Home Brewing

In the home brewing process, it is possible that during fermentation you might experience what is known as a stuck fermentation. This is when the fermentation stalls, and all of the available sugars have not yet been fully converted to CO2 and alcohol. You do not want to drink your beer at this point, as it is not yet ready. It is also dangerous to ignore this and continue on with the home brewing process, and attempt to bottle your beer. This can lead to a dangerous mess of bottle bombs.

However, this happens from time to time, so there is no need to panic either. There are many reasons that stuck fermentations occur, so here is a look at what causes them, as well as what ways you can remedy a stuck fermentation. First, you have to make sure that you have a stuck fermentation. Do not rely only on visual cues, such as lack of activity in the airlock. The only sure fire way to know is to take a hydrometer reading. If your SG reading doesn't change over three consecutive days, and you are more than 5 points off of your target FG, then you have a stuck fermentation.

One of the most important factors during fermentation is keeping your beer at a constant, proper temperature. The yeast you use will tell you what the optimum temperature range is for your beer. It is important that you keep your beer within this range at a steady temperature without fluctuations. If you fail to do that, then you have a different issue to remedy besides the stuck fermentation. In other words, if the temperature caused you to get stuck, then you need to fix that issue first before attempting to fix the stuck fermentation.

One of the most important lessons for those new to home brewing is to remember to have patience. The fact that your beer is stuck does not mean that it is ruined. In fact, your beer can remain stuck until you figure out how to fix it, and your beer will not suffer any ill effects in the meantime. It is worse to panic and try to fix it without knowing the cause. You could end up doing something unnecessary or detrimental to your beer.

 Keep in mind that you have many great resources available to help you solve this, or any other home brewing issue. You can ask local home brewers, visit the LHBS or go online to home brewing forums. Fortunately, there are several ways you can fix this issue.

The first thing to try is to agitate the fermenter--shake or roll it some. You can also try stirring the wort, but use caution not to splash the beer and aerate it. However, a little stirring can rouse the yeast, suspend it and this might be sufficient to get the yeast to restart fermentation. It can also help to raise the temperature a few degrees, and agitate the beer as well over the course of a few days.

Another idea is to add some yeast nutrient to the beer. Take 3 oz of corn or table sugar and add to some boilng water, as well as some yeast nutrient. Cool this mixture down to fermentation temperature and then add to your beer. Take care when pouring this in the beer so that you do not splash it. Hopefully this will be sufficient to jump start your beer.

You can also pitch more yeast. You can simply add dry yeast to the beer, although it might be more effective to first rehydrate the yeast before pitching. An even better method is to use liquid yeast with a starter.

 If none of these work, then there are more desperate measures, but these aren't the best options and should only be used if all else fails. Try adding champagne yeast. There is also something called amylase enzyme. Finally, you can try alpha galactosidase, also known by the brand name "Beano", but this will dry out your beer and could affect the final flavor.

 If none of these work, then you might be better suited to simply let the beer age and see if time helps. Try to avoid at all costs dumping your beer--that should be the last resort. Often, the mistake new home brewers make is taking action. Sometimes nothing is the best thing you can do. Make sure to take care in how you store your beer. Glass bottles should be avoided because of the risk of bottle bombs. If this is your only option, then be sure to store the bottles out of harms way in case bombs happen.

Two common issues that new all grain brewers come across are low efficiency and missing (or failing to maintain) the proper mash temperature. These are certainly two key components, so here is quick look at common causes of these issues and what you can do to prevent them from happening for better home brewing.

Efficiency can be tricky for someone just getting started in all grain home brewing, but it is important in order to produce better beer, as well as to get your money's worth from the grains you purchased. One common cause of poor efficiency is not using enough water in the mashing or sparging processes.

  For mashing, you need to figure that you will need 1 to 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, and about 1/2 gallon of water per pound of grain for sparging. This may seem like a lot of water, and this will produce a lot of wort. However, in order to maximize efficiency, you will need to use the proper amount of water and boil down the wort until you reach the desired volume. It may mean that you have to boil over 10 gallons of wort down to 6 or 7 gallons or less. Needless to say, this will take time. Obviously, if you do not have a brew kettle capable of holding this volume, then you will have to compensate by using more grain.

You still want to keep the mash volume of water the same ratio, but you must adjust the sparge to complete the desired volume. Your efficiency will be lower as a result. It is a dilemma for all grain brewers. You can try to produce the target kettle volume (less water) and spend a couple extra bucks on grains, or you can try to maximize your efficiency and spend extra hours of boil time (as well as extra propane). It is a choice that comes down to your preference, as there really isn't one right or wrong answer.

If you are serious about making the jump into all grain home brewing, it wouldn't be a bad idea to invest an extra large brew kettle, one 12 gallons or larger, and a propane burner with extra BTUs. These will help you cut down on boil time and maximize efficiency. Another factor that gets overlooked in efficiency is the crush of the grains. Sometimes the grains you get online or at the home brewing supply store aren't crushed well enough.

Many home brewers see a big jump in efficiency with a finer crush from their own mill at home. you can also ask the supplier to crush the grains finer. You can also buy a mill, or make your own adjustable two roller mill. This is one of many home brewing do it yourself projects out there, and by searching online at home brewing forums, you can find step by step instructions.  Or, simply use a rolling pin or meat mallet.

It is another common mistake when it comes to proper mashing temperature. The right temperature will extract as much sugar as possible while leaving behind the tannins. Different types of beers require different temperatures for mashing. New brewers often experience trouble with maintaining the proper temperature during mashing as opposed to simply hitting it at the start. This can often be attributed to using a converted cooler as a mash tun. The coolers can actually lose heat over the course of a 60 or 90 minute mash, and drop the temperature below the desired mashing temperature.

 You should not trust your cooler the first time you mash. It is a good idea to test it out first to see how it will perform. There are a couple ways you can remedy losing mash temperature. First, pre heat the mash tun by rinsing it out with hot or boiling water. This will pre heat the cooler, and drain this water just prior to adding your strike water. This will help prevent the cooler from pulling too much temperature from the strike water and mash.

You could also adjust the temperature of the strike water by a few degrees and heat it to a higher strike temperature than your actual target. Pour it into the cooler and let the temperature drop until you hit the desired mashing temperature. This might take a little practice to figure out what the perfect temperature is, and how much heat is lost in your cooler. Once you have added the grains to the mash, it is best to keep the cooler sealed. You will want to check the temperature a few times, especially on the first few batches. But do not check constantly as this will allow heat to escape. Many brewers will wrap their tuns in blankets, pillows or towels to help their tun maintain temperature.

In home brewing, sparging is a process of rinsing the grain bed to extract as much of the fermentable sugars from the grains as possible, while taking care not to extract the bittering tannins from the grain husks. Sparging is done to extract the maximum amount of colors and flavors from the grains, and to maximize efficiency. Sparging takes place after mashing has been completed, and the wort has been drained from the tun.

There are two primary methods of sparging, batch sparging and fly sparging. Both are done in the mash tun. The basic method of sparging involves heating up a separate pot of water, which is known as the sparge water, which is used to pour over the grains. The sparge water can be poured directly over the grain bag or over the grains themselves in a colander, or into the mash tun. In batch sparging, the water is added to the tun and the grains are allowed to settle before being drained. In fly sparging, the wort is drained slowly and sparge water is added to the tun at the same rate as runoff, so that the grain bed is constantly under water. 

Typically, 1.5 times as much water is used for sparging as for mashing. Temperature of the sparge water is very important. Sugars are more soluble at higher temperatures,  which means that at higher temperatures you can more easily extract more sugars. However, you do not want to exceed 170F, because tannins from the husks become more soluble. You do not want tannins in your beer, they impart a bitter, astringent flavor to your beer.

There are many other ways brewers accomplish flavor and sugar extraction. For instance, you can rest the grain bag in a pot after use and allow gravity to pull out the remaining liquids over the course of 10 to 30 minutes. There is also what is called a dunk sparge in which the grain bag gets dunked into a separate pot of water and allowed to soak for 10 to 30 minutes. Then, this water is added to your wort.

There is a debate amongst home brewers whether or not it is a good idea to squeeze your grain bag in order to get out all of the liquid and sugars. Some fear that doing so will extract tannins. For the most part, this is a myth, and you should be ok to squeeze out every last drop of goodness to maximize efficiency. This is just another aspect of home brewing that you can read up online and experiment with on your own to see what works best for you.

In the world of home brewing, the next step in the progression from kit brewing is steeping with specialty grains. Many home brewing ingredient kits are available that include some specialty grains and bags, so making the step to steeping isn't that difficult. If you can brew tea, you can steep.

Steeping grains allows you to introduce new flavors that might not be available with extract. The process of steeping is basically adding some grains in a bag to your brew kettle. You do not want to boil the grains, you just want to submerge them in warm water and let them steep. The exact same way that you would make tea.

 This is done in home brewing because it will make better beer. It also gives the brewer more options when making beer. The proper water temperature for steeping is between 145F and 165F. You do not want to exceed 170F because anything higher and you run the risk of extracting the tannins from the grains, and these undesirable elements will add a bitterness and astringency to your beer. While tannins are good in wines, they are a major flaw in beer.

If you accidently exceed 170F, there is no need to panic. Many experienced brewers have made this mistake and their beers still turned out ok. But do try to avoid this if you can. Just like many mistakes you will make, remember DWHAHB--Don't Worry, Have A Home Brew!

There is some debate in home brewing circles as to whether the amount of water used for steeping matters. One thing to note is that we are talking about the water amount for steeping, and not mashing. In mashing, water temperature, water chemistry and time are all important factors. For steeping, these factors aren't quite as important (other than water temperature).

You have to make sure that the grains you are steeping are specialty grains and not base malts. You can steep specialty grains and base malts together, but then that is mashing. If you do these together you must make sure you take the proper steps to ensure you are mashing.   Steeping specialty grains is done simply to add flavor and color to your beer. These grains have already been mashed, so they add no fermentable sugars to your wort. Mashing is done to base malts because they have not been mashed, they still contain fermentable sugars you want to extract. Mashing will extract them, steeping will not. 

If you steep base malts, you will extract starches, not sugars, and this will negatively affect the flavor of your beer. Because steeping does not extract fermentable sugars, it is not mashing. Because of this, some brewers do not think that the amount of water used for steeping matters. Others swear that their beer tastes better by being careful as to how much water they use to steep.

This is something, like so much in home brewing, in which you can experiment with to see what works best for you. Remember, always take careful notes when home brewing! For the brewers that feel less water is best when steeping, the rule of thumb is to use less than a gallon of water per pound of grain.

According to John Palmer, author of "How To Brew":

"Water chemistry also plays a role in tannin extraction. Steeping the heavily roasted malts in a low alkalinity water (i.e. low bicarbonate levels) will produce conditions that are too acidic, and harsh flavors will result. Likewise, steeping the lightest crystal malts in highly alkaline water could produce conditions that are too alkaline, and tannin extraction would be a problem again. For best results, the ratio of steeping water to grain should be less than one gallon per pound."

So, what exactly are steeping, partial mash and mashing? All are steps in the process of home brewing that lead up to all grain home brewing. It is important to note that although each style is a progressive step leading to all grain, all grain home brewing isn't the ultimate goal for all home brewers. While many brewers get deep into this hobby and work towards eventually brew the all grain way, many brewers are happy to stop at some point along the way and continue to brew in that way.

 Some never make it to all grain home brewing, and have no interest in trying it. This is completely fine, and that is what home brewing is all about. Find what way to make beer works best for you and stick with it. You may decide at some point to try something new, or you may just be happy to continue doing what works for you. Each progressive step allows the home brewer to have more control over the final flavor of their beer.

Steeping grains allows you to add flavors that you won't get with extract. Partial mashing, also known as mini mashing, allows you to introduce base malt from grains, and mashing is all grain home brewing. Each step offers more ingredients to choose from, and new variables to your beer recipe. It is very similar to cooking. In cooking you can learn about new ingredients and spices which will allow you to create a wider variety of dishes.

 Here is a simplistic look at the home brewing spectrum. Most brewers start out with a kit, which is extract brewing. They get hooked, but want to expand their options in order to have more control over the final product. The next step would be to add steeped specialty grains to the mix. After that, the next step would be to partial mash, in which you replace some of the malt extract with the base grain. Finally, there is all grain home brewing in which you brew completely from grains and use no malt extract.

Again, it is a personal decision if you want to try all of these methods, a couple of them, or just stick with one. You don't necessarily have to start with extract brewing, but it is a good idea to get a few batches under your belt so you better understand the basic process of home brewing before trying all grain. Plus, all grain requires additional equipment and steps. No matter what way you want to go, don't be afraid to experiment and try new methods of home brewing. The best part is that along your journay you will get to enjoy some great beer!

A common do it yourself project in home brewing is converting a cooler into a mash tun. When building a mash tun, there are several options available to use for the filtration system. It will likely come down to personal preference, but it will also depend upon what type of sparging you use. The basic options are a mesh filter, also known as a bazooka filter, a manifold, or a false bottom.

If you will fly sparge, then you will want to use a false bottom. The bazooka filter is simply a piece of water supply line, such as a toilet supply line hose that comes with a stainless steel mesh cover. Carefully remove the outer mesh cover from the inner vinyl hose, and discard the hose. You then connect the mesh cover to the spigot with clamps, and this acts as a filter for the wort. The wort passes through the mesh, but the debris from the grain gets left behind.

This is probably the most popular design for home made mash tuns in the home brewing world. Alternatively, some brewers choose to build a manifold using pipes made from copper or CVPC. The pipes are connected in a square or rectangle, or as arms branching off. This manifold attaches to the spigot. Tiny holes or slits are drilled or cut into the pipes to act as filters. If you choose to use a manifold system, be sure you don't glue the pieces together. You will want to be able to take the apparatus apart after each use to clean and sanitize.

False bottoms are another option, and are usually the choice if you will fly sparge. With fly sparging, you are constantly pouring water back over the grain bed. You want to avoid channeling, in which the water pours too heavily in certain parts of the grain bed, creating channels. This only rinses parts of the grain bed, while leaving other parts unrinsed. A false bottom prevents this, and allows the wort to flow evenly through the grain bed to ensure all the grains get thoroughly rinsed and the sugars are fully extracted.

Another option is one that is closely tied into the BIAB home brewing method in which no filter system is used. Instead, you use a standard cooler that hasn't been converted. You place a grain bag into the cooler, strecthing the bag over the sides of the cooler. Then, pour the water over the grains just like you would for a batch sparge.

This accomplishes the same result as a batch sparge, but doesn't require a converted cooler. This may be an option if you are new to the world of all grain home brewing, but converting a cooler will probably be worth the effort as it would increase the efficiency. Plus, this step is more for sparging. You wouldn't be able to mash in an unconverted cooler, but if you want to try the BIAB method before jumping in and converting a cooler, you could try this.

The mash tun is a vessel in which hot water is mixed with the grains in order to extract the sugars from the grains. This process is called mashing in home brewing. The grains then get lautered, or rinsed, with additional water to maximize the amount of sugars extracted. All of this is done to increase the efficiency and make better beer.

 In commercial breweries, the mash tun and lauter tun are two separate pieces of equipment. For home brewing purposes, they are combined into one piece of equipment. The mash tun is typically a converted cooler. You can buy a mash/lauter tun, but this is one of the most common do it yourself projects in home brewing. Check out the home brewing forums on the net, and you can also Google and You Tube to find step by step instructions and videos showing you how to convert a cooler into a mash tun. This project isn't that hard, and it is also cheap.

There are many options as far as what cooler you want to use, as well as how to set it up. Chances are, you have an old cooler around the house already. Make sure to some research on recommendations of other home brewers to ensure you choose the right cooler. The debates are endless as far as what is the best cooler to use for a tun. Different factors apply such as size, shape, and what type of strainer/filter you will use.

What type of sparging you will do is also important. Cooler isn't so important to batch sparging, but for fly sparging you will probably want a round cooler. For folks just getting started with all grain home brewing. the common question is how big does the mash tun have to be? This will depend on your batch size, efficiency and desired OG. These all work in conjunction to determine how much grain will be needed for the batch, as well as the amount of water to be used for mashing and sparging.

The cooler will need to be big enough to hold all of this. A basic way to calculate for mash tun size needed in quarts is (at 80% efficiency): (Desired OG X Batch Size)/17 = mash tun size. For example, 1.085 X 15 gallons is (85 X 15)/17=75 quart tun.

You may want to think ahead when purchasing a cooler to convert. Chances are you will start with 5 gallon batches, but at some point you may decide to try brewing a 10 gallon batch. In order to do this, your mash tun must be big enough to hold all that water and grains. You can start with a cooler big enough to handle the larger batches now, and still use it for the smaller batches until you are ready to make the jump to the bigger batches.

This way, you won't outgrow your tun. Plus, it will also allow you to make higher gravity beers, which require larger grain bills. Don't bother with a 5 gallon cooler because it is too small and will limit the beers you can make. If you never plan on making anything larger than a 5 gallon batch, or making higher gravity beers, then you can opt for one, but then you will limit yourself.

The design of the tun is dependent upon the type of sparging you will do. For batch sparging, tun design doesn't really factor in. It is more important in fly sparging. Most brewers new to all grain home brewing will try batch sparging because it is quicker and easier. Plus, many people convert coolers they already have, which typically will be a rectangular cooler. Be sure to research both methods first, to see which one might be your preferred method.

 For most brewers, they simply modify a rectangular cooler and batch sparge. With just a few items from your local hardware store, you can make your own mash tun for dirt cheap. Some parts needed include a ball valve, water supply line, washers, teflon tape and barb adapters. Look online and you will find step by step instructions and video tutorial showing you how to do it, and what pieces of hardware you need to get the job done. Besides the cost of the cooler, you will spend less than $30 at the hardware store. You can even find resources online that have the necessary parts together in a kit.

 The thermal capacity of the cooler, how well it is insulated and retains heat, is another important factor. The cooler needs to be able to hold a constant temperature for up to 90 minutes without losing too many degrees, so a well insulated cooler helps. Remember, they are designed to keep things cold, not warm. This is something to be sure to research thoroughly online home brewing forums to find what experienced home brewers have found to work best for them.

For fly sparging, round coolers are often the preferred choice. Fly sparging uses false bottoms for filters, and these usually come in round shapes. False bottoms evenly distribute the water over the grains, and help prevent channeling. Plus, the round shape of the cooler also helps prevent channeling.

Sparging is a process within home brewing of heating separate water to pour over the grains (after mashing is complete) in order to rinse additional sugars from them. This water is known as sparge water, and this process is done to increase efficiency.                                                                                          

 There are two basic types of sparging done in home brewing: batch sparging and fly sparging. Batch sparging involves repeated rinses of the grains in the mash tun. Traditional batch sparging consisted of adding sparge water to the drained tun, and allowing the grains to settle. Then, the water was drained off. This drain was known as the First Running. This process of soaking the grains and draining was repeated a few more times. The first running was used to make a batch of barley wine. The Second Running was used to brew the batch of beer. The remaining runnings were used to make smaller beers.

In today's home brewing, all of  the runnings are combined to make one batch of beer. The sparge water is used for the rinse, using half of it for the first running and the rest for the last running. Fly sparging differs in the fact that as the wort is drained from the tun, water is added back to the tun at the same rate as the runoff. You want to continuously keep the grain bed submerged in water.

It is important in fly sparging to drain the wort as slowly as possible. This will help extract as much sugars from the grains as possible and prevent the grain bed from becoming compacted, which will prevent the runoff and is known as a stuck sparge. You must also be careful to prevent channeling, which happens when the water hits only a couple places in the grain bed  and drills down to create channels. This results in only some of the grains getting thoroughly rinsed, while other parts of the grain bed do not get rinsed.

Because the grains are getting diluted with the sparge water, it is important to keep an eye on the pH of the runoff. If the pH is too high, you risk of extracting tannins from the grains, and that wull result in an undesireable bitterness in your beer. It may be necessary in fly sparging to acidify the sparge water to counteract the high pH. The fly sparging runoff can take an hour or more to complete.

For batch sparging, the runoff is done as quickly as possible. It isn't required, but it is better to do it that way. Because you are continuously diluting the grains in batch sparging, you do not have to be concerned with the pH. With batch sparging, the design of your lautering system does not matter as much as it does for fly sparging because you do not have concerns with channeling.

 Either way you sparge, the sparge takes place after a process known as vorlauf. This is a process to clarify the wort. A portion of the wort (1 to 2 liters) is drawn out of the tun after mashing and then gently poured back into the tun, making sure that the grain bed does not get disturbed. Basically, the grain bed acts as a filter to help clarity. Once the wort runs mostly clear, vorlauf is complete and you can then start sparging. One important note about vorlauf is that by running clear does not mean that the wort is transparent. Rather, that is is free of grain particles and debris.

Generally speaking, fly sparging gets you better efficiencies and batch sparging is easier and takes less time. Design of the tun also impacts efficiency. Round coolers are preferred for fly sparging because most false bottoms are round in shape. False bottoms are the preferred filtration for fly sparging because they better distribute the wort and prevent channeling. Both techniques will yield good efficiencied if you dial in your process.

You may suffer lower efficiencies on your first attempts at either one, but with some practice your equipment you can consistently hit higher efficiencies with either method of sparging. One way isn't necessarily better than the other, it is just a matter of personal preference and the equipment you have available.

Next, bring your strike water to the proper temperature for mashing. You will want to mash somewhere between 148F to 158F. However, keep in mind that you need to hold steady at that temperature for 60 to 90 minutes.   You will see a drop in temperature when you add your grains, and you can also lose temperature over the course of the mash. How much varies depending upon your equipment, as well as the climate.

This is something you will have to pay attention to on your first few batches. You will want to see exactly how much temperature loss you have during mashing, so you will know how to compensate for it in future batches by heating your strike water to a higher temperature than you want to mash at.  This may be a little frustrating at the beginning, but there are ways to make it easier while you are figuring out how your set up works.

You can keep hot and cold water nearby to add to the mash to adjust the temperature on the fly. You can also use your burner to heat up the mash if you lose too much temperature. Once you have the strike water at the right temperature, place your grain bag into the pot and pull the bag over the sides of the pot, so that the bag is open. You can use clips to help hold the bag in place. Add your grains slowly, and be sure that you constantly stir so that the grains become saturated and do not clump. Stirring also ensures you extract as much sugar from the grains as possible.

You also need to take a temperature reading to ensure you have hit your desired mash temperature. If you are within a degree, you should be fine. If not, then try one of the methods described earlier so that you hit the right temperature for mashing. At this point, you are mashed in, put the lid on the pot and wait. You can wrap the pot with a towel or blanket to help it maintain temperature. If your pot is pretty full with little headspace, it will likely hold temperature for the entire mash.

One advantage to the BIAB method of home brewing is that is doesn't require any sparging. You can add this step if you like, and some brewers choose to do some sort of sparge to increase efficiency. Many BIAB brewers find that they do not see a big enough increase in efficiency to justify the added step of a sparg..maybe a few points. However, this is something you can experiment with to see how it works for you.

If you choose to sparge, then about 30 minutes before the end of the mash start to heat up your sparge water. Of course, this requires another pot, which isn't true BIAB home brewing, but you can add this step if you like. One reason you may decide to try a sparge is if you have limited space in your brew kettle (and/or you are brewing indoors). This will allow you to do a bigger batch than your kettle size will allow. You simply sparge with the additional batch volume you can't fit in your kettle and then combine the sparge and boil in the fermenter to complete the batch volume. Be careful with this, as this could also hurt your efficiency. You can check with the online calculators to ensure you do not kill your efficiency doing this.

What many BIAB brewers do isn't a true sparge in the sense of batch or fly sparging methods. Rather, they do a modified sparge by allowing the grain bag to drain by hanging the bag over the pot after mashing. You can try this by hand, and some brewers rig up a pulley system to hold the bag in place while it drains. This is actually a pretty smart idea as the grain bag can weigh 10 pounds or more, which can be a lot of weight to hold onto for 10 minutes or more.

If you are indoors, you likely won't have too heavy a grain bag, but you can always suspend it over the pot by anchoring the top of the bag in a cabinet, or tie to the door handle of the microwave if you have one above the stove. No matter what, go ahead and give your bag a squeeze to get out all those sugars. The point of the drain and squeeze is to get out all of those valuable sugars and get them into your wort. This is yet another way to maximize efficiency.

Many BIAB brewers will do what is known as a dunk sparging. Heat up a couple gallons of water in a separate pot, then after draining the grain bag place it in the sparge water for 10 minutes or so, then remove the bag once again. This water is then added to the kettle. Once you have completed mashing and any sparging, you are ready to boil. Keep in mind, you can go directly from mash to boil if you like, and this is the true way to BIAB home brewing.

At this point, you boil as normal, and add your hops at the appropriate time. Then, cool, pitch and ferment. This process makes all grain home brewing easier, faster and less equipment to clean afterwards. It is still all grain home brewing, it's just a simplified version and a great way to introduce all grain home brewing to more people than would otherwise have tried it for whatever limitations they had. It is great that you can try all grain home brewing without having to go "all out" and purchase any additional equipment, other than a grain bag.

After you have some home brewing experience behind you, you may start looking to get into all grain home brewing. Going all grain adds many new additions to the basic home brewing process and set up. There is additional equipment that you need to purchase, and water volume and temperature play an important role as well. There are also additional steps to take in the process. However, all grain home brewing offers you a wider variety of ingredients you can utilize, and it allows you to have more control over the final product.

Brewing from grains (as opposed to extracts) will produce better, more flavorful beer. The process involves some math, and it is very important to make sure that you use the proper amount of water for mashing and sparging, and that the temperatures of the water used for both processes are correct and accurate. All of this is done to ensure you maximize the efficiency, getting the maximum amount of sugars from the grains. The better your efficiency, the better your beer. Plus, the better efficiency you have, the better value you get from the money you spend on the grains.

Many all grain brewers have elaborate home brewing equipment set ups, building brewing stands and buying higher powered propane burners to speed up the brewing day. All grain requires additional equipment such as a mash tun, hot liquor tank, which along with the brew kettle are known as a three vessel set up. There are also additional pieces of equipment needed for all grain home brewing. All of this can be intimidating to the new brewer, and often poses to great an expense in order to make the leap.

Many home brewers live in an apartment and simply do not have the space for additional equipment. In addition, indoor stoves do not have the power to boil the larger volumes of liquid common to all grain brewing. However, as often is the case in home brewing, there is another way. There is a version of all grain home brewing called BIAB: Brew In A Bag. This is still all grain brewing, but it is a simplified version that offers many advantages to traditional all grain brewing.

The main difference is that all of the water for the brew (known as the liquor) is added all at once as opposed to in stages, and the entire brewing process happens in one pot. With the BIAB method, you do not need any additional equipment to all grain brew, other than the grain bag. You can purchase a material called voile, and make an extremely durable bag.

Alternatively, you can purchase one online. Or, go to the local hardware or home supply store and purchase paint strainer bags. You can also purchase the larger winemaking bags. Whichever way you choose, you are looking at a minimal expense to usher you into the world of all grain home brewing.

The BIAB home brewing method was created in Australia some years ago, and it has just started to recently catch on in the United States. There are some home brewing snobs that look down on BIAB as an inferior method to traditional all grain home brewing, but there are also many former traditional all grain brewers that have made the switch. I will explain the pros and cons of the BIAB method in greater detail in another article, but for this one I am focusing on the basic process.

There are many ways you can add on to the process, but for now, let's focus on the basic BIAB process. The basic idea behind the BIAB method is to be able to brew an entire all grain batch in one pot. Having a second pot handy can be helpful, but is not necessary to the BIAB method. You can even choose to mash in a converted cooler mash tun if you like. But again, the basic BIAB process only requires one pot and nothing else besides a bag.

 If you are home brewing indoors, then you will have certain limitations. If you have a propane tank and can brew outdoors, then the only limitation you will have is the size of your brew kettle. Higher gravity beers require larger grain bills, as do larger batches of beer. Typically with extract and partial mash beers you are brewing 5 gallon batches. With all grain, you may brew batches as large as 5.5 gallons, 7 gallons, 10 gallons or even larger. You have to account for the amount of grain, as well as the proper amount of water required. Obviously, if your kettle holds 6 gallons, you won't be able to do 10 gallon batches.

However, you could split a 10 gallon batch into seperate batches, but that will require a little math and a longer brew day, which is opposite to the theory behind BIAB brewing. But then again, the choice is yours. For now, let's just stick to brewing in one pot with 5 gallon batches. The point of BIAB brewing is to KISS--Keep It Simple, Stupid).

The first step is to get the recipe you want to brew and to make sure that it is for the same size batch you intend to brew. If it isn't, you will need to do some calculations and convert it to the size you will be brewing. In other words, if you have a 10 gallon recipe and will be making 5 gallons, you will need to convert the recipe accordingly.

You next need to determine how much water is needed for your batch. A simple formula is to take the amount of grains X .10 + the boil off (evaporation) + batch size + trub loss = the amount of water needed. A somewhat standard measure is to use 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain for mashing.

You can find online calculators at sites like Beersmith or Green Bay Rackers to help you figure the amount of water you will need. This is important not only to maximize efficiency, but because with the BIAB method, you are doing the mashing and boil in the same pot. You need to make sure your pot is big enough to hold the complete volume. Keep in mind that you will be boiling this entire volume, so you have to account for some space in your pot so you do not have a boilover.

 

Stay Tuned For Part 2....