1st All Grain Brew Help!

[mr.drankin]

Hi all, I have my equipment tested ingredients purchased now there is a few minor steps i'm not totally 100% with.

The recipe is A flying dog clone http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/1367110 THANKS BILL_00

The recipe states that 60mins for the mash, is that long enough, other recipes usually say 90mins

During the mash do you need or how often do you stir the grain?

Does it benefit to aerate the wort, I have a wine degasser that seems to be recommended

I have wyeast Irish Ale Yeast WLP004, what is the best way to use this.  Chuck it in or make a starter

For dry hopping the recipe says 7 days, do you put the hops in after yeast or after the beer has fermented.

Cheers 

   

[matthewdick23]

hey there

60 minutes is fine for most mashes. if thats wot the recipe says, id stick with that

you put the heated water into you hlt (5-10 degrees higher than your temp you want to mash at). stir in the grain then quickly. make sure there are no lumps.  after that whack the lid on. dont open it again until the 60mins are up. dont stir once lid is on. you wanna keep the heat in.

yes, aerate the wort, but only do it once its cooled to the temp you are going to pitch your yeast at.  its important to cool the wort to this temp as quickly as possible. someone else will have to help you with amounts of o2 to add- i havent done it. its sweet you can!

yeah, i'd say always do a starter- mrmalty or yeastcalc online will sort you there

dry hopping- its debated as to whether or not you needa get rid of yeast before dry hopping. the fact is that they give different flavours. neither of which will necessarily be bad.  you would need a second fv, though, to rack your beer off the yeast if you wanted to dry hop yeastless. do you have a second?

matthew

[Bill_00]

We didn't really aerate when we did it.

As Matthew says, it's important to figure out a why to cool your wort quickly (we happened to have a wort cooler,  but I hear Ice baths work well too.

I've only ever dry hopped on top of the yeast, so it certainly won't impact negatively. Shouldn't really dry hop until your primary fermentation is done.

Starter is DEFINITELY preferable.

[mr.drankin]

I can cool with my heat ex changer no problems there, yes I have a secondary bucket, with a air lock. 

My other issue is with oxidation, I use corny kegs so I don't want any yeast into the corny kegs.

Would I be best for eg. primary 7 days, then secondary 7 days dry hopping with finnings to completely clear beer before conditioning 28 days in the corny?? 

[matthewdick23]

hmmmm...not sure tbh dont have kegs

it sounds like uv all the gear for ur first go- im very envious!

check with bill00 and ask him what he did

only thing id say is to b careful about moving the beer off the yeast after 1 wk. def wouldnt do that no matter what the grav readings are. need to give the yeast time to clean itself up

are you coming tomorrow night to the hudson?

[Bill_00]

I'd dry hop with the yeast for a week.

After that you could transfer to secondary and cold crash it in the fridge to clear it out.

That should leave you with only one syphon/filter (that was a computer game wasn't it) before transferring to the corny.

Never used a Corny Keg though, Bazza is your man there.

[mr.drankin]

Yes Matthew Im trying to get my way up so hopefully be there.  I've been brewing kits for 5-6 years so have a pile of buckets etc lying around.  Been using cornys for a year or 2 with beer and cider kits.  Iwould like to add a blichmann beer gun so I could bottle straight from the corny leaving no sediment in the bottom of the bottles.

I kegged a on the rocks spiced apple kit last weekend and gased it for 3 days.  Poured a pint last night and it was the best drink ive done in years, will go down well while brewing on sat 

Never thought of cold crashing bill.  I have a chest freezer with a heat belt and thermostat in the shed.  I could maybe hook the freezer up to the thermostat instead of the heat belt and set it to 2-4c so it doesn't freeze. 

Have you cold crashed before, whats the best temps and time you need to completely clear the beer?

[Bazza]

Not sure what more I can offer on top of what Matthew and Bill_00 have already stated.

I primary ferment for 2 weeks, dry hopping on top of the wort for the second week, after initial (most likely all) fermentation has stopped. I don't do any transferring for secondary conditioning because a) increased risk of infection and b) I'm too lazy.

After 2 weeks I syphon from primary to a priming bucket, leaving the yeast and hops behind in the fv. I've recently started batch priming with sugar, the same amount as if I was bottling the whole lot. Once the sugar solution's mixed in I syphon 18 or 19 litres into the corny and bottle the rest.

I'm experimenting with bacth priming cornies so there'll be inevitable yeast there after the sugar has turned to C02. All I'll say is if you take that approach be careful moving the thing round too much until you've let it settle for 1-2 weeks and drawn off the first 2-3 sediment-y pints, but you'll be grand after that.

If you prefer to force carbonate your corny then there will still be a tiny bit of sediment at the bottom after conditioning, but nothing to spoil your beer and nothing that won't get drawn away in the first pint.

I'd like to say I condition the cornies for a full 28 days before opening but that would be a complete lie. A man can get wile thirsty when he's just waiting around.


-Barry

[Bill_00]

Just cold crashed my Summer Ale there...think it was 3-5 degree range. Came out crystal clear

[mr.drankin]

Excellent, yes 28 days is a bit too much for me 2.   I dont use sugar to carbonate my beer/cider any more.  I force carb the cornys for 3 days at 30psi, then let the gas out and pressure it at 5 psi to pour.

Possibly 2 weeks ferment, then dry hop and cold crash 3rd week (in a single bucket without syphoning the 3 weeks)  Then into corny to gas and condition??

Decisions decisions   does this make sense??

[Bill_00]

Wouldn't be so sure about dry hopping and crashing at the same time...I'd imagine that would negatively effect the uptake of the aroma.

You only need a day or two cold crash.

7-10 days ferment, 7 days dry hop on yeast, into secondary fermenter for 2/3 days crash would be what I'd recommend.

[sub82]

I couldn't add to any of the above and have learnt some new stuff! Nice one lads!

[mr.drankin]

Sounds good 

I wish I ordered enough for 40 litres so I could have 2 fermenting at the same time to see the difference

[matthewdick23]

one thing ive heard today is to do one dryhop in primary or secondary. then another in the keg- while you're drinking it.  might be an option.  split the hops in two