First of all i must say "THANK YOU". This forum has been invaluable in getting the kit together to do my first AG, and instructions for the actual day. 2 of the GW books also helped.
I did a couple of extract brews a few years ago and they turned out ok, and was always wanting to try again when i had the time. My company decided to give me that along with my P45 and a few months wages, so i thought i'd have another go and jump right into AG.
SNPA is one of my all time favourites so this was chosen.
H&G supplied the ingredients.
Recipie looks slightly different to the one on here, not sure where i got it from, but i spotted yours after i'd ordered the bits so...
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 88.50 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (59.1 EBC) Grain 4.42 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 4.42 %
0.15 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 2.65 %
10.00 gm Pearle [8.20 %] (90 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
13.50 gm Magnum [15.70 %] (90 min) Hops 23.8 IBU
35.00 gm Cascade [7.60 %] (15 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
60.00 gm Cascade [7.60 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 items Cooler (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
5.00 gm Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Safale US Pale (DCL Yeast #US05) Yeast-Ale
Using beersmith with a 70% efficiency 23l would mean 4.6% - SNPA is 5.6& so i dropped the quantity and got 19l.
On Tuesday ....
Measured the grain
Dropped camera 5 minutes in and had to fudge a repair with a roll of paper to replace a broken battery catch.
Heated up 35l of water - 1.5 camden tablets as the water herte tastes a bit sh*te
Kit - 75l stock pot on Amazon for £29.70 (reduced from £99) ordered 2 and the second one will become a dedicated HLT tomorrow. Wasn't going to bother, but after going through the process i can see that it will be easier with it, and safer than lifting 25l of hot liquid in a plastic bucket to pour back into the boiler. Argos kettle elements * 2. Fittings from Wickes (1/2 the price of B&Q) and from BES (even cheaper).
I also tried to fit a sight tube but didn't notice that the the trader sent me 12 mil pipe by mistake, not 15 so i had to improvise with copper pipe - will swap out when i receive replacement.
Mashtun - 25l fermenting bucket covered in radiator insulation, with false bottom plastic plate and a drain connected in the bottom and supported on a wooden frame.
RCD 2 gang socket from screwfix for £20 - water, leccy and the fact that i am a clumsy oaf made it a good investment.
Assistant brewer didn't help much and tried to pinch various bits through the day
Added about 13l of water in all at 80 and at waited till 72.
Used battery drill and plastic paddle to help stir.
2 thermometers, one said 65.3, the other 66.4
1st learning point - buy thermometers with a fast reaction time. Mine took nearly 30-60 seconds to reach a temp they stopped at.
90 mins later temp at about 65.
Checked sparge water temp and realised that i had underestimated the time to get back to heat - it was 50 something.
So waited for this as i hooked up my sparge system. I had made this too complex and it was a f**k up. So i cut the supporting arms off and just attached it to the tap.
15 minutes later (mash now 100 minutes) water to temp (77), sparge system ready, mash temp at 56 (ffs) - heated water to 90 and 10 minutes later (mash now 110 minutes) added hot water until i got to 77, then drained until i got to an inch above the grain and turned the hot water on (since cooled to 77 with cold water).
The sparging kit is just a length of pipe with holes cable tied to a bit of chopping board (we had lots anyway). It meant that i see when the board was exposed and adjust flow accordingly. I can also adjust the length of pipe according to the amount of grain in the tun.
2nd learning point - start heating the water earlier and dont try to be smart arse with kit
3rd learning point - if it all goes tits up, put the lid back on the tun
Sparge took 75 minutes, any quicker and i got grain piddling out.
Finally collected 23l(ish) (or did I see later learning point).
Poured back into boiler (very carefully)
Elements on - prepped hops
Started boil added 90 minute hops - watched and stirred for 20 minutes, then took a lot of the cr*p in the garage down the tip.
Back in time to add the 15 minute additions including the home made IC. I rolled mine around a straight fermenting bucket as any smaller diameter would mean that i would need more than 40l to fully submerge it.
Added final hop and turned off elements, Gave it a minute then turned on IC, used hot water to wash mash tun.
Rinsed all of the milton sterilised items, bucket, strainer (to provide extra oxygen), bung, airlock etc
Approx 25 minutes later drained boiler and ended up with 13l (my measuring stick in the boiler told me 18), at 1.095. WTF. Definately nothing left in the mash tun.
4th learning point - my boiler has a bigger evap than i had accounted for
5th learning point - hops absorb more water than i though
6th learning point - the measing strip on my fermentation bin is probably well out.
7th learning point - efficiency better than 70% (but with extended mash time and temp balls up, there may be some taste issues)
Panicked and used bottled water (luckily i'd been to costco the day before) to top up to 20l (about 1.065). This tied in with beersmiths reckoning of a final abv of 6. I had 2 options and bottled seemed safer than tap, and the boiler was in too much of a state to boil and cool another few litres and cool quickly.
Added a starter of UK / US 05 that I made up last week when i was supposed to do my brew (300ml as per GW) and topped up with an extra 300ml yesterday to make sure it was still kicking.
Chucked in fridge (£30 off of Gumtree). TC10 connected in place of the fridges thermostat made the wiring easier and might even be kinder to the compressor??? Also hooked up a cheap 60w tube heater (again using the power feed to the original fridge thermostat). I also have a small extractor fan to hook up for air movement, but have decided to go with out for the moment and see what happens.
(can you spot i used a jigsaw not a dremmel?)
Checked this morning and it is bubbling like a goodun (or my rookie opinion of a goodun). This evening the gravity was 1.045, so doing its thing. Had a quick sip and even with the cold that arrived today i could taste the SNPA bittering goodness. It is also about the right colour - i was worried as it looks dark in the bin, but in a tube it looks good. Will have to wait to see if the prolonged mash with lower temps screwed it up too much.
So - lots of lessons for brew 2 (tomorrow - well today really). It will be Bishops Farewell (guess what my favourite ale style is?). Theres room in the fridge and it would be rude not to. I'm sure i will have more lessons coming out of that session too.
Will follow that up with a trip to the local to try to score some more bottles.
Thank you for indulging me if you made it this far with out falling asleep, but i was writing it down for my notes and so i thought i would share.
