Option 1: Make recipes with DME. DME is $3.75/lb, pretty pricey, but super easy to store and weigh so I can use exactly what I want.
Option 2: Make recipes with LME. LME only comes in 4,5,6,7 and 8 lb sizes at MoreBeer, so any recipe I make had better use exactly that much LME. Otherwise, I have to buy some DME anyway. There's no way to use just part of a package of LME, it doesn't store that well. But, it is cheap - around $2.50/lb.
Option 3: All grain brewing. At $1.30/lb, even with a moderate 70% efficiency it is cheaper than both LME and DME and I can buy exactly how much I want at a time. Besides, I had already done the full extract + steeping grains + hops thing at a friend's house, and was itching to do something crazy.
Option 3 it is!
I looked into what is called BIAB - Brew in a Bag. Specifically, I found this post on homebrewtalk.com.
In short, doing an all grain 2.5 gallon batch is super simple! It can all be done on a stovetop with a grain bag. It takes more time than extracts, but is more interesting to do. I invited a friend over to have a few beers and try this out for the first time.
Step 1:
Design a recipe. I wanted something simple, where I could focus on the process instead of the ingredients. I went with a Mendocino Brewing Company Red Tail Ale clone I found on the BYO web site. I'm not sure how accurate a clone it is, but it's a great session beer, and they had an all grain recipe for it. Here's what I went with:
Batch Size: 10.20 qt
Boil Size: 13.82 qt
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
4 lbs 10.6 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.40 %
11.2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 11.33 %
5.1 oz Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 5.18 %
0.35 oz Cluster (MoreBeer 2011) [7.60 %] (60 min) Hops 19.4 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade (MoreBeer 2011) [5.00 %] (30 min Aroma Steep) Hops
0.50 oz Cascade (MoreBeer 2011) [5.00 %] (30 min) Hops 14.0 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale
Mash Schedule:
Grain Weight: 5.68 lb
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Step Time Name Description Step Temp
90 min Infusion Mash Add 7.55 qt of water at 164.4 F 152.0 F 10 min
Mash Out Heat to 170.0 F over 1 min 170.0 F
Notes: ------
Toast the malt on a cookie sheet for 30 min. at 350° F.
Step 2:
Efficiency: Never having done this before, I had no idea what my efficiency would be. BIAB supposedly has slightly lower efficiency, and being a noob I assumed mine would be very low. I estimated 65% for this.
Step 3:
Heat water to the 'strike temperature' that BeerSmith calculates, with the grain bag in the pot. Put all the grain in the pot, mix, and measure the temp. Now, keep the grain at your desired mash temp for 1-2 hours while the starches convert into grain via chemical reactions that are facilitated by enzymes in the grain. These enzymes work differently at different temperatures - lower temperatures, like 145 F, will lead to a dry (alcoholic, thin-bodied) beer, while higher temperatures, like 158 F, will lead to a thick, malty beer.
I tried my best to keep the temp at 152 F, but that is easier said than done on the stove.
Step 4:
Once the mash is done, pour the wort into a bucket and drain as much liquid from the grain bag as you can. Put the grain bag back in the pot and pour in the sparge water, mix it up, and wait 10 minutes. You are simulating a traditional 'sparge' so that you can rinse out as much additional sugar from the grain as you can.
Step 5:
Combine your 'first runnings' (the liquid from the mash) and the 'second runnings' (the liquid from your ghetto sparge) into your boil pot. Measure the specific gravity of this wort and compare it to what BeerSmith expected you to get. BeerSmith has an efficiency calculator, accessed by clicking on the Brewhouse Efficiency button.
Step 6:
Boil, just like an extract recipe.
I went for it on April 9, 2011, and it was a freaking disaster. Here's what went wrong:
1. I mixed the crystal and pale malt at the store. When I got home, I remembered that I needed to toast the pale malt. Well, I couldn't, because they were mixed together. I ended up toasting a random combination of pale and crystal malt.
2. I don't even know if I converted the grain completely. I forgot about the "iodine test". This is basically where you add a few drops of iodine to a few drops of wort. The iodine reacts to starch - the more starch left in your mash, the darker the resulting mixture. If you add iodine and the wort stays the same color, you've converted everything. I didn't do this, and have no idea if I even converted my grain properly.
3. I got horrible efficiency, 58% when I originally estimated I'd get 65% (which isn't great to begin with).
I had to add half a lb. of light DME I had in the closet to try to make up for the bad efficiency.
4. I didn't set up BeerSmith properly for my equipment. It had an extra parameter, Lauter Tun Dead Space, which didn't apply to me. This caused it to add 0.25 gallons of water I didn't need. I ended up with too much water. I decided I'd boil longer to counteract the extra water, which leads me to...
5. I underestimated the evaporation rate of my pot (6 gallon WinWare pot). I thought it would be 15% or so, instead it was closer to 30%. This is mostly an issue of the way BeerSmith handles evaporation rate. Evaporation happens at a rate dependent on pressure, humidity, temperature, and surface area of your water exposed to air. It doesn't depend on the volume, so using a percent makes NO sense. The 15% value that is commonly used by other people was for 5 gallon batches. I'm making half the beer, but boiling off the same amount! Thus, my actual percentage of evaporation was double the estimate. I ended up with less than 1 gallon of REALLY thick wort. I then had to top that off with some distilled water I had sitting around - but I didn't have enough, so I quickly added some campden tablets* to tap water and finished topping it off.
6. I didn't let the trub settle out of my wort, and ended up with all of it in my keg. God knows how much of my keg is going to be filled with trub. I can only hope I don't end up with cloudy beer. I added Whirlfloc during the boil, just in case.
7. While siphoning the wort into my keg, the hose came out of the keg and I spilled several ounces. Since my wort was super concentrated at this point, I ended up with a major loss. The gravity with half a pound of DME and 58% efficiency should have been 1.055 - instead I measured 1.050. My hair is going gray at this point and I'm ready to give up. Good thing I'm done.
* East Bay water has chloramine, so I have to treat any tap water I use with campden tablets to remove it. It is great water, though, with super low mineral content. Great for pilseners.
There was a lot to learn here. I need to measure my actual evaporation rate, and adjust the equipment profile so I can get more accurate calculations from BeerSmith. I may need to sparge more (I'll try two or three times, dividing up the water equally each time). I need to assume a low efficiency rate - better to buy too much grain and get a higher alc beer than buy too little and end up with something watery and weak. I need to properly whirlpool my cooling wort and let all the 'cold break' settle to the bottom before transferring to the keg. I need to get better at maintaining my temps while mashing, and I need a LONGER DAMN HOSE so I don't spill wort every single time.
Oh yes, there will be a next time. Just you wait.
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