Yeast not working

[guypettigrew]

Just another quick question for guypettigrew:

"As to the mash conditions, a reasonable rule of thumb is 2.5 litres of water to each kilogram of grain."
I'm following the London Pride recipe from Graham Wheeler's CAMRA book, which says 25 litres of liquor for 4.5 kg of malt. That's twice the amount of liquor you're saying!

Looks like you've cracked it! Reduce the mash liquor to the smaller amount, then rinsing through with hot water (sparging) will pull out the sugars ready to be fermented.

Jim's suggestion of looking at the grain brewing pages on here will help.

It's an odd thing, making a full mash beer. It seems really complicated when you read all the theory but, once you've got the process right, you'll wonder why you ever thought it was difficult!

My guess is your next brew will go really well. Good luck!

Guy

[jerseyboyd]

Thanks for your encouragement, Guy.
Someone else also helpfully suggested that I put some malt extract in to boost the beer a bit above the 2% I was likely to end up with and it worked!
The yeast started doing its thing last night after rousing and aerating. Things have calmed down again this morning, but hopefully I've succeeded in pushing the ABV up a bit.
I'm really pleased to have cracked this nut, thanks to everyone for your help. I'm already looking forward to the next batch, looks like I'm hooked!

[jerseyboyd]

A quick hello to all those who chipped in their nuggets of wisdom to help me through my first attempts at full mash brewing.
As I'm doing all this with a group of friends, I'm not brewing as regularly as most of you guys out there, as it's not always easy for us to get everyone together on the same weekend, but the next attempt is scheduled for 30 April.
We actually tasted the 'small beer' that resulted from my massive miscalculation of the quantity of mash liquor required.
The taste was obviously more akin to tea than beer, but I'm really happy to report that our beer cleared unaided without finings and it also had good natural condition. So we must have got something right, I guess. I'm really encouraged and can't wait until the next batch, this time with the right quantities!