Birra all grain manuale completo

El Cheapo Mash Tun Mash tun and stirring spoon with 10lb of grain

Heating the water to 160F

Mash tun filter

The mash tun/filter set up is made up of the following: • • • • • •

5 gallon Gott-type cooler Drilled stopper to fit the cooler (7/8") 4" piece of 3/8" OD copper tubing 10" of stainless steel hose braid from a toilet water supply hose Small hose clamp 4' length of 3/8" ID tubing

The stainless steel hose braid comes from a toilet water supply hose, and I cut the ends of the hose off with a big wire cutter. The stainless braid slips right off the hose inside it. Fold and crimp one end with a pliers, and slip the other end over the copper tube with a hose clamp. Push the drilled stopper over the copper tube so that the narrow end of the stopper is pointed away from the stainless braid.

Add a piece of tubing and you are all set.

Crimped end of stainless web

Stopper, copper tube, stainless web and clamp

Installation of filter

Mash tun ready to use

I jam it in pretty hard, and it has not leaked and does not come out when you bump it while stirring. It is a good idea to hold the stopper when you are stirring.

There is no valve, clamps hold the tubing up above the level of the liquid.

Getting Started - Dough In 10 lbs of pilsner grain in mash tun

Getting ready to pour 160F water into the mash tun

3-1/2 Gallons of water plus 10 lbs grain in mash tun. Stir well.

The resulting temperature of the mash was 150F. Mash tun cover in place

Thermometer in place

Rest 60 minutes.

Preparing to Sparge Heating up the sparge water to 170F.

Getting ready to sparge.

Removing the tubing clamps (that hold the tubing to the cooler).

Holding the tubing end up high to keep it from draining.

Opening the mash tun cover.

I don't have a valve on my tubing, so I just clamp the tubing onto the cooler up above the level of the wort to keep it from draining out.

Collecting the Runnings The first part of the sparge can have a lot of sediment. This is collected and then returned to the cooler.

Pouring out the first running.

After a couple of quarts of recycling the runnings, the wort has cleared up nicely and is ready to go into the boil kettle

Draining the Wort into the Boil Kettle Sparging into the boil kettle

This process took about 10 minutes.

Sparging Sparging is rinsing the grains to try to get as much sugar and flavor out of them as possible. The process is to add 170F water to the grain, stir well, recycle the runnings, then drain into the boil kettle.

Coiling the tubing

The sparge water is heated to 170F and poured in the mash tun.

Sparging Stir well

Collecting the first runnings

The first and second bowl of runnings were returned to the mash tun.

Now we are ready to drain the rest of the wort into the boil kettle.

Sparging

Letting it drain.

Finishing the Sparge

The result of mashing 10lbs of pilsner malt. This is about 6 gallons.

Color of the wort before boiling:

The gravity was 1.050 before the boil started. It should be a nice, straw colored pilsner with a relatively high gravity. I believe that this one came out to 1.055 after the boil, or about 5% alcohol.

Packing it up

Next Step: Boil

That is it for the Single Infusion Mash Section. If you would like to see the next step in the brewing process, click the link below. The series on the boil process is from a partial mash extract batch, not an all grain batch, so disregard the partial mash pages and extract addition pages. Essentially, an all grain boil is the same as an extract boil after you have added the extract.

Bring the Wort to Boil Fire up the burner again and bring the brew pot up to boiling temps. Stir every few minutes. As the temperature comes close to boiling, you will start to see foam and bubbles come up from the bottom.

DANGER!

Beware of Boilover!

One of the worst things that can happen in the brewing process is a boilover. This is a foaming over of the wort that gets sticky malt everywhere, including the burner, which then gives you a horrible burnt sugar smell and is impossible to clean up. Boilover happens when your pot first reaches boiling, and then again when you add hops for the first time. You can prevent boilover by carefully watching the pot during these two times, and if the foam starts rising, quickly spring into action: 1. Turn down the heat!

2. Start stirring!

They say a watched pot never boils, but I can assure you it does. An unwatched pot _will_ boil over.

It helps to check the temperature to see when you are approaching the boiling point. As you get close, turn the heat down a bit. Usually you will see bubbles coming up and foam forming before the big boilover event happens. If you see a boilover starting, immediately turn off the heat and start stirring. Boilovers happen quickly, so you have to be vigilant and move quickly.

If you happen to have an electric stove, you need to add a few boilover prevention strategies.

Electric stoves don't cool down very quickly, the burner keeps heating for a while even after it is off.

Keep a spray bottle of cold water and some ice near the stove. When you see the wort foaming up, spray it, stir it and throw some ice in it.

When the foam falls, you can turn the heat back on, just be ready to stir if needed. My brews typically threaten boil over when they first start boiling, and when I add hops the first time. After that I can let it boil without watching. If you do have a boil over, it doesn't hurt the beer, it just makes cleanup work for you.

STIR NOW OR FACE THE WRATH OF THE BOILOVER!

Add Bittering Hops at 60 Minutes

When the wort starts to boil, add your bittering hops and set the timer at 60 minutes. Stir well and watch for boil over soon after you throw the hops in.

Boilover could happen at this point!

Lower the heat to a nice, rolling boil. You can stir the pot every 10 minutes or so, if you have time. Or just go do something else for a half hour.

You can put the top on to the boil pot at this time, just leave it open a bit. It is not necessary but it keeps bits and bugs from falling into it.

Put Wort Chiller in Pot at 20 Minutes Put the wort chiller into the boiling pot to sterilize it, about 20 minutes to the end of the boil. The wort chiller will slow down the boiling for a few minutes, no problem. Just put it in the pot and make sure you have a bowl or something to catch extremely hot drips of water from the inlet and outlet of the wort chiller. Don't turn on the water supply to the wort chiller yet!

Add Flavor Hops at 10 Minutes You are coming down to the wire now. 10 minutes before flame-out, drop the flavor hops in and give it a stir. Usually at this time there is no threat of boilover, but keep an eye out just in case.

Add Aroma Hops at 1 Minute and Flame Out Add 1/2 oz Saaz aroma hops at about 1 minute before flame out, give the wort a few good stirs, let it boil for a minute, then shut off the heat and put a cover on the pot. With the wort chiller the cover

won't really fit but it will keep dust out.

Chill the Wort

Connect the wort chiller to the water supply and take a screwdriver and tighten any clamps on it (they seem to loosen up each time). Turn on the water and make sure it drains into a pail or a hose.

It is hot enough to kill grass and plants and it will burn if it splashes on you.

It will take some time to cool wort, depending on your wort chiller, from 15 minutes to an hour. Turn on the cold water and let the wort chiller start doing its thing. If possible, chill the wort in place on the burner. If you have to move the hot wort to a sink to use your wort chiller, wear oven mitts and check your path ahead of time to make sure there are no skateboards, beer bottles, pets, etc. to trip you up while carrying the hot wort. Make sure there is a clear spot to put the brew pot down at your destination.

Chill the wort to about 80F or lower, the pot should be cool to the touch.

Remove the Wort Chiller and Carry the Wort to the Fermenting Area Pull the wort chiller out and put it in a pail.

Note that at this time your wort is susceptible to bacterial infection. Try not to stir up dust before or during this operation. Everything which touches your wort should be sanitized!

Aerate the Wort

The yeast need oxygen to thrive, and boiling has removed much of the oxygen in the wort. So you have to get a little air into the wort to oxygenate it.

When the wort has cooled to 80F or less, aerate the wort by filling the ladle or a sanitized pitcher and pouring the wort back into the pot. Do this about 40 times (more or less). Don't do this until the wort has been chilled. Hot wort can get off flavors if it is aerated.

Note that at this time your wort is susceptible to bacterial infection. Try not to stir up dust before or during this operation. Everything which touches your wort should be sanitized!

Transfer the Wort to the Carboy Remove the stopper from the carboy and put it in the sanitizing solution. Set the carboy in the location where you want to do your fermenting, and put the sanitized funnel in it. Put a sanitized paper clip or other wire over the mouth of the carboy to allow for ventilation of the funnel. Pour the wort into the carboy. Temporarily put the cap into the carboy (don't jam it in hard).

Note that at this time your wort is susceptible to bacterial infection. Try not to stir up dust before or during this operation. Everything which touches your wort should be sanitized!

Add Water to Make 5 Gallons Add cold water to your carboy to the 5 gallon mark, if needed. I use tap water, not boiled and cooled water as is often recommended. In this case, I had estimated correctly and the boil ended up with 5 gallons, so I did not have to add any water.

Pitch the Yeast Adding yeast to a wort is called pitching.

The temperature of the wort in the carboy should be 80F or lower. It should not feel warm. Open the yeast package and pour the contents into the carboy. There is an inner plastic bag that should not get poured into the wort, so hold the bag to make sure it does not get out. In the picture I cut the entire top off of the yeast packet. This is not necessary, you just need to cut a corner open. There will be a couple of tablespoons of milky liquid in the packet. Pour it in the carboy and you are all set.

Cap the Carboy Place the blowoff tube stopper into the carboy and put the tube in the blowoff pail. Don't jam the stopper into the carboy, just push it down a bit so it is secure. If you are not careful you can push the stopper right into the carboy.

Put sanitizing solution or water in the pail to cover the hose outlet.

Cool the Carboy If your fermenting area has a temperature above 65F, you should consider setting the carboy in a water bath, with a wet towel over it to keep the temperature down. You can also put a bottle of frozen water in the bath to lower the temp. With Wyeast 1007 German Alt, I like to try to keep the fermentation between 60F and 65F, the closer to 60F, the better.

Clean Up Wash everything, store it and relax.

Fermenting Fermenting is where you put the yeast to work. There is not a lot that you have to do, other than to make sure the carboy is at the right temperature. However, things can happen during fermentation that may call for action.

Within the 24 hours following pitching the yeast, you should begin to see foam appearing on top of the wort. If you don't see anything by 48 hours after pitching the yeast, add a packet of dry yeast.

Sometimes the fermentation goes quickly, and foam is blown out of the blowoff tube. Let it foam for a day or two till it slows down, then pour out the foamy water from the blowoff bucket, rinse out the bucket and fill it with fresh water.

Sometimes the fermentation will clog the blow off tube and blow the stopper out of the carboy. If you see this happen, make a gallon of sanitizing solution, wash and sanitize the stopper, and replace.

Clean up any foamy messes and slop sanitizing water over the area, and over the outside of the carboy.

Many brewers like to have a short lag time, and will brew up a starter, or a gallon or so of wort to get the yeast going. This is not a bad idea, but with the current liquid yeast products, there are enough yeast cells to get your brew going.

Once you have your yeast foaming, then it is time to think about slowing it down by keeping temperatures cool. Temperatures in the lower 60F range will improve the quality of the beer. When you keep your fermenting beer cool, you rarely have problems with runaway foaming.

I usually let the fermentation go for one or two weeks, depending on my schedule. It is best to allow the foam to drop, and the beer to clarify a bit, which may not happen until the end of the second week. Letting it sit in the primary for two weeks will not hurt the beer.

Kegging and Conditioning When you buy a corny keg, it is a good idea to take it apart and soak it in a cleanser like PBW overnight. I just fill with hot water and PBW and throw the parts and pieces into the keg and let it stand overnight. Rinse well, then lube the rubber parts and reassemble.

Cornelius keg rebuild

Always pull the pressure release valve in the cap before opening the cap! The cap comes off by lifting the handle, then turning the top inside the opening 90 degrees.

Put a small amount of keg lube on the big O-ring. It doesn't take much.

To remove the posts, get a long socket and a socket wrench. Many kegs have 7/8" posts, although some are smaller. Some posts are star shaped and require a 12 point socket, like the one shown.

This is looking into the corny opening at the gas in post. It is very short.

Turn the post counterclockwise with the socket wrench.

The post has a poppet valve inside of it, which may fall out if you are not careful.

The threaded post base looks like this:

You can remove the gas in dip tube by reaching in the keg and pushing it up gently.

The beer out post is removed in the same way as the gas in post. The beer out post also has a poppet valve in it. The beer dip tube looks like this:

It is a little hard to get out because it is bent, so don't force it. If it doesn't want to come out, try rotating it until it will slide out.

Put a small amount of keg lube on the poppet valve O-rings and dip tube O-rings.

Reassemble, making sure that you don't mix up the gas in post and beer out post. They are different diameters, and the gas in quick disconnect will only fit on the gas in post, likewise the beer out post

and quick disconnect.

Kegging and Conditioning Racking to the Secondary Fermenter When your fermentation has gone through one or two weeks, it is time to move it to the secondary fermenter. Fermentation is really starting to slow down by this time, and the real purpose of the secondary fermenter is to allow trub (the gunky stuff floating around in the beer) to fall and leave a clear beer. I use a corny keg as a secondary fermenter.

The first step in transferring the beer from the carboy to a keg is to raise the carboy. This is in preparation for siphoning the beer from the carboy to the keg, which will be on the floor. I raise up the carboy and put it on a pail. Try not to stir up too much gunk while doing this, and it helps to raise it up the day before you plan to rack (siphon or move) the beer. Always be careful when moving full carboys, they can be slippery if you have wet hands.

You will notice that the foam is still on top of the beer. This is actually a good sign, because it means that the finished beer will likely have a foamy head. But it is a challenge because you have to be very gentle while siponing, so you don't stir up the crud which is hanging in the foam. Here is a close up of the trub:

So when you are siphoning, you have to try to get just the clear stuff, and avoid stirring up the gunky stuff. This takes calm hands. There are some strategies you can use to make this easier.

First of all, get a self priming racking siphon, like the Fermtech Auto Siphon. It makes getting the siphon started much easier.

Just before siphoning, tip the carboy up using a block of wood (or whatever) about one half inch high. Put the block in front underneath the carboy to tip the carboy back just a little. This allows you to put the end of the siphon at the back of the carboy, and the tilt angle will allow you to capture more of the beer.

Prepare a clean corny keg to siphon the beer into. It should be cleaned and sanitized. Sanitize the siphon and tubing. If you want to save the yeast, clean and sanitize four beer bottles and caps (jars or plastic bottles will work too).

Use a butter knife or other dull flat object to ease the stopper out of the carboy. Work it up a bit at a time, front and back, until it is loose. Make sure that the siphon is ready to go, and that the corny keg is on the floor just in front of the carboy.

Put the siphon tube into the corny keg. Lift the stopper out of the carboy, and put the stopper into your bucket of sanitizing solution. Ease the siphon into the beer, trying not to disturb it too much.

When it is about halfway down, pump it a few times by grabbing the small tube and lifting it up, then pushing it down. Watch the liquid in the tube, can you see bubbles moving downward? It is not always easy to see if the beer is being siphoned. If it does not seem to be moving, pump it a few more times.

Slowly lower the siphon to the bottom, pointing it at the back of the carboy (away from you). Notice that if you angle it too much, it binds in the carboy opening. You can use this as a brake to regulate how slow you move the siphon down. Make sure the siphon tube is hanging in front of the carboy.

When you get to the bottom, make sure the siphon is back as far as it can go, and slowly ease up the pressure your hands are putting on the siphon. If you are lucky, you can let go of the siphon and it will stay in one place. The siphon tube hanging down into the corny keg should put enough pressure on it to hold it in place. I usually get a little shot of white stuff running through the siphon hose, which is sediment that I am trying to avoid passing on to the next keg. But it doesn't last too long, so I don't think it transfers too much sludge. If you can find a way to let go of the siphon and let it do its work without touching or bumping it, you will have a much cleaner transfer than if you held on to it the whole time.

When your beer has almost all been siphoned, be ready to pull the siphon tube up. You can tell if your siphon is still working by watching the level of the beer in the carboy. It goes down slowly but surely. It slows down quite a bit as you get toward the bottom of the carboy. When you hear a sucking sound, or when you see the last of the beer disappear from the carboy, immediately pull the siphon up to end the siphoning and avoid taking in too much sediment. At the same time that you are watching the carboy, also watch the corny keg. If it is going to overflow, you need to pull the siphon and stop the transfer.

Remove the siphon tubing from the corny keg, and cap it. Leave the siphon in the carboy, but put the tubing into the sanitizing solution.

Saving Yeast If you would like to save some yeast for your next batch, have your sanitized jars ready. Put the siphon tube into a jar and give the carboy a good swirl, then pump the jar about half full of sludge.

Repeat with the remaining jars.

When you are done, put lids on the jars loosely, so CO2 pressure can release out of the jar. Store them in the refrigerator. You may want to check them after a week to make sure that they are not getting under too much pressure.

Clean up: put a half gallon or so of water in the carboy and cover the opening with your hand. Slosh it around a bit and pour it out. Repeat a few times. Fill the carboy completely and let it soak for a few minutes. Take a bottle brush and clean the foam line around the top. Pour the water out, and do a few more half gallon fills and sloshing rinses. When it is clean, pour the sanitizing solution into the carboy and slosh it around. Pour the solution back into the sanitizing bucket. Clean up the stopper and blowoff tube. Push the stopper up against the faucet outlet, and turn on the hot water to rinse out the blowoff tube under pressure. Sanitize the blowoff tube for 15 minutes, then cap the carboy with the stopper and blowoff tube. Rinse the siphon well, and pump hot water through the siphon. Then pump sanitizing solution through the siphon. Clean up any other equipment you have.

Set the corny keg in a position where it will be easy to transfer to the next keg without moving or bumping the corny keg at all. Let it stand two weeks before transferring to the clarifying keg.

Kegging and Conditioning Transferring beer with a jumper from keg to keg I usually transfer from the carboy primary fermenter to a corny keg secondary fermentor, then after a week to a clarifying keg for a week, then to a serving keg for carbonation for about a week.

A corny keg jumper allows you to transfer beer from keg to keg. Take two beer out quick disconnects and put them on both ends of a four foot length of tubing. In this pic, the two corny's on the ends have been connected with a jumper from the out post to out post.

Here is another example of a jumper connecting the source keg (in back) to the destination keg in front.

The next step is to connect the CO2 gas to the source keg.

Then, open the pressure release valve on the destination keg.

In order to keep out as much sediment as possible, you will want to disconnect the jumper at the first sign of sediment. You can feel the level of the beer in the destination keg by holding your hand on the side of the keg and feeling the temperature change as the beer rises. You can also tell how far it is along by lifting the destination keg (without moving or touching the source keg!). When it gets near the top, put your hand in the ready position, ready to disconnect the hose.

After about 5 minutes, the beer will have been transferred. It is very important to stand and watch the jumper tube, when you see the first milky, white liquid, immediately lift off the quick disconnect on the

destination keg. The milky liquid is sediment laden beer, and soon after you see it, the CO2 will come through and push a lot of sludge into the destination keg, if you do not act quickly.

Close the pressure release valve on the destination keg.

Remove the CO2 pressure hose from the source keg.

Always pull the pressure release valve in the cap before opening the cap! When you open the source keg after transferring beer, this is what you see:

After clearing the CO2 from the keg, by blowing into it, this is the sediment that was left after a secondary fermentation in the corny keg:

To clean the source keg, put a half gallon of water in it, cap it, slosh it around, then pour it out.

Repeat a few times.

To clean the jumper, put a cup of hot water in a keg, close it up and put some CO2 pressure on it.

Attach the jumper, take a blunt object and push it into the free quick disconnect, which will spray water. Let the water run through and then let the CO2 clear out the jumper. Repeat this process using sanitizing solution. You can let the sanitizing solution stand in the jumper for a while, but blow

out the liquid with CO2 before putting it away.

Kegging and Conditioning Carbonating the Serving Keg I carbonate by putting the keg on the CO2 line at about 10 lbs pressure for a week. You can also add 1/4 cup sugar to the keg and let it stand for a week or two.

After a week of carbonation, your beer is ready to serve. I have found that waiting and letting the beer age will improve its flavor. I condition the carbonated kegs at cellar temperature.

I prefer to tap the beer no earlier than 40 days after brew day, and I prefer to wait 60 days between brew day and tap day. The quality of the beer goes up a lot with conditioning.

Prost!