Pre-Prohibition Lager

So I made my first order and I ordered three beer kits. One of which, the Pre-Prohibition Lager is apparently an all-grain kit. All I got is a bag of grain. I am going to give it a try, but I have no recipe, which I do when I get the actual little kit with my other two orders.

Where can I find the recipe?

[quote=“Jobu”]So I made my first order and I ordered three beer kits. One of which, the Pre-Prohibition Lager is apparently an all-grain kit. All I got is a bag of grain. I am going to give it a try, but I have no recipe, which I do when I get the actual little kit with my other two orders.

Where can I find the recipe?[/quote]

Here you go:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... nLager.pdf

The recipe sheet should have come with your kit, but here it is anyway…

Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you the step by step procedures like the extract and partial mash kits do.

[quote=“65SS427”][quote=“Jobu”]So I made my first order and I ordered three beer kits. One of which, the Pre-Prohibition Lager is apparently an all-grain kit. All I got is a bag of grain. I am going to give it a try, but I have no recipe, which I do when I get the actual little kit with my other two orders.

Where can I find the recipe?[/quote]

Here you go:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... nLager.pdf

The recipe sheet should have come with your kit, but here it is anyway…

Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you the step by step procedures like the extract and partial mash kits do.[/quote]

Thanks! Yeah, all I got was a bag of grains. My order was missing two other items as well, but they were specific items I had ordered, were on the order sheet and I could immediately conclude they were missing. But being this was my first all grain order, I had no idea if I should get more than just a bag of grain or not. #Shrug

FYI - Upon opening my order, I logged on to Northern Brewer and used chat (Aaron was the guy’s name). He indicated my two missing items would be shipped immediately. I was impressed with the online customer service.

The below is all greek to me:

MASH SCHEDULE: MULTI STEP
Protein Rest: 122° F for 20 minutes
Sacch’ Rest: 150° F for 60 minutes
Mashout: 170° F for 10 minutes

BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
1.5 oz Cluster (60 min)
0.5 oz Cluster (10 min)

Do I just heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 122 degrees, put my bag of grains in (minus the bag, of course) for 20 minutes. Then heat to 150 degrees for 60 minutes and then finally 170 degrees for 10 minutes?

Somebody throw me a bone please!

I would suggest you do some research on BIAB - Brew in a Bag. It’s the easiest way to do an AG batch.

As far as that mash schedule you can skip the protein rest and mash out, just hold the grain at 150 for an hour with ~1.5 quarts per pound of grain.

[quote=“Glug Master”]I would suggest you do some research on BIAB - Brew in a Bag. It’s the easiest way to do an AG batch.

As far as that mash schedule you can skip the protein rest and mash out, just hold the grain at 150 for an hour with ~1.5 quarts per pound of grain.[/quote]

Thank you. Helpful!

Hopefully you had the grains crushed when ordering?

Good question. The bag says they are crushed, so I am good.

Silly question. Partially because some items were missing from my order and this is my first time doing an all-grain, should my delivery order included a mesh bag of some sort for my grains?

Good question. The bag says they are crushed, so I am good.

Silly question. Partially because some items were missing from my order and this is my first time doing an all-grain, should my delivery order included a mesh bag of some sort for my grains?[/quote]
No. They usually ship a muslin bag for “extract with specialty grians” kits. They sorta assume if you order an all grain kit you have the ability to mash, ie, a mash tun or bag for BIAB. :wink:

Might be a little tough to do without all the equipment. I agree that BIAB would be best for you since you don’t have a cooler mash tun or anything like that. You’ll need to get a bag to brew in though. They sell them here, or your LHBS, but maybe someone has a better idea of something else you can use.

Other tips:

~1.5 qts of water per pound of grain as mentioned above sounds fine. Put the mesh bag in your kettle with the water. You can use binder clips to clip the bag to the sides.

Heat your water to about 10 degrees over the target mash temp of 150 (aim high, maybe a little over 160).

Once there, put the grain in the bag and stir and watch the temp. If it goes below 150, turn the heat up and stir until you’re back at 150. If it is over 150, turn heat down or off and continue to stir. You can add some additional cool water if it needs to come way down. Keep stirring until you get the right temp.

Close the lid and leave it go for an hour. I might test the temp maybe 15 minutes or so, but keep in mind you’ll lose heat when you open it. If you’re doing it inside you probably won’t lose much heat with the lid closed. If outside (and it’s cold), you’re going to be stuck unless you can insulate your kettle somehow. Don’t let it get too hot! Try to keep it at 150, and if it goes a degree or two below that it’s still fine.

Once your hour is done, you can lift the bag with the grains out. Some people squeeze and rinse with hot water, some don’t. Either way you will be fine probably. You can top off with more water to get to your 5.5 gallons or so, then you’ll start your boil.

Assuming you know about extract brewing, the rest is the same.

OK, thank you so much. A lot of good information here. I think what I am going to do is go to my local home brew shop, bag of grains in hand and ask him what I need or don’t need (bag or other misc piece of equipment that did not arrive in my delivery). My home brew shop says he can grind grains if need be too.

Thank you all so much.

Hopefully they are good guys and don’t try to sell you a whole all grain kit (big money). I would just ask for a muslin bag or something similar for a BIAB, since that’s all you really need.

Well, that didn’t go as expected. He more or less told me, “You never did an all-grain before? Mashing is a science. Take your bag home and do some researching on mashing and then come back and see me.”

I was really taken back by the whole situation. I guess I expected him to be more nurturing and looking to share the knowledge, but he was really pretentious. Is this normal in the home brewing World?

So I paused for a bit. Said ‘OK’ and walked out.

[quote=“Jobu”]Well, that didn’t go as expected. He more or less told me, “You never did an all-grain before? Mashing is a science. Take your bag home and do some researching on mashing and then come back and see me.”

I was really taken back by the whole situation. I guess I expected him to be more nurturing and looking to share the knowledge, but he was really pretentious. Is this normal in the home brewing World?

So I paused for a bit. Said ‘OK’ and walked out.[/quote]
I’ve found the homebrew/craft beer world to be just like any other… some good, some bad. Mashing really into that hard. If you don’t already have Palmer’s How to Brew there is a free copy online. Read up on mashing and you’ll be fine.

[quote=“Loopie Beer”][quote=“Jobu”]Well, that didn’t go as expected. He more or less told me, “You never did an all-grain before? Mashing is a science. Take your bag home and do some researching on mashing and then come back and see me.”

I was really taken back by the whole situation. I guess I expected him to be more nurturing and looking to share the knowledge, but he was really pretentious. Is this normal in the home brewing World?

So I paused for a bit. Said ‘OK’ and walked out.[/quote]
I’ve found the homebrew/craft beer world to be just like any other… some good, some bad. Mashing really into that hard. If you don’t already have Palmer’s How to Brew there is a free copy online. Read up on mashing and you’ll be fine.[/quote]

The guy at the shop was being pretty condescending IMO. Thing is, everyone who does all grain had to get over the hurdle of doing their first all grain batch at one time or another. If I were you, I’d go to the local hardware store and pick up a five gallon paint strainer bag, maybe do a little more research on BIAB, and go for it. You have lots of help here, just ask questions as needed, and I’m sure you’ll get through it just fine, and you’ll make beer in the process, and more than likely pretty good beer at that. :cheers:

Sounds like that guy was a total idiot. It’s not rocket science . Some guys try to make it rocket science which is the beauty of the hobby. You can make it as hard or as simple as you like. Go to the paint store or hardware store and get a paint strainer, the 5 gallon variety they are used to strain paint for spraying, they work great for BIAB. Mash like the above post. Boil and follow the boil additions schedule as usual. Let us know how it comes out. I’m going to brew a pre prohibition soon. I think Brooklyn pre prohibition style lager is a good beer. By the way the kit should have included yeast

What a dick. Yes mashing is a science but all the sciencey stuff has already been done for us. It’s nice to know what’s going on in your mash and why but it isn’t necessary in order to mash grain, you can learn about it later if you want.

All you need is a large pot and a bag, 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags work fine. If you don’t have a big pot to do the full volume boil you can divide it in half and do 2 batches and combine them in the fermenter.

There’s all kinds of videos on BIAB,

The guy at my LHBS is the other end of the spectrum. Helpful to the extreme. I’ve seen him work with people on recipes and equipment, and sanitation. He’ll practically offer to brew it for you. His location is really just too inconvenient for me to go very often, I with I could give him more business.

Thanks guys.

Found this vid

on youtube and it seems to answer all my questions.

His ladle sparge must’ve taken forever!!

We just did our second and third batches of All-Grain. Like anything else it is a learning process but nothing that you can’t handle. After sitting back and thinking and re-reading some of the instructions again I found where I ‘messed up’ the process. But I am still going to have beer at the end!