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All Grain Brewing for
Beginners.
For many novice brewers, the thought of all grain brewing (AGB) can be very daunting, I know it was for me, the very thought of all grain brewing just made my head spin. But the fact of the matter is that it is only as complicated as you want it to be. With a few extra bits and pieces and a little bit of knowledge you can be brewing beer better than the big boys of Fosters and CUB, and trust me is not hard. Let’s start with what you need for a 23L brew.
Equipment:
The best way to start AGB is to use the tried and tested Brew in a Bag (BIAB) technique. In its simplest form you will only need one large pot, a heat source, a set of digital scales, a thermometer, a large grain bag and a laundry trough or copper cooling coil, plus your regular brewing equipment.
The large pot: The best thing you can use as a saucepan is a 50L brewery keg with the top cut out. You can pick them up at scrap yards, or on eBay. A good tip is when cutting the top out, cut it so it will fit a large lid from your kitchen. You can also fit the keg with a tap and a thermometer but this is not necessary as you can siphon the beer out of the keg.
The heat source: I use a 3 ring burner bought from a camping store ($50), but depending on what you use as your pot or the size of brew you are making you can use your kitchen gas cook top. I did this for a start making 12L batches in a 20L saucepan.
The Digital Scales: $20-$30 from Big W for weighing grain and hops. (Hops must be weighed accurately)
The Thermometer: A milk frothing thermometer from Big W or one of those stores is ideal as the temp range for frothing milk is alarmingly similar to mashing temps for beer. ($8)
The Grain Bag: Can be brought from us, or you can easily make one from fine nylon mesh brought from Spotlight. ($10)
The Cooling Gear: A copper cooling coil can be brought from IBrew for around $95 plus postage) which is very effective, otherwise put the brew kettle into a large tub of cold water.
The Rest: Your fermenter, spoon, sterilser, air lock, all of your brewing equipment is still required for all grain brewing.
What to brew?
While you get comfortable with All Grain Brewing we can take the hard word and worry out of developing your own recipes. Check out our site for a style you like and we will pack it for you with a brew day step by step (don’t forget to ask if you want the grain cracked). Then once you have your technique sorted you will be open to a whole new world of brewing. There are a huge amount of recipes on the web, or you can design your own using programs which can also be found on the internet. Do your research, read books, surf the web and see what has worked for other people. Also brew with the seasons, in spring and autumn when the weather is mid-20s, brew ales as ale yeasts like a warmer temperature, and in winter brew your lagers. I look at it like this; brew your lagers in winter so they are ready for drinking in summer and ales in spring and autumn for the winter months. Then again if you are going to use a temp controller in the fridge, brew what you want when you want.
A great program to create recipes is Brew Mate which can be downloaded free if you visit brewmate.net. This program has a huge database of ingredients and beer styles and all of their characteristics. It is easy to use and you add new things to the database at anytime.
Ingredients:
The best place to source ingredients for AGB is through us at Bendigo Malt and Hops. Be sure to have all of your grains cracked if you don’t have a mill at home.
Lets Brew:
Now you have your equipment, ingredients and a recipe we can start the brew! Start by heating roughly 35L of water in your pot to 71C° (The volume will vary depending on the amount of grain in the recipe) but for these instructions lets assume we have 5kg of grain. (6:1 water grain ratio) You should aim for a mash temp of between 63 – 70 C°. (The higher the temp the less sugars and more body and the lower the temp, more sugars and less body) For a start let’s go for 66C° for a medium bodied beer. (71C° will give us this temp pending weather)
Once 71C° has been reached remove from heat and place the grain bag in the pot draping the open end around the edge of the pot. Slowly add the cracked grains and stir into water making sure all the grain is saturated. Check to see that the temperature is correct, if it is too hot add some cold water and add boiled water if too cold. Place lid on pot and leave to mash for 90 mins. (For extra insulation you can wrap the pot in a blanket if you like) Also if the weather is cold it is a good idea to check the temperature mid way through the mash.
After the 90 minutes is up, take the lid off and lift the grain bag out of the pot and let it drain. DO NOT SQUEESE! Just let it drain out naturally; use a large colander in a separate clean bucket if you like. While you do this you can reintroduce the burner to the pot and get ready for the boil. Once the grain bag has drained out, pour any liquid in the bucket back into the main pot.
While you wait for the wort to boil, it is a good idea to get your hops weighted out and ready to be added to the boil. Hops must be weighed very accurately as one gram over or under the specified weight in a recipe can affect the resulting beer greatly, particularly if you’re using hops with a high alpha acid content.
Note: An extra step called sparging can be taken after the mash is complete; this is where the grains are rinsed of more goodness before being discarded. To do this you will need another pot, not quite as big as your main one but still around 20L or so. Fill it with roughly 10 liters of water and heat to 78C°. When you remove the grain bag from the mash, drain the bulk of the wort and put the bag into the 2nd pot to rewet the grain. Leave for about 10 – 15mins then drain the bag out fully adding the entire contents of the 2nd pot to the boil pot. If you do decide to do these steps remember to adjust your volumes of water at the start of the mash.
Once the wort reaches a boil throw in your 1st hops (bittering hops) and start a timer, you can download brew timer apps on your phone or use an alarm or whatever you like. Add your hops in at the intervals specified in the recipe, noting that the times indicated are from the end of the boil. The hops can be added directly to the boil, or you can use a hop bag or hop sock. I usually do a 70 minute boil, though some people only do 60 while others do 90 minutes it’s up to you but for this volume 70 minutes works well. Be sure to stir it often to prevent burning the wort.
20 minutes before the end of the boil Irish moss or wirfloc must be added to the boil, these aids in clearing the beer up when it cools and can be purchased from us. If you are using a copper cooling coil, drop it into the boil now as this will sterilize it for cooling.
Once the boil is complete take it off the heat and let it rest for 15 minutes, I usually use this time to sterilize all of my equipment for fermenting i.e. fermenter, airlock, spoon, tube for siphoning if no taps and a strainer of some description (Kitchen strainer wrapped in a stocking). Until you reach this stage, sanitation is not necessary, just make sure your equipment is clean as the boil tends to kill all nasty bugs.
Cooling can now begin. Whatever method you use, you want to reach an ideal yeast pitching temperature, 20-25C° for ale yeasts, and below 20C° for lager yeasts. Once the right temperature has been reached, transfer the wort to the fermenter using the strainer with the stocking as a sort of filter. If there are no feasible ways you can cool your wort, transfer it to your fermenter and seal with the airlock, then leave it overnight and pitch yeast in the morning. After you pitch the yeast vigorously stir and agitate the wort to get as much oxygen into it as you can, this will give the yeast a great start to fermentation.
Once fermentation stops, it is as you already know, bottle the beer the same way as you would a kit beer and store it for at least two weeks at room temperature before drinking. If you make a lager store it for a month or so at a low temperature before moving it to somewhere room temperature for two weeks. This is called lagering and contributes a clean, crisp character to the beer.
Note: 5-10 days into fermentation, you can transfer the beer into a sterilized secondary fermenter. Remember to scoop 2 or 3 table spoons of the yeast slurry at the bottom of the first fermenter into the second one. Also if you decide to dry hop, add your dry hops now. Leave in the second fermenter anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks. This step helps clear the beer before bottling. But remember this step is optional.
More:
Remember this is only a guide, there are many other exciting and different ways you can brew beer. A great place to watch this style of brewing and other styles is on YouTube, just type in “all grain brewing,” and you can’t go wrong. In fact it is where I gained the confidence to attempt it myself, even after hours of reading about the process.
Overview:
All of that is a fair bit to take in, so here it is in point form to make brew day a little easier.
1. Heat your mash water to your strike temp, remember to use water: grain ratio of roughly 6:1 that is 6 liters of water to 1kg of grain.
2. Place grain bag in the water. Add your cracked grains to your water and stir thoroughly, check that the temperature lands between 63C°-70C° cover and leave for 60-90 mins. Check and adjust temp half way through mash if brewing in cold weather.
3. Remove grain bag from water and drain, remembering not to squeeze the bag.
4. Apply heat to the pot and bring to a rolling boil and add your bittering hops.
5. Add your flavour and aroma hops at times specified in your recipe remembering to stir the wort often. Also remember to add Irish moss 20 mins from the end of the boil along with your copper cooling coil (if using one).
6. Cool to yeast pitching temp then transfer to sterilized fermenter and pitch your yeast.
7. Ferment and bottle or keg as usual.
8. Leave bottles for a minimum of two weeks before sampling but remember the beer will improve drastically with age.
For many novice brewers, the thought of all grain brewing (AGB) can be very daunting, I know it was for me, the very thought of all grain brewing just made my head spin. But the fact of the matter is that it is only as complicated as you want it to be. With a few extra bits and pieces and a little bit of knowledge you can be brewing beer better than the big boys of Fosters and CUB, and trust me is not hard. Let’s start with what you need for a 23L brew.
Equipment:
The best way to start AGB is to use the tried and tested Brew in a Bag (BIAB) technique. In its simplest form you will only need one large pot, a heat source, a set of digital scales, a thermometer, a large grain bag and a laundry trough or copper cooling coil, plus your regular brewing equipment.
The large pot: The best thing you can use as a saucepan is a 50L brewery keg with the top cut out. You can pick them up at scrap yards, or on eBay. A good tip is when cutting the top out, cut it so it will fit a large lid from your kitchen. You can also fit the keg with a tap and a thermometer but this is not necessary as you can siphon the beer out of the keg.
The heat source: I use a 3 ring burner bought from a camping store ($50), but depending on what you use as your pot or the size of brew you are making you can use your kitchen gas cook top. I did this for a start making 12L batches in a 20L saucepan.
The Digital Scales: $20-$30 from Big W for weighing grain and hops. (Hops must be weighed accurately)
The Thermometer: A milk frothing thermometer from Big W or one of those stores is ideal as the temp range for frothing milk is alarmingly similar to mashing temps for beer. ($8)
The Grain Bag: Can be brought from us, or you can easily make one from fine nylon mesh brought from Spotlight. ($10)
The Cooling Gear: A copper cooling coil can be brought from IBrew for around $95 plus postage) which is very effective, otherwise put the brew kettle into a large tub of cold water.
The Rest: Your fermenter, spoon, sterilser, air lock, all of your brewing equipment is still required for all grain brewing.
What to brew?
While you get comfortable with All Grain Brewing we can take the hard word and worry out of developing your own recipes. Check out our site for a style you like and we will pack it for you with a brew day step by step (don’t forget to ask if you want the grain cracked). Then once you have your technique sorted you will be open to a whole new world of brewing. There are a huge amount of recipes on the web, or you can design your own using programs which can also be found on the internet. Do your research, read books, surf the web and see what has worked for other people. Also brew with the seasons, in spring and autumn when the weather is mid-20s, brew ales as ale yeasts like a warmer temperature, and in winter brew your lagers. I look at it like this; brew your lagers in winter so they are ready for drinking in summer and ales in spring and autumn for the winter months. Then again if you are going to use a temp controller in the fridge, brew what you want when you want.
A great program to create recipes is Brew Mate which can be downloaded free if you visit brewmate.net. This program has a huge database of ingredients and beer styles and all of their characteristics. It is easy to use and you add new things to the database at anytime.
Ingredients:
The best place to source ingredients for AGB is through us at Bendigo Malt and Hops. Be sure to have all of your grains cracked if you don’t have a mill at home.
Lets Brew:
Now you have your equipment, ingredients and a recipe we can start the brew! Start by heating roughly 35L of water in your pot to 71C° (The volume will vary depending on the amount of grain in the recipe) but for these instructions lets assume we have 5kg of grain. (6:1 water grain ratio) You should aim for a mash temp of between 63 – 70 C°. (The higher the temp the less sugars and more body and the lower the temp, more sugars and less body) For a start let’s go for 66C° for a medium bodied beer. (71C° will give us this temp pending weather)
Once 71C° has been reached remove from heat and place the grain bag in the pot draping the open end around the edge of the pot. Slowly add the cracked grains and stir into water making sure all the grain is saturated. Check to see that the temperature is correct, if it is too hot add some cold water and add boiled water if too cold. Place lid on pot and leave to mash for 90 mins. (For extra insulation you can wrap the pot in a blanket if you like) Also if the weather is cold it is a good idea to check the temperature mid way through the mash.
After the 90 minutes is up, take the lid off and lift the grain bag out of the pot and let it drain. DO NOT SQUEESE! Just let it drain out naturally; use a large colander in a separate clean bucket if you like. While you do this you can reintroduce the burner to the pot and get ready for the boil. Once the grain bag has drained out, pour any liquid in the bucket back into the main pot.
While you wait for the wort to boil, it is a good idea to get your hops weighted out and ready to be added to the boil. Hops must be weighed very accurately as one gram over or under the specified weight in a recipe can affect the resulting beer greatly, particularly if you’re using hops with a high alpha acid content.
Note: An extra step called sparging can be taken after the mash is complete; this is where the grains are rinsed of more goodness before being discarded. To do this you will need another pot, not quite as big as your main one but still around 20L or so. Fill it with roughly 10 liters of water and heat to 78C°. When you remove the grain bag from the mash, drain the bulk of the wort and put the bag into the 2nd pot to rewet the grain. Leave for about 10 – 15mins then drain the bag out fully adding the entire contents of the 2nd pot to the boil pot. If you do decide to do these steps remember to adjust your volumes of water at the start of the mash.
Once the wort reaches a boil throw in your 1st hops (bittering hops) and start a timer, you can download brew timer apps on your phone or use an alarm or whatever you like. Add your hops in at the intervals specified in the recipe, noting that the times indicated are from the end of the boil. The hops can be added directly to the boil, or you can use a hop bag or hop sock. I usually do a 70 minute boil, though some people only do 60 while others do 90 minutes it’s up to you but for this volume 70 minutes works well. Be sure to stir it often to prevent burning the wort.
20 minutes before the end of the boil Irish moss or wirfloc must be added to the boil, these aids in clearing the beer up when it cools and can be purchased from us. If you are using a copper cooling coil, drop it into the boil now as this will sterilize it for cooling.
Once the boil is complete take it off the heat and let it rest for 15 minutes, I usually use this time to sterilize all of my equipment for fermenting i.e. fermenter, airlock, spoon, tube for siphoning if no taps and a strainer of some description (Kitchen strainer wrapped in a stocking). Until you reach this stage, sanitation is not necessary, just make sure your equipment is clean as the boil tends to kill all nasty bugs.
Cooling can now begin. Whatever method you use, you want to reach an ideal yeast pitching temperature, 20-25C° for ale yeasts, and below 20C° for lager yeasts. Once the right temperature has been reached, transfer the wort to the fermenter using the strainer with the stocking as a sort of filter. If there are no feasible ways you can cool your wort, transfer it to your fermenter and seal with the airlock, then leave it overnight and pitch yeast in the morning. After you pitch the yeast vigorously stir and agitate the wort to get as much oxygen into it as you can, this will give the yeast a great start to fermentation.
Once fermentation stops, it is as you already know, bottle the beer the same way as you would a kit beer and store it for at least two weeks at room temperature before drinking. If you make a lager store it for a month or so at a low temperature before moving it to somewhere room temperature for two weeks. This is called lagering and contributes a clean, crisp character to the beer.
Note: 5-10 days into fermentation, you can transfer the beer into a sterilized secondary fermenter. Remember to scoop 2 or 3 table spoons of the yeast slurry at the bottom of the first fermenter into the second one. Also if you decide to dry hop, add your dry hops now. Leave in the second fermenter anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks. This step helps clear the beer before bottling. But remember this step is optional.
More:
Remember this is only a guide, there are many other exciting and different ways you can brew beer. A great place to watch this style of brewing and other styles is on YouTube, just type in “all grain brewing,” and you can’t go wrong. In fact it is where I gained the confidence to attempt it myself, even after hours of reading about the process.
Overview:
All of that is a fair bit to take in, so here it is in point form to make brew day a little easier.
1. Heat your mash water to your strike temp, remember to use water: grain ratio of roughly 6:1 that is 6 liters of water to 1kg of grain.
2. Place grain bag in the water. Add your cracked grains to your water and stir thoroughly, check that the temperature lands between 63C°-70C° cover and leave for 60-90 mins. Check and adjust temp half way through mash if brewing in cold weather.
3. Remove grain bag from water and drain, remembering not to squeeze the bag.
4. Apply heat to the pot and bring to a rolling boil and add your bittering hops.
5. Add your flavour and aroma hops at times specified in your recipe remembering to stir the wort often. Also remember to add Irish moss 20 mins from the end of the boil along with your copper cooling coil (if using one).
6. Cool to yeast pitching temp then transfer to sterilized fermenter and pitch your yeast.
7. Ferment and bottle or keg as usual.
8. Leave bottles for a minimum of two weeks before sampling but remember the beer will improve drastically with age.
