Brewday 09/06/07 Virgin Lager

[louthepoo]

I'm giving lager a go for the first time (hence the name)

Its based on the Urquell pilsner recipe out of Dave Lines BBLTYB

I'm not doing the 3 stage mashing - i'm too rushed today so its all gone in as a normal brew would do, so i'm not expecting any wonders or perfect clones!

3.8k Lager Malt
100g Saaz (75 + 15 + 10)
Saflager yeast

Its mashing now, so i'm out to buy some meat

This is going to have to be the perfectly quick brew day, time is definitely of the essence!!

[louthepoo]

you're right - we've got a B-B-Q this afternoon for SWMBO's mothers birthday so its my duty to get the meat!

Got £30 worth of spicy ribs, chinese pork chops, rib eye steak, beefburgers, sausages, chicken breast - all half price in the local meat market!

shame the stout isn't ready to take - they should have given me more notice!

well when i got back from shopping opened the door and the house smells like a brewery so thats good! and now i'm just about to start sparging.

[J_P]

Hope it all runs smoothly for you LTP

[iowalad]

Sounds like a great BBQ - off camping here shortly and getting the meals sorted as well.

Enjoy your brew

[J_P]

I think A BBQ is on the cards at Chateaux J_P too nothing like kicking back with some nice food and a nice pint of your own beer!

[louthepoo]

Well the BBQ was good, i think i ate nearly all the spicy ribs myself

The brewing was a bit differerent! I thought i'd try batch sparging for the first time.

I thought the idea of batch sparging was to get a good efficiency? I did mine as per instructions and after boiling ended up with a gravity of 1030 at 17 Litres!!!! Thats almost non alcoholic!!!

It lost a fair amount during the boil but i've never seen a gravity that low before!

I haven't got a clue why it was like that!

If it finishes at 1010 it should be around the 3% mark!!

Its fermenting ok though.

[louthepoo]

oh right cheers DaaB, i got completely the wrong end of the stick with batch sparging then!
I also realised i didnt up the grain quantity as i'm using a Dave Line recipe and his amazing efficiency!

what does mine work out at?

Its a case of getting straight back in the saddle for me - i'm brewing again next week maybe a hobgoblin or i'll try and get a Marstons Old Perculiar.

[louthepoo]

I'll get my coat

Its something i wont be doing again anyway, i'll be spinny sparging again next time!

[J_P]

This is where I show my complete mathematical/brewing ineptitude

Is batch sparging like the technique described in the mini mash? Is it also called re-mashing?

I have got a seemingly top result using this method.

I used 5 kg of grain in all I mashed with 12 litres of water, sparged with 18 and ended up with approx 26.5l of pre boil wort which, unless I've got my wires crossed, is somewhere around the 87% mark

4.85kg * (300/26.5l) = 54.9
0.150kg * (240/26.5l) = 1.36

Giving 56.26 potential extract points the wort had 26.5l of 1049 wort

49 / 56.26 = 0.87

I did bleed the grains dry and I probably could have sparged some more as my final runnings were 1020 when corrected to 20C. What's going on there? Is it beginners luck or was it down to the "Noddy Level" quantity of grain I used?

[delboy]

That is very low figures, did you give it a good stir each time you added new water?? Other than that i can't see how you would end up with so low a figure

[J_P]

Do you mean post boil? If so my efficiency has come down to somewhere where I'd have expected it 65%.

I'll rectify that next time by sparging with more water so I don't need to dilute after the boil. Although even after I'd diluted the fermenter full of wort to 23l (usual volume with kits) it was still a little on the high side at 1050. It may pay off to reduce the grain bill a bit too as if I'm collecting that amount of sugars at that low efficiency I reckon I could afford to save some grain (must be the Yorkshire in me)

Sorry if this seems like a thread-jacking I can't wait to get the boiler out again and see if I can do better.

[Chiltern Brewer]

I've always found sparging the most tricky aspect of mashing. I'd normally get around 75% efficiency, but on my first brew with my new setup that went down to 62%!

I think with stepping up to a 36L batch size I simply didn't sparge for long enough, and was sparging too quickly. Luckily I'd anticipated the odd problem so had gone easy on the hops. I got OG 1040 instead of OG 1048.

[J_P]

No, actually in the fermenter, the nano second before you pitch the yeast

That's ok it was 20l in the fermenter before I diluted it

[louthepoo]

That is very low figures, did you give it a good stir each time you added new water?? Other than that i can't see how you would end up with so low a figure

Yeah i stirred it good and proper! i was shocked with the results too!

Now i know a good workman doesn't blame his tools but could there ahve been something wrong with the grain?

Back to bitter for me next time!

[J_P]

I think I'm going to chalk is one up to experience and try again at the weekend