I want to try to attempt all grain soon and have been doing a lot of reading up to get ready.
I was looking at the NB all grain kit instructions an they don’t tell you how much water to use, etc.
Just ingredients, time and temperatures.
Why don’t they include this? I’m not sure how to start?
Do you have to enter all of the ingredients into BeerSmith to figure all that out? I don’t have that software but sounds like its a must have for all grain.
If I want to do a 2.5 gallon bath instead of 5 gallon can I just slit the ingredients in half?
My fist attept at all grain will BIAB 3 gallon but, for this question I was just wondering if I got a standard 5 gallon all grain kit from NB and I just want to make half at a time.
It’s been a couple of years sense I ordered a kit. Do the ingredients come in one bag? If so, it would be difficult to get a good split for 2 beers. A call to the shop to ask for the ingredients to be bagged separately would be a good idea. Then purchase a scale from Walmart/Target/Shopko to measure out the grains/hops for each brew. Try to find a scale that also measures in metrics.
For a quick water calculator, check out JT’s Mashwater3.3 program. All you need to enter is the amount of grain/hops, temps and batch size. Quick and easy.
Cran, I would brew it as normal for a BIAB. Order a pound or 2 of DME if you gravity comes up way shorter. After a couple of brews, if you find you are consistently short, order an extra amount of 2 row grain to make the recipe come out for your system.
Rule of thumb for AG:
1.3 Qt of Mash water per Lbs of grain heated to 10 -12 degrees above the target Mash temp.
Sparge with 2 Qt of water per Lbs of grain heated to 175 degrees.
Mash-Out with about 2 Gal of 200 - 210 degrees of water to raise the Mash to no more the 170 degrees.
