Need advive

Hello all. I was in to homebrewing a few years back and made probably six or seven batches. None were really any good I think I was doing it wrong. Any way I've decided to get into it again and am determined to do it right this time. Have been looking at videos online and I think I was mashing wrong as I was mashing in a pot and heating up to keep the temp. Any way I have the ingredients for a stout and have a few questions so I'm clear before I start. 1) this time I will be using a grain bag and cooler so do I put all my grains together and mash or some later for sparge only. 2) mash the whole 6 gallons or is it better to mash say 3 gallons and later 3 more then sparge. 3) best way to sparge with grain bag4)mashing temp for Guinness style grains thanks...

Is this an all grain batch, or are the grains "specialty grains" and the rest of the fermentables are dry malt or liquid malt?

Is your cooler a mash tun? (does it have a ball valve to let the wort out after mashing?). I am a little confused by the need for a bag AND a cooler. Most folks either use a cooler with some kind of false bottom / bazooka screen, OR a mesh bag which is used in the boil kettle, see Boil In A Bag method.

A little more clarity around these and we can help more!!

Regardless, you will put all your grains together and mash (or steep, if they are specialty) for the entire time. Then you sparge with water. If using the BIAB method, most folks pull the bag out and set it in a collander or something, then run sparge water through the grains. Or they dont sparge at all.

No it's a basic cooler no false bottom just for keeping temp. All grain

thebeardedweirdo said:

No it's a basic cooler no false bottom just for keeping temp. All grain

Click to expand...

I'm not all that familiar with Brewing In a Bag (BIAB) but I can help a bit with some pointers until specific steps are needed.

You'll use all the grain in a bag (or several smaller bags), and use water to mash. Generally, 1.5- 2 quarts of water per pound of grain is used for mashing, although you could use more.

If you have, say, 10 pounds of grain, here is the basic way to do it:

Preheat your cooler, and then put your grain and bags in the cooler. Pour 15 quarts of 165 degree water into this, and stir thoroughly. Make sure the grain is very loose in the bag, and not packed in. That's important, so that the grainbed is fluid and all the grain is wetted. Stir some more, and then check the temperature in several places. Once the temperature is the same throughout, cover the cooler. Let it sit for an hour.

After an hour, drain out the liquid in the cooler into your boil kettle. You should get out 3 gallons of wort.

Then, stir in 3-3.5 gallons of 180 degree water. Stir thoroughly. Stir some more. Then drain that.

That will give you 6-6.5 gallons of wort, depending on how much you want to start with. Many people boil off 1.25 gallons per hour, so that's a good guess.

Boil the wort, adding hops at the scheduled times, and then cool and put in a fermenter.

That's about it!

Thanks. Aso how much does temp drop adding grain

thebeardedweirdo said:

Thanks. Aso how much does temp drop adding grain

Click to expand...

It depends on the temperature of the grain- but generally about 11-12 degrees when using room temperature grain.

Difference betwwen special grains and "unspecial" grains?

And is full boil important cos my stove top isn't hot enough for full boil 6 gallons but slow boil is ok. Should I just boil later

25518 said:

Difference betwwen special grains and "unspecial" grains?

Click to expand...

"non-specialty" grains are the base grains that you mash to convert and extract sugar from. "Specialty grains" are other grains usually in much smaller quantities whose purpose is flavor and coloring and from which you won't get much, if any, sugar.

When you mash you usually mix all the grains together and mash because .... why not? It's when you are doing extract brewing that the distinction comes into play. In extract brewing you use extract instead of the runnings from the mashing. These extracts have (in theory) the sugars from the base grains but they do not have the flavors from the specialty grains. So extract brewing gets the flavors by using the same specialty grains but steeping them in water. Mashing or steeping, so far as extracting flavors (but not the sugars) are concerned, have more or less the same effect so just steeping is sufficient.

For example: I'm going to be making an Extra Special Bitter this weekend. The All-Grain recipe uses:

9 lbs British Pale-- Marris Otter (this is my base grain; this contains all my sugar)

8 oz. Crystal 40L, 8 oz. Honey Malt, 4 oz. Special Roast (these are my specialty grains; I won't get much sugar from them)

I'll mash these all together to get out the sugar from base grains and to get out the flavor from the specialty grains.

The Extract version of the recipe instead calls for:

7 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract (this is where I'll get all my sugar so I won't need to mash any British Pale-- Marris Otter nor any other base malt grains)

but it still calls for 8 oz. Crystal 40L, 8 oz. Honey Malt, 4 oz. Special Roast (I still need these specialty grains for the flavor and color the will give my beer. So I put these in muslin bag and let them steep like a tea bag in hot water for about 20 minutes.)

thebeardedweirdo said:

And is full boil important cos my stove top isn't hot enough for full boil 6 gallons but slow boil is ok. Should I just boil later

Click to expand...

Yes, it's important. If you can boil a smaller volume, either do a smaller batch or try partial mash brewing, where you can use water (and some extract) to top up.

Ok thanks just making it now. Doing the mash. When I do the second mash do I pour water over grain or remove grain put water and add grain. Sorry for all questions but want to get it right this time

Yooper said:

Yes, it's important. If you can boil a smaller volume, either do a smaller batch or try partial mash brewing, where you can use water (and some extract) to top up.

Click to expand...

Hypothetically speaking...

Could one, if one truly didn't have the means to do a full-volume boil but was hell bent and determined to do an all-grain, could one simply boil the bajeezus out of the runnings bit by bit until it does fit in one's kettle and then do the boil and hops and top off in the end. i.e. basically spend several post-mash hours turning one's mash runnings into an concentrate?

For that matter, could, and does, anyone make and store their own runnings/concentrates/extracts for later use?

(Apologize in advance. OP shouldn't pay attention to this post because this is how *not* to do a proper all-grain.)