Looking at making the leap to AG? - Please hold my hand

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lady_brewer

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Location
Newfoundland, Canada
So I am really really thinking about giving up my pre-hopped Cooper's and the like kits and jumping in feet first. I am hoping to be a bit of a pain, and for my total lack of knowledge thought it was best put out here.

I have looked at Death's Partial mash and Stovetop AG brewing threads (and may I say thanks for again inspiring me. Visa thanks you too.)

A few questions, which I will number, so you can answer one or many :D Many thanks in advance, you are all great.

The goal is to make 6US/ 5 Imperial gallon brews...

1. I am thinking that I am going to go out and find (no idea where yet) two big pots... I am thinking that my best bet is to find two that are 5 (US?) gallons. I will figure out the whole SS/ Aluminum thing later, ie: when I get whatever I can lay my hands on.

2. I have a bag that I bought to throw my fruit in for making wine. It is a fine nylon straining bag, not sure 100% how big, but it says 25 lt, so I am thinking about 5US gallons. Will this work for a grain bag? Do I need a new one, or can I cross purpose? I don't want to skimp or buy things I don't need.

3. When trying to figure out how much I can boil to x temperature, can I just boil plain water before buying grains? For some reason this seems like a simple thing, so maybe I am missing something?

4. I need a simple but good recipe, then am going to ask for it to be explained in a brewing for dummies way. I can pick up anything that is available at www.clickabrew.com or make an order from www.homebrew-supplies.ca. We have tried about 13 different pre-hopped kits. Hubby liked the IPA (Cooper's Brewmaster series) and I liked the Pilsner (same series, actually had lager yeast). He is also drinking the stout. So something full flavoured, maybe a bit of hop to it. I think the IPAs are supposed to be $$ and complex, but I will take any suggestions. Only thing is I need a description, since I can see flavours from recipes yet.

5. Correct me if I am wrong, but here is my understanding of the step-by-step process...
- Heat mash water (higher than desired temp), add grains, check temp and cover (off the heat) for 30-60 mins. ('til conversion... how do I know thins? I will go look it up :p)
- While that is in the end stage, heat the sparge water, sparge the drained grains, about 10 mins to get the most out of it.
- Add the mash water to the sparge water (is there a reason to do it this way? Temp related? Pot size? Habit?)
- Heat to temp, add hops as per recipe (timing after the hot break?)
- cool wort to pitching temp by whatever means necessary (my hubby looked at Yuri's wort chiller and said it is something like the cooling system on a marine diesel... methinks I will have one of them before too long...)
- When at temp move to primary (siphon? with the fancy aerating stick on the end that orfy made?) and pitch yeast.
- wait (for the first batch of waiting time).

Thanks for any and all help... I will do my best to keep on top of this with any info needed from my end. I do have to sleep and work tomorrow...
 
i'm too lazy to go through all your questions step by step.

1. www.beersmith.com - free trial software. It will help you to do all those temperature calculations for your strike water.

2. Edworts Haus Pale Ale is a favorite around here. I've done it 3 times now. It's a simple Pale Ale with nice flavor, and it's got a simple grain bill that's hard to screw up. Tastes great too. Whatever you choose - it'll taste good if you follow the recipe.

3. www.howtobrew.com - there is a section on all grain there. It seems like you have the basic grasp of what you're going to be doing. Use iodine to test the mash for conversion. Most people would say wait 60 minutes to ensure complete conversion. take a look at www.braukaiser.com . Some of his stuff is a little more technical - but it's good info & he takes the time to explain it in ways most people can understand.
http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Starch_Test
 
1. if you can find larger than 5 gallon pots, you will be happier. if you're going all in, you'll want to do full boils, which normally need at least 7 gallon capacity. bigger is better due to boil overs, but you can use a product called fermcap to control that in a smaller pot.

2. i'm sure it'll work, is it all stained and winey? you should be able to find a 5 gallon paint strainer bag at home depot/lowe's or whatever you have in canada. they're really cheap and last forever.

3. i don't understand what you're asking here?

4. i would do something along the lines of an american pale ale. you could use 2-row base malt and just add a little bit (.5 lbs or so) of a medium crystal (40 - 60 lovibond). then do 3 hopping additions of your choice (just use cascade or something easy) at 60, 15-30 (anywhere in there), and at flameout.

5. you've pretty much got it. don't worry too much about conversion. i've never checked it and every beer has turned out fine. just give it the full hour, hit your temps within a few degrees, and you should be golden. i don't think it really matters if you add the mash wort to the sparge wort or vice versa, it just depends on which pot you will be doing the boil in. i always wait for hot break to happen before i time the boil, but it usually happens within like 2-3 minutes, so that depends on your situation (burner, pot, etc.). a lot of us put valves in the bottom of pots to drain the wort out, but siphoning into the primary is just fine. don't sweat not getting any hops/trub into the fermenter, it won't be an issue.

enjoy!
 
Thanks so far... I just walked hubby through Deaths threads... he is going pot hunting for me tormorrow, he may know some former caterers that should have hook-ups, I will let him know that bigger is better, it isn't just what you do with it ;)

3. i don't understand what you're asking here?

My thought was that I am going to need to know how much water I can bring up to temp in my pot with my electric stove. Is this a standard thing? Or should I experiment with plain old water (ie try 3 gallons, try 4 gallons, try 5 etc)
 
Check for Turkey fryer after X-Mass sales for your pots and boil burner.

a 5 gal round "Cooler", for MLT, just swap out the valve for a ball valve. I found a Copper pipe ball valve and connections/seals, all available at Lowes or Home Depot. Use the off white Hot water plastic 90 deg threaded bend on the end to direct the flow.

I have a 3 gal SS pot and a 7.5gal Turkey fryer, and the 5 gal MLT (modified as above).

Siphon and hose, thermomiter and Hydromiter, 25lb Wine filter bag (yup started trying to make wine before I tried beer) Big Stir spoon, 6 gal bucket and 5 gal carboy, air valves and good temp control

you should be good to go! Read all you can, then write up a plan, lay out your ingredients (times for addition) and start heating water!

Best way to learn is to do it and write down everything you did on your plan as you did or did not work to plan. I find that it never goes "Perfect" to plan but it's good beer anyway.
Cheers
:mug:

One last thing IC (imershion chiller) or you can use snow and move the boil around and pack the snow in tight to the sides (takes 25min or so, I did it that way on my first brew last winter).
 
Cool, hubby started the search for the pots today, some iffy ones at Canadian Tire, (32L though, so that is 8I gallons...) - he said they weren't very well made... unfortunately nobody is selling turkey fryers (as far as we could tell in my area)...

Still starting to get excited about the potential change...
 
I just bought a 64qt aluminum pot at Canadian Tire for $90. It was on the top shelf near the Mason jars and such. I've seen it at a couple of locations since. Very nice pot for the money.
 
Out of curiosity...why does a tire store carry pots?

Canadian Tire is kinda a department store for guys... they have a bunch of odd stuff, like cleaning supplies and kitchen things, but no pillows or blankets. It carries car things, but also camping gear and home electronic things, and so on.

Don't know if this explains it?

Sill looking for a good started recipe... suggestions welcome... :D
 
1. I'd never read Death's thread as I went straight from extract to all grain, so my first thought was why do you need two 5g pots? So I read the start of the thread, and it's pretty obvious. However, if you're going to partial mash now, do you think it is likely that you will go all grain some time int the future? If this is a possibility, I would recommend changing one of the 5g pots for an 8 - 10g pot. This would give you the capacity to do full boils in the future without impacting your current plans. Caveat If you have an electric stove, full boils will probably be impossible, and you will need to get a propane burner and brew outside in your balmy Newfoundland winters.

2. I can't see anything wrong with that. You can get paint strainer bags at the hardware store that should work well (unless somebody says they don't work. (As I said, I've never tried Death's method)).

3. Absolutely! You're missing nothing.

4. Have you checked out the recipe section? Pale ales, and Bitters are easy to brew. IPA's are just a little bit more difficult and expensive (because of the extra hops, and the dry hopping), but when it comes down to it, you have to pick something you like.

5. See http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml for details of how hot your strike water needs to be. When it reaches the required temperature, you can add your grains. The link determines the temp required so you can ignore "higher than desired temp"
You can wait for 30 - 60 minutes and conversion will be complete.
"- While that is in the end stage, heat the sparge water, sparge the drained grains, about 10 mins to get the most out of it."
Sorry, don't understand this.
"- Add the mash water to the sparge water (is there a reason to do it this way? Temp related? Pot size? Habit?) "
Don't understand this either.
"- Heat to temp, add hops as per recipe (timing after the hot break?)"
As you bring the wort to a boil, you will get a lot of foam generated. (This is the hot break). The foam subsides after 10 minutes or so, and some say (myself included) that you should not add the hops until after that point, as some of the bitterness will be absorbed by the hot break.

Good luck, but I don't think I will be able to hold your hadn unless you have very long arms.

-a.
 
Just so you know, in #5 you say to add the MASH water to the SPARGE water when actually, you need to add your sparge water to your mash tun after you drain the wort from your mash tun. This is a way of "rinsing" your grains, after the mash, to extract even more available sugars.

Also, if you can, get youre hands on a couple of kegs. You can cut openings in the top and make a good sized kettle, mash tun, and hot liquor tank which youd never have to worry about boil overs with 5 gallon batches.
 
Thanks all for the info... I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that I am taking most of this from Death's stovetop AG, as that will be the first thing that I am able to do. Although, love the hubby since he is already envisioning the build of the brew stand and so on. Still on the search for pots.

Have looked at the recipes section, have searched the site, not really finding what I am looking for. Anybody able to point me at a thread of SMaSH recipes? Alternatively, a good smash IPA or a bitter. I want to make something I know the hubby will like so I can sell him on the idea of continuing crazy orders from online companies...

Thanks again for everything...
 
Lady Brewer,

My suggestion would be to work your way from the kits you are now brewing to extract with some grains. Then go partial mash. Then make the step to all grain.

I am biased because that is how I did it.

Variations on the simple recipe "Palilalia India Pale Ale" from "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" have worked for me for over 25 years. I used a version of it when I first started brewing professionally and it became our best seller. I still use an updated variation for my house ale.

Do go and get a bigger kettle. 7.5 - 10US gallons would be ideal, if your stove can bring that volume to a boil. A propane "Cajun Cooker" would assure you of that. An immersion chiller is very easy to build and not expensive at all. There are many posts here about how to do that.

By starting out with extract and grains, the learning curve is less steep and less stressful. You will be making better beer and learning the basics of eventually going all grain. Master boiling 7 gallons of wort and then chilling it in 15 minutes or less. Work on your transfer of that volume of liquid to your carboy/Ale Pail/ fermentation vessel. Start rehydrating dry yeast and slowly move into trying the various liquid strains.

Don't try to sprint before you can crawl. ;) You can make fantastic beer by SLOWLY getting into extract/grains before jumping into all grain. My first National awards were with extract/grains.

Here is my suggestion for a really good Pale Ale that both you and your husband should like:

7 lbs. Pale malt dry extract
1 lb. CaraMunich II malt (milled)
1.5 oz Centennial hop pellets (60 min boil)
1.0 oz Cascade hop pellets (20 min boil)
1.0 oz Cascade hop pellets (end of boil)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min boil)
2 packet S-05 Safale dry yeast (rehydrated)

Please PM me if you have any questions.

Good luck to you and your hubby.
 
1. I am thinking that I am going to go out and find (no idea where yet) two big pots... I am thinking that my best bet is to find two that are 5 (US?) gallons. I will figure out the whole SS/ Aluminum thing later, ie: when I get whatever I can lay my hands on.

I would recommend buying one large pot and building a mash tun from the diy section - you will soon regret buiying two 5 gallon pots since neither one is expandable.

MT:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

Pot:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_33_463&products_id=10460



4. I need a simple but good recipe, then am going to ask for it to be explained in a brewing for dummies way. I can pick up anything that is available at www.clickabrew.com or make an order from www.homebrew-supplies.ca. We have tried about 13 different pre-hopped kits. Hubby liked the IPA (Cooper's Brewmaster series) and I liked the Pilsner (same series, actually had lager yeast). He is also drinking the stout. So something full flavoured, maybe a bit of hop to it. I think the IPAs are supposed to be $$ and complex, but I will take any suggestions. Only thing is I need a description, since I can see flavours from recipes yet.
I would recommend buying a kit from either Austin Home Brew, Nothern Brewer, Midwest or More Beer. The recipes others have suggested are great, but given this is your first time, buying a complete kit may be a better approach since you don't have to worry about missing ingredients.

Good luck
 
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