Brandon9045
Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2013
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
Hello everyone, finally decided to join a brew forum so I can expand my knowledge of homebrewing.
And what a hobby it is, even though I've brewed over 100 gallons of beer I still consider myself new to the homebrew scene.
So, over the past few years me, my brother, and my father have been making some really great beer (atleast we think it is).
My father initially planted interest in us when he started buying mr. beer kits (trust me, I know what you're already going to say...lmao)
But hey, that's what started us so I can't put mr. beer down too much.
Mr. Beer seemed like it always had the same taste no matter what beer we made, and after a while of researching we came to find out we weren't really making beer we were just "mixing" it. The taste I know now, came from the yeast they provide, which is the SAME for every beer. No wonder they all had a similar taste.......
Now, fast forward about a year and a half from that point. That's when we started to venture into actual brewing, extract kits.
We got a 5 gallon stainless steel pot, nothing spectacular and began brewing extract kits right on the stove. But, even after that.....I still felt like we were missing out on an experience, an all-grain experience.
That's when we decided we needed some extra equipment like a burner and a new pot. So we bought a bayou burner, some propane, and an 8 gallon stainless steel pot with a ball-lock valve.
I'm glad we upgraded to all-grain equipment because the kits are a little cheaper and I like making my own recipes from scratch with the grains.
But.....there are still some things that bother me, so I'm hoping that people here can clear some things up for me.....
I tried to read about efficiency, it confuses me....I just don't get it, and I think I'm doing my beer kits wrong because of it. I still have a hard time grasping the whole concept, maybe it's what I kept reading that was confusing me. I still think I make really great beer, but I think I'm not grabbing the full potential out of my brews.
Another thing that confused me is the calculating of IBU's.....so many different equations....and I don't get exactly what all the variables are suppose to be.
OK, so you've got my background information, and from what you've read you might say I'm semi-experienced.
So let's walk through my brew process:
Let's say....I'm brewing an all-grainer.
0. Think of recipe, research basic recipe and build upon that.
1. Go to beer store, pick up grains, yeast, hops, muslin sacks
2. Sanitize all equipment thoroughly. Smack my wyeast pack.
3. Fill up pot with water and use ph correcting solution to bring ph to 5.2
4. Bring water to roughly 155 degrees, depending on beer style.....
5. I use BIAB method, so naturally for this step I will put grains in a sack or multiple sacks and steep for an hour making sure to lightly agitate the grains every couple minutes for optimal extraction of sugars.
6. Once the steep is over I discard the grains and crank the flame on my burner up to start the boil, watching carefully so a boil-over doesn't occur.
7. Start my hour boil, adding hops at the neccessary intervals according to the recipe.
8. After the boil I cool the wort down as quickly as possible, getting it to the premium temperature for pitching the yeast....also add any top-off water to make it to the 5 gallon mark.
9. Ferment according to recipe.
10. Bottle or keg.
11. Once carbonated, ENJOY!
So that essentially is my whole brewing process for 5 gallon batches.
Here's my cause for concern......I don't think I'm using the correct amount of water when I steep my grains, I always use to think it doesn't matter that much as long as you steep correctly and when you finished boiling, your wort wasn't over 5 gallons.
From my experience I've realized that higher gravity worts don't boil off as much as lower gravity ones, which makes perfect sense. I made an imperial stout recently that I'm going to age for christmas and I steeped my grains in 6 gallons and it boiled down to only 5 gallons.....which was TOO close for comfort.
I haven't really found a definitive equation for how much steeping water to use versus amount of grains/extract syrup.
For example, I just attempted a Jai Alai clone last week. I had about 11 1/2 pounds of grains for which I used about 6 gallons of water to steep. When I was finished with my boil, I had to add about two gallons of top-off water to my fermenter.
Am I doing my beer kits correctly? They always taste great and I can definitely get the alcohol I'm looking for, and if anyone can dumb down some things for me like the efficiency model that would be much appreciated.
And what a hobby it is, even though I've brewed over 100 gallons of beer I still consider myself new to the homebrew scene.
So, over the past few years me, my brother, and my father have been making some really great beer (atleast we think it is).
My father initially planted interest in us when he started buying mr. beer kits (trust me, I know what you're already going to say...lmao)
But hey, that's what started us so I can't put mr. beer down too much.
Mr. Beer seemed like it always had the same taste no matter what beer we made, and after a while of researching we came to find out we weren't really making beer we were just "mixing" it. The taste I know now, came from the yeast they provide, which is the SAME for every beer. No wonder they all had a similar taste.......
Now, fast forward about a year and a half from that point. That's when we started to venture into actual brewing, extract kits.
We got a 5 gallon stainless steel pot, nothing spectacular and began brewing extract kits right on the stove. But, even after that.....I still felt like we were missing out on an experience, an all-grain experience.
That's when we decided we needed some extra equipment like a burner and a new pot. So we bought a bayou burner, some propane, and an 8 gallon stainless steel pot with a ball-lock valve.
I'm glad we upgraded to all-grain equipment because the kits are a little cheaper and I like making my own recipes from scratch with the grains.
But.....there are still some things that bother me, so I'm hoping that people here can clear some things up for me.....
I tried to read about efficiency, it confuses me....I just don't get it, and I think I'm doing my beer kits wrong because of it. I still have a hard time grasping the whole concept, maybe it's what I kept reading that was confusing me. I still think I make really great beer, but I think I'm not grabbing the full potential out of my brews.
Another thing that confused me is the calculating of IBU's.....so many different equations....and I don't get exactly what all the variables are suppose to be.
OK, so you've got my background information, and from what you've read you might say I'm semi-experienced.
So let's walk through my brew process:
Let's say....I'm brewing an all-grainer.
0. Think of recipe, research basic recipe and build upon that.
1. Go to beer store, pick up grains, yeast, hops, muslin sacks
2. Sanitize all equipment thoroughly. Smack my wyeast pack.
3. Fill up pot with water and use ph correcting solution to bring ph to 5.2
4. Bring water to roughly 155 degrees, depending on beer style.....
5. I use BIAB method, so naturally for this step I will put grains in a sack or multiple sacks and steep for an hour making sure to lightly agitate the grains every couple minutes for optimal extraction of sugars.
6. Once the steep is over I discard the grains and crank the flame on my burner up to start the boil, watching carefully so a boil-over doesn't occur.
7. Start my hour boil, adding hops at the neccessary intervals according to the recipe.
8. After the boil I cool the wort down as quickly as possible, getting it to the premium temperature for pitching the yeast....also add any top-off water to make it to the 5 gallon mark.
9. Ferment according to recipe.
10. Bottle or keg.
11. Once carbonated, ENJOY!
So that essentially is my whole brewing process for 5 gallon batches.
Here's my cause for concern......I don't think I'm using the correct amount of water when I steep my grains, I always use to think it doesn't matter that much as long as you steep correctly and when you finished boiling, your wort wasn't over 5 gallons.
From my experience I've realized that higher gravity worts don't boil off as much as lower gravity ones, which makes perfect sense. I made an imperial stout recently that I'm going to age for christmas and I steeped my grains in 6 gallons and it boiled down to only 5 gallons.....which was TOO close for comfort.
I haven't really found a definitive equation for how much steeping water to use versus amount of grains/extract syrup.
For example, I just attempted a Jai Alai clone last week. I had about 11 1/2 pounds of grains for which I used about 6 gallons of water to steep. When I was finished with my boil, I had to add about two gallons of top-off water to my fermenter.
Am I doing my beer kits correctly? They always taste great and I can definitely get the alcohol I'm looking for, and if anyone can dumb down some things for me like the efficiency model that would be much appreciated.
