All Grain Newbie

[wetdog]

After the mash, add the first batch of spage water, give a good stir then leave it for 10 minutes or so. then draw off about a jug full of the cloudy wort until it runs clear. carfully pour the jug full back into the wort so as not to disturb the grain too much. once the wort is running 'clear' ie, no bits of husk or grain (usually after 1 or 2 litres) then connect a piece of pipe from the tap to the bottom of the boiler and let the wort run off into the boiler. Switch on the boiler when the element is covered.
When the flow stops, close the tap, fill mash tun with the second batch of water, then repeat the above from 'stir'.

[mctoon]

Got a call from my mate to ask me if i would be interested in this.


5 x 25 Kgs bags of grain,


Cheers Mal

That bit about the 5 bags of grain, was a bit of my quote from my origional post,,,,, thing is, i dont know if its crushed,,, i take it it has to be crushed before i can use it,,, if so can anyone recommened a grain mill or any other suggestions,,,
Cheers Mal

[mctoon]

Hello Folks, Has anyone got any ideas? to the above question,,, Cheers Mal

[Horden Hillbilly]

Where did you get your grain from? It is normally crushed ready to use from home brew shops. To check it yourself, have a look at some of the grains, if they look "whole", they are not crushed, if they have been crushed they should appear to have the husks "cracked" & you should be able to see some "flour" in the bag containing the malt.

If you could upload a pic of your malt for us to have a look at it, you should get a quick, definite responce.

[mctoon]

My, mate is bringing all the gear up this thursday, he said there were bags of pale, crystal and chocolate malt, and northern hops, any ideas for a recipe?, i also have a few fuggles that i used to dry hop the kits i made

Cheers HH for the info, now i believe all the grain is already crushed

Cheers Mal

[Horden Hillbilly]

Any ideas for a recipe?

There are loads to choose from here, Norm's real ale almanac recipes.

[mctoon]

Big day tomorrow, the brew equipment arrives, here goes!!!!!!!

Could be nice, could be pish, i dare say me and my mate will sample the last of my wherry during the brewing process

,,,,, or maybe ,,, brew the beer then drink the wherry

[mctoon]

The gears here, SWMBO is going banaanas!!!!!!!, A few more newbie question, before we start,,,,

There are loads of different hop, some are open,,, will these be ok,,,, some are still sealed but have passed there use by date?

Some bags of chocolate Malt , sealed, use by 2006?

A bag of black malt and a bag of roasted barley, both sealed, use by 2006?

Will these be okay to use or are they going into the bin,,,,,

Cheers Mal

[edit1now]

Sealed plastic bags of malt should be fine. Sniff the opened hops - if they smell hoppy then use them, if they smell cheesy then they go on the compost heap. Sealed bags of hops will probably be OK, but have a sniff before using.

[mctoon]

1 more newbie question before we start, what determines whether you use 2lts or 2.5 litres of water to 1Kg of grain?

Cheers Mal

[Parva]

Probably lack of space in the mash tun on a big brew. I just use 2.5x religiously, works for me.

[mctoon]

First attempt done, was hoping for 1070, but got 23ltr at 1062ish, not bad

House smells of malt, SHMBO is not impressed, ,,,,, i am

[edit1now]

Well done! What are you going to make next?

[mctoon]

Morning all, about to to batch 2, need some recipes, i have maris otter pale, crystal, chocolate malt, black malt , roasted barley, LOADS nd LOADS of Northdown hops, a few cascade, a few WGV,

Any ideas, Cheers Mal

[delboy]

Morning all, about to to batch 2, need some recipes, i have maris otter pale, crystal, chocolate malt, black malt , roasted barley, LOADS nd LOADS of Northdown hops, a few cascade, a few WGV,

Any ideas, Cheers Mal

Northdown and cascade, MO and choc and black malt what about a clotworthy dobbin clone, see jymbos recipe below (its a cracking beer).
There is challenger in the recipe below but jymbo actually thinks it would be better if replaced with northdown, oh and some wheat malt but you could leave that out (put in an extra 150g of MO though to hit the gravity) as its only for extra head retention and won't impact on the flavour.

He also used US-05 for this but that was simply because thats all he had in, S04 would be ideal for this if you have any.
Also the recipe calls for caramelisation of the first runnings if you don't feel up to that you could always omit it since the so4 will produce some of the sweetness you need.

Brewlength: 23L
Target OG: 1048
Mash:90mins
Boil: 90mins
Bitterness: 30 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Grain Bill

Marris Otter: 4500g
Crystal Malt: 450g
Chocolate Malt: 80g
Black Malt: 25g
Wheat Malt: 150g

Hop Schedule

90mins: Challenger (7.1%): 10g
90mins: Northdown (7.9%): 12g
15mins: Challenger (7.1%): 15g
15mins: Cascade (5.4%): 15g
8mins: Cascade (7.3%): 10g
0mins: Cascade (7.3%): 20g

Mash At 68C.
Safale US-05

Caramalise 2L of first runnings and add to boil.

Hit the target spot on and got 23L @ 1048.