First full grain brew!

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Muscleguy
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First full grain brew!

Post by Muscleguy » Fri Nov 27, 2020 9:38 pm

After a long hiatus in brewing. Been making wine, cider, orange hooch, I finally put together all the stuff I need to brew beer properly. I have done extract brewing before, I have done partial mashes, time to upgrade.

I use a 'Wheeler's Widget' bucket with perforated base inserted into other bucket with a tap. Used as a mash tun and a lauter tun. Idea is to brew 15L/3G at a time and put 2G in a small barrel and bottle the rest. That way i'll have a change beer while I'm drinking the next barrel. As there's only me now 5G would be too much beer. I'm a runner so that has to be taken into account.

My first brew was a Wadworth 6X clone. With Simpson's Golden Promise pale malt and dark crystal, Fuggles in the kettle, Goldings as a dry hop. Recipe calls for brewing sugar but I used spray malt since my extraction seemed weak.

My mash looked a little dry, I measured it later, there's 3L of space under the perforated floor not in contact with the mash. I think i need to increase the water. I think I probably ran the wort off a little fast as well meaning the sparge wasn't as affective. I have a watering rose on the end of 18mm hose from the tap of a brewbucket with the hot water in it (heated to specific temps by my portable sous vide machine).

I should say I use 3G buckets. They were well lagged with a full hot water jacket plus two duvets over the top. 90min mash at 67C. Good 90min boil. Lauter tun filtered the wort well. Cooled in the sink, saving for some copper pipe, I have a pipe bender.

Even with the DME I got only just under the target gravity. Got a good head formation, Dropped it after 2 days leaving the dirty head and trub behind. Racked the beer at the end of fermentation with the head still intact. Put it in the cool attic overnight to let some yeast settle out (worked). Then barrelled the 2G with more DME as a primer with the 1G in a demijohn under an airlock both with dry Goldings on top.

Tastes good even flat and without the dry hop. But I will appreciate any comments for next time. Thinking of getting an electric thermometer with a probe to monitor temps without opening the mash tun. Thinking of a mashout.

Thoughts please.

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bitter_dave
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by bitter_dave » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:15 pm

Hi MG, that bucket in a bucket set up is what I used to use when I first started brewing in the mid 2000s. I made some good beers using that. The point you make about mash liquor is a good one - you need to measure and allow for the space under the inner bucket and allow for that in the water you used for a mash. I used to use a rotating sparge arm thing (can you still get them?). Anyway, I got fed up with this and started batch sparging (what Wheeler called ‘remashing’). I found this worked better for me, so have a look into that. It’s great that we can make beer with plastic buckets!

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bitter_dave
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by bitter_dave » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:22 pm

... just to add, different set ups / techniques will yield different levels of efficiency, and you can also add a bit more grain to your brews if you find are struggling to get the OG in a published recipes.

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bitter_dave
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by bitter_dave » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:22 pm

bitter_dave wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:15 pm
Hi MG, that bucket in a bucket set up is what I used to use when I first started brewing in the mid 2000s. I made some good beers using that. The point you make about mash liquor is a good one - you need to measure and allow for the space under the inner bucket and allow for that in the water you used for a mash. I used to use a rotating sparge arm thing (can you still get them?). Anyway, I got fed up with this and started batch sparging (what Wheeler called ‘remashing’). I found this worked better for me with this set up, so have a look into that. It’s great that we can make beer with plastic buckets!

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bitter_dave
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by bitter_dave » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:24 pm

Duplicate post

guypettigrew
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by guypettigrew » Sun Nov 29, 2020 1:43 pm

Bitter Dave's comments about allowing for the dead space are important. 2.5 litres of mash liquor to each kilo of grain is a good ratio to aim for. Plus your 3 dead litres.

Seems as though you've got the mash temperature sorted. I'm guessing you put hot liquor into the mash tun then added the grain. If you haven't already found it, there's a really useful calculator on here to work out the temperature your liquor needs to be before adding the grain.

Sparging with a watering can rose is OK, but a bit hit and miss in terms of the sparge rate. You can still get spinny sparge arms. Here's a nice one from Angel Homebrew. I aim for a sparge rate of about 1/2 litre a minute. Might seem a bit time consuming and tedious, but it gives me a good extraction rate.

Good to know your first one is already tasting good, even though it hasn't had time to mature.

All the best for your next brew. Bet it goes better than the first one! Let us know.

Guy

Muscleguy
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Re: First full grain brew!

Post by Muscleguy » Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:32 pm

Thanks Dave and Guy, I appreciate your advice. I shall take it into account. Thinking about a Scottish 70/- for my next brew, I am in Scotland.

Keeping my hands off the beer until Xmas is getting harder. My mind keeps trying to get me to sample it but I'm resisting. Had lots of practice with the wine. I bottle the first of this year's wine this month too. For spring drinking and cooking.

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