1st Brewday - 29/10/06 - Stout

[TheBigEasy]

Garth,
I always used to do the same. I used a long plastic spoon to eep the lid wedged open. Ever since I have left the lid completely off I have had better tasting beers. I used to be amazed at the bitterness I was getting when I was only using a small amount of hops. It seems the undesirables that Andy mentioned gives a real bitter taste to the beer.
Let us know if you notice it in your finished beer.

[Garth]

will do matey, all I can do is sit and wait, see what it's like and be in the know for the next time.

there's probably a myriad of mistakes I have made waiting to make an appearance but hey, you live and learn

[Andy]

We're all learning

[Garth]

how would I work out my efficiency?

or can you only do that with readings before and after?

[bitter_dave]

how would I work out my efficiency?

First you need to work out your potential extract - ie what the gravity would have been had you managed 100% efficiency. Have a look at the potential extract section of the following link:

http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/recipe_formulation.htm

Once you've worked this out, you work out your original gravity as a percentage of the potential gravity. So if you had a potential gravity of 1050 bu acheieved 1040, then the efficiency would be

(100/50) x 40 = 80%.

Hope this makes sense

[Seveneer]

Try returning the runnings to the center of the grain bed so it has more chance to act as a filter.

This doesn't always work DaaB.......

[Seveneer]

[Frothy]

excellent Garth - like a pro

Matt

[Garth]

Cheers Frothy..but eh?.. you having a laugh?

I'm still stuck to the floor with sweet wort

mind you, the kitchen is cleaner now than it has been for a long while

[Garth]

Just checked the gravity on the stout, it's down to 1.010, so that would give roughly 4.5%, pretty near enough, and a sly slurp revealed it tastes quite good, dry and not too bitter, just the way I like a stout.

I didn't taste any nasty hop tastes due to mistakenly leaving the boiler lid on, so may have got away with that one, unless it manifests itself later on. but won't be putting the lid on next time. a lesson learnt there.

[Garth]

Daab, I brewed this on the 29th Oct, when do you think I should bottle it? I'm going to stop doing secondary on my brews from now on, I've bottled my Brupaks Wheat on Monday after a straight 14 days in the primary and crafty sippers revealed a mega smooth brew, quite clear as well, it's the first brew in 22 kits I haven't dropped after a week - 10 days.