Easy Stovetop All-Grain Brewing (with pics)

[DeathBrewer]

ok, i'm assuming you are talking about this grain bill:

8 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L Malt

if you are using a 5 gallon pot, i would suggest 3.25 gallons of water for your mash. that's 1.24qt/lb and 4.09 gallons, according to promash. leave you just enough headspace...enough room to do your work.

as for sparge...go with as much water as you can. if you can boil 6+ gallons, go with 4+ gallon sparge.

for batch sparging, you're basically running as much hot water through the grains as you can to extract more sugars. very basic interpretation, but that's the jist.

let me know if you run into any trouble...i don't seem to leave this place

 

[LakeErieBrew]

Perfect, thanks man!

 

[GroovePuppy]

So before I do this (probably still a few weeks out) I'll probably beat you to death with increasingly trivial questions.

First out I'll have to do some cross-referencing of my city water report. I know some local brewers AG with tap water so I'm probably good but better to know. So do you measure anything in the pre-boil wort? ph? SG?

 

[DeathBrewer]

i sometimes take the SG of my wort pre-boil. i either take a sample for the hydrometer and cool it in a liter mug with ice water or i just use my refractometer.

i have pretty nice water, i never worry about PH and never adjust. for certain styles, it might be beneficial, but i still make fine beer

 

[GroovePuppy]

for certain styles, it might be beneficial, but i still make fine beer

That's what I hear.

I think I'll measure my pre-boil SG just to see how well I'm doing. If my efficiency is stupidly low at least I can boil the wort down before starting the timer to get the gravity up. Do you use tap water or filtered? If tap does your tap water have much of a chlorine taste?

 

[DeathBrewer]

tap water. i top off with bottled water.

i used to top of with tap water, but i had a few beers affected by the chlorine. Chlorophenols are not good for your beer.

EDIT: tap water should almost always be fine. all the bad stuff will boil off. it may mess with the PH of the mash, but i've never had a problem and i've used tap water from many different areas.

 

[hcarter]

I meant to ask, what about specialty grains? You're not supposed to boil those are you? If that is the case, you would still steep those... right? I assume you could do that while the water is heating to 170. Or am I completely off base?

 

[DeathBrewer]

did you read the thread? look over the first few pages again. you don't boil any grains. you add them all together at the beginning after you have your water hot and ready...the base malts AND the specialty malts. this is all-grain

 

[thataintchicken]

Thanks for the great tutorial.

 

[LakeErieBrew]

Awesome tutorial for beginners. This a great way to get into all grain brewing without having to get crazy with equipment.

 

[abonzer]

I am going to give this method a try. I have an 8-gallon brew pot. With a pot this size would it be a good idea to use 5-gallons of water with the initial mash? The initial water temp would probably need to be lower due to the larger volume of water.

 

[hcarter]

did you read the thread? look over the first few pages again. you don't boil any grains. you add them all together at the beginning after you have your water hot and ready...the base malts AND the specialty malts. this is all-grain

Yeah.... actually I did, I guess just over thinking it. Sorry.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I am going to give this method a try. I have an 8-gallon brew pot. With a pot this size would it be a good idea to use 5-gallons of water with the initial mash? The initial water temp would probably need to be lower due to the larger volume of water.

you should keep the initial mash in the range of 1-2 quarts per pound of grain. i usually stick closer to 1.25qt/lb

 

[craigd]

Thanks for posting all of this - it helped me do my first AG today. I did Biermuncher's SWMBO Slayer using a nearly identical setup with the exception of doing final boil outside (hey, it's Florida.) Everything went pretty smoothly but managing temps was a little sketchy. I overshot my mash temp a few degrees and did a little adding of cool water and then some boiling when I went too far the other way.

Anyway, my OG after the boil and topping off with ice water to 5g was 1.040 instead of the expected 1.057 - yes should have checked before topping off. So I think my temps are one reason for the bad efficiency but was wondering if I should consider bumping the OG with some sugar since higher temps may mean a little higher FG as well?

 

[Idyllic]

nice, good pics

 

[DeathBrewer]

Thanks for posting all of this - it helped me do my first AG today. I did Biermuncher's SWMBO Slayer using a nearly identical setup with the exception of doing final boil outside (hey, it's Florida.) Everything went pretty smoothly but managing temps was a little sketchy. I overshot my mash temp a few degrees and did a little adding of cool water and then some boiling when I went too far the other way.

Anyway, my OG after the boil and topping off with ice water to 5g was 1.040 instead of the expected 1.057 - yes should have checked before topping off. So I think my temps are one reason for the bad efficiency but was wondering if I should consider bumping the OG with some sugar since higher temps may mean a little higher FG as well?

you can always add extract to reach your target gravity. if you're going to add it now (after it's already been fermenting) it won't hurt anything. just make sure everything is sanitized, boil and cool, and dump it in.

if it tasted good, i wouldn't worry about it. 1.040 is a decent sized beer.

 

[abonzer]

you should keep the initial mash in the range of 1-2 quarts per pound of grain. i usually stick closer to 1.25qt/lb

I was well underway when I asked my question. I ended up using 5 gallons of water in my original mash (at the time this seemed to make sense to me) with about 12 lbs of grain. My sparge temp was a little high too and I did the sparge a little different than you since I didn't have a 2nd 5 gallon or larger pot. I did the sparge by heating 2 gallons of water in a small pot and then poured it over the grain bag into my empty fermenter bucket. I then transferred the sparge liquid back to the 8 gallon brew pot. In the end, after the boil, I had more than 5 gallons but I don't think that is huge deal. The OG was around 1.050 which was close to what the recipe called out for which was 1.054. It is now fermenting away. I will know in a month or so if it turned out!

Also, it was difficult to heat around 6 gallons to boil temperature like you said. I have a flat ceramic cooktop so I thought I would give it a go, but I had to help it out with a small propane torch on the side of the pot to get to a rolling boil (probably not the safest idea, but it worked). My next purchase will be an exterior propane burner.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I was well underway when I asked my question. I ended up using 5 gallons of water in my original mash (at the time this seemed to make sense to me) with about 12 lbs of grain. My sparge temp was a little high too and I did the sparge a little different than you since I didn't have a 2nd 5 gallon or larger pot. I did the sparge by heating 2 gallons of water in a small pot and then poured it over the grain bag into my empty fermenter bucket. I then transferred the sparge liquid back to the 8 gallon brew pot. In the end, after the boil, I had more than 5 gallons but I don't think that is huge deal. The OG was around 1.050 which was close to what the recipe called out for which was 1.054. It is now fermenting away. I will know in a month or so if it turned out!

you can do a thin mash and actually do a "no-sparge" with decent efficiency. i prefer to do the 1.25qt/lb or lower, however, and keep the enzymes happy.

sounds like everything worked out well. i used the "rinse sparge" before i started the "tea bag" method (heh...i love these names). The rinse works, but is not as effective as the tea bag.

Also, it was difficult to heat around 6 gallons to boil temperature like you said. I have a flat ceramic cooktop so I thought I would give it a go, but I had to help it out with a small propane torch on the side of the pot to get to a rolling boil (probably not the safest idea, but it worked). My next purchase will be an exterior propane burner.

lol, how dangerously awesome. propane burner is always a good investment. until then, however, you can split between two pots and split the hops accordingly. i've made some fine beer that way.

 

[DylansDad]

Wow, Yet again you make it sound and look really easy.

Thanks for all the info!

 

[nghtmre4u]

Thanks for this great tutorial made me step up and try a all grain i ordered it the other day from northern brewer it is being delivered tommorow so now i am like a kid at xmas i tested the stuff today to see if it will handle getting 6 gallon to boil that passed got my big straining bag fits nice and tight on my brew pot boiled my top off water and got it chilling picked up my blow off tube today just incase first time im gonna ferment in a carboy my primary bucket got a batch in now already but i cant wait to try this ill be waiting on the porch for the ups man.lol thanks again for the great tutorial will let ya know how i make out

 

[DeathBrewer]

makes me feel like doing the happy dance, too!

 

[UnaBonger]

DB, you rock :rockin::rockin::rockin:

I'm all about doing a SMaSH using this technique for my next batch. You've just taken the mystery/mystique out of all grain and I feel like I can do it with what I already have on hand. Thanks

 

[rtockst]

Need some help for this weekend.... I'm gonna try to all grain nut brown on my stovetop.. here's my list

pale malt 7 lbs
crystal 80 2 lbs
victory .5 lbs
special b .5 lbs
cascade 0.5 oz 7% 60 min
willamette 1 oz 5% 5 min

So the problem is.. i only have a 5 gal pot and another pot thats maybe 3 gal. I was shooting for a 1.05 OG, the problem is I don't want to have to do a horribly thick mash because I assume I'll have a poor efficiency the first time and I don't want to make my OG any lower by doing a thick mash. any ideas? comments?

 

[dasBuhbuh]

hmmm....i may have enough reasons to give this a shot!

This method will work with any decent size beer (generally up to about 1.055 OG or about 12 lbs of grain)

any reason?

 

[secinarot]

I'm looking forward to trying my first AG using this method - probably start with a small batch. I have a couple of AG newbie questions.

Since I don't really know what my efficiency will be, I can't adjust my grain bill for it. So should I just go with 1.25 lbs/qt? Then I would check the OG at the end and add water if too high or add extract if too low? Also, how do I know the proper mash temperature? Do AG recipes usually tell you that?

 

[rtockst]

I'm looking forward to trying my first AG using this method - probably start with a small batch. I have a couple of AG newbie questions.

Since I don't really know what my efficiency will be, I can't adjust my grain bill for it. So should I just go with 1.25 lbs/qt? Then I would check the OG at the end and add water if too high or add extract if too low? Also, how do I know the proper mash temperature? Do AG recipes usually tell you that?

I'm a huge noob too, but I have been researching the crap out of mashing, and the mash temp you use actually depends on what style of beer it is, or just on how sweet or dry you want your beer to be. General rule is to mash between 150 and 155/158 F. I'm not sure about the upper end of this because I have seen both 155 and 158. Anyway, temperatures that are in the upper part of this range will give you a sweeter beer (less fermentable wort) with more body. Temps in the lower end of the range will give you a drier beer (more fermentables, so higher alcohol and less sweetness) with less body. Hope that helps

 

[DeathBrewer]

hmmm....i may have enough reasons to give this a shot!

This method will work with any decent size beer (generally up to about 1.055 OG or about 12 lbs of grain)

any reason?

just the 5 gallon pot size. if you have a bigger pot, you can use more grain.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Need some help for this weekend.... I'm gonna try to all grain nut brown on my stovetop.. here's my list

pale malt 7 lbs
crystal 80 2 lbs
victory .5 lbs
special b .5 lbs
cascade 0.5 oz 7% 60 min
willamette 1 oz 5% 5 min

So the problem is.. i only have a 5 gal pot and another pot thats maybe 3 gal. I was shooting for a 1.05 OG, the problem is I don't want to have to do a horribly thick mash because I assume I'll have a poor efficiency the first time and I don't want to make my OG any lower by doing a thick mash. any ideas? comments?

i'd just replace some of the pale malt with extract and do a partial mash. you're going to need a bigger pot to do all-grain.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I'm looking forward to trying my first AG using this method - probably start with a small batch. I have a couple of AG newbie questions.

Since I don't really know what my efficiency will be, I can't adjust my grain bill for it. So should I just go with 1.25 lbs/qt? Then I would check the OG at the end and add water if too high or add extract if too low? Also, how do I know the proper mash temperature? Do AG recipes usually tell you that?

if you go with 1.25qt/lb (you reversed, btw), and you use a full sparge (4+ gallons) and you take your time and control your temps...you will get 70+% efficiency. the only factor that might be a problem is your crush, but i'm still confident enough in this process to say 65% minimum.

proper mash temperature depends entirely on the beer. MOST of my brews, i mash in the 150-152°F range. i like my beers dry. if you like fuller beers with more dextrins and residual sweetness, mash higher. 152-154°F is pretty much middle of the range and could be used for almost any beer.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I'm a huge noob too, but I have been researching the crap out of mashing, and the mash temp you use actually depends on what style of beer it is, or just on how sweet or dry you want your beer to be. General rule is to mash between 150 and 155/158 F. I'm not sure about the upper end of this because I have seen both 155 and 158. Anyway, temperatures that are in the upper part of this range will give you a sweeter beer (less fermentable wort) with more body. Temps in the lower end of the range will give you a drier beer (more fermentables, so higher alcohol and less sweetness) with less body. Hope that helps

i think you just graduated from being a n00b