Hi folks , well I've just done it !!!
No not that , I just brewed my first all grain beer . I choose a SMaSH beer to keep things simple . It's the forth beer I've brewed the others were 2x kits and one partial extract
I used
6 kg maris otta
Soaked at 70 for 90 mins in as much water as I could getting my 30l pot
I ended up with 26 litres of wort . With a gravity of 1.032
I did a 90 min boil ( stupidly thinking it would take that long to get it down to 20 l )
25g citra for 60 min
25g citra for 20 min
1/2 teaspoon Irish moss for 10 min
25 g citra at flame out .
I ended up with 15 litres of wort hahaha with a gravity of 1.072
I don't have a coiled wort chiller so I filled 8 plastic bottles with water and froze them and soaked the pot in water for about 1 hour to chill it down to 20 degrees .
I pored it through a siv into the fermenter ( still a lot of hop flakes got through )
After I transferred it to the fermenter I added water upto 20 liters and had a gravity of 1.051 .
Pitched the yeast ( sfale05 ) sealed up .
The whole process took from 830am till about 1430 including a clean up and I'm beat !!
Now I've probably made hundreds of errors today as I've only read enough info on this site to be dangerous , but that's partly so I'll learn .
I'm planing on adding the last 25 g of hops as a dry hop for the last 7 days in the fermenter .
I will post any progress on here including a totally biased taste test ( I'm real good at those )
It's strange how I now feel like a legend , brewing god and superstar all rolled into one . Even though I made most of the recipe up I can't wait for my next one , probably in about 3 or 4 weeks away when the mrs goes away .
Please give me any helpful advise you can if you feel like it . Except for when you read my process and recipe and think I'm a total fool ( I already know that because my wife reminds me daily) .
It was a great experience one I'm a bit daunted by still cause apart from videos on utube I've never seen it done before . Nor have I tasted anyone else's all grain beer .
Thanks for reading if you still are and thanks for a great site
Steve
Barefoot brewer
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Post #2 made 12 years ago
Congrats on your first AG BIAB brew!!
You mentioned that you estimated the boil off rate yourself?
You should try out the BIABacus!!! It's an excell spreadsheet that will work out and estimate all of your volumes ect for you with incredible accuracy so you can concentrate on the process.
It's a free download so go get it!
You mentioned that you estimated the boil off rate yourself?
You should try out the BIABacus!!! It's an excell spreadsheet that will work out and estimate all of your volumes ect for you with incredible accuracy so you can concentrate on the process.
It's a free download so go get it!
Post #3 made 12 years ago
Congrats on your brew, but mostly congrats on finding this place. It really is a gold mine of info.
You mention lots of this I would like to comments on (not that it am an expert, but there are a lot on here).
Ok
Firstly I totally agree with Balli recommendation that you download and use BIABacus, it is an AWESOME tool not just for helping you brew, but also to teach you about brewing. It is huge, complex and frightening, but, and I really cannot stress this enough, if you read the posts by PistolPatch on how to get started, you will find that you can ignore 90% of BIABacus and can be up and running with only entering 5 fields (and two of those are your pot size
but PP explains it so much better than I can (as do a few of the other brew gods on here)
As you progress from beginner to intermediate you can enter in more info (and go back and review your earlier brew sheets and learn even more)
It will also allow you to post up your results and the experts to better review your Brew day, even if you do not fully understand the figures (as I don't) BIABacus will and so will the experts,
Don't stress it though, just pick a bored evening and read a couple of the "How to use BIABacus to...." posts with a beer, do this a few times and it will become much easier.
With regards to your actual brew day, I cannot comment too much, not a good enough expert, other than to say I would have diluted your very concentrated boiled wort back to a lower OG (I know commercial brewers do this all the time (not ideal, but not too bad a practice), although in time you will learn to dial in your system).
Also not sure why you have so much hop mush floating about, did you use a hop sock, or just add them to the wort?
I use multiple bags, my big BIAB bag for the grain and a couple of smaller hop socks for the hops and just lop them in. Grain bag at mash time, hop socks as per the recipe (60 mins, 15 mins, flame out, etc..).
My boiled wort comes out a little cloudy (Protein break and other 'stuff) but no big gunge, and it all goes into my fermenter. The final beer is crystal clear after two weeks in the fermentor and a month of bottle conditioning.
I hope this helps.
But the best advice I can give you is to:
- Congrats on finding this site
- Congrats on making your first BIAB brew (already overtaken the 3v guys
)
- Use BIABacus
And keep brewing
Look forward to seeing more of your brew days
You mention lots of this I would like to comments on (not that it am an expert, but there are a lot on here).
Ok
Firstly I totally agree with Balli recommendation that you download and use BIABacus, it is an AWESOME tool not just for helping you brew, but also to teach you about brewing. It is huge, complex and frightening, but, and I really cannot stress this enough, if you read the posts by PistolPatch on how to get started, you will find that you can ignore 90% of BIABacus and can be up and running with only entering 5 fields (and two of those are your pot size
but PP explains it so much better than I can (as do a few of the other brew gods on here)As you progress from beginner to intermediate you can enter in more info (and go back and review your earlier brew sheets and learn even more)
It will also allow you to post up your results and the experts to better review your Brew day, even if you do not fully understand the figures (as I don't) BIABacus will and so will the experts,
Don't stress it though, just pick a bored evening and read a couple of the "How to use BIABacus to...." posts with a beer, do this a few times and it will become much easier.
With regards to your actual brew day, I cannot comment too much, not a good enough expert, other than to say I would have diluted your very concentrated boiled wort back to a lower OG (I know commercial brewers do this all the time (not ideal, but not too bad a practice), although in time you will learn to dial in your system).
Also not sure why you have so much hop mush floating about, did you use a hop sock, or just add them to the wort?
I use multiple bags, my big BIAB bag for the grain and a couple of smaller hop socks for the hops and just lop them in. Grain bag at mash time, hop socks as per the recipe (60 mins, 15 mins, flame out, etc..).
My boiled wort comes out a little cloudy (Protein break and other 'stuff) but no big gunge, and it all goes into my fermenter. The final beer is crystal clear after two weeks in the fermentor and a month of bottle conditioning.
I hope this helps.
But the best advice I can give you is to:
- Congrats on finding this site
- Congrats on making your first BIAB brew (already overtaken the 3v guys
)- Use BIABacus
And keep brewing
Look forward to seeing more of your brew days
-
- SVA Brewer With Over 50 Brews From Great Britain
-
Post #4 made 12 years ago
Let us know how it comes out! I loves me some Citra.
---Todd
---Todd
WWBBD?
-
- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America
-
Post #5 made 12 years ago
Barefootbrewer wrote:Now I've probably made hundreds of errors today as I've only read enough info on this site to be dangerous...
Excellent!!!There are many ways to get started in all-grain. One extreme is to just dive in without reading a thing and another extreme is to read and read and read way too much and then finally do a brew. This site has the best information and tools but a lot more work is needed to make the info you need easy to find and then understand in the right order. Until then, I think Yettiman's idea of having a beer on a bored evening and reading perhaps the BIABacus temporary help (it's pretty crap atm but some important concepts will sink in) and, of course,you can always check your next brew plan on this forum before you brew it.
Congratulations Steve - nice job
,PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 09 Mar 2014, 14:48, edited 1 time in total.
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- SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From Australia
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My first biab brew - The Barefoot Citra SMaSH
Post #6 made 12 years ago
Hay thanks for the replies folks (just incase any of the respondants were ladies )
I did chuck the hops straight into the boil but I poored the brew threw a siv and even though I put 75 grams of pellets into the boil it filled the siv and some .
I ended up with the hop cloud in the bottom 5 litres . Now it's at 1.5 litres and I'm hoping that the yeast bed will push it lower ( well praying really ) .
I drained a tiny bit out and had a taste wow the hops taste great . I love hoppy beers imperial and double ipa's are my favorite .
It's bubbling away real nice after 2 days and the hoppy aroma is just amazing
I was going to dry hop the last 25 grams but with all that residue int there I don't think I will .
I've tried to play with biabacus but all I have is a ipad and it don't seem to be able to get it to work . I'll have a read of the instruction threads over the next couple of weeks and see what I can find .
Well thanks again guys your help has been great .
I'll keep you posted how my beginners luck goes hahaha
And I promise when I do the next all grain in about a months time I'll prep it better .
I'd like to do a nice ipa maybe a dogfish head 90min clone ( I found a bottle down here in kiwi land and wow it was nice )
Cheers
Steve
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I did chuck the hops straight into the boil but I poored the brew threw a siv and even though I put 75 grams of pellets into the boil it filled the siv and some .
I ended up with the hop cloud in the bottom 5 litres . Now it's at 1.5 litres and I'm hoping that the yeast bed will push it lower ( well praying really ) .
I drained a tiny bit out and had a taste wow the hops taste great . I love hoppy beers imperial and double ipa's are my favorite .
It's bubbling away real nice after 2 days and the hoppy aroma is just amazing
I was going to dry hop the last 25 grams but with all that residue int there I don't think I will .
I've tried to play with biabacus but all I have is a ipad and it don't seem to be able to get it to work . I'll have a read of the instruction threads over the next couple of weeks and see what I can find .
Well thanks again guys your help has been great .
I'll keep you posted how my beginners luck goes hahaha
And I promise when I do the next all grain in about a months time I'll prep it better .
I'd like to do a nice ipa maybe a dogfish head 90min clone ( I found a bottle down here in kiwi land and wow it was nice )
Cheers
Steve
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
