Soldato
Ok ok so I know there's already been a very nice thread on how to brew your own beer. BUT, it's how to brew straight from a kit. Which quite frankly is more expensive and doesn't produce results as good as using the raw ingredients of malted barley, hops and water. The method I'm going to give you a high level view of today is called All Grain (AG) brewing. And it uses exactly the same principles as all commercial brewers, just obviously on a much smaller scale (I brew 30-40pints at a time, they brew 10,000's+).
So why would you choose all grain brewing when the equipment is more costly, it takes up most of the day and cleaning is a pain. Kit Beer is to All Grain as Microwave meals are to Corden Bleu cooking with a glass of the finest red wine on the side! That's THE reason
First of all I will say I am NOT a brewmaster I have a grand total of 3 AG brews under my belt, if you have any questions I shall try to answer as best I can. There are many many more experienced brewers out there than I, and I shall provide some very helpful links which got me going. The aim of this post is to give you a basic view of the process, the equipment and an example recipe.
You can brew any style of beer you want with this, including lagers. Please note however lagering is done by fermenting the beer at a few degrees above zero for months not weeks, so unless you have a spare fridge large enough to store a 5 Gallon Fermenting Vessel (FV) you won't be able to lager.
THE EQUIPMENT
The Boiler
The Burco above is an old 27L wash boiler that I managed to pick up for £10 from a friendly homebrewer wanting to see someone start up for as cheap as
possible. This is used to heat up my mash water, sparge water and to boil the wort.
The Mash Tun
It looks like a coolbox because it is a coolbox. I got this from www.tentastic.com for £9.99 it's a 30L Campinggaz make. To convert it into a mash tun read
the instructions HERE it's incredibly simple to do. Mashing is the process of mixing
crushed malts (and possibly grain adjuncts as well) with water, and holding the mixture at specific temperatures for specific periods of time. During
mashing, enzymes which are naturally present in the malt convert the grain starches into sugars, which are in turn fermentable by brewers yeast.
The Immersion Chiller
This is 10m of 10mm copper bore piping wrapped in a coil (use a cylindrical object to form the shape, I used the inside bucket of my bin) with a 10-15mm reducer and a 15mm straight soldered onto either side, you can then use a hozelock connector to connector two pieces of hose pipe, one for an infeed from your kitchen tap the other an out feed. This is basically used to cool the boiled wort down as quickly as possible by passing cold water through the copper pipe.
Hot Liquor Tun (HLT)
When sparging you need somewhere to store your hot wort, lots of people have a second boiler to keep it nice and hot before you transfer it over to the boiler. Personally I just use my FV wrapped in a blanket (see below).
The Fermenting Vessel
This is where your wort ferments into beer, you can pick up a 5 Gallon bucket for £7.99 from Wilkos
The Hydrometer
The hydrometer will give you a measure of gravity (density, for example the density of water at 20C 'should' be 1.000), measuring the Original Gravity (OG) after the boil and the Final Gravity (FG) when the beer has finished, will help you calculate the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) %. I believe the calculation is: OG points - FG point/8.2 eg: OG of 1.063 FG of 1.010 :- 63-10/8.2 = 53/8.2 = 6.5% ABV. With this knowledge you can then design your beer
to your tastes whether it be a strong Belgian beer or a weak IPA.
The Stirring Spoon
You'll need this big plastic spoon whilst 'doughing' in.
A thermometer
I just have a basic analogue thermometer, I'm sure you know what one of these looks like.
The Keg
Perhaps the most important bit of kit, somewhere to store your beer. The above is a pressure barrel which allows CO2 bulbs to be injected to keep the
pressure up/air out, you can get them brand new for about £20 or if you keep your eye out at carboot sales for about £1 (this may vary). I do also bottle half a dozen or so, I really recommend getting a keg though because bottling 6 takes me a long time, imagine how long 40+ would take.
TODAYS RECIPE
Leffe Blonde Clone
I know there's lots of fans of this beer, it won't be exact but it's in the same style and if anything will be slightly stronger. So here goes
19L Batch, Estimated OG 1.063
4250 gms Pilsner Malt
500 gms Aromatic Malt
300 gms White table sugar, added at the start of the boil
40 gms Hallertau hops (2.8% AAU) 90 minute boil
30 gms Czech Saaz hops (3.0% AAU) added to last 15 mins of boil
Yeast: Wyeast - Ale Belgium Abbey - 1214
THE PROCESS
1. Choose your recipe, see the links at the bottom of this post there are recipes out there to suit everyones tastes
2. Choose your brew length, i.e. how much you want to brew, remember your equipment will limit this.
3. Calculate how much water will be needed for the mash/sparge I use a method called batch sparging where the grain gets rinsed in seperate batches. There's a very handy calculator
HERE. Before using this there a couple of things you will need to know, first of all the final
volume of beer you want to end up with and secondly the 'dead' space in you mash tun. It's very easy to find this out basically fill it up with 10L or so of water and then open the tap up over the sink. When no more water will drain through the tap close it and empty the remaining contents into a measuring jug, this your dead space. For me I have a dead space of 1.2L. An example
- Assume 19L batch, 1.2L dead space, 4.8kg grain
- You can accept the example percentage loss to boil 15% (90 min boil 10% per hour), hops+trub 3L, and the water to grain ration of 2.5
- This will give: (Rounding up)
================== Wort required for boil 26L
================== Made up of two equal quantities of 13L
================== Water required for batch 1 19L
================== Mash volume 12L
================== Top up with 7L
================== Water required for batch 2 13L
4. Measure out the 12L mash volume into the boiler turn on and heat to approx 80C
5. Meanwhile heat up 2 kettles worth of hot water and pour into the mash tun, this will keep it warm and hopefully reduce any temperature loss later on
6. When the water hits 80C empty the mash tun of the kettle water and transfer the mash volume into the mash tun.
7. Dough In: This is where the grain gets added into the mash tun and 'doughed' in with our big stirring spoon until thoroughly mixed.
8. Take the temperature at this point, it should read approx 65C, if it's cooler add more hot water, if it's hotter add some cold water.
9. Leave it to 'MASH' for 90 mins, put the lid on and a blanket over the top to make sure it doesn't lose too much heat.
10. About 50mins into the mash I measure out the top up volume and batch 2 volume into the boiler and turn it on, again aiming for a temp of 80C.
11. Open the lid of the mash tun and add the 7L of top up volume, give it a good stir. Put the lid back on and leave for 10mins. Again once this has been
added and stirred in the temp should be about 65C.
12. Once the 10 minutes is up run off some of the wort into a measuring jug, it will be quite cloudy this is called the first runnings. Slow pour the first
runnings back into the mash tun and repeat this step until this start to clear. This is basically to clear out the crap from the bottom of the mash tun so it
can be filtered properly.
13. Place the HLT underneath the mash tun and open the tap until fully drained.
14. Jug the 13L (at 80C) for batch 2 into the mash tun and give a good stir, temp should be 65C. Put the lid on leave for 10 mins, then repeat steps 12 + 13.
15. Place the HLT above the boiler open the tap and transfer entire contents, as soon as the wort covers the element turn the boiler on!
16. Bring the wort up to a nice rolling boil, when it starts add the bittering hops and the sugar. Boil for 90mins
17. Whilst it's boiling quickly rinse out the FV several times. And then sanitise thoroughly, this is THE single most important step in brewing. Everything
the wort/beer comes into contact with POST BOIL, MUST BE SANITISED. This includes the FV, Siphon tubes, Spoons, Thermometers etc etc. I use AWP, which gets added at about a teaspoon per gallon. Add 10 L of warm water to the FV then spoon in the sanitiser add anything else that needs sanitising and give a good shake to make sure it comes into contact with all surfaces. Leave for 30 mins giving it a shake every 5-10 mins. After soaking rinse thoroughly 5-6 times, you don't want it killing your yeast and ruining your beer.
18. Fifteen mins from the end of the boil lower the IC into the boiling wort (this sanitises it), add the aroma hops plus a protafloc tablet or some Irish
moss (these will coagulate all the proteins etc. leaving you with a clearer pint)
19. At 90mins turn the boiler off and attach the IC to the cold tap and turn it on. Cool it down to 24C, we're cooling it as we don't want to kill the yeast.
This is also the point you measure your OG.
20. Place the FV below the boiler and open the tap, the more splashing into the FV at this point the better as it aerates the wort providing extra nutrients for the yeast. Once done pitch the yeast , place the lid on top with an air lock (make sure you put some cheap vodka in it, this will stop any nasties infecting the beer) and transfer the FV to a nice warm room 18-24C.
If all is well you should get a nice thick head forming on top of the beer called a krausen (kroy-sen) and the air lock should bubble with the CO2 being produced by the fementation within 24-48 hours. Leave it for about a week, if the gravity of the beer is the same 48 hours apart then it's ready to
keg/bottle.
I won't go in depth into kegging it but I will say it's vital to stop ANY splashing when transferring the beer to a keg. To do this have tubing from the FV touching the bottom of the keg. Once in the keg your beer should be ready to drink in 4 weeks time. If bottled the longer the better.
When you break the process down into a set of simple steps it's very easy to do. Of course there is lots of science behind it aswell, such as water chemistry etc. but you don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to brew. I still have lots to learn, but I'm quite confident that I can pick any recipe and brew it whenever I choose. The next step for me will be to start making my own recipes.
THE END RESULT
USEFUL LINKS
Glossary
Mike's Big Brewing Glossary
Forums
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/index.php
http://www.homebrewtalk.com
Technique
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/
Supplies/Equipment
Hop Shop
Hop & Grape
Barleybottom
Leyland homebrew
Brewing Software
http://www.beertools.com/
http://www.beersmith.com/
So why would you choose all grain brewing when the equipment is more costly, it takes up most of the day and cleaning is a pain. Kit Beer is to All Grain as Microwave meals are to Corden Bleu cooking with a glass of the finest red wine on the side! That's THE reason
First of all I will say I am NOT a brewmaster I have a grand total of 3 AG brews under my belt, if you have any questions I shall try to answer as best I can. There are many many more experienced brewers out there than I, and I shall provide some very helpful links which got me going. The aim of this post is to give you a basic view of the process, the equipment and an example recipe.
You can brew any style of beer you want with this, including lagers. Please note however lagering is done by fermenting the beer at a few degrees above zero for months not weeks, so unless you have a spare fridge large enough to store a 5 Gallon Fermenting Vessel (FV) you won't be able to lager.
THE EQUIPMENT
The Boiler
The Burco above is an old 27L wash boiler that I managed to pick up for £10 from a friendly homebrewer wanting to see someone start up for as cheap as
possible. This is used to heat up my mash water, sparge water and to boil the wort.
The Mash Tun
It looks like a coolbox because it is a coolbox. I got this from www.tentastic.com for £9.99 it's a 30L Campinggaz make. To convert it into a mash tun read
the instructions HERE it's incredibly simple to do. Mashing is the process of mixing
crushed malts (and possibly grain adjuncts as well) with water, and holding the mixture at specific temperatures for specific periods of time. During
mashing, enzymes which are naturally present in the malt convert the grain starches into sugars, which are in turn fermentable by brewers yeast.
The Immersion Chiller
This is 10m of 10mm copper bore piping wrapped in a coil (use a cylindrical object to form the shape, I used the inside bucket of my bin) with a 10-15mm reducer and a 15mm straight soldered onto either side, you can then use a hozelock connector to connector two pieces of hose pipe, one for an infeed from your kitchen tap the other an out feed. This is basically used to cool the boiled wort down as quickly as possible by passing cold water through the copper pipe.
Hot Liquor Tun (HLT)
When sparging you need somewhere to store your hot wort, lots of people have a second boiler to keep it nice and hot before you transfer it over to the boiler. Personally I just use my FV wrapped in a blanket (see below).
The Fermenting Vessel
This is where your wort ferments into beer, you can pick up a 5 Gallon bucket for £7.99 from Wilkos
The Hydrometer
The hydrometer will give you a measure of gravity (density, for example the density of water at 20C 'should' be 1.000), measuring the Original Gravity (OG) after the boil and the Final Gravity (FG) when the beer has finished, will help you calculate the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) %. I believe the calculation is: OG points - FG point/8.2 eg: OG of 1.063 FG of 1.010 :- 63-10/8.2 = 53/8.2 = 6.5% ABV. With this knowledge you can then design your beer
to your tastes whether it be a strong Belgian beer or a weak IPA.
The Stirring Spoon
You'll need this big plastic spoon whilst 'doughing' in.
A thermometer
I just have a basic analogue thermometer, I'm sure you know what one of these looks like.
The Keg
Perhaps the most important bit of kit, somewhere to store your beer. The above is a pressure barrel which allows CO2 bulbs to be injected to keep the
pressure up/air out, you can get them brand new for about £20 or if you keep your eye out at carboot sales for about £1 (this may vary). I do also bottle half a dozen or so, I really recommend getting a keg though because bottling 6 takes me a long time, imagine how long 40+ would take.
TODAYS RECIPE
Leffe Blonde Clone
I know there's lots of fans of this beer, it won't be exact but it's in the same style and if anything will be slightly stronger. So here goes
19L Batch, Estimated OG 1.063
4250 gms Pilsner Malt
500 gms Aromatic Malt
300 gms White table sugar, added at the start of the boil
40 gms Hallertau hops (2.8% AAU) 90 minute boil
30 gms Czech Saaz hops (3.0% AAU) added to last 15 mins of boil
Yeast: Wyeast - Ale Belgium Abbey - 1214
THE PROCESS
1. Choose your recipe, see the links at the bottom of this post there are recipes out there to suit everyones tastes
2. Choose your brew length, i.e. how much you want to brew, remember your equipment will limit this.
3. Calculate how much water will be needed for the mash/sparge I use a method called batch sparging where the grain gets rinsed in seperate batches. There's a very handy calculator
HERE. Before using this there a couple of things you will need to know, first of all the final
volume of beer you want to end up with and secondly the 'dead' space in you mash tun. It's very easy to find this out basically fill it up with 10L or so of water and then open the tap up over the sink. When no more water will drain through the tap close it and empty the remaining contents into a measuring jug, this your dead space. For me I have a dead space of 1.2L. An example
- Assume 19L batch, 1.2L dead space, 4.8kg grain
- You can accept the example percentage loss to boil 15% (90 min boil 10% per hour), hops+trub 3L, and the water to grain ration of 2.5
- This will give: (Rounding up)
================== Wort required for boil 26L
================== Made up of two equal quantities of 13L
================== Water required for batch 1 19L
================== Mash volume 12L
================== Top up with 7L
================== Water required for batch 2 13L
4. Measure out the 12L mash volume into the boiler turn on and heat to approx 80C
5. Meanwhile heat up 2 kettles worth of hot water and pour into the mash tun, this will keep it warm and hopefully reduce any temperature loss later on
6. When the water hits 80C empty the mash tun of the kettle water and transfer the mash volume into the mash tun.
7. Dough In: This is where the grain gets added into the mash tun and 'doughed' in with our big stirring spoon until thoroughly mixed.
8. Take the temperature at this point, it should read approx 65C, if it's cooler add more hot water, if it's hotter add some cold water.
9. Leave it to 'MASH' for 90 mins, put the lid on and a blanket over the top to make sure it doesn't lose too much heat.
10. About 50mins into the mash I measure out the top up volume and batch 2 volume into the boiler and turn it on, again aiming for a temp of 80C.
11. Open the lid of the mash tun and add the 7L of top up volume, give it a good stir. Put the lid back on and leave for 10mins. Again once this has been
added and stirred in the temp should be about 65C.
12. Once the 10 minutes is up run off some of the wort into a measuring jug, it will be quite cloudy this is called the first runnings. Slow pour the first
runnings back into the mash tun and repeat this step until this start to clear. This is basically to clear out the crap from the bottom of the mash tun so it
can be filtered properly.
13. Place the HLT underneath the mash tun and open the tap until fully drained.
14. Jug the 13L (at 80C) for batch 2 into the mash tun and give a good stir, temp should be 65C. Put the lid on leave for 10 mins, then repeat steps 12 + 13.
15. Place the HLT above the boiler open the tap and transfer entire contents, as soon as the wort covers the element turn the boiler on!
16. Bring the wort up to a nice rolling boil, when it starts add the bittering hops and the sugar. Boil for 90mins
17. Whilst it's boiling quickly rinse out the FV several times. And then sanitise thoroughly, this is THE single most important step in brewing. Everything
the wort/beer comes into contact with POST BOIL, MUST BE SANITISED. This includes the FV, Siphon tubes, Spoons, Thermometers etc etc. I use AWP, which gets added at about a teaspoon per gallon. Add 10 L of warm water to the FV then spoon in the sanitiser add anything else that needs sanitising and give a good shake to make sure it comes into contact with all surfaces. Leave for 30 mins giving it a shake every 5-10 mins. After soaking rinse thoroughly 5-6 times, you don't want it killing your yeast and ruining your beer.
18. Fifteen mins from the end of the boil lower the IC into the boiling wort (this sanitises it), add the aroma hops plus a protafloc tablet or some Irish
moss (these will coagulate all the proteins etc. leaving you with a clearer pint)
19. At 90mins turn the boiler off and attach the IC to the cold tap and turn it on. Cool it down to 24C, we're cooling it as we don't want to kill the yeast.
This is also the point you measure your OG.
20. Place the FV below the boiler and open the tap, the more splashing into the FV at this point the better as it aerates the wort providing extra nutrients for the yeast. Once done pitch the yeast , place the lid on top with an air lock (make sure you put some cheap vodka in it, this will stop any nasties infecting the beer) and transfer the FV to a nice warm room 18-24C.
If all is well you should get a nice thick head forming on top of the beer called a krausen (kroy-sen) and the air lock should bubble with the CO2 being produced by the fementation within 24-48 hours. Leave it for about a week, if the gravity of the beer is the same 48 hours apart then it's ready to
keg/bottle.
I won't go in depth into kegging it but I will say it's vital to stop ANY splashing when transferring the beer to a keg. To do this have tubing from the FV touching the bottom of the keg. Once in the keg your beer should be ready to drink in 4 weeks time. If bottled the longer the better.
When you break the process down into a set of simple steps it's very easy to do. Of course there is lots of science behind it aswell, such as water chemistry etc. but you don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to brew. I still have lots to learn, but I'm quite confident that I can pick any recipe and brew it whenever I choose. The next step for me will be to start making my own recipes.
THE END RESULT
USEFUL LINKS
Glossary
Mike's Big Brewing Glossary
Forums
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/index.php
http://www.homebrewtalk.com
Technique
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/
Supplies/Equipment
Hop Shop
Hop & Grape
Barleybottom
Leyland homebrew
Brewing Software
http://www.beertools.com/
http://www.beersmith.com/
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