Baby steps in AG??

[Valley Commando]

What, back on topic!

Erics top tips are spot on. I would try a simple brew to start with, keep it nice and easy, minimise the purchases required. This is the brew I have in FV at the moment, which has turned out really nicely in the past, so much so I am repeating it.

Pilgrim Fathers
Blonde Ale

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 26.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.500
Total Hops (g): 60.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.038 (°P): 9.5
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 3.73 %
Colour (SRM): 5.0 (EBC): 9.9
Bitterness (IBU): 27.2 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
4.500 kg Maris Otter Malt (100%)

Hop Bill
----------------
25.0 g Pilgrim Leaf (10.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1 g/L)
35.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Aroma) (1.3 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
2.0 g Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 70 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with Safale US-05

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

Ingredient for that are pretty cheap: Irish moss is optional, and you could substitute approx 20g of Pilgrim (yummy dual purpose hop!) for the Goldings aroma addition and make it into a SMaSH brew. That way you buy one 100g pack of Pilgrim hops and get 2 brews from each pack...

Brewmate is great for working out recipes: highly recommended.

[Eric]

Welder! How are you with TIG and stainless? The world's your oyster once that gets around this forum.
But you don't need to get into that if you don't want, plastic can still do the job and keep the initial price down.
My biggest investment is in storage and I suppose that goes for whatever type of brewing you do if you don't want to be forever hand to mouth. It was built up over several years.
Any brewing process using grain will need a boiler, at least 30 litres if you aim to make a typical 5 gallon brew, you'll understand when you see your first boil. I have no ambition to brew more than this size, it takes me a lot longer to drink than make. A standard 2.4KW will boil that easily and most cheaply. For a hop filter I use gash bits of 15mm copper pipe slotted with junior hack saw cuts every quarter inch, half way through and push fit together with standard bends and tees. Other bits of 15 or 22mm are then slit and resoldered to make a stepped taper (telescope style) which push-fits into the tap. I think you'll know what I mean.
You'll have the fermenting vessels, so that only leaves the recent bones of contention.
You don't actually need an HLT, for years my boiler doubled up until I'd collected enough clear wort to cover the element, when the sparge water would be transferred to another vessel to free the boiler. However, one does make life easier and gives flexibility so you can on occasion make a second, small, beer or boil some extra wort for yeast starters etc.
My mash tun is just a cheap coolbox, the filter having the same construction as described earlier but with wider, standard sized hacksaw blade thickness cuts. It is cheaply insulated but snugly fits inside a couple of heavy duty bin liners inside one another with insulation between. (Writing this makes me wonder if the 25Kg grain bags would be better.) It holds the temperature well enough.
There are an awful lot of contentious issues and fallacies. There's a lot too to learn about such things as water, but what comes out of your tap will most likely make excellent beer without treatment. There may come a time when you want to test this. Sanitation is ALL important. Everything that touches your beer after the boil needs to be clean and well free from bugs and the like. Fortunately a cup of cheap bleach in 5 gallons of clean water will inside half an hour nack enough of those enemies that harbour in an otherwise clean receptacle and can then be rinsed off.
The offer is still open, A1 then A19. Thanks for the tip, I've two daughters who need reminding regularly, something I didn't expect when introducing them to real ale all those years ago. Good luck.

[DeadFall]

Can you imagine what the outcome would be if beer and lager sales fell so drastically that the Taxman's revenue plunged?

Dawn raids to seize and destroy mash tuns, boilers, hop strainers, unlicensed malt & yeast and big prison sentences

[tractorboy]

@froggi: Are you looking to choose between going 3V or BIAB? If so then it might be worth cross-posting to the BIAB section to find someone local as not everyone watches all sections on here.

Bob

[froggi]

@froggi: Are you looking to choose between going 3V or BIAB? If so then it might be worth cross-posting to the BIAB section to find someone local as not everyone watches all sections on here.

Bob

Bob
Looking to go 3V rather than BIAB...... Although the merits of both methods have been discussed on this thread (slightly off topic I might add)... I'm not getting involved in HB snobbery but I'm more interested in the method.

[froggi]

[quote="Eric"]Welder! How are you with TIG and stainless? The world's your oyster once that gets around this forum.

Yep, Welder and TIG welding/stainless experience too.... Guilty as charged!!!

[Eric]

Welder! How are you with TIG and stainless? The world's your oyster once that gets around this forum.

Yep, Welder and TIG welding/stainless experience too.... Guilty as charged!!!

Bugger! And you kept that secret, no wonder you were in no hurry to accept my invitation.
I don't know if you looked at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukPD_y5MJbM which was posted earlier in this thread and noticed the scant regard for family jewels in close proximity to a propane burner while standing on an icy brick? I winced a bit when it brought back memories of how tender that region is when it contacts something hot, like a piece of slag when working with open collar in a confined space doing overhead. Are you sure you can't get up here? I bet we could exchange a few stories while watching a brew happen. After a few beers I'm sure we could find you a train back to Sheffield. Bring the missus, tell her you're taking her to the Metro Centre.

[Lugsy]

Hi froggi

I'm not a million miles away from you and you'd be welcome to come round when I'm brewing one day. I BIAB at the moment (going 3V in the near future, not that I want to discuss the reasons here and risk world war three kicking off ) so I don't know if this is much use to you as my current procedures differ from the three vessel method that you look like you're heading for. If you just want to get together and discuss general principles of brewing I'm by no means an expert but I'm more than happy to share what knowledge I have with you. As I'm also in the process of gathering the gear for 3V we can talk about choice of equipment too.

My next brewday is new year's day but it's a difficult beer and I'll be a little worse for wear so that's probably not feasible, my next one will be easier and should be one Saturday in the next couple of weeks. If you just fancy meeting up for a pint and a chat then let me know.

Cheers,

L

[froggi]

Eric, the offer is a kind one but SWMBO is a canny lass and appears to be aware of my sneaky brewing connected trips and while she's very accomdating in my latest hobby, she's in no way a fool lol

Lugsy, the offer is also very kind and more accessible at present given the current state of funds. I hope your head is not too fuzzy on New Years Day and able to allow you to carry on without any mishaps. I'll take you up on the invitation after the New Years brewday if it's still ok with you
Many thanks to both of you

[Lugsy]

No problem at all froggi. I'll PM you in the next week or so when I've got a brew lined up and we can see if it fit's in with your plans.

Cheers,

L

[JonoT]

Hi Froggi,

I am another Sheffield AG brewer. I only started this summer and some would say jumped right in at the deepend. I did one brew using extract which was didn't quite go to plan, turned out a beer at about 2.4%! This did though enable me to see how my boiler and the fementing would work with out having to get everything else right, and then went stright into a full mash and it been great fun and not looked back and turned out some realy nice beer.

I spend ages looking on the forums and reading about how to build the brewery and everyone has done it differentally. I found it all to easy to get confused and not sure which way to go so eventally just did it. Having now done 11 brews, there are things I wish i'd done differentally but oh well! I have taken a number of pictures of the build and do keep meaning to write it up but too busy making beer! My brewery is quite simular to a good friends of mines setup which is well documated on this forum - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17728

I'm not able to brew at the moment, needing to carry out some repairs to the shed. I'd happy meet up for a pint to share what I have learnt in 6 months of brewing!

JonoT

[froggi]

Hi Froggi,

I am another Sheffield AG brewer. I only started this summer and some would say jumped right in at the deepend. I did one brew using extract which was didn't quite go to plan, turned out a beer at about 2.4%! This did though enable me to see how my boiler and the fementing would work with out having to get everything else right, and then went stright into a full mash and it been great fun and not looked back and turned out some realy nice beer.

I spend ages looking on the forums and reading about how to build the brewery and everyone has done it differentally. I found it all to easy to get confused and not sure which way to go so eventally just did it. Having now done 11 brews, there are things I wish i'd done differentally but oh well! I have taken a number of pictures of the build and do keep meaning to write it up but too busy making beer! My brewery is quite simular to a good friends of mines setup which is well documated on this forum - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17728

I'm not able to brew at the moment, needing to carry out some repairs to the shed. I'd happy meet up for a pint to share what I have learnt in 6 months of brewing!

JonoT

JonoT
Thanks for the response, the link and the invite for a pint & advice.... If you have the materials and need a hand with the repairs, my services are available to assist with said repairs... I make a reasonable labourer (lol) and I'd be happy to exchange labour for the advice/"shadowing" while setting up/brewing initailly

[oneilldave]

Can you imagine what the outcome would be if beer and lager sales fell so drastically that the Taxman's revenue plunged?

Dawn raids to seize and destroy mash tuns, boilers, hop strainers, unlicensed malt & yeast and big prison sentences

Do you know what, I bet that they Gov. would start taxing brewing supplies, or we'd need to buy a license to home brew. The customs and excise man would then come round and do dispstick tests on all those who had a license (like they do for red diesel in a car) and anything over 2% would be charged at £10 per bottle per percent over ... sorry, I've just scared myself and not feeling too good now! Think I'll have a lie down ....

[zgoda]

That's nothing unusual in Germany, they have to register themselves with customs office and pay special tax if brew over 200 litres in year. That's the ordnung!