primitive kveik beer ;)

Does this look a bit better?
Yes. Each individual kernel is broken, no husk contains a full grain. Compare it to your previous photo, where some grains appear to be whole.

Too fine creates flour, which has two effects: it leaks out of the bag, clouding the wort; and it can clog up the bag and prevent good circulation, leading to lower efficiency. But fine crush exposes more surface to the water, increasing efficiency. Some flour is inevitable though.

For my all-grain mash, I generally get maybe 100 grams of flour (and 4 times that of 'meal') in a 5 kg batch. Your mileage may vary...
 
There's definitely pros and cons to fine crush vs regular crush. Like Megary says, each system is different and you'll dial in what works best for you
 
Thanks guys, that gives me some good insights!
My bag is quite a fine weave and I am also not scared of cloudy wort.
For now, I'm definitely not looking at high alcoholic beers, so there should be a comparatively low grain to water ratio!

Now I need to get a new gas bottle and make a similar batch :p
 
My crush with BIAB is far more flour-ish than that. I run my grain through a Kitchen Aid grain mill that tears that malt to shreds.

Rumor has it that the Guinness malt bill is gritty flour
 
If all goes according to plan, I will bottle this baby batch on Sunday.
I also want to start a new batch. Same recipe, but now according to plan and schedule. And with better milling ;)
And I just got 2 full gas bottlles, so no issues there
Question:
Can I add my new batch of wort to the slurry from the batch that I'll be bottling?
I've done that plenty times with my primitive cider, but not sure if there is any problem doing this with beer?
If so, then I'll just use some new kveik, and throw apple juice on the old trub
 
If all goes according to plan, I will bottle this baby batch on Sunday.
I also want to start a new batch. Same recipe, but now according to plan and schedule. And with better milling ;)
And I just got 2 full gas bottlles, so no issues there
Question:
Can I add my new batch of wort to the slurry from the batch that I'll be bottling?
I've done that plenty times with my primitive cider, but not sure if there is any problem doing this with beer?
If so, then I'll just use some new kveik, and throw apple juice on the old trub
Yes you should be able to, assuming good sanitation and all that. Yeast slurry requires lots of oxygen compared to dry, so make sure to give it a good shake. And if you haven't tasted the beer yet, I would check it for off flavors before racking the new wort on top, just in case.
 
I did another batch today, and while maisching, I bottled batch 1
IMG_20211205_095616.jpg



The gravity sample came to 1010. It is the last bit, hence a bit of hop at the bottom
It's going to be a light beer. Taste was hoppy, not much sweetness left


The whole process went a lot smoother today, except at the end. I forgot to close the spigot while pouring the wort into the fermenter. Luckily I didn't loose much wort

Here's my improved milling:
Milled once


Milled twice

Maisched at 67-68 oC for an hour.

Spent grain. Water absorption just about 350 gr (on 1.2 kg malt).
Grains are definitely tasting less sweet than last time!
Preboil gravity 10 brix
Post boil 11 brix and a little bit, so more or less on target.
Pre boil was taken before adding the drained wort from the bag. Won't make too much of a difference.
Boiled for an hour, then cooled by placing pot in the sink with cold (maybe not so cold at 33 oC) water. Replacing water a couple of times till it harfly heated up. The wort temp went down to 57 oC within about 15 minutes.
In about 2 hours, the wort was the same temp as the slurry from batch 1, so poured them together. This was much quicker than expected, but that had more to do with warming up of the slurry than cooling down of the wort!
If it wasn't kveik, I would never have done this
 

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Last edited:
I did another batch today, and while maisching, I bottled batch 1
View attachment 18468


The gravity sample came to 1010. It is the last bit, hence a bit of hop at the bottom
It's going to be a light beer. Taste was hoppy, not much sweetness left


The whole process went a lot smoother today, except at the end. I forgot to close the spigot while pouring the wort into the fermenter. Luckily I didn't loose much wort

Here's my improved milling:
Milled once


Milled twice

Maisched at 67-68 oC for an hour.

Spent grain. Water absorption just about 350 gr (on 1.2 kg malt).
Grains are definitely tasting less sweet than last time!
Preboil gravity 10 brix
Post boil 11 brix and a little bit, so more or less on target.
Pre boil was taken before adding the drained wort from the bag. Won't make too much of a difference.
Boiled for an hour, then cooled by placing pot in the sink with cold (maybe not so cold at 33 oC) water. Replacing water a couple of times till it harfly heated up. The wort temp went down to 57 oC within about 15 minutes.
In about 2 hours, the wort was the same temp as the slurry from batch 1, so poured them together. This was much quicker than expected, but that had more to do with warming up of the slurry than cooling down of the wort!
If it wasn't kveik, I would never have done this
Looking good! Once you dial in your mill gap for BIAB then you should only need to run the grain through once, but that's up to you. If you want to improve your extract efficiency with BIAB it usually boils down to your grain mill setting and if you add a sparge step. You can either run water over the bag or move the bag to another container with water and let it soak to extract even more sugar from the grains. This is totally optional.

Besides those two big things affecting extraction, next would be mash temp and mash pH, at least in my experience. Low and slow mashing (148-152F) extracts better than high and short (154-158F). And then pH makes sure the environment is hospitable for the enzymes needed for extraction.

Can't wait to hear how batch #1 turns out :) cheers!
 
Thanks!
Somehow you managed to respond to my post, while I was still editing it (due to my ever frustrating internet).
These batches are basically to get me back in the swing of things.
Once I got these real basics sorted, I can go to slightly bigger batches (10-15 litres( and use my electric klarsstein maisch and boil kettle ;)
Like bottling with bottling wand... I haven't done that for close to 2 years. Still need to try my hand on capping a bottle (thats on the cards for this batch that I just started)
 
How's the Kveik working out for you with those high temps in THE hot Zambize Valley? Are you doing a swamp cooler set up or what?
 
Kveik is a beast!
I've been playing around with it with my ciders and it loves the high temperatures and I've had no problem doing 4-5 batches with the same yeast/trub/slurry.
So for now, all I am doing is putting my fermenter in a coolbox to minimise day/night temperature fluctuations as they are a bit extreme at the moment
Screenshot_20211204-195736.png

First goal for now is to get my process right. Then maybe bigger batches, splitting them and checking temp effect.
Our rains will start soon and then it should cool down....
 
Yikes....yeah that's some swing 22 to 44 C! (71 to 111 F ). What exactly is a coolbox? Is that a insulated cooled of some sort?
 
Ah, yes...
Colonial English vs American English vs British English ;)
Coolbox = cooler box = esky (for Ben) = is like insulated box. Coleman makes lots of them and those are popular here.
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00BGA3HEO/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=1YPLYX1N66JNB&keywords=coleman+koeltas&qid=1638730060&sprefix=coleman+koeltas,aps,671&sr=8-5
Our rains have already started over here we got some record rain totals this year for November and summer is just starting were in a lanina year the weather mob are saying.
So more cyclones more floods :eek:.

Anyhow I bet it feels great for you to be back brewing beer enjoy the process:).
 
And here we are!
First glass from first batch.
Despite all mistakes I made, it is actually not a bad beer.
Could have had a bit more body.
It's bitter, but not as much as I expected.
The hop bill wasn't that big, but because alcohol percentage is low, I expected it to come across as very bitter
I would order a beer like this if I was looking for a low alcohol beer.:D


IMG_20211213_101656.jpg
 
And here we are!
First glass from first batch.
Despite all mistakes I made, it is actually not a bad beer.
Could have had a bit more body.
It's bitter, but not as much as I expected.
The hop bill wasn't that big, but because alcohol percentage is low, I expected it to come across as very bitter
I would order a beer like this if I was looking for a low alcohol beer.:D


View attachment 18571
Good for you!
 
I think I am going to call it "Zambi's accidental IPA" ;)
It actually reminded me a bit of a Vedett 2.7%
Anyway, I am going to play with this recipe, but now based on a proper grind.
Thanks for all comments and help!!!
 

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