advice needed

Make grain beers with the absolute minimum of equipment. Discuss here.
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tickle

advice needed

Post by tickle » Thu Sep 15, 2016 6:23 pm

hi all
need a bit of advice .thinking of start doing biab
but not sure where to start
what do I need to get stated
how long to leave the mash in the tun for
do you or don't you add sugar which yeast do you use
when do you add hops that's if you do
what grain to use and how much
I have watched a few youtube vids but they don't say how long to leave things for
any help would be grateful
many thanks

Fil
Telling imaginary friend stories
Posts: 5229
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: Cowley, Oxford

Re: advice needed

Post by Fil » Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:36 pm

you need a bag and a pot. probably a good idea to use your kitchens largest stockpot for a small scale test brew, and for a bag a meter square of nylon curtain netting will probably suffice if you dont have a local home brew shop, if you do have a local brew shop pop in and chat about your plans.. 99% of the time such places are run by enthusiastic and knowledgable brewers..


the mash is all about converting the complex sugars and starches of the grain into simple sugars the yeast can consume. this is carried out by enzymes and maintaining a stable mash temp for 60-90 minutes should ensure a full conversion.

a simple iodine test can be carried out to confirm all the starch has been converted (google for utubes ..)

insulation to maintain the mash temp trumps trying to heat the pot up with the bag in which unless a recirculation system is employed can run the risk pf cooking the lower grain while leaving the uppermost grain below temp..

depending on the quantity of grain used you may need to embelish the brew with more sugars LME/DME would be best but also more expensive, white sugar, sucrose, brewers sugar or brewers enhancer will all ferment but wont add body like LME or DME and if used in significant quantities can result in a thinner beer with less body/mouthfeel..

get stuck in and see how it goes..
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

tickle

Re: advice needed

Post by tickle » Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:14 pm

thanks for your reply
but still don't know how to tell which grain and amount to use and what yeast to use
also which hops if any to use
thanks

Stewb

Re: advice needed

Post by Stewb » Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:34 pm

The grain you use will depend on the beer you want to produce, simplest way is to just use a pale malt/ Maris otter, but depending on desired style, colour etc you may want to supplement this or indeed substitute this with other grains. Quantities will depend on your brew length - how much beer you want to get in your fermenter and the style you wish to brew . To get more beer you need more grain.

Yeast will again depend on what you intend to brew and will have a massive impact on the beer you produce. To keep it simple at first stick with dry yeast sachets. If you want to do a simple English ale then get a packet of Nottingham or Windsor or something like that.

Hops are the other essential, at risk of repeating myself what, and how much will depend on the beer you want to brew.

Perhaps the best start point might be to do a web search for "BIAB recipe ...." Where you put your desired beer style in instead of the .... (Eg IPA, stout, mild etc).

Then take the recipe, look at the volume of beer it produces and scale the hops and grain quantities by the ratio of the recipe's volume vs. the volume you wish to brew.



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tickle

Re: advice needed

Post by tickle » Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:52 pm

many thanks for that
I understand a bit better now
I would like to end up with a 23l larger brew

dbg400
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Re: advice needed

Post by dbg400 » Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:54 pm

It sounds like you're asking about two areas of brewing:
- How to brew (BIAB kit & process)
and
- *what* to brew (malts, hops, yeast, water, and ???)

You can get plenty of advice here on the first, but for the second you'll need to say what styles you want to try before getting much in the way of recipe suggestions! There is a subsection of the forum that is dedicated to them viewforum.php?f=5 For most British beers you're going to have pale malt as the biggest proportion of your grain bill (90% +), with smaller quantities of crystal or other darker malts for colour, flavour, head retention, etc.

Personally I've found Greg Hughes' Home Brew Beer book very useful. Lots of recipes for lots of different styles. The single hop ale recipes are very simple, and a good way to find out the strengths (and weaknesses) of a hop.

For actually deciding on and using the equipment it can help if someone in your area does demos - I went to one at my local home brew centre (40 mile round trip, but it's the closest I can get to easily) and bought the same kit (Peco Electrim digital boiler) which is still going strong after 23 brews.

Stewb

Re: advice needed

Post by Stewb » Thu Sep 15, 2016 11:33 pm

tickle wrote:many thanks for that
I understand a bit better now
I would like to end up with a 23l larger brew
To brew a true lager can be a little more difficult as a home brewer than an ale as lager yeasts like to ferment cold, and the paleness and crisp dry finish may not give you any room to hide imperfections!

If your heart is set on lager, you will need to be able to temperature control the fermentation to get a cold fermentation (either having a fermentation fridge or access to some cold caves for historical accuracy) yeast wise you then will want a specific lager yeast, then finally you want more patience as, with the cold temperatures, fermentation will take longer.

My suggestion might be to go for a pale, "lager style" ale, certainly as a first run


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Clibit
Under the Table
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Location: Old Trafford

Re: advice needed

Post by Clibit » Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:16 am

There's a guide here that should help...


http://www.homebrewinguk.com/post/simpl ... ?&trail=15

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