My first AG brew day - Foldings Guggle!

[Iank]

Couple of suggestions regarding the fly-sparging efficiency:
Do it SLOWLY. I recently did another brew and made sure the runoff was little more than a trickle. It took at least 30 minutes to fill the boiler but I'm sure it was worth the wait. This means I was topping up intermittently rather than continuously.
Also, make sure you keep the grain bed afloat - don't let the water level in the mash tun drop below that of the grains, as if the bed starts to compact at all it risks the flow forming into channels through the grains... I think it's called preferential flow - if it starts to do this a lot of the grain won't get rinsed.

[coatesg]

Great job! Fuggles and goldings are a classic combination.

[OldThumper]

Today it has been 6 days since I started this brew and I siphoned my beer in to 1L plastic bottles which previously contained fizzy mineral water (with 1 tsp of sugar per bottle as primer). The SG has been pretty low over the last few days so I think the major fermentation went really quickly.

I drank a 1/4 of a pint today and it was "okay". It tasted like a little bland and a little flat beer I guess. My question is how can I expect this to change over the next few weeks while it goes through seconday fermentation and then maturation in the cold garage? Can I expect a big improvement? I would say it tastes drinkable now but nothing like a commercial bitter.

Also, the beer is a little cloudy still so will it clear in the bottle when I transfer the bottles to a cold place to mature or should I have waited longer for the beer to clear a little more in the fermentation bucket?

BTW: I don't currently trust my new king keg as I am convinced it has a very minor leak so I chose to bottle as I don't want to risk losing my beer.....

[yashicamat]

Today it has been 6 days since I started this brew and I siphoned my beer in to 1L plastic bottles which previously contained fizzy mineral water (with 1 tsp of sugar per bottle as primer). The SG has been pretty low over the last few days so I think the major fermentation went really quickly.

I drank a 1/4 of a pint today and it was "okay". It tasted like a little bland and a little flat beer I guess. My question is how can I expect this to change over the next few weeks while it goes through seconday fermentation and then maturation in the cold garage? Can I expect a big improvement? I would say it tastes drinkable now but nothing like a commercial bitter.

Also, the beer is a little cloudy still so will it clear in the bottle when I transfer the bottles to a cold place to mature or should I have waited longer for the beer to clear a little more in the fermentation bucket?

BTW: I don't currently trust my new king keg as I am convinced it has a very minor leak so I chose to bottle as I don't want to risk losing my beer.....

If I were you, I'd reserve judgement for a few weeks yet. My Harry's IPA tasted very below-par (in fact just bland and underwhelming) when I transferred it to the bottles, but a few weeks later and it was tasting increasingly rich and flavoursome.

[OldThumper]

Thanks for the optimism Yashicamat!

I just read in The Big Book of Brewing that you should only bottle the beer if it is perfectly clear. Is this true? My beer was not perfectly clear, as i would expect as it was only 6 days old. May be the book means you should move the beer from the fermentation bucket to another bucket/demijohn to clear for a while prior to bottling?

[coatesg]

I usually go by the gravity - if it's constant for 2-3 days (and doesn't appear to have become stuck) then you should be able to bottle at that point, though it's often good to let it sit for a bit on the yeast to let it tidy up after itself - siphoning to a secondary will also be fine too. Waiting for it to clear means you will have much less sediment in each bottle - but obviously you need a little yeast to be able to carbonate the beer - usually not a problem though, even with quite clear beer.

Make sure you leave the bottles in the warm for a week or so to allow the yeast to carbonate using the priming sugar, and give it a couple of weeks further to allow it to come into condition - it does make a lot of difference to the flavour.

[floydmeddler]

Looks good although leaving the lid on is BAD practice... apparently. Not sure why but have read that it spoils the beer on numerous occasions. Look into it.

Nice set up

Cheers

[delboy]

Looks good although leaving the lid on is BAD practice... apparently. Not sure why but have read that it spoils the beer on numerous occasions. Look into it.

Nice set up

Cheers

DMS (cooked cabbage taste) is produced during the boil, better to let it vent off. Also evaporation of the wort is part of the process, collect more wort (6 ish gallons) and let it evaporate down to the required amount (5 ish gallons).

[simple one]

Your first attempt of AG home brewing is amazing! Mine was very DIY.

As i see it.

Lid on to achieve the boiling point and beginings of evap. Then remove slighty or completely. Don't worry about over evaporation... just prep water to top it up with after (treat it chemically, boil it or do nothing to it) to take it back to its SG. As was said... sugars remain in the solution.

Once the run off from the mash tun is sugar less.... the grains are spent (if mashed properly). Forget the the mash tun, top up with your water.

Use glass bottles, and a syphon attachment with the stop valve on it (fills bottle from bottom of the bottle). It will taste better than plastic, I don't know why.

I learnt through trial and error, over hop when your a beginner. And try a recipie which matches your water in your area.

matt