All grain 2. Blonde bombshell (James Morton)

[j4c]

So number 2 is done.
All was going great.
Have my HLT sorted so life was easier.
Got my mash temp sorted straight away so saved loads of faff that I had on the first brew.
I hit problems with the boil, the grotty house I bought has a horrible extractor that started dripping grease. As a result I had to cover half the boiler. So think my amount of boil off was low.
My hop filter then got blocked. First time using pellets, I'm assuming that's what did it.
So I had to jug it out in the end.
Hope it stayed clean.
I missed the predicted gravity which was 1.062-1.075
I got 1.046
I have looked back at the book and noticed that I am lazy and don't read everything.
The book has a pre boil volume of 23l
I had 28.5
Does anybody think I will still have an OK beer, or will it be all muddled up.
I used WLP530 yeast that I made a starter with the day b4, my old man made me a stir plate (cheers dad)
So anyway. Lots of good points. Some not so good.
Still a steep learning curve, but boy does the second one feel less stressful.
Loved every minute.
Cheers
Jack



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[j4c]

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[j4c]

Bottled now.
Got down to 1.008 fg
So is 5% i think.
Tasted nice and clean.
Also got the yeast for the next one



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[alexlark]

Do you wash the yeast when you collect it or just keep the trub?

[j4c]

Do you wash the yeast when you collect it or just keep the trub?

I poured about 500ml of boiled then cooled water into the fermenter.
Swirled then put back in the 500ml jar.
Next day poured off the water and then poured the yeast into that jar leaving the trub bit behind. My first attempt at this. Went well

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[alexlark]

Cheers. I've not harvested yeast yet, looking to re-use the lager yeast in my next batch. Looks like your method worked well.

[j4c]

There's loads of how to videos on youtube.
The hardest bit is boiling the jars and getting them out and lid on with hot water in.
I only washed once.
Some seem to do it more.
But i have read on here that people don't think u really need to wash. Just use the dregs that are in the fv.


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[alexlark]

Thanks j4c.

[Jambo]

Dregs from the FV have always served me well!