first AG on saturday

[DRB]

So would that be 26g at the start of the boil and then add extra for the aroma or do you mean 26g overall,for bittering and aroma.

[Jim]

So would that be 26g at the start of the boil and then add extra for the aroma or do you mean 26g overall,for bittering and aroma.

26g just for the bittering hops you put in at the start. The others don't count for bitterness.

[DRB]

right every thing mashing at 11.03 boiled water to about 78 placed in mash tun added grains at 72,temp dropped really quick to below what I need to mash at,65 quickly added boiling water to get temp up eventually managed to get 64,lid on all wrap ped up,I had to add quite a bit more water to get the temp up will that cause any prob.

[Andy]

72 is a bit low DRB - there are strike temp calculators available to work out what temp you need in the tun before adding the grains:-

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

[Jim]

right every thing mashing at 11.03 boiled water to about 78 placed in mash tun added grains at 72,temp dropped really quick to below what I need to mash at,65 quickly added boiling water to get temp up eventually managed to get 64,lid on all wrap ped up,I had to add quite a bit more water to get the temp up will that cause any prob.

You should be fine, DRB.

For next time, if you're using an insulated mash tun you may need to warm it up first, then you won't get such a temperature drop - a strike temperature of 72C should have been fine.

Another potential source of this trouble is very cold grain.

[Vossy1]

I did exactly the same thing on my 1st AG DRB.

I made the SG by loss of volume during the boil, and even had to add some water at the end to bring the SG down to what I wanted

[DRB]

my recipe worked out at 5lires of water for mashing,as i'm using a bucket in bucket should i have used more as you've got a space in the bottom where no grains will be.

[DRB]

[PieOPah]

A very rough esitmate is 2 litres of water for every kg of grain. I would then add enough extra water to cover the space below the bottom of your inner bucket.

There is a link in my bog which works out how much water you will need and you can play around with the figures for your personal setup. I also use Bucket in Bucket so the calculations are based around that setup.

Obviously you will need to put your own base figures for it to work...

[bitter_dave]

Following on from PoP's point, don't worry too much this time - the exact amount of water you use is not crucial, and the amount you used, even allowing for the dead space, should be ok.

I tend to use approximately 2 litres for each kg, and then add on the amount for dead space - as PoP does.

Sounds like it's going fine, so don't worry too much

[fizzypop boy]

Good luck DRB make sure you have some refreshments in for when you've finished.......you'll neeed them

[DRB]

just finished my sparge 12 litres final reading 1032 ,should have been 1048 what happened there,should I have stopped sparging when I had a reading of 1048 even though the volume would have been less,and its looking more like a lager colour.

[bitter_dave]

Ok, firstly well done - you've done your first AG and you've managed to make beer from grain - not an easy thing to do ; everyone, well nearly everyone, gets a low efficiency on their first go. It is much easier next time.

I tend to bring the amount of beer up to the final gravity, even if this means falling short on the final volume, but others don't do this.

What you now need to do is work out how to increase the efficiency of your mash for next time. Also, you may have been aiming for too high efficiency level, so you need to think about that as well.

I'll post something on this later, and I'm sure others will too.

Anyway, go and have a deserved rest (and preferably a beer

[DRB]

sorry to ask soooo many questions, how long before the end of the boil do I put my wort chiller in to sanitise.[/quote]

[bitter_dave]

...sorry DRB, I didn't read your message carefully enough - I thought you were giving me your final gravity of the finished beer.

Sounds like everything is fine though.