[4th batch] Trying to perfect my methods and have a few general questions.

[Tipharet]

1. The very first thing I am noticing is that I am not getting as much beer as I would like to. Thus far I have brewed 2 IPA's, a wheat (that I accidentally dry hopped) and this weekend I will be brewing a Red Rye.

Whats the best way to get closest to 5 gallons? Should I steep grains in 6.5 gallons of water to adjust for boil off? I am bottling about 35-40 bottles typically.

2. Removing grain back after steep. Should I just allow this to drain in a colander into the beer or pour water over the muslin bag to get all the goodness out of the grains I can?

3. During the hop schedule is there any cons to using hop socks instead of just boiling hops floating around?

4. Whats the best way to determine if a beer needs to stay in the secondary longer to settle down a bit after fermentation?

5. Is there anyway to "filter" my beer when moving it into the bottling bucket?

Also, I am starting to feel like I am cheating a bit by using others recipes and brewing with extract. What is the best way to shift into all grain? Is the process really that different?

Thanks to all.

 

[hogwash]

1. If you are doing full volume boils, you need to adjust for boil off. There is some debate over how much water is appropriate for steeping of grains. IIRC, John Palmer recommends a gallon-ish of water per pound of grain. So you could steep in the appropriate amount and add water before you begin your boil. Some on these forums say it doesn't matter how much water you steep in. It's up to you but yes, you do need to allow for boil off.

2. Just drop it in a colander and let it drain into your kettle. No need to rinse the grains.

3. You probably get better utilization from the hops by letting them loose in the boil. It's easier for cleanup to use a bag. If you let them float loose you'll probably end up with a lot in your fermenter if you don't use a filter, but no worries, they will settle out just like the yeast.

4. Unless you are adding fruit, wood, etc. you don't need to use a secondary fermenter. I use a secondary for dry-hopping but many don't. Otherwise, you should leave your beer in there until it looks clear.

5. I'm sure there's a way to filter but the easiest and lowest cost solution is to just be careful when you siphon and make sure you don't suck up too much trub. You can always throw a nylon stocking or paint strainer over your siphon tube to keep from pulling up big chunks.

The jump to all-grain mostly involves equipment acquisition. If you can already do full boils you are part of the way there. You'll need a mash tun and another hour or 2 for your brew day and you can do all-grain.

 

[esvoytko]

For a pretty seamless transition to all-grain, you might want to check out the "brew in a bag" method. Using this method you can perform your mash right in your brew kettle.

 

[craigkelker]

http://biabrewer.info is a good resource for brew-in-a-bag.

 

[RM-MN]

I start with just a little too much wort and then I always get my 2 cases of bottles. No worries if you don't, you just get a little less of a better beer. I dump my hops into the boil and when it is done and chilled I dump it all into the fermenter. Given time, all the yeast and hops settle to the bottom and I shove my autosiphon right into that gunk and siphon to the bottling bucket. Let it set a few minutes while you sanitize the bottles and most of it settles to the bottom of the bottling bucket. Leave about 1 bottle worth of beer in the bottling bucket and that is where most of the hop particles settle out to. Any that get in my bottles settle out when carbonation is over so if I am a little careful, I get no hops in my glass.

 

[Tipharet]

1. If you are doing full volume boils, you need to adjust for boil off. There is some debate over how much water is appropriate for steeping of grains. IIRC, John Palmer recommends a gallon-ish of water per pound of grain. So you could steep in the appropriate amount and add water before you begin your boil. Some on these forums say it doesn't matter how much water you steep in. It's up to you but yes, you do need to allow for boil off.

2. Just drop it in a colander and let it drain into your kettle. No need to rinse the grains.

3. You probably get better utilization from the hops by letting them loose in the boil. It's easier for cleanup to use a bag. If you let them float loose you'll probably end up with a lot in your fermenter if you don't use a filter, but no worries, they will settle out just like the yeast.

4. Unless you are adding fruit, wood, etc. you don't need to use a secondary fermenter. I use a secondary for dry-hopping but many don't. Otherwise, you should leave your beer in there until it looks clear.

5. I'm sure there's a way to filter but the easiest and lowest cost solution is to just be careful when you siphon and make sure you don't suck up too much trub. You can always throw a nylon stocking or paint strainer over your siphon tube to keep from pulling up big chunks.

The jump to all-grain mostly involves equipment acquisition. If you can already do full boils you are part of the way there. You'll need a mash tun and another hour or 2 for your brew day and you can do all-grain.

Sounds good.

For this weekend I will steep with a gallon per lb of grain and then add water to the boil to equal 5 gallons while considering boil off. I am going to guess 6.5 gallons total should get me to where I want to be.

I have been moving all my beer to a secondary primarily because I have dry hopped all and because my friend I brewed with first did. So really, there is no benefit to moving to a secondary?

Good call when about adding a sock to the end of the auto-siphon.

 

[esvoytko]

So really, there is no benefit to moving to a secondary?

Seems that most people on this board favor an extended primary rather than racking to secondary. I think the old reasoning was that you needed to get the beer away from the yeast sediment to avoid production of off-flavors, but it seems people are finding that yeast will actually clean up any of their nastier byproducts if left in the primary for a while.

Although, you should use a secondary if you're dry-hopping.

 

[hogwash]

The old thinking was that you should get the beer off the primary yeast cake to prevent the negative effects of the yeast dying off (aka autolysis). It's a practice taken from the craft/microbrew industry but has been found unnecessary in the homebrewing setting. I think it has something to do the pressure of the beer killing the yeast and homebrew batches aren't big enough to produce that kind of pressure. The yeast will die off eventually but not as quickly as they will in a large, commercial sized batch.

Lots of folks dry hop in the primary. I've tried it and didn't like the results but I'm not sure that my beer was done fermenting when I dropped them in.