New to forum and new to brewing

[ludomonster]

You can do calculations by hand or use brewing software. Choose a style that you want to brew. Generally, recipes have a significant amount of lighter malt. Brewers add specialty grains to get the color and malty flavor they want, as described in the style. They keep tweaking this until they have the right ABV and color. Both of these things tend to have wide ranges, so it's pretty easy to plan for a recipe to hit those targets. Then, people plan to add their bittering hops to get to a target IBU. Then they add flavor and aroma hops to add the appropriate taste and smell.

There are a lot of options along the way.

A given type of extract usually gives a certain amount of "points" per pound per gallon. For example Pale Dry Malt Extract will give 44 points per pound per gallon. Dissolving 1 lb in 1 gallon will yield a solution with an OG of 1.044. Take that value, multiply it by the weight you're using and divide it by the the total volume. That's how much it contributes to your OG.

With grain, you can't just say that you'll get 44 points out of a 1lb of Pale 2-row (that number isn't even correct, as Dry Malt Extract has more carbohydrates than grain). The mashing process will not get all of the carbohydrates into your wort. You can calculate an expected gravity value and compare it to a measured gravity at the end of sparging to get your mash efficiency, which should be between 75% - 85%, where 85% is really good.

People will measure the efficiency of their process and assume that value when making recipes.

One of the other thing that affects ABV is how much of it is actually fermentable. Malty beers taste malty because some of those carbohydrates weren't converted into fermentable sugars.

Finally, the yeast you use plays a critical role in determining your ABV, as it makes beer. Different strains of yeast have different attenuation rates, which is how much it will convert. Furthermore, yeasts have different alcohol tolerances. For high gravity beers, you may use more tolerant strains. Different amounts of yeast and how old it is also affects the beer.

 

[moscoeb]

Great info, thanks. So it is more of educated guess or a range to be tried to obtain for pure grain recipes? Is this why the full grain brewing is harder? Or should I dive into it after a few kits? I was planning in doing a couple more kits to practice, then trying a recipe of something I like.

If don't use DME and LME how are they processed? Same as the grains? Boil in a bag?
Any other equipment needed before taking that step? Like filter, more cheesecloth bags?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Different malts and different extracts have different amounts of fermentables and solids they contribute. Between different grains, there's variance between each malt and even between each maltster (for example one maltster's domestic 2 row may yield a max of 36 ppg of fermentable sugar, where another may yield 38). If you know the max yield of your given malt and how much you'll actually get out of a malt- the efficiency of your mashing system/process mentioned above (efficiency is irrelevant with extract- the sugar yield is going to be that particular extracts stated yield every time) you can devise a constant formula for gravity based on volume. At any given volume, you can tell what the gravity will be. If you've got some info from your maltster, know your system and take good measurements, you can for all practical purposes know the gravity of your wort exactly at any given point during the brew day.

 

[ludomonster]

When you go all grain, water chemistry becomes much more important. The brewers that make your malt extract essentially do the hard work for you. DMS also become more of an issue. You'll need enough heat to bring 5 gallons of wort to a boil and maintain it. People tend to move outside and use propane burners for all grain systems. Given all of the equipment changes, there's a fair degree of work to bring your system to where it was with previous methods.

 

[moscoeb]

Different malts and different extracts have different amounts of fermentables and solids they contribute. Between different grains, there's variance between each malt and even between each maltster (for example one maltster's domestic 2 row may yield a max of 36 ppg of fermentable sugar, where another may yield 38). If you know the max yield of your given malt and how much you'll actually get out of a malt- the efficiency of your mashing system/process mentioned above (efficiency is irrelevant with extract- the sugar yield is going to be that particular extracts stated yield every time) you can devise a constant formula for gravity based on volume. At any given volume, you can tell what the gravity will be. If you've got some info from your maltster, know your system and take good measurements, you can for all practical purposes know the gravity of your wort exactly at any given point during the brew day.

Makes sense, thanks

When you go all grain, water chemistry becomes much more important. The brewers that make your malt extract essentially do the hard work for you. DMS also become more of an issue. You'll need enough heat to bring 5 gallons of wort to a boil and maintain it. People tend to move outside and use propane burners for all grain systems. Given all of the equipment changes, there's a fair degree of work to bring your system to where it was with previous methods.

So no partial boils for all grain? So till I can set up with burner and larger pot for full boil I should stick with extracts, correct?

 

[Qhrumphf]

You CAN do a partial boil with all-grain, but full boil is ideal, and doing a partial boil is going to prevent your brews from being the best they can be. You could also do partial mashes. But for ANY method, full boil is still the best bet.

There's a couple of ways apartment brewers (and those who otherwise can't brew outside with propane) deal with it- additional heat sources like heat sticks (or build an all-electric rig), split boils (boiling half the batch in different kettles on different stovetop burners), or simply just doing smaller batches that'll fit in a smaller kettle and boil on the stove. So going outside isn't required. There's plenty of ways around it you can find on here.

 

[ludomonster]

You can do partial mash recipes. That will allow you to brew many more styles. There's a great guide in the partial mash forum.

When you're mashing, you need a certain amount of water to achieve the right pH. The ratio is around 1.33 qt/lb. This means that 10lb of grain will need 3 1/4 gallons of water. Bigger beers will need more grain and water. You'll lose some water to the grain, but you'll also need enough sparge water to rinse out all of the converted sugars. Full volume boils are common. You might need to boil down to 5 gallons.

 

[moscoeb]

Well, bottled tonight. Got 47 bottles out of it. FG 1.009 for an ABV of 4.732%. Just shy of the 4.75% that recipe stated. Initial taste seems to be decent, anxious to see how it tastes after conditioning!!

I think I did ok for first attempt. Already got the kit for my second batch!! It's an American Cream Ale. Just gotta get the water and find the time now!

 

[wilsojos]

I would suggest you try it at 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks leaving it at 70 degrees and chilling just before drinking. I found it very interesting to see how it changed week to week. I also like to buy a similar style from the store to compare against.

 

[moscoeb]

I may have to try that. Will satisfy my impatience too!

 

[Squirrels]

For brew calculations and really digging into how the magic that is beer works I would suggest reading "Designing Great Beers" by Ray Daniels. I've found that I am really starting to understand what makes up the beer I'm brewing.

He does a great job explaining how much of each fermentable you will need to hit the OG you want. The formula is:

OG=(GU*%GB)
(PG-1)*1000
BHE

Where
OG=Original gravity
GU=Gravity Units of beer (Batch size * (target gravity-1))
%GB= Percent the grain makes up of your total bill
PG= Potential gravity of grain (varies from malt to malt)
BHE= Brew house efficiency (varies from brewer to brewer)

I'd really recommend this book. I think I really am beginning to understand how to brew better beer by reading it.

 

[moscoeb]

I will have to check that out. Sounds interesting.

 

[ludomonster]

The BJCP study guide recommends that book as well.

 

[moscoeb]

Well, tried it today, still has a week left in the bottle though.
It was good, pretty hoppy. I think it will continue to get better as time goes on. I'm happy, it is definitely a success as far as I'm concerned for my first attempt!!