Looking to do something for the summer maybe Wheat.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Hefeweizen are some of my favorites. Standard Hefeweizen recipe:

6 lbs Wheat Malt
4 lbs Pilsner Malt
2 oz Aromatic Malt
Mash @ ~150°F

60 minute bittering addition of hops at ~10 IBUs.
Best hops are Tettnanger, Hallertau, Saaz, or any Noble-type Hops. Fuggle works well, too.

WLP300 with a starter for a nice fermentation. Ferment in the low 60s for clean flavor.

 

[agenthucky]

A better option is decoction. I don't see why you can't do this like a normal mash tun requires, but will likely have its difficulties. The amount of time it takes for decoction is something you have to not only consider for your brewday, but for your mash tun and the rest as well. When taking off a portion of your mash to boil, the part that is left is going to cool faster, and for the time it takes to rest and boil the decoction, will loose temperature. You might be able to compensate for this by pulling a bigger decoction to make up for the loss, but knowing exactally how much will take practice.

Just brewed a Dunkelweizen the way the Germans do it. Rather than 3, I just went with the double decoction. What a PITA, but man was it worth it. Large amounts of dark wheat and munich (and a little 6 row) for the decoction worked very well. I came out with 84% efficiency, there is a nice mellow caramelization, and it smells great. I did in fact have problems with losing heat in my mash tun while I was resting and boiling the decoction. To comepensate for this, I blindly just took a little more than I thought I needed, and if necessary, applied a small amount of heat to the mahing kettle. They all turned out spot on for hitting my temps, and I got way more conversion than I thought I would from a grain bill with a large portion of munich.

I was told using decoctions would raise the efficiency, but man, that's 14% more than I'm used to. This will now turn into sort of a dunkelweizenbock esque beer, but did I mention it smells great?

 

[AirborneBrewer]

Nice, I'll try this. Thanks DeathBrewer.

@agenthucky whats is decoction?

 

[tincob]

DeathBrewer,

You mentioned ~10 lbs of grain as the max you would do with this method.

I just ordered two kits, one that's 11 lbs of grain (IPA), the other 10.5 lbs (ESB).

If I go with a 24 quart SS pot to handle the greater volume, what other issues should I pay special attention to when going with more grain than your recommended range?

Looking forward to trying this out for my first two AG attempts.

 

[agenthucky]

DeathBrewer,

You mentioned ~10 lbs of grain as the max you would do with this method.

I just ordered two kits, one that's 11 lbs of grain (IPA), the other 10.5 lbs (ESB).

If I go with a 24 quart SS pot to handle the greater volume, what other issues should I pay special attention to when going with more grain than your recommended range?

Looking forward to trying this out for my first two AG attempts.

In a 22 qt. kettle, I've got away with like 12 lbs. You should be fine, you might be on the thick side of mashing, but for an IPA that isn't too bad. 10.5 will fit in no problem with a thinner mash. Use the calculators that Deathbrewer posts to calculate volumes and such, they are pretty spot on.

If you really want to make bigger beers with this method, just throw some extract in at the end of the boil to increase the gravity. The porportions are so heavy on the grain, that you won't even really taste the extract.

 

[jigidyjim]

Well the good news is that I now have my first all-grain brew in the fermenter, waiting for the yeast to take over.

The bad news is that brew day did not go well. First off, holding 10lbs of grain bag is really really hard. Secondly, I seriously miscalculated my sparge water, ending up with way too much, so I had to scoop some out before I could put the sparge bag in. Then, I still ended up with too much so I had to wait for some to boil off before I could put all the wort back in the main put. Finally, I still ended up somewhere .5->1 gallon too much for the batch.

So depending on how much over 5 gallons I was, I ended up with somewhere between 56% (5 gal) and 67% (6 gal) efficiency. I'm probably in the middle.

I got the blow-off tube setup, since now my primary doesn't have much head space at all!

I'm sort of torn as to whether I'll try this method again. Obviously I messed up with the sparge quantity, and next time, I'll under-sparge and top off the boil as needed. But the killer thing is just the weight of the 10lb grain bag - and that's only 10 lbs (although, I'd be nervous about going over 10lbs, that was already really close in a 5 gal pot with 1.3 q/lb). I think without a colander that I can balance on my pot, holding the grain bag just isn't the way to go...

So I dunno. I suppose if it ends up tasting amazing I'll try it again. Otherwise, the partial mash might be my technique of choice.

 

[Erythro73]

Well the good news is that I now have my first all-grain brew in the fermenter, waiting for the yeast to take over.

The bad news is that brew day did not go well. First off, holding 10lbs of grain bag is really really hard. Secondly, I seriously miscalculated my sparge water, ending up with way too much, so I had to scoop some out before I could put the sparge bag in. Then, I still ended up with too much so I had to wait for some to boil off before I could put all the wort back in the main put. Finally, I still ended up somewhere .5->1 gallon too much for the batch.

So depending on how much over 5 gallons I was, I ended up with somewhere between 56% (5 gal) and 67% (6 gal) efficiency. I'm probably in the middle.

I got the blow-off tube setup, since now my primary doesn't have much head space at all!

I'm sort of torn as to whether I'll try this method again. Obviously I messed up with the sparge quantity, and next time, I'll under-sparge and top off the boil as needed. But the killer thing is just the weight of the 10lb grain bag - and that's only 10 lbs (although, I'd be nervous about going over 10lbs, that was already really close in a 5 gal pot with 1.3 q/lb). I think without a colander that I can balance on my pot, holding the grain bag just isn't the way to go...

So I dunno. I suppose if it ends up tasting amazing I'll try it again. Otherwise, the partial mash might be my technique of choice.

Start lifting some weight? Just kidding.

What about using two grain bag? You separate them in 5 lbs and 5 lbs bag. That will be easier to lift, no doubt about it.

 

[phishfood]

Jigidyjim, did you use a mash paddle underneath the bag to help you hold it as DeathBrewer shows in his pics on the first page? That makes a world of difference for me.

 

[jigidyjim]

Jigidyjim, did you use a mash paddle underneath the bag to help you hold it as DeathBrewer shows in his pics on the first page? That makes a world of difference for me.

I have a metal brewing spoon - i tried using it for a second but it didn't help much, so I gave up, maybe too early. I think the issue was that the grain bag just fell over the side of the spoon and back into the mash, so it didn't seem like it was helping drain the bag at all.

As for lifting weights... I was shocked at how heavy it was! I swear, it gained about 50 lbs in water

 

[phishfood]

While I am not "big" by any measure, I do a lot of physical labor. After two of these grain bag all grain brews, I know that I don't want to hold that bag full of wet grain for an extended period. That sucker is HEAVY!

Next time, use a 3' piece of 2x4 or 1x4. That should do a much better job of supporting the grain bag than a large spoon.

 

[agenthucky]

Just use a large strainer. It will sit on the top of the kettle and you just have to initially lift the grain bag onto that, and just let it sit. After my first BIAB, I went looking for one at Goodwill.

 

[DavidHawman]

A tip that may help people not able to hold the bag long enough: move the pot to the floor and lift/drain from there. Stand with the pot between your spread legs and lift with your legs/back.

I used this method yesterday and I was able to hold 11lb of grains for 5+ minutes without any fatigue. Even my GF was able to hold the bag of wet grain without any problem. Did this twice and since you can use your much stronger back and legs its much much easier.

You do have to move hot wort to the floor and back to stove, but this is much easier and less messy since it is just a brief move and you can put a lid on it.

While it may say "Stovetop All-Grain" there is nothing forcing you from moving stuff to the floor.

 

[tincob]

Cool, I tried this method on my first AG batch last night.

The instructions included with the ESB kit called for 1.054 OG and I hit 1.052 OG. Good enough for my first attempt. Don't know what efficiency that comes to...

My temperature dropped from 154 deg to 150 deg F during mashing. I stirred once at the 30 min mark. I'll have to do a better job of insulating the brew pot. The colander worked great for draining the grain.

I also tried foam control drops for the first time which worked like a charm.

Overall, it was an uneventful evening, which is all you can ask for.

 

[Token]

Set the pot on a folded towel on your countertop, wrap it with another towel, then place another folded towel on top. That's what I do, and it works very well for holding my mash temp.

Sounds like your efficiency is great!

 

[damdaman]

Here's a tip I've been using with this method that took my efficiency from 55% to almost 70% (may have been mentioned in this thread already), but I'm using two drip trays to hold the bag of mashed grains after sparging.

After lifting/holding over the mash pot and sparging, I plop it down in a large drip tray. After about 15 minutes, I move it to the 2nd drip tray, and pour the drippings from the first into the boil pot. At some point I then remove the bag from the 2nd tray and add those drippings as well.

It helps if the drip tray is angled down slightly so the drippings collect on one side.

I collect probably 3-4 cups of dark-colored (so I'm assuming sugary) wort this way that I was losing before. My efficiency improved a lot!

 

[DeathBrewer]

I've done that a few times. After the sparge, I just leave the grains in a pot and when I toss the grains, I pour the remaining amount in the boil.

 

[orangehero]

Sorry, posted by accident, can't figure out how to delete.

Great thread though, was very helpful for my first AG BIAB.

 

[jjones17]

Here's a tip I've been using with this method that took my efficiency from 55% to almost 70% (may have been mentioned in this thread already), but I'm using two drip trays to hold the bag of mashed grains after sparging.

After lifting/holding over the mash pot and sparging, I plop it down in a large drip tray. After about 15 minutes, I move it to the 2nd drip tray, and pour the drippings from the first into the boil pot. At some point I then remove the bag from the 2nd tray and add those drippings as well.

It helps if the drip tray is angled down slightly so the drippings collect on one side.

I collect probably 3-4 cups of dark-colored (so I'm assuming sugary) wort this way that I was losing before. My efficiency improved a lot!

Good tip.

I found my efficiency improved to a consistent 80-85% when I paid more attention to this step:

- Stirring, stirring, and stirring some more. Actually, i use a potato masher to really make sure you get all those tiny lumps out. This works best if your mash-in temp is 5 degrees too high. You just stir until you reach your target, then lid for the mash. Massively improved my efficiency. I do not even hold my grain bag for more than 45 seconds and I still get this, all from the extra stirring.

 

[jjones17]

DeathBrewer,

You mentioned ~10 lbs of grain as the max you would do with this method.

I just ordered two kits, one that's 11 lbs of grain (IPA), the other 10.5 lbs (ESB).

If I go with a 24 quart SS pot to handle the greater volume, what other issues should I pay special attention to when going with more grain than your recommended range?

Looking forward to trying this out for my first two AG attempts.

If I may chime in, I do 15 pound grain bills or more using DBs method. I get at least 80% efficiency consistently, using 20 qt aluminum pot. Except, I use TWO 20 qt pots. It is easier than you think to mash in both at the same time. Just tackle one at a time until you reach your target temp. I find if I try to stuff too thick of a mash in one pot my efficiency goes down alot. Those pots are cheap at a thrift/second hand store.

Just my 2 bits.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Good tip.

I found my efficiency improved to a consistent 80-85% when I paid more attention to this step:

- Stirring, stirring, and stirring some more. Actually, i use a potato masher to really make sure you get all those tiny lumps out. This works best if your mash-in temp is 5 degrees too high. You just stir until you reach your target, then lid for the mash. Massively improved my efficiency. I do not even hold my grain bag for more than 45 seconds and I still get this, all from the extra stirring.

I'm assuming you mean 45 minutes here, or I am reading this wrong.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I'm assuming you mean 45 minutes here, or I am reading this wrong.

I thought he meant he only holds the grains for 45 seconds to drain it and that's it. I could be wrong though.