Okay so I’ve been doing a partial mash for the past three years and have been wary of moving on to the all grain brewing but I’m gonna do it. My new years resolution is to start all grain brewing and I want to convert some of my receipes but have no idea how. If theres a program out there please let me know if not this is going to be my first one.
8 oz chocolate malt
8 oz 90 Caramil
1 lb Peated malt
1 oz coliander
2 oz Rose hips
1 oz dark oak cubes soaked in cherry liquor (dry hopped)
1 oz Colombus (60)
1 oz Phoenix (45)
1 oz Fuggle (0)
6 lbs light DME
2 lbs sucrose
My OG was 1.090 and used S33 dry packet of yeast only out of necessity but bottled at 1.012. I have fallen for this beer and really want to continue to tweak it with the all grain varieties.
Once again any help will be greatly appreciated.
I’m guessing you can sub 12 pounds of a base malt grain for the light DME. 2 row, pale ale malt, maybe Maris Otter. The rest can remain the same. Mash all the grains together, add the sugar in the boil. To be certain of the amount of base malt, find a calculator on line.
I know there’s a conversion factor for grain to extract and vice versa (and I’ve used it successfully before) but I don’t recall it off the top off my head. I have it in my beer brew notebook at home and will post it later tonight.
cheers.
I use the free q-brew software because I don’t need any water additions, etc, that the more complex software does. I guess I would just plug in your old recipes into q-brew, then try to match your IBU’s and OG subbing in all grain for the DME. The big factor will be the conversion efficiency and until you have a handle on that for your system, you probably won’t be getting things exact. I get around 80% efficiency, but a good starting point if you don’t know yours would be around 70%. q-brew allows you to input your efficiency in the “settings”.
BTW, 1.090 would require me to take a nap after one of those!
Is this a 3 gallon recipe? I assume so, b/c 6 pounds DME seems low for 1.090 at 5 gallons. In any event, you can just sub 10 pounds base malt for your DME. This chart here seems like a good conversion table:
http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/
BTW, after you see how easy all-grain is you’re going to kick yourself for waiting so long. When I started brewing I did two extract batches (Mr. Beer), and then went straight to all grain and haven’t looked back.
As a caveat to my comments that follow, I have never brewed all grain (plan to starting after the holidays). I assume the sucrose was to increase fermentability and to allow for a lower FG in the originally recipe. This should be less of a problem with all-grain and my understanding is that you control the fermentability through the temperature of your mash.
I think it would be easier to use a recipe program like
or BeerSmith2 and just replace all your fermentables (DME, LME, sugars) with base malts (2-row, pale, etc.) until you have your desired gravity. Keep the mashed/steeped grains the same. If you’re replacing darker or specialty extracts like munich or wheat, etc. you’ll need to add the corresponding specialty grain to your grain bill but not sure on the amounts. I assume it depends on the brand used.
Again, having zero experience with this, just trying to give a strategy that I would use to convert any recipe from extract/partial mash to all grain.
Don’t know if this will work or not buttt…
Something like this?
[quote=“StormyBrew”]I know there’s a conversion factor for grain to extract and vice versa (and I’ve used it successfully before) but I don’t recall it off the top off my head. I have it in my beer brew notebook at home and will post it later tonight.
cheers.[/quote]
The conversions factors are: 1lb base grain = 0.75lb liquid extract = 0.60lb dry extract.
I believe it assumes a 75% efficiency. You can verify this in your brew program with efficiency set to 75% and then compare the expected OG of the two recipes. They should be within a point or two.
So, in your original posted recipe, to convert the 6lbs of DME to base grain, divide the 6 lbs of DME by the 0.60 dry conversion factor: 6lb / 0.60 = 10 lbs base grain.
Also works for converting an all grain recipe to extract. Only this time, multiply the base grain amount by the conversion factor: 10 lbs all grain converted to dry extract = 10lb x 0.60 = 6lbs dry extract.
Remember, this is only for your Base grain/extract. Keep the steeping grains and other adjuncts at the same levels as the batch size is not changing.
cheers.
Edit: I can’t take credit for these. I found them years ago in a AHA article, as I recall.
I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to keep 2lb of table sugar in this recipe.
[quote=“mattnaik”][quote=“StormyBrew”]
Remember, this is only for your Base grain/extract. Keep the steeping grains and other adjuncts at the same levels as the batch size is not changing.
[/quote]
I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to keep 2lb of table sugar in this recipe.[/quote]
Ha Ha, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea to have it in the original recipe :shock: but not my recipe and it is independent of the base grain or extract. The only purpose I see it serves is to bump up the ABV…but some folks like that.
:cheers:
[quote=“StormyBrew”][quote=“mattnaik”][quote=“StormyBrew”]
Remember, this is only for your Base grain/extract. Keep the steeping grains and other adjuncts at the same levels as the batch size is not changing.
[/quote]
I’m not convinced it’s a good idea to keep 2lb of table sugar in this recipe.[/quote]
Ha Ha, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea to have it in the original recipe :shock: but not my recipe and it is independent of the base grain or extract. The only purpose I see it serves is to bump up the ABV…but some folks like that.
:cheers: [/quote]
I use it in my extract recipes and replace some DME with sugar to increase the overall fermentability of the wort so you end up with a lower FG because extract tends to be less fermentable. But going all grain it shouldn’t be as much of a problem, so just shoot for your target OG using base malts in place of sugar.
[quote=“mattnaik”]
I use it in my extract recipes and replace some DME with sugar to increase the overall fermentability of the wort so you end up with a lower FG because extract tends to be less fermentable. But going all grain it shouldn’t be as much of a problem, so just shoot for your target OG using base malts in place of sugar.[/quote]
Increased fermentability to lower your FG is the other side of the same coin: the result is higher ABV. That being said, the other benefit of fermenting sugar versus DME (and IMO the best reason to use it) is the “lightness” it adds to the mouth feel for a clean, crisp finish…less body, tastes great.
This can also be done very effectively with all grain, that is, replacing grain in the recipe with the appropriate amount of sugar to produce a crisp, clean finish that wouldn’t normally be expected with the given recipe.
:cheers:
Thanks for the response. One more question…I use the glacier springs water machine for my water because my water is stupid hard and tastes like sulfur, we also use that water to drink. My question is do I need to worry about my ph while mashing with hopefully clean water with nothing in it? Can I get it tested or do I even need to worry about getting the water tested?? Thanks in advance.
I would get it tested. And yes, you should still be testing your pH. Remember, all those water machines are actually just hooked up to the tap water, and you can never be totally sure the filter is working right and when it was last changed.
Where would I get the water tested? Our tap water is obviously tested at the treatment facility but do I need to go to the treatment facility with a cup of the machine water? Also what is a good site to figure out what ph my water will be with the grains I will be using.
Right. I guess my point was: know the reason the sugar was in the original recipe. Each recipe has a specific OG and FG. Sure you can add extract till you get your desired OG, but the higher that OG climbs, the harder it’s going to be to meet that FG. So you replace some extract with sugar to maintain the same OG, but make it easier to meet your FG.
So if the sugar was there simply to make for a lighter crisper mouthfeel, then it should probably stay in the recipe. If the only purpose of the sugar was to help reach the target FG, that can be achieved by adding more base malt and adjusting mash temps. If it was in there for both, maybe cut the amount in half.
Sorry to respond like 3 weeks later 
You can look here and see if you can find your water profile:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/water-profiles/
If not you would need to send in a water sample for testing to a place like Ward Labs.
https://producers.wardlab.com/default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2FProducer%2Fproducerhome.aspx
You can download a nice spreadsheet to work with here:
Or an online calculator here:
OK getting ready to head to the local brew shop(JUST BREW IT JAX) and pick up my supplies and was wondering what type of a test kit I should pick up to test the PH and alkaline of the water? Is there something a brew shop will have that’s better than others? I used our fish tank PH tester and the PH of my glacier water is around 6.4ish so I know it needs to be dropped but don’t know how to continuously test the water. Thoughts…?
A Ward Labs test may or may not help you out. Most bottled water companies pull from multiple springs/sources, so a mineral test isn’t going to be consistent from botttle to bottle. I would send in a sample of my tap water to find out what is really going on with the mineral content unless your water company actually puts out a water report that is worth a damn (mine doesn’t). Based off that you could possibly cure your tap water taste issues with an under sink filtration system (these are cheap). Perhaps you would need to cut your tap water with distilled water. This is where good software helps. I would recommend:
- order a water test of your tap water https://producers.wardlab.com/BrewersKitOrder.aspx
- begin reviewing brunwater and familiarizing yourself with the tool https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/
