Easy Stovetop All-Grain Brewing (with pics)

[secinarot]

Is the sparge always done at the same temp (168-170)?

 

[DeathBrewer]

170°F MAX. you don't want to go over or your risk tannins. it's the optimum temperature to extract the most possible sugars from your grains.

i don't mind much if it falls into the mid-160s.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

what if you ran just room temp water threw the grains...... what would happen? Would it not extract as much of the leftover sugar for some reason?

 

[nghtmre4u]

well thanks to deathbrewer and this awesome tutorial i steped up to all grain and did my first all grain i did 2 extracts before so this is my 3rd batch followed instructions to a t every thing worked great.my og was supposed to be 1.040 and ill be i hit it right on the nose thanks again for the great tut

 

[DeathBrewer]

what if you ran just room temp water threw the grains...... what would happen? Would it not extract as much of the leftover sugar for some reason?

it wouldn't extract any sugars...it might extract some color and flavor, but the enzymes which are in the grains need the proper temperature to do their job and convert the starches into sugars.

that's why steeping is different than mashing

 

[rtockst]

Is the sparge always done at the same temp (168-170)?

Just so you know, another reason for sparging at 170 is to deactivate the enzymes converting starches to sugars.... this preserves the profile of your sugars from the mashing. Sometimes people may "mash out" which is ramping the temp to 170 after they have completed their mashing at the temps of 150-158. sparging at 170 can do this too

 

[Homercidal]

Sweet tute. I've seen this method from a guy in Australia, but planned on just doing it the traditional method. So now you've done changed my mind, just when I about have my MLT made up. I suppose the fact that it's winter here now is one reason for making the stove top method seem so appealing, but I might still boil outside, since the propane burner will boil so much better than my stove (although the last extract recipe did boil ok in the alum. pot over two burners.)

 

[DeathBrewer]

well, if you were about to make the jump to a MLT, don't let this hold you back! there are many advantages, the main being that you can hold much more grain in it. i personally have an array of equipment i use in various places for various brews.

this thread is just to show there are alternatives...it's my enjoyable "after work in the kitchen" method

try it out, but keep that MLT in your future plans!

 

[Brewinator]

I notice no talk of pH in this thread. Is it just not that big of a deal with most municipal water quality? Does anyone here use bottled spring water?

 

[DeathBrewer]

i generally use my tap water, until recently. i had great water for a long time, but this summer they added a bunch more chloramine to the mix and it screwed up a string of my beers.

i now have a water filter (a nice one, will strip all sorts of nasties out) and i use filtered water dispensed from safeway when i go to my friends house. at $1.50/5 gallons, it's worth it to grab two of those per batch and not waste 5 gallons of beer.

i generally don't do anything to adjust the pH, but it's something i'm now looking into, to try and make beers more to style.

 

[The Pol]

what if you ran just room temp water threw the grains...... what would happen? Would it not extract as much of the leftover sugar for some reason?

I think what you are asking is... if you have already mashed the grains, will rinsing it with room temp water help capture any of the sugars left in the grains after the mash.

YES, though this is not optimal. Heated water helps to keep the sugars flowing easily from the grain bed, or bag... if you take the time to heat water for the mash and you are going to boil anyway, just use hot water 160-170F to rinse the grains. BUt yes, room temp water will rinse SOME sugars from the grain.

 

[UnaBonger]

Could "tea bagging" (cant help but laugh as I type that) the grain bag after mashing work as a replacement for a real sparge? While i'm sure it's not ideal, it does rinse the grains with more liquid, thus getting more of the sugars into the wort... right?

 

[The Pol]

Right............

 

[DeathBrewer]

Could "tea bagging" (cant help but laugh as I type that) the grain bag after mashing work as a replacement for a real sparge? While i'm sure it's not ideal, it does rinse the grains with more liquid, thus getting more of the sugars into the wort... right?

that's what this method uses. read the thread. read the partial mash thread in my sig, too.

 

[Brewinator]

DeathBrewer, you wrtote somewhere that you use ProMash for your recipes. Is there somewhere I can find one of them? I didn't see your nickname under any of the recipes here. This would be extremely helpful if you are using ProMash with the method described in this thread. For the record, my space is so small I am doing 2.5 gallon batches ATM. So I'd like to start with one of your recipes and scale it.

Does ProMash accurately account for your teabag sparge volume? Despite being inspired by your great guide, I remain confused as to how to accurately get boil volumes in advance (including grain absorption), so you can adjust hops accordingly. Also, calculating minimal headspace in one's pot, in advance, is needed to keep mash temps static, as you said. Obviously, the software isn't designed for the teabag sparge method.

I'm actually finding learning to use the software is the hardest part of all of this.

 

[DeathBrewer]

i haven't found promash to be very useful when it comes to partial boils. it does not account for hops utilization, at least not the way i use it. beersmith is much better at this.

if you do a 2.5 gallon batch, you can pretty much cut any one of my recipes in half. even though they are usually 5.5 gallon batches, there won't be a huge difference.

as for using the tea-bag method, this has nothing to do with promash. all you have to do is calculate efficiency, which is easy with a cooled refract or hydrometer reading. i'm not sure what you are hoping to accomplish by using promash with your mash.

when i do this method with a partial boil, i take a reading, judge my efficiency and calculate my utilization.

when calculating mash volume, i use promash. all you do is plug in the amount of grains and then go to the mashing window. when you plug in the volume of water you want to use, it will give you the total mash volume in the lower right hand. i try to stay below 4.25 gallons or i don't have quite enough space to stir in my 5 gallon pot. sparge doesn't matter...a little heat loss is no big deal and you're only letting it sit for 5 minutes anyway.

when i do a partial boil with a partial mash using this method, i just shoot a little high on my IBUs to account for the loss of utilization. i assume 70% efficiency, because it's always close to that.

to get boil volumes, all you do is account for absorption and add that to the total amount you want to boil. that will be your pre-boil volume. for instance, if i mash with 3.5 gallons of water and i lose 1 gallon to absorption, i would want a 4 gallon sparge to reach 6.5 gallons.

the software is not that hard, but learning the language can take a little while. just keep screwing around with it...you'll figure it out.

hope this helps. let me know if anything is still unclear.

 

[nowise]

Woo doggies! So I tried this method using Ed Wort's Pale Ale recipe and it was a load of fun! Especially when my grain bag broke, woot!

Everything was going fine until I went to transfer the grains to the sparge pot and then bam, it all spilled out. I spent then next 30 minutes scooping 11 lbs of grains out with a mesh screen scooper. (I used extra grains to account for the inefficiency).

After that, everything went fine again. I am wondering if it caused any harm but I am not going to worry about it. I'll have something drinkable at least. I made a hell of a mess but my awesome fiancee, who is fully supportive of my hobby, even helped me clean it up. (I bought her dinner afterward )

I gathered about 7 gallons of wort which boiled down to just over 5.5. I ended up hitting 1.050 OG which calculates to 65.9% efficiency according to BS. I know I will lose a bunch to the remaining grain which I couldn't scoop up, and I'm willing to bet I'll have some tannin flavor in there but oh well. All in all, it was a positive experience.

 

[Panzermann]

Deathbrewer:

You are a god mein freund!

 

[DeathBrewer]

speaking of gods, tonight i was drinking a beer we made from the second runnings of our "thor's hammer", a reiterative pilsner we based off of a BYO article. it's a small beer, about 2.5%, a little tannin flavor, a great amount of hops...it's a pleasant brew session beer. we named it "thor's baby fist"

nowise, sorry to hear about the bag...that's the first time i've heard of that happening and i know some others were worried. where did you get it? i messed up all-grain a couple of times and had to pour it through a colander, but not with the bag:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/1st-all-grain-attempt-made-fail-47665/

 

[nowise]

Thanks for the fail story, I feel in good company

The bag was from my LHBS in Columbus, it looked fine before I used it. Chalk it up as a mfg. defect I guess.

I was honestly so pumped that I got 7+ gallons of wort to boil on my electric stove that it made the problems from earlier feel like a distant memory.

 

[ballegre]

Chalk it up as a mfg. defect I guess.

Really? Did you use one of those nylon bags or one of the stretchy cloth ones I have seen?

Did you support the bottom of the bag with a spoon/paddle to relieve some of the weight?

Did the paddle have sharp edges (old and rough) that could have caused a tear?

I'm asking because I'm thinking of trying my first AG brew using this method.

 

[DeathBrewer]

hey! i got stickied!

:rockin: :rockin: :rockin:

 

[JacobInIndy]

Could "tea bagging" (cant help but laugh as I type that) the grain bag after mashing work as a replacement for a real sparge? While i'm sure it's not ideal, it does rinse the grains with more liquid, thus getting more of the sugars into the wort... right?

When i did this, I heated my sparge water to about 175* then transferred it to a bucket. Then I tea bagged my grain bag in that water for about 10 to 15 minutes. I also opened the bag and stirred to get the water in between the grains really well.

I managed 70% efficiency this way.

 

[nowise]

Really? Did you use one of those nylon bags or one of the stretchy cloth ones I have seen?

Did you support the bottom of the bag with a spoon/paddle to relieve some of the weight?

Did the paddle have sharp edges (old and rough) that could have caused a tear?

I'm asking because I'm thinking of trying my first AG brew using this method.

I used the stretchy cloth. Negative on the paddle support, I just chucked it in there. I'm sure a more refined method would have worked better

 

[DeathBrewer]

I used the stretchy cloth. Negative on the paddle support, I just chucked it in there. I'm sure a more refined method would have worked better

ooh, that's your problem. you need the nylon for this method.

i think i'm going to edit my original posts a bit for clarity, i'll definitely add that and others notes on bags.

i also will do a step-by-step streamline of the process.

 

[Brewinator]

Overdue!

Boiling my second AG batch as I type, thanks to this thread.

For those contemplating AG, the smell alone of grain bags in your house (not to mention during mash) make it worth it. Plus it's a lot cheaper than extract, especially if you like imported grains like maris otter or Munich. My LHBS charges $1.09/lb.

hey! i got stickied!

 

[rfidd]

DeathBrewer and/or any others, question: What do you believe would be the effect of following your method up to the point of heating the sparge water to 175, but at this point using 2 gallons of cold water, just dipping the grain bag and then draining it out? I expect we might lose some efficiency by not fully rinsing out all of the solubilized starches from the mash, but it might be a small loss.

The reason I ask, is I have been brewing with extract for a while, I read up on the Aussie brewing in a bag system and thought about giving it a try. I am trying to minimize total wort volume that I have to chill, and thought if I could mash in a bag similar to your system, thank you by the way for the excellent description and pictures, and end of with 3 gallons of wort that I would boil for hops additions, which I cool with ice and add to the fermenter. I was thinking of then just placing the drained grain into a container of around 2 gallons of cold water, remove the grain bag and drain, then simply pouring the cold water into the fermenter, to top off to 5 gallons.

Long way to ask the question, but what purpose and how much value is there in 175 degree sparge water?

Thanks again for the great post.

Rick

 

[DeathBrewer]

doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

first of, you cannot dump the 2 gallons of cold water into your fermenter. you need to boil it to sanitize, otherwise you risk contaminants from not only the water but the grains themselves.

2nd, it would have little to no benefit. cold water isn't going to extract any sugars from the grains.

the reason for the 170 degree (or less) sparge (175 degree water drops down when you add the grains) is to halt the enzymes and to extract the most sugars possible out of the grains.

 

[rfidd]

Thanks for the quick response, I thought about possible contamination after I posted, but it was great for your quick response/confirmation. I am limited on space and have dreams of all-grain and your method sounds great.

Thanks again,
Rick

 

[Malticulous]

I have never worried about sanitizing my tap watter just as some others here haven't. It depends on your water. When doing a full boil sanitizing it is irrelevant anyway and the water's chemistry is much more important with AG. But yeah, what Deathbrewer said.