Beer Forum

Hey -

Since I got my 5 gallon gott cooler I have brewed about 2 more extract brews. I am getting too paranoid about brewing all grain -

I just got Ray Daniels' book, and am not sure about what to brew as my first all grain - I have a few questions before I take the plunge -

First - in the mash, do you include ALL grains, including those I used to steep?

Second, does anyone have a recipe for a good session beer as a first time grain brew? I am leaning towards Kolsch, after hearing Jamil's archive, but I like any beer (not saisons though - not ready for the weird bacteria styles yet...)

I currently have a bastardized extract version of a 120 minute dogfish/Pliny/snake dog IPA thing in the fermentor - I am afraid to keg it.


Any suggestions for a recipe? I really want to start mashing in my little 5 gallon cooler (batch sparge, adding extract won't be frowned upon...)

Thanks - You all rock!

wood

Hay, do not worry just go to beer tools. com, there just pick a something
u would like to brew.Look for a pale ale something easy. After that the sky is the limit, brew on,and enjoy.

wood wrote:First - in the mash, do you include ALL grains, including those I used to steep?

Yes, you should put all the grains in together. Some say to put the really dark grains in right at the end of the mash, but I don't know of many people who actually do it that way.

wood wrote:Second, does anyone have a recipe for a good session beer as a first time grain brew?

How about Jamil's Ordinary Bitter recipe? I've made it 2 or 3 times since they had the show and it's one of my favorite recipes now.

wood wrote:I currently have a bastardized extract version of a 120 minute dogfish/Pliny/snake dog IPA thing in the fermentor - I am afraid to keg it.

What do you mean, "afraid?" Is there a snake in the bottom of the keg or something? Just use your good sanitization procedures and it will be fine, especially a high-ish gravity (I assume) and highly hopped beer like that.

It is a bit freaky the first time you put the WHOLE BATCH in one "bottle." Just be good and clean and it will be fine.

Purging the keg before and after filling is a good idea too.

When you say Ray Daniel's book, do you mean Designing Great Beers? That's a fairly advanced book for a first time all grain brewer. You might want to consider John Palmer's How to Brew which is broken down to even to Justin's level.

To answer your question, yes, all grains will be mashed together. Once you have your strike water at the correct temp, you will dough in your base malts which provides the enzymes for the conversion along with your specialty grains that you used in the past.

If I remember Jamil's Kolsch show, he says that temp control is crucial for a good clean kolsch. If you don't have that, you might want to go with a mild or ESB which have a slightly more fruity characterstic from the warmer fermentation temps and the use of ale yeast. With that said, my first all grain was an oatmeal stout and then a porter. This allowed me to have a couple of oops during the all grain process and still make a great beer until I had my rig dialed in. Just a suggestion.

So, keg your IPA. Take notes on what you liked or didn't like. Then make an all grain version and compare. Relax and blah, blah, blah...

I started out AG and it's nothing to be paranoid about.

I also have Daniel's book but on brew day I took "How To Brew" with me outside and it was opened up to the AG section for my entire brew session. It makes a pretty good crutch for your first batch or two IMO.

I decided to make a simple Pale Ale recipe for my first batch.

10# 2 row
.50# Carapils
.50 British med crystal (It's approx 55L I think if you need to sub.)

1oz Pearl 60 min
1oz Cascade 10 min

I used liquid yeast but US-56 would be fine.

Primary for 18 days (no secondary).

It made a great beer for my first batch. I have improved the recipe but for a simple first batch I'm happy I made it as it is above.

If you know you want more hops I like taking another ounce of cascade and spreading it out over the last few min in .25 additions, something like.

.25 at 4 min.
.25 at 2 min.
.25 at 1 min.
.25 at flame out

I've made some mistakes or miscalculations on every batch but the beer seems to be very resilient. It must have a strong desire to turn out good no matter what because I've been very happy with all of my batches.

Do it man, AG is nothing to be paranoid about.

Heat water, add it to grains, stir, wait 60 min, recirc a bit, collect first runnings, add more water, stir, wait 5 min, recirc, collect second runnings, brew it up!

John F

I have a question, being a newbie to Ag and all. I have noticed in two of my four AG brews an odd smell coming out of the air lock. It smells like beer and neoprine. I don't know where I might have done anything wrong. I kept everything that touched the beer coated in Star San. It was all wet and all that. One of the beers that smelled like that is already finished and tasted fine. But I'm getting concerned about it. I would rather smell a clean beer than the funny smell that I am getting. I hit my numbers close enough and it fermented out pretty good. I'm waiting to see if the first batch starts to go bad in time. That would let me know if it's an infection, but I hope not.

beer_bear wrote:I have a question, being a newbie to Ag and all. I have noticed in two of my four AG brews an odd smell coming out of the air lock. It smells like beer and neoprine. I don't know where I might have done anything wrong. I kept everything that touched the beer coated in Star San. It was all wet and all that. One of the beers that smelled like that is already finished and tasted fine. But I'm getting concerned about it. I would rather smell a clean beer than the funny smell that I am getting. I hit my numbers close enough and it fermented out pretty good. I'm waiting to see if the first batch starts to go bad in time. That would let me know if it's an infection, but I hope not.

Dude, stop farting in your fermenter...seriously.

Damn. So that's what I've been doing wrong?

I was just trying to make PEs diaper pale ale I guess.