1. Equipment:
A 30-37 liter kettle or pan for mashing and boiling the wort, preferably with a double bottom for better heat distribution and with a filter system made of a false bottom, copper tubes or a nylon bag. The double bottom allows you to avoid burning the mash and keep the temperature stable during pauses.
2. Deciding on a recipe is often very difficult. People often ask me, tell me, what kind of recipe, etc., and I advise everyone the same thing - “Brew 3 main types of beer: light (100% light malt), dark (80% light malt and 20% caramel malt) And wheat beer(50% light and 50% wheat).” And then “play” with the raw materials as you wish, because if you add not 20% caramel malt, but 25% or 15%, you will get a different beer; I’m not talking about hopping at all. So you need to understand what grain beer is, and then brew beer solely to your taste.
3. “It’s not beer that destroys people, it’s water that destroys people,” so with water you just need to decide the issue in advance, either buy bottled (pay attention to the level of mineralization), or filter, or go to a spring for “Living” water, or pour water supply in advance (a day before) so that it settles and the chlorine evaporates.
4. Mashing
We heat the water (this is mash water), generally general rule when mixing malt with water, the water temperature of the total mash temperature (mixture of grain with water) decreases by 10-12°C from the initial one (example: pour 6 kg of malt with 18 liters of water with a temperature of -72°C, we get a total mash temperature of 62° C), but as you understand, there may be a variation depending on the T* grain, T* of your mash, etc. As for the ratio of malt and mash water, as a general rule, the mash is mixed in the proportion of 1 part malt to 3-4 parts water, but do not forget that you will still need to increase the T* of the mash to 75-77°C, because I use a thermal tank and the volume allows me (tank volume is 45 liters), then I do this. I mix 6 kg. malt with 12 l. water, maintain the first maltose pause (62-68°C), then add boiling water and bring the T* of the mash to 70-72°C (saccharification pause), and then in the same way to 75-77°C (beginning of filtration).
The first pause is maltose. Mix malt with water, first add water and then add malt while stirring. More low temperature(62-64°C) and a long pause (60-90 min) contribute to the formation of a large number of fermentable sugars and, as a result, more alcoholic beer. A higher temperature (66-68°C) and a shorter pause (30-60 minutes) promotes the formation of dextrins, which give the beer a “body” or thicker taste, but the beer will have less fermentable sugars and, accordingly, less alcohol.
· Raising the temperature until the next pause can be done in three ways:
- boiling water (see above);
— directly by heating;
— heating part of the mash. Pour part (up to 30%) of the mash into a saucepan, bring it to a boil and pour it back into the tank, depending on the volume of the heated mash and the container used, everyone will calculate for themselves the number of degrees by how much the overall temperature of the mash increases after this procedure.
Second pause - Final saccharification (70-72°C), as a general rule lasts 15 minutes, determined by the iodine test - place a drop of wort on a plate and add a drop of iodine (it is very convenient to use cotton swabs) if the resulting mixture does not change color then saccharification is complete, if a color change occurs, then extend the pause time.
· Raise the temperature of the mash in the above-written way to 75-77°C, and proceed to the next stage.
5. After you have set the maltose pause, you need to start heating the tank with rinsing water (possibly earlier, it all depends on the heating capacity of your gas/electric stove). Regarding quantity rinsing water, then if you have a mash tank with a volume of 20-22 liters, then it will be filled to capacity and at least 30 liters of washing water will be required. (when preparing 30 liters of beer from 6 kg of malt), if the mash has a larger volume (38-45 liters), and transition to the next. pause is carried out by adding boiling water, then accordingly a smaller volume of water will be needed for washing, because The mash will be liquid. The mash temperature should be 75-77°C, but while filtering and grain washing is taking place, it inevitably drops, so the wash water should be brought to -78-80°C.
6. Wort filtration.
Drain the first 1-3 liters. cloudy wort into a small container (glass jar, jug, etc.). This wort must be poured back into the mash. After the cloudy wort has stopped flowing (due to flour that has not had time to filter), we transfer the hose into the wort container and continue collecting the wort. As free space appears in the mash, add rinsing water to it. Here you should follow a number of rules: firstly, do not allow the grain layer to become exposed (in this case oxidation occurs), and secondly, pour in the wash water carefully so as not to disturb the filter layer.
Consider another important fact: it is necessary to limit the contact of hot wort with air as much as possible, i.e. It should drain into a silicone hose, which is located below the wort level, and do not skimp on the fume tape, carefully wrap all the joints between the taps and the fitting so that it does not leak through them.
Washing speed - you should not chase the speed and open the tap to the maximum, if everything is in order with the filter system, then the wort will drain very quickly, but in this way you should collect only the first wort (the liquid that drains before adding wash water), after adding rinse. water, the wort flow should be reduced (since the slower the water passes through the filter layer, the more sugars it washes out).
To save time and combine two processes, I advise the following: either if the layout of the kitchen allows, place the mash on a hill (refrigerator, kitchen cabinet) so that the wort can drain, a wort lager that stands on the stove and is heated, or purchase a mini electric stove on which the wort lager will stand , because wait until you collect 30 liters. wort, then bring this entire volume to a boil for quite a long time; it’s better to combine the processes. The total washing time is at least 45-60 minutes.
And no matter what kind of filter it is. system, but it will not provide ideal washing of the grain layer, so I advise you to make a trail. procedure 1 time (after collecting half of the planned volume of wort) or better yet 2 times (after collecting a third of the planned volume of wort) - close the tap, add rinsing. water (but not to the very edge), mix the mash thoroughly, add rinsing. water, let the grain sit for 2-3 minutes, open the tap and, as at the very beginning of filtration, the first cloudy 1-3 liters. you send it back to the mash, and collect the clean wort in the wort brewer.
7. Boiling the wort. Hopping.
Add the first hops for bittering (you can either throw it directly into the first wort or wait until the wort boils); the boiling time of the wort with the hops for bittering ranges from 60 to 90 minutes. (you determine the total boiling time yourself), 15-10 minutes. before the end of boiling, hops are added for taste (Irish moss is also added in the same interval - a means for better sedimentation of the protein formed during boiling beer), and hops for aroma are added 5-0 minutes later (I recommend throwing hops into pure form without using bags, it will still settle when cooled).
8. Cooling the wort to 26°C can be done in the following ways:
- use of an immersion cooler (chiller) through which flows cold water;
- the use of a counterflow coil (chiller) through which cold water flows (the wort flows from the boiler along copper tube, which in turn is located inside a simple watering hose of a larger diameter through which cold water flows);
- natural cooling in a bath with cold water, in the cold, in the snow, etc. The longer the wort is cooled, the greater the chance that some kind of “infection” will fly into it and ruin your future beer, because that it is not worth saving and solving the issue with the cooler, besides, it will save you a lot of time (15 m with an immersion cooler, at a tap water temperature of 4°C, 30 l of wort is cooled in 15 minutes).
9. Transferring the wort from the wort tank into the fermentation tank. This overflow is not only possible, but also necessary, so that the wort flows into the fermenter from the greatest height, i.e. the contact of the wort with the air was maximum (thus, you aerate a little - saturate the wort with oxygen, this promotes active fermentation), you can also pour the wort from one fermentation tank to another from the greatest height with a disinfected ladle, simply splash the wort from the height of your raised hand. At the bottom of the wort brewer you will find a layer of hops and protein and a decent amount of wort, pour the entire remainder into a disinfected container (preferably with a wide neck - jug, jar, etc.) let it settle, depending on the amount of clean wort formed, pour some of it into the fermenter , but not less than 500-700 ml. pour it into a separate jar and put it away in freezer(I'll tell you why later).
10. Adding Yeast:
The first (barbaric) method is to simply pour a packet of dry yeast into the wort (if you have already decided to brew grain beer, then you should make at least a minimum of effort).
Method two, when the very first glass is cloudy and the wort flows clean, pour 300-400 ml, add 100-150 ml. water (since the wort is very dense), boil it, cool it to 26°C, pour a packet of dry yeast into it, cover with a napkin (foil) so that while the above-described cooking is taking place, the yeast will wake up and begin to actively multiply and enter the wort already ready for battle.
Method three (this is where a jar with 500-700 ml of wort from step 9 will come in handy). 2-3 days before the upcoming cooking, remove the jar from the freezer, boil the contents, cool to 26°C (it is very convenient to use chemical glass flasks that are not afraid of sudden temperature changes), this will give you half of the nutrient solution.
Prepare the second half from the old yeast sediment - pour the yeast sediment remaining from the previous one into the saucepan. batches of beer, I have 1.5 liters for these purposes. a jar where I pour out the old yeast that is used specifically for making such broths. Of course, it should be kept refrigerated. 150-200 ml. or 2-3 tables. spoons (of course, if you are brewing beer for the first time, there is nowhere to get it from, but this is advice for the future), pour a small amount of water over this sediment, bring to a boil, cool, let it settle for a little and drain the top transparent layer.
By mixing 2 parts you will get a complete nutrient solution for your yeast. Add yeast to it, cover it (it would be good, of course, to create airtight conditions - flask + tight stopper + water seal, but at first a sterile glass jar tightly wrapped in foil will do (you can’t do it with a lid, because it will be torn off).
Thanks to the above steps, you will already receive a decent amount of yeast. But still, for the full effect, 8-10 hours before the approximate collection of the first wort, it is necessary to put this jar in the refrigerator, in order for the yeast to settle better, drain the top layer of clear liquid, pour the yeast sediment into the first cooled wort (in this case, the volume of the first wort can be increased to 700 - 900 ml.).
· Method four – in principle, everything is the same as method three, but using a magnetic stirrer. Its advantages are that the growth of yeast cells occurs much faster and it is possible to ferment yeast even from a small amount of yeast.
· The fifth method is to use the yeast sediment left over from the previous fermentation.
11. Fermentation
There are two stages: primary and secondary. But first, let's focus on the fermentation container. If we take into account that the volume of our conditional brew is 30 liters, and the volume of the fermentation tank is also 30 liters, then it turns out that there are no connections, because In the fermentation tank you need to leave some more space for foam (serial yeast) of at least 15%. I proceeded as follows: either poured all the wort into a fermentation tank, aerated it, mixed it with yeast, and then poured part of the wort either into a 10 liter glass. bottle or in a 5 (later I found a 9) liter plastic bottle of drinking water, but there is one negative nuance: the density of young beer in the fermentation container and the bottle, albeit slightly, have always been different.
The second method is to simply buy a 40-liter food-grade plastic container. (usually the lid of such tanks consists of two parts: flexible and rigid, believe me, this is more than enough; just cover it tightly and all the CO2 will blow from there so that no infection will come near, the main thing is to thoroughly disinfect everything) there is plenty of space in it enough for 30 liters. wort, and for 1-2 liters of starter, and you can also pour about a liter of yeast broth into it (so that the yeast multiplies better) and for foam.
Primary fermentation - usually lasts from 2-5 days, as soon as the yeast foam cap has disappeared, you can safely pour it into secondary fermentation. If you use a standard fermentation tank, the maximum that can be poured into it is 26 liters, there have been cases when even at 25 liters. yeast foam came through the water seal.
Secondary fermentation - as you understand, occurs in another container; a fermentation tank is ideal for it, 30 liters will fit into it to capacity, and there will be just enough room for a water seal. At this stage it is necessary to maintain tightness. It usually lasts from 5-10 days, a sign for bottling can be a time interval between glugs of water seal of more than 30 minutes. I advise you to embed ball valves into both containers, so transferring for secondary fermentation can be done simply by installing fermentation containers at different heights through a silicone hose, thus maximally limiting the contact of your young beer with air and possible bacteria.
12. Beer bottling.
It is necessary to prepare 32 liters. (why is there always 30 liters of clean, disinfected containers? And also to determine how additional sugar will be added to the beer for its natural carbonation (CO2 saturation):
Option one - take glucose, a funnel, a teaspoon and 1 liter in each bottle. 1 tsp each with a small slide.
Option two - pour the young beer into another fermentation container (provided that it is free), weigh out glucose at the rate of 9 g per liter (in our case it is 270 g), bring to a boil in Not large quantities water (very little water is needed exclusively to make the syrup - primer), cool our syrup and pour it into the container into which the young beer has just been poured, mix with a siphon and proceed to bottling.
Using a siphon, we begin bottling; you need to purchase a medical bulb at the pharmacy, this is the easiest and at the same time hygienic way to suck the beer. The siphon hose should be lowered to the very bottom so that the beer does not splash or foam; leave 2-3 cm of free space in the container for carbon dioxide. After filling is completed, the container should be sealed in the same order as it was filled. Read in detail how to use yeast lees in the article “Yeast lees”.
13. To saturate future beer with carbon dioxide, it is necessary to leave the bottles warm at room temperature for 7-10 days. Periodically, you can shake the bottles so that the yeast does not relax, and then, if possible, put it in a cooler place for maturation for 1-2 months (but if there is none, then you can leave it in the room, so why not brew beer now?) It’s difficult, of course. to withstand such a period, but there is such a word as MUST! If the beer is kept in a very cool place, then the following phenomenon is possible - bottles that were hard before moving, but became soft in the cold, don’t worry, they need to be kept warm for a couple of days, they will swell again, then cool before drinking and drinking.
14. And now about the most enjoyable part - consumption, although I don’t have much to share here, because... I think at this stage everyone is special.
Happy brewing!
Hydromodule - this concept is found in every beer recipe. But it may not be very clear to a novice brewer what this is and how this very hydromodule affects the result. In fact, it's not just a matter of the amount of water...
The hydraulic module is nonsense!
Let stones be thrown at me now from various clever people, but I am clearly convinced that this is so. And here's the reason:
The hydromodulus is the ratio of water and grain, but what does it give?
The standard hydromodulus is 4, or 1 to 4. That is, for 1 kg of malt you need to take 4 liters of mash water.
What happens if we break this rule?
Increase in hydraulic module.
Increasing the hydraulic module can give us the output large quantity wort, of course its density will become less. However, if you exclude washing, the density can be maintained.
Wash water is usually used in the amount of 800 - 1000 ml per 1 kg of malt. This means that one way or another, we dilute the wort during washing. What prevents us from initially taking a liter of mash water more and abandoning washing altogether.
We will speed up the filtering process. The wort will also be denser than when using a sparge due to evaporation.
It seems logical, but why don’t they do it that way? Perhaps it is better to reduce the hydraulic module?
Reducing the hydraulic module.
Reducing the hydraulic module can play into our hands.
- Firstly, the mash will warm up faster, and the transition from one pause to another will occur faster, which again will speed up the brewing process as a whole.
- Secondly, the thicker the mash, the better the enzymes work in it, although not all of them, but more on that another time.
- Thirdly, a smaller hydraulic module will allow you to quickly install a filter system due to the fact that the husks will clog it faster.
- Fourthly, we can adjust the density as needed by changing the amount of wash water.
Which hydraulic module to choose?
I gave up recipes quite a long time ago and cook according to my taste. At the same time, I adhere to the proportion of 4 to 1, and I take 1.5 liters of washing per 1 kg of grain.
How much rinsing will someone say! Yes, a lot, but I do it deliberately; during boiling, a lot boils away, and at the end I get the amount of wort I need.
If I want to make a beer lighter or thicker, I work with pauses, not with a hydraulic module. I’m happy with the result, I don’t care what others think, I cook for myself, not for them.
Reads: 1,104
Calculators are important tools at the brewer's fingertips. They help in calculating the basic parameters during beer preparation, which helps to anticipate and improve the performance of your future drink.
- Creating and sharing your brewing recipes is easy with our easy-to-use brewing recipe builder that gets everything figured out in no time important parameters your future drink, based on the quantity and type of ingredients chosen. It will determine starting and ending gravity, alcohol content, approximate color, IBU bitterness, and more. It also compares your received parameters to match the beer style.
Water Treatment and Mashing Calculators
- This calculator is designed for the brewer to calculate the mineralization level of brewing water. It converts the amount of salts into teaspoons. Calculates the taste balance of ions and checks for harmful amounts.
- This spreadsheet/calculator is a powerful water treatment and mash chemistry tool that will help make your beer even better, while also simplifying brewing controls such as mash pH readings so you can enjoy the brewing process even more. File downloading is available for registered site users
- Using this calculator you can carry out infusion mashing with the addition of portions hot water to heat the entire mash to the required temperature temperature pause. You will be able to calculate required quantity water, knowing its temperature and calculate the final ratio of grain and water in the mash.
Beer brewing calculators
- Calculates beer color in SRM and EBC and tells you how light or dark your beer will be based on the amount and type of ingredients.
- IBU - International Bittering Units. This calculator will calculate the hop bitterness IBUs in your batch of beer by factoring in boil time, hop quantity, and wort gravity into the calculation.
- Pitch your yeast like the pros do with this easy-to-use calculator that supports dry and liquid yeast, slurry and starter. You will be able to calculate the viability of a yeast cell based on the release date of the yeast. In addition, it will help calculate the required amount of starter and DME. Supports up to three propagation steps so you can start fermenting with less yeast!
- This calculator calculates the alcohol content of a beer by volume based on the initial wort gravity and final gravity of the beer before adding sugar (primer) for carbonation.
- Calculates how much water is needed to dilute the wort or evaporate to achieve the required density. Helps you determine the correct wort volume and desired gravity for your homemade beer!
- The hotter or colder the wort/beer is at the hydrometer calibration temperature, the worse the accuracy of its readings becomes. This calculator will report the true specific gravity no matter what the sample temperature is and provides an option for you to enter your hydrometer's calibration menu. Hydrometers are usually calibrated at 15 C or 20 C.
- Converts refractometer readings obtained from wort (Brix IPA) to their actual value in Brix/Plateau and specific gravity. Supports conversion of refractometer final gravity (GF) readings to the presence of alcohol if initial gravity (OG) is known
Beer carbonation and bottling calculators
- Calculates how much sugar (primer) to add during bottling home brewing, including the residual amount of CO2 present in the beer due to fermentation. Supports Corn Sugar (Dextrose) table sugar(sucrose), and dry malt extracts (DME).
- Calculates how much Speise (unfermented wort) or Kreuzen (actively fermented beer) needs to be added to the main batch of fermented beer to obtain the desired volume of CO2 during bottle aging.
- This calculator will calculate the required PSI or BAR that needs to be added to the keg to carbonate the beer based on the temperature of the beer in the keg and the desired volume of CO2 to be achieved.
Online winemaking calculators
Winemaking calculators are not directly related to brewing. Although there are some overlaps between these two productions. These calculators are useful in making grape and fruit wines, as well as mead.
- Converts from Brix to Specific Gravity (SG) and from Specific Gravity to Brix. Calculates alcohol content by volume (for use in dry wines). The Plateau and Balling degrees scale are very close to the Brix scale and can be used interchangeably here. The higher the number, the higher the sugar content in the solution. This ultimately results in a higher volume of alcohol in the final product.
- The Chaptalization Calculator calculates how much sugar you will need to add to your batch of wine to achieve the required Brix gravity. Chaptalization is the process of adding sugar to initial stage preparing wine in order to increase density and thus increase the total alcohol content of the finished wine. The purpose of adding sugar is to increase Brix due to sugar-poor grapes and improve the performance in the finished product.
Online moonshine calculators
A set of calculators necessary for moonshine brewing, preparation of distillate and other strong drinks.
- This calculator is an indispensable assistant for any moonshiner, which will determine the sugar content of your wort before fermentation, based on the amount of added sugar in the resulting volume of mash. The calculator will also calculate the water requirement and final alcohol in ready-made mash, as well as an approximate distillate yield of 40% vol.
- This calculator will help you determine the required amount of water to dilute your batch of distillate, moonshine or alcohol to the strength you need.
- This calculator will determine the actual strength of the distillate, adjusted for the temperature of the sample
Perhaps the most difficult thing for a beginning brewer is calculating the amount of water for brewing, especially if there is no recipe.
Concept "hydraulic module" used in brewing, it is nothing more than the ratio of grist to main fill. The hydromodule is a very important indicator in brewing, which should not be neglected; the concentration of the first wort depends on it. Many “home” brewers write on the forum that they don’t bother with its choice. In fact, due to the large number of brews, they simply determine everything by eye.
To make it clear to you what a “hydraulic module” is, let’s look at an example: “Value 1/4” - 4 liters of water are needed for 1 kilogram of fill.
Which hydraulic module to choose?
The choice of hydraulic module directly depends on the selected recipe. For light beers its value lies in the range of 1/3 - 1/5. For dark varieties, a thicker hydromodule of 1/2 is used. This is due to the fact that the aromatic substances of malt can be formed in large quantities in the mash through caramelization.
By the way, the Beersmith beer calculator does an excellent job of calculating, I recommend downloading and using it.
How to calculate the required amount of water when brewing beer
When calculating required quantity water for brewing beer, they usually use the “reverse” method. Let's say we want to get 20 liters of wort in the fermenter. To the resulting volume we need to add:
- 1-2 l is sediment at the bottom or bruh;
- The volume that evaporated during the boiling of the wort (10-15%) is 3 liters. (conduct an experiment with water to find out a more accurate value);
- The volume of water absorbed by spent grain is 1 to 1 - 4 liters per 4 kg of malt;
- The volume that cannot be drained (here it all depends on the design of your mash tank) is everything that remains in the filter system, and everything that your tap cannot reach, let there be another 1 liter.
As a result, we received 30 liters of water. Now how to determine how much is needed for the mash and how much is needed for washing the spent grain? Everything is simple here, if we have decided on the hydraulic module and chosen, for example, 1/5, then for a mash of 4 kg of malt we will need 20 liters. water, and the remaining 10 liters. for washing.
In general, at least 40% of the mash water volume is typically used for sparging.
When brewing all-grain (grain) beer, beginning brewers often wonder how to correctly determine the volume of water needed to produce the desired amount of finished wort. This is primarily due to the fact that a significant part of the water is absorbed into the malt being mashed and boils away during the hop boiling. The so-called “hydraulic module” is also important.
The concept of “hydraulic modulus” in brewing refers to the ratio of malt to water used during mash. The hydromodule influences the initial density of the wort and determines the total amount of water required during brewing. Thus, if the hydromodulus is ¼, then this means that there will be 4 liters of water per 1 kilogram of malt.
Typically, the hydraulic module value is determined by the ratio from 1/02 to 1/5. His choice depends on the type of beer. For light beer, use a hydromodulus of 1/3 - 1/5. For dense dark varieties, in which the main emphasis is on the malt component, take a thick hydromodule ½ in order to obtain a stronger malt aroma due to caramelization.
Knowing the value of the hydraulic module, you can simply calculate the amount of water that will be required for the mash and for washing the grains. To calculate the total amount of cooking, the following scheme is used:
For example, we want a light beer according to a recipe in which the total weight of malt used is 5 kg. A ¼ hydraulic module is suitable for this variety.
Volume finished product which we want to get is 23 liters.
To it you need to add the volume of water that the grain will absorb (usually take the value 1 liter of water per 1 kilogram of malt). We get 5 liters
Plus 1-2 liters will be sediment at the bottom or bruh;
Plus the non-drainable volume depends on the design of your mash (let’s take 1 liter).
Add everything up and we get 31 liters. To this volume you need to add water that will boil away during the cooking process (10-15%). Let's take 15% and get about 5 liters. Add this volume to 31 and get the total amount of water - 35.6 liters.
Knowing the hydraulic module, we calculate the volume of water required for the mash - 5*4=20.
Subtract it from the total amount of water and get 15.6 liters - the volume of water required for flushing.
We get the following formula:
V total =(V wort +V fraction +V bruh +V ns) +15% where:
V wort - the volume of wort that we ultimately want to get
V shot - the volume of water that the shot absorbs
V bruch - the volume of water that will absorb sediment and bruch
V ns is the volume not drained from the mash.
We calculate the volume of water for the mash as follows:
V zat =V hm *m s
V mash - volume of mash water
V gm - volume of water per 1 kg of malt, depending on the hydromodule
m с is the total mass of malt used in brewing.
Rinse water is calculated as follows:
V prom = V total - V zat where:
V prom - rinsing water
V total - the total volume of water used during cooking
V mash is the volume of mash water.
Please note that there is nothing complicated in these calculations and over time, having gained enough experience, you will be able to perform such calculations automatically.
Have questions? Let's discuss on
