2 stage all grain??

[2Scoops]

Evening all

I just did my first all grain brew last week. I built the 3v system and chiller myself and Im really happy that I pulled it off. It's a huge learning curve and I'm sure I'll be able to streamline the process. But it's just too time consuming for me. I have a young family, work and study. It isn't feasible for me to have a full brew day on a regular basis.

So, I'm wondering, rather than going back to extract. Especially as I've got a fair bit of grain. Can I spilt the process over a couple days with no real detriment to quality? I want to produce hop forward APA and IPA's which I understand aren't really suited to no chill.

What I'm thinking is if I can get all the grain cracked and everything in place so I can just come home from work and fire up the burner. If I do the mash and boil the 60 min addition then cube and no chill. Then when I can get back to it I could pour say 5 litres of the cubed wort back into the kettle and do a 15 -20 min boil with whatever hop schedule I would have done if I was doing it all in one hit. Then add this to the cubed wort in the fv and ferment as usual.

Has anyone done or do this kind of arrangement?

Or what do you think could be any potential down falls of doing it this way?

Cheers everyone.

[ben 10]

You could try whatever you want.

 

IPA and APAs are well suited to no chill - for me anyway.

 

Small volume boil will have poor hop utilisation.

 

You could. Crack the grain and fill the kettle one night.

Next morning fire up the burner for the mash. Mash until after work, then boil when you get home.

[2Scoops]

You could try whatever you want.

 

IPA and APAs are well suited to no chill - for me anyway.

 

Small volume boil will have poor hop utilisation.

 

You could. Crack the grain and fill the kettle one night.

Next morning fire up the burner for the mash. Mash until after work' date=' then boil when you get home.[/quote']

 

Hi Ben

You mean leave the grain in the mash tun all day?

 

I've been reading it's difficult to calculate ibu's with no chill due to longer exposure at higher temps. And even grassy flavours... definitely don't want any of that! But it's clearly working for you.

Cheers.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I also no-chill and brew a lot of APAs and they all come out perfectly fine. The trick with them and no-chilling seems to be to do a big flameout addition, a similar sized 5 or 10 minute addition, and top up the IBUs with a small 60 minute or FWH addition if required. Then add a decent dry hop towards the end of fermentation.

 

I only count the IBUs from the flameout hops for the amount of time the wort sits before transferring to the cube (usually about 20 minutes); the 5/10 and 60/FWH additions are calculated on boil time only. I don't account for IBUs contributed during the time the wort sits above isomerisation temps in the cube, and it doesn't really seem to matter anyway. None of the beers is over-bittered.

 

Basically, you could pretty much do what you've proposed without having to do a re-boil of some of the wort if you construct the hop schedule to work with the no-chill process. You could do Ben's idea of mashing all day as well - the only thing to be aware of with that is that you will end up with a more fermentable wort than doing a standard 60-90 minute mash.

 

Don't get too hung up on IBUs either. It's a useful number as a guide, but it's not the be all and end all. A beer with a lot of late hops contributing IBUs doesn't usually taste as bitter as the same beer with most of the IBUs coming from early hop additions. Another example, I bitter my pilsners to a higher IBU than my APAs, and with a lot of the IBUs coming from early additions, but they actually taste less bitter due in large part to the extremely soft water I brew them with.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[2Scoops]

Thanks Kelsey

I'll have a look at doing something like you suggest with the hop additions geared for no chill. If it means a fewer stage operation ie. no mini boil...I'm keen!

Cheers.

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

No worries mate. That kind of hop schedule I just worked out myself to suit my tastes. You might prefer no 5 or 10 minute addition and just add what would be that addition at flameout as well, or even a cube hop (I'm keen to try this technique too). The best thing to do is experiment and tinker with it to suit your tastes, but at least you've got a starting point to work from. I think Ben uses a similar schedule to me but without the 5 or 10 minute addition.

[2Scoops]

Yeah I'll have a play around with it and see where it takes me. I like the idea of no chill and the fact it means I can transfer to fv and ferment at a later date.

Cheers.

[Otto Von Blotto]

That's the main reason why I've been no-chilling for the nearly 5 years I've been brewing all grain. So much more convenient.

[joolbag]

2scoops, I put a post on this exact topic a few months back: https://club.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/17206/

 

since then, I tried it on a Zombie Dust clone. It worked, there is definitely a late hop presence in this beer. I haven't tried it on a no-chill schedule to compare.

 

would I do it again? Probably not. I am learning, with help from others on this forum, on how to craft my recipes to be hoppy and no-chill. totally possible!