Recipe For a Novice

[J_P]

Hi all

After the fun I had with my mini-mash it appears that the dark side has another recruit. I really want to be able to brew a beer that will stand up to the scrutiny of some seriously beery mates and no matter how good I think the kits are they aint like the stuff I drink down my local. The only option left (IMHO) is to do the noble thing and go AG.

I think I have decided that for my first brew I'd like to do Jim's tried and tested House Bitter (Linky Dink). If it's good enough for Jim then it's more than good for me, plus I have a serious thing for black sheep at the moment (the beer not the actual creatures before someone pulls me up")

I have no bother working out the IBU's as they seem pretty finite and the only variable is the AA% which I can cope with. I am however a little unsure of grain quantities to use as I doubt I'll get anywhere near Jims mash efficiency. I am going to be mashing in a cool box and sparging according to Daabs instructions with my lauter tun (I think you chaps call it batch sparging or re-mashing). When I tried mini-mashing I think I got 84% mash efficiency (if someone could check my maths )

2.3kg pale malt * (300/10l sweet wort) = 69 degrees of gravity

The wort measured 1058 when corrected to 20degC

58/69 = 84.05% efficiency

If I do everything the same as I did with my mini-mash hopefully I'll get the same efficiency with a larger volume of grain. So assuming that the 80% mark is my mash efficiency how much would I need to scale Jim's recipe up or down to achieve a fermenter full of wort at target gravity after the boil? (I am currently using 23l fermenters and hoping for a OG of 1045 to 1060.)

I am aware that there are programs out there that will calculate everything for me or I could blindly follow a recipe but I'm a firm believer in the old "Give a man a fish - feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime" adage and would be greatful if someone could pass me the calculations so I could work it out for myself. Who knows armed with the basic formulae I could probably write a program to work everything out for me once I understood and pass it on to future novice brewers!

Many thanks in advance

JP

[Wez]

When I tried mini-mashing I think I got 84% mash efficiency (if someone could check my maths )

2.3kg pale malt * (300/10l sweet wort) = 69 degrees of gravity

The wort measured 1058 when corrected to 20degC

58/69 = 84.05% efficiency

Beersmith gets that to 84.2 which is great, you say sweet wort (ie pre hop boil) do you mean bittered worth post hop boil? There is mash efficiency (pre hop boil) and brewhouse efficiency (post hop boil) either way the Wez hat is held aloft as another man walks the nervy road to his first AG, believe me this WILL NOT be your last.

[J_P]

How do Wez

I was working out mash efficiency I wasn't sure about overall efficiency I did have to dilute the post boil wort back to 10l of 1050 wort something as it was a whopping 1077 as I'd forgotten to allow for evaporation

I'm not particularly nervy - I enjoyed the challenge, I'm just doing an exercise in the 6 P's - Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. The more I understand now the less I'll have to panic about later.

[DRB]

I,d go with 70/75% brewhouse efficiency for the first batch, then go from there.

[Wez]

How do Wez

I was working out mash efficiency I wasn't sure about overall efficiency I did have to dilute the post boil wort back to 10l of 1050 wort something as it was a whopping 1077 as I'd forgotten to allow for evaporation

I'm not particularly nervy - I enjoyed the challenge, I'm just doing an exercise in the 6 P's - Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. The more I understand now the less I'll have to panic about later.

Ey yup J_P

You made 72.6% brewhouse efficiency which is a top drawer performance don't worry too much about allowing for evaporation, as you may not actually be able to do it as collecting too much wort may mean you extract too much and extract nasties! I put 25L in my boiler and after a 1.5hr boil have 18L in the FV so have to add 7L. It's good to try to monitor your eff' (and I always do) but it's not the most vital part of brewing as i'm sure you'll read, it the ale you produce that counts, how much grain you use to make it.....who gives a shit anyway we're not commercial brewers (yet), it's pence It's a massive learning curve that you and I are just about starting to climb. Enjoy!

PS. Got my first chillies setting now, which is a bonus rather than the fekers flowering then the stem & fruit falling off!

[J_P]

I suppose if you end up with 23l of 1050 wort after mashing and sparging then even if you boil it down to 10 litres and then dilute it back to 23l then your wort is still going to be 1050 no matter how you look at it.

I suppose the only thing you have to worry about after that is how much you loose to hop absorption.

Good to hear about the chillies Wez - Mine are coming on a treat too as are the tomatoes.

[Wez]

Hop absorb is IMHO a key eff looser, i tried rinsing or sparging the hops but think i transferred too much of the break matter to the FV. SteveD posted something recently about efficiency recently, he basically said that good eff doesn't mean better beer but controlled eff does, so i guess it's all about getting your set-up, learning how it works, try a range of recipies see which you like and then focus on getting them spot on. What i am doing is trying to get 6 beers that i like and perfect them to my taste.

Unless someone beats me to it i'll post the calculations for eff and EBU tomorrow - it's in a book all the way upstairs and i have had three 6%abv Church End - Arthurs Wit's

Sungold - I spotted some plant in my LGC the other day and thought about your comments on them so got three plants all going well and just starting to flower, looking forward to them

[J_P]

Sungold - wait until they start producing fruit, if you catch them just right you'll never eat a shop bought tom again! You'll also realise that the "Vine Ripened" tomatoes you can buy from various places are an utter sham as tomatoes ripen from the top of the truss to the bottom and not all at once in a cellophane wrapper!

I think I need to add Marc Ollosons book to my library as it seems to be something of a bible round these parts, ParkerWitton recommended it too. Regarding my first brew I think I'm just going to wing it and as long as I get a reasonable quantity of decent wort I'll be happy, and then start calculating properly!