What Preparations you shall do to brew All Grain Beer with Brewing system
- Aug 10, 2021
- 164
- tiantai
There are many ways to approach your first all-grain brew day with all grain brewing system. There is a vast amount of information in the home brew literature about all-grain brewing, and you could try to read most of it first and then proceed. Or, you could jump right in.Learning to brew well at home requires some practical experience that you can only get by actually brewing . . . on your beer brewing equipment, with your water, etc. Getting to know the mechanics of beer brewing equipment — including the quirks of your setup — is just as important, in terms of beer quality, as knowing many of the more advanced academic ideas. In this article, we'll cover the bare minimum of technical information you need to get started and give a practical guide to successfully brewing your first all-grain beer on your microbrewery beer brewing system.
CALIBRATION AND CALCULATIONS
Before your frist brew day, you should make a dipstick (or calibrate your sight glasses, if your brewery has those) so that you can measure the volume of liquid in your HLT and kettle. Likewise, calibrate any thermometers that you will be using. For more on calibrating your equipment.
Before starting any brew day, there are two easy calculations you should make — the amount of strike water (water to mix with the crushed grains) and the amount of sparge water (water to rinse the grain bed) you will need. These are explained later in the Mashing In and Calculate Sparge Water sections, but to really hone in these calculations.
CRUSHING THE GRAINS
For your first all-grain brew, you will probably buy crushed malt or get the malt crushed at your homebrew shop. When it's time to brew, take a handful of malt and look at it. With a good crush, you should see almost no whole kernels. Most kernels should be broken into two to four pieces.
If you've bought, or have access to, a grain mill, you will gain experience over time adjusting it to get the best crush for you. For your first crush, however, see if the mill has a "default" setting. This is usually 0.045 inches (0.11 cm). This should give you a good crush and you can start fiddling with adjusting the mill gap when you get more experience.
The goal of the crush is to break the malt kernels open so that the hot strike water can dissolve the starchy endosperm in the malt. You don't need perfectly crushed grain to a have a successful first brew day, so don't worry about this too much. Do, however, examine your crushed grains every time you brew. When the time comes to really start fine-tuning your brewing procedures, this will be valuable to you. Make a note in your brewing notebook about how the crush looked to you.
Derrick
Sales Manager
[email protected]
Tiantai Beer Equipment
CALIBRATION AND CALCULATIONS
Before your frist brew day, you should make a dipstick (or calibrate your sight glasses, if your brewery has those) so that you can measure the volume of liquid in your HLT and kettle. Likewise, calibrate any thermometers that you will be using. For more on calibrating your equipment.
Before starting any brew day, there are two easy calculations you should make — the amount of strike water (water to mix with the crushed grains) and the amount of sparge water (water to rinse the grain bed) you will need. These are explained later in the Mashing In and Calculate Sparge Water sections, but to really hone in these calculations.
CRUSHING THE GRAINS
For your first all-grain brew, you will probably buy crushed malt or get the malt crushed at your homebrew shop. When it's time to brew, take a handful of malt and look at it. With a good crush, you should see almost no whole kernels. Most kernels should be broken into two to four pieces.
If you've bought, or have access to, a grain mill, you will gain experience over time adjusting it to get the best crush for you. For your first crush, however, see if the mill has a "default" setting. This is usually 0.045 inches (0.11 cm). This should give you a good crush and you can start fiddling with adjusting the mill gap when you get more experience.
The goal of the crush is to break the malt kernels open so that the hot strike water can dissolve the starchy endosperm in the malt. You don't need perfectly crushed grain to a have a successful first brew day, so don't worry about this too much. Do, however, examine your crushed grains every time you brew. When the time comes to really start fine-tuning your brewing procedures, this will be valuable to you. Make a note in your brewing notebook about how the crush looked to you.
Derrick
Sales Manager
[email protected]
Tiantai Beer Equipment
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