How to brew your own beer - The All Grain method

seabiscuit · 29 Oct 2012 at 21:04

The something it keeps in is dimethyl sulphides (or the precursors that lead to their production). It's more pronounced apparently with some malt types (lager malt more than maris otter for example). It apparently can give a sweetcorn flavour to your beer which is an unwanted taste.
But stuff the gravity readings, the important thing is if it tastes good. Don't worry if things aren't exactly as a recipe says. Just drink the beer if you enjoy it. If you don't, make a massive amount of beef and ale cassarole/pies etc, and get brewing again with what you learnt before.

Ahleckz · 30 Oct 2012 at 13:33

Anyone got any tips/recipes/yeast strains that will ferment well at colder temperatures. Thinking around 12-14c.

metbandit1 · 30 Oct 2012 at 16:23

Any type of Lager yeast? *random shot in the dark*

dinger44 · 30 Oct 2012 at 19:07

Nottingham will go at 14. You might need to pitch two packs for a 23 litre brew. Saflager s23 or 37/40 if its a lager strain your looking for.

dinger44 · 30 Oct 2012 at 20:21

metbandit1 said:
It didnt boil over mainly because its a 100L boiler with only 28L of liquid in it at the start of the boil .

I have a 7kw gas ring as well.

Ive never brewed on gas but u should buy a copy of beersmith 2 or try the trial version first. you can dial in your equipment on it. suit it to your gear.

jimmy321 · 30 Oct 2012 at 21:21

Try raising the fermentation vessel off the floor if it's cold.

Ahleckz · 30 Oct 2012 at 23:29

jimmy321 said:
Try raising the fermentation vessel off the floor if it's cold.

Ah, good advice. Didn't even think about that. I'll have to try and fashion a bench out of stuff.

Ahleckz · 2 Nov 2012 at 23:16

Sigh. My beer is sitting around 3%. Temperature is far too low, I'l have to repitch the yeast.

st00dent · 3 Nov 2012 at 20:58

First brew is underway!

Currently boiling up.

Going OK so far except for one schoolboy error.

My mesh bags weren't large enough to hold all of the malt!
My attempt at improvising didn't go too well either so have had to try and remove as much as I could.

Fingers crossed it doesnt balls it up too much!

jimmy321 · 3 Nov 2012 at 22:43

st00dent said:
First brew is underway!
Going OK so far except for one schoolboy error.

My mesh bags weren't large enough to hold all of the malt!

LOL must be brewing season, made a few errors myself...

First brew in 10 years, used a false bottom in my boiler to use a mash tun and decided to use a grain bag aswell, result to enough room for the grain and had some spill over!

Made the milk stout trying for 5 gallons...

5.5kg pale malt
0.5kg chocolate malt
0.5kg roasted barley
0.5kg lactose 60 mins in to the boil
85g challenger hops @ 6.5% alpha

Was sparging and forgot I was aiming for 6.5% and kept going till 1016 gravity, which made 6 gallons of wart. Too much I thought but after the boil and hop straining I only have 4.5 gallons.

Anyway the OG is 1070 and I expect the racking gravity to be 1020 (because of the unfermentable sugars) so I should get 6.5% vol by fluke but time will tell.

The warts in the fermentation vessel in a bath of cold water till 27°c then I will add a yeast culture which I started yesterday with light spraymalt.

jimmy321 · 4 Nov 2012 at 19:15

All going well with the brew.

Added the yeast about midnight and woke up to this....

Another pic about 4pm....

Note the whisky bottle in the next pic was used to start the yeast on Friday which really helps, it's instant fermentation when you add it to the wart.

seabiscuit · 5 Nov 2012 at 06:45

So your doing an open fermentation? Aren't you worried about anything falling/flying into the wort/beer?

jimmy321 · 5 Nov 2012 at 09:46

I'm not worried at all when the fermentation slows down I will transfer it to another fermenter with a demijohn which will likely be tonight or tomorrow.

In any case it would not be possible to start with closed fermentation as it would blown the lid off and the brew would be all over the place. As you can see in the pic I have stuff on the floor in case it overflowed, which it nearly did, at one point the head was balancing about 4" over the head of the bucket.

jimmy321 · 5 Nov 2012 at 21:21

Just dropped in to secondary fermentation vessel...

Some yeast and undesirables left behind...

Fermentation continues in closed vessel, air lock bubbling as soon as fitted...

Gravity now at 1040 so it's already at 4.1%volume after about 40 hours, down to 19L of wart and will likely loose another L when casking.

Ahleckz · 7 Nov 2012 at 20:04

Checked my gravities and what not on Friday and they weren't were I wanted them to be. Left it until today and not much change (though there is some). I've now taken the potentially risky decision to pitch more (different) yeast. Gone with a lager yeast so hopefully that'll help as my flat is often quite cold and the wort isn't 17/18c as it should be.

I'm hoping for a quick, intense period of fermentation over the next couple of days. I'm still to dry hop, but not sure about that anymore... I'm fermenting 3 1 gallon FVs so I'm considering dry hopping one as a bit of an experiment.

jimmy321 · 8 Nov 2012 at 12:07

Lager yeast should work. The beer should be fine as long as the demijohn has not been letting air in, even if it has there's less chance of contamination in the winter months.

Ahleckz · 8 Nov 2012 at 21:30

Sigh, fermentation has totally stuck.

I've checked temps, and it's fine. So, I've got a big spoon and given it a good ol' stir. Hoping to get some of the yeast and stuff in the lees to get active. It's a shame, as I was hoping to bottle tomorrow but that's not going to be happening. I think I'm going to forego my dry hop to try and get this beer ready for the end of the month.

Dunks · 10 Nov 2012 at 00:42

Boiler finished, check.

Mash tun finished, check.

Counter-flow chiller finished, check.

And last but not least,

Lager Malt
Flaked Wheat
Pale Wheat Malt
Bobek hops
Saaz hops
WB-06 yest

ordered.

Should arrive on Monday then it's time for my first brew, either by way of kit or all grain.

Excited

seabiscuit · 10 Nov 2012 at 16:39

Wooo! Brilliant!
Remeber, we love loads of photo's in this thread. Have you built everything yourself? Can't wait to hear/see.
Best wishes.

Dunks · 10 Nov 2012 at 18:10

Yup, went the full DIY route! Will post some pictures of the kit soon

Ahleckz, did you buy your grains/hops etc local? I'm down in Glasgow mid December and rather than pay £8 for postage I'd probably be better buying and just taking it back up north with me!