Some help Please

[Gugs44]

Hello peeps,

I am going to try my hand at AG brewing soon and have a few question. My last 2 brews were pale ales and done by extract so it was half water and half wort to make up my 23 litre brew, this wasnt a problem as my pot could hold up to 15 litres to boil but with all grain I presume I can only do half batches even though I have a big fermenter

I wanna try my hand at an Irish Red so have chosen my grain as:

Grain: Pale Malt, Wheat Malt, Chocolate Malt

Now my question is how do I calcualte what weights I need of each for a 11.5 Litre brew??
I intend on making 2 halves but in seperate FV'S

Hop choice is: Galena, Nugget and East Kent Goldings so again how do I divide these for the boil in grams, time, hop additions??

Yeast is WLP004

Any help would be greatly appreciated because I am eager and excited to get cracking at AG.

Cheers Folks

[Gugs44]

Did some looking around on HBC and does this make sense as Grain bill;

Maris Otter, Chocolate(warminster), Wheat(cara)
85% 5% 10%

[Ciderhead]

If you are going to go for it with AG, have a look at beersmith it will make you life so much easier in terms of formulating recipies for coulour or IBU or ABV.

Why is there that much Chocolate malt in there, you like Cadburys?

Their big Kenny recipie is

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/big-kenny-p-822.html

with just a taste of chocolate on the end

[Gugs44]

Thanks for the heads up on that CH,

All seems so complicated at first I guess but hope to grasp it soon enough

[Ciderhead]

Don't sweat it my first AG scared the shit out of me and I bought pre made up mash kits from the HBC

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/all-grain-mash-kits-c-194.html

They are expensive but a great place to start as they contain all the instructions and ingredients, and of the 4 or 5 that i bought each one was fantatstic and great to cut your teeth on as it will walk you through the process of AG.

Don't be afraid to ask questions here, we have one brave soul like you asking what appear to be stupid questions about obvious stuff and 50 other lurkers learning from what you ask, so roll the sleeves up.

[Hop Bomb]

Have you got your mash tun sorted? Would you consider getting a bigger pot so you can do a 5 gallon batch? Brew days can be long (especially the first few) so its nice to get a full batch in the fermentor.

[Gugs44]

@ CH....I was gonna just get the mash kit for an Irish red from them but I do enjoy the porterhouse red so that is why they are the ingredients I chose but you know your prob right, better way to ease myself in to the AG way of doing things

Hop Bomb

Going ordering my mash tun this week from HBC, they seem to have a good one for 100 euro http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/insulated-mash-tun-new-design-34litre-capacity-p-908.html

My mates mother owns a restaurant and said I can use any of the pots for my brewing so may aswel take advantage of her offer and go 5gallon day one, I use my parents solid fuel range for boiling so could take a while but sure the day is long as they say

Cheers lads

[Hop Bomb]

Yer sorted so. Your mash run of will be in the 60's so it wont take too long to get to a rolling boil. Just stand close & watch for boil overs. Good luck with the first one! (cant recommend beersmith enough - free trial too)

[mr hoppy]

Appreciate it mightn't be a  concern for OP but partial mashing can be a good half way house if you are using a smaller boil pot.

I found the photo tutorial on this thread really useful when I started moving across to all grain. Basically you used as much grain as your small brew pot will allow and use DME at the end and top up with water - like with extract brewing.

There's a lot of variables with all-grain but you can start pretty simple and make good beer, and focus on the more complicated aspects as you get more confident.

[Gugs44]

Ok Lads,

Beersmith looks deadly for removing all the maths but I am stuck, I have entered all m ingredients but how does it calculate the weights of hops and grains for my recipe??

Am I missing something really simple here

[Ciderhead]

You adjust the volumes in and watch as it changes abv and colour for grain
You can select a style and it will give you the ranges
Putting hops in varying quantities will also change bitterness
Bigger quantities earlier in a 60
Minute boil give more bitterness
Perhaps if you start with telling us what you are trying to do and post as you go along and we can help you out?
Start it in a new thread tho:)


Sent from my divining rod v2.0

[Ciderhead]

Ignore that last line tapatalk is not allowing me to edit posts


Sent from my divining rod v2.0

[Gugs44]

Thanks again CH

Everything seems grand except its just giving my hops at 1.0oz and grains at 33% as I have chosen 3, I thought that it would calculate weights of hops for addition and the weight of grains

[Ciderhead]

Yep sorry you have to put in your own weights
On the hops, I think default is pellets, just in case you have leaf
You can even put in how old they are, you can also put in colour for your grain when you get them from Homebrew companies all variables that will influence your final beer


Sent from my divining rod v2.0

[Gugs44]

Well that answers that, just been browsing round at the different reds to get some ideas of weights, have lots of northern brewer and cascade left over from last brew but they aint what I am looking for in a red, prob do another pale with em but dry hop more cascades as I love the aroma and taste

Excellent tool that recipe guide, saves me with my calculator as I was doing at work today