jsupe
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- Joined
- Mar 14, 2013
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I have brewed for about six months now with the same number of batches bottled and drunk. Aside from the small pamphlet that came with my True Brew kit, most of my knowledge came from these excellent forums. I thought it might be helpful for other new brewers to see the method I use since it uses minimal special equipment and achieves all grain on a ceramic stovetop. My goal is to have plenty of multi-taskers, some of which also serve non-brewing purposes in the kitchen. I think Alton Brown would approve of my setup.
This guide details the production of an apple ale, but it should be useful for making any style of low to medium gravity beer, substituting water at the end for the top-off.
I stole much of my process from DeathBrewer in this thread and combined it with the wisdom of Revvy in this post. Cheers to both of you!
Ingredients:
3 lbs Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)
2 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)
8 lbs 5.6 oz Fruit - Apple sweet (0.0 SRM)
Hardware:
2 32 quart restaurant quality aluminum stock pots with lids.
6 gallon True Brew fermenter bucket, with airlock and air-tight lid.
Large plastic tub
Nylon bag
Floating thermometer
Instant read thermometer
Butchers twine
Sturdy tripod
Large cooler
Water bottles filled with water and frozen.
Other:
6 gallons spring water, divided into 4 room temperature two chilled.
5 gallons prepared Star San
These two pots are the magic that make it all happen. These are Vollrath aluminum that are designed to be used in a commercial kitchen. They are thick walled and hold heat well enough for mashing. I found them at my local restaurant supply store.
First, prepare two ounces of Star San in five gallons of hot water. Do this in the fermentor since it easily measures out the water and begins the process of sanitizing it.
Once thats filled pour the sanitizer into the plastic tub. Use this to dunk anything that will touch your post-boil wort. While pouring, spin the bucket around to get the sanitizer in contact with all the sides of the bucket.
With a ceramic cooktop, boiling five gallons is difficult, so we will target four gallons. Before entering the recipe into BeerSmith, set it for a four gallon boil, with a one gallon fermentor top-off. It will adjust sugars and IBUs accordingly. For this recipe, start with 4 gallons of room temperature spring water. I prefer spring water because it is already portioned into gallons and in Florida has a profile good for beer.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the grains thoroughly.
Continued in next post...
This guide details the production of an apple ale, but it should be useful for making any style of low to medium gravity beer, substituting water at the end for the top-off.
I stole much of my process from DeathBrewer in this thread and combined it with the wisdom of Revvy in this post. Cheers to both of you!
Ingredients:
3 lbs Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)
2 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Glacier [5.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)
8 lbs 5.6 oz Fruit - Apple sweet (0.0 SRM)
Hardware:
2 32 quart restaurant quality aluminum stock pots with lids.
6 gallon True Brew fermenter bucket, with airlock and air-tight lid.
Large plastic tub
Nylon bag
Floating thermometer
Instant read thermometer
Butchers twine
Sturdy tripod
Large cooler
Water bottles filled with water and frozen.
Other:
6 gallons spring water, divided into 4 room temperature two chilled.
5 gallons prepared Star San
These two pots are the magic that make it all happen. These are Vollrath aluminum that are designed to be used in a commercial kitchen. They are thick walled and hold heat well enough for mashing. I found them at my local restaurant supply store.
First, prepare two ounces of Star San in five gallons of hot water. Do this in the fermentor since it easily measures out the water and begins the process of sanitizing it.
Once thats filled pour the sanitizer into the plastic tub. Use this to dunk anything that will touch your post-boil wort. While pouring, spin the bucket around to get the sanitizer in contact with all the sides of the bucket.
With a ceramic cooktop, boiling five gallons is difficult, so we will target four gallons. Before entering the recipe into BeerSmith, set it for a four gallon boil, with a one gallon fermentor top-off. It will adjust sugars and IBUs accordingly. For this recipe, start with 4 gallons of room temperature spring water. I prefer spring water because it is already portioned into gallons and in Florida has a profile good for beer.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the grains thoroughly.
Continued in next post...