First AG - 10l OtterLord Brew in a bag (With pictures now)

[craigmarshall]

I'm just using cold water in the sink, and a couple of ice packs which have lost their cold now. I keep changing the water as soon as it feels anything more than cold (every few minutes). Have I spoilt it?

I will do it in the real bath upstairs next time. Too late now though, it's most of the way there... 37C or so now.

The cold tap water is still feeling cold, ours comes from a hole in the ground not far from here, but it's clean and very drinkable.

PS: Cool! Just found 1kg of mixed frozen veggies in the freezer, they'll happily give their lives to become some extra cooling for my wort bath, I'm sure.

Craig

[craigmarshall]

Here is the wort chilling:



The silly thing is, I specifically worked out the biggest pot I could buy that would fit in the sink. Didn't think about the lack of volume for cooling water/ice that would leave

Ah well the yeast is rehydrated, the FV and hydrometer are clean, all I have to do is keep cooling it, aerate, and put it all in the FV.

Is it a bad idea to pour it through a sanitised fine straining bag to get rid of the lumps (protein?).

Edit: 33C now @ 11:15pm

Cheers,
Craig

[Anavrin]

Hi Craig, just had a look through my recipies you might end up with something like

BATHAM BEST BITTER ( 10l version )

Marris Otter Pale Malt 2020 gm

Northdown Hops 12 gm
Fuggles Hops 14 gm

OG 1045
RG 1010
4.7% by volume
Bitterness 30
Colour 8 EBC

Described as "A straw-coloured, delectable and refreshing ale" "fine sharp hop prickle in the mouth, intense dry finish hop bitterness and light fruit.

[GARYSMIFF]

Whats the temp Mr wolf?

[craigmarshall]

It got down to 29 and seemed to stop, and with an ambient temp of 26.5 in here (seems high, but the oven + hob have been on), I doubted it would get much farther, It probably dropped another degree while I was fafffing around with yeast + FV etc.

Here's the OG, I read this as 1.040:



And the yeast in a mini-starter of cooled off wort, frothing up nicely:



Anyway - It's in the fermenter now, with the yeast, and I hit an OG of 1.040, according to my new hydrometer, I haven't checked this one yet with tap water, but the last one was okay.

And here it is in the fermenter, just over 10 litres:



And that's all folks for a week or so! I have to go to bed now, I promised myself I'd be in before midnight, just made it!

Oh - one last thing, does anyone know how to calculate my "brewhouse efficiency" from the numbers in this thread for plugging into future recipes? I'll check back in the morning in case anyone can help.

Edit: And another. Cheers Anavrin for finding out that recipe. It does seem just as similar to mine as the TTL. The description sounds nice! thanks.

Cheers and thanks for watching,
Craig

[GARYSMIFF]

I'm keeping it simple, I'll mash in the oven, and cool in an ice bath in the sink, or with cold water if there aren't any ice cubes left.



I can see by your website your a craftsman and a ex fellow IT member.

When you have completed your brew and is ready to drink and you smile and say Dam thats good beer and next thing you know its all gone and you need to do it again, I am guessing that the "simple" brewer will have a chiller. then bigger pots and so on...........................................

[craigmarshall]

I doubt it.

[Anavrin]

You wanted 1042 and got 1040! but acording to Graham Wheeler you should add 0002 as to compensate for the higher temp, spot on 1042 I would say!

Well Done

[craigmarshall]

Yes - that sounds like I've hit the spot, doesn't it (I'm having trouble sleeping, I just want to know my efficiency and whether the yeast has taken yet!)

I found an efficiency calculator online, and when I convert my units over to US units, it says I have a little over 60% efficiency. Here is the calculator:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

I pitched the yeast about 3.5 hours ago, but it doesn't look like anything is happening yet, I hope it works!

Craig

[wetdog]

you said at the begining that you added 3 campdon tablets to 14l of water.. that's way too much. you would normally add half a tablet to double that quantity of water so it looks like you have 12 times too much in there.
from my wine making days I recall you would add a campdon tablet to a demi john (4.5l) to stop fermentation so there is a possibility you've killed the yeast before you've started but leave it for a day or 2 to see what happens.
Also not sure if so many tablets will affect the taste, only time will tell.

The other thing you said was you added hot tap water at the begining... do you mean cold tap water heated up or water straight from the hot tap? Water from the hot tap is not usually recommended for drinking

[WishboneBrewery]

Good going... I'm doing small batches 12 litres is a nice amount which wills 20 Bottles about every two weeks with something different.
I do feel a little bit precious about the beer though as there's never that much of any one sort!!
Also the 15L FV is a nice size to carry around without straining!!!!
I made a small Mash Tun too for this http://pdtnc.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/m ... se-bottom/

[craigmarshall]

you said at the begining that you added 3 campdon tablets to 14l of water..

Yes - I've been doing a bit of wine making as well. The campden tablets don't actually kill yeast in theory, they just make it a not very nice environment for them. I've used them before whilst racking (1 tablet per 4.5-5 litres), and the bubbling starts up again after the racking, so it doesn't seem to kill them in practise either. It's potassium sorbate that will stop the fermentation dead (allegedly), but even that is not guaranteed according to some people..

Either way I have a nice foam head on the yeast now!

The other thing you said was you added hot tap water at the begining... do you mean cold tap water heated up or water straight from the hot tap? Water from the hot tap is not usually recommended for drinking

Yes - this is what I've done. I am hoping it'll be fine. At the very least the long boil will have removed any bacteria and chlorine from the water. I have just poured myself a glass of hot water to taste-test (should have been done first I suppose). I will let it cool a bit first, of course. I thought I'd read that somone else (in the deuchars IPA thread perhaps?) had used hot tap water to start with. Now that I think of it, it was probably to preheat the mash tun.

Oh well - half the joy of this little batch is that it's cost next to nothing for both grain and equipment. I just hope that I haven't stuffed it up. I have a gut feeling that it'll be better than any food/drink I've ever made before though (And if not, the next batch will be)

Cheers,
Craig

[craigmarshall]

Good going... I'm doing small batches 12 litres is a nice amount which wills 20 Bottles about every two weeks with something different. I do feel a little bit precious about the beer though as there's never that much of any one sort!! Also the 15L FV is a nice size to carry around without straining!!!!

This is exactly my thought, I can keep doing regular brews, never pull a muscle, and I'm learning about brewing at exactly twice the rate, because I'm doing it twice as often. If it's an enjoyable process, it doesn't have to be too time-efficient!

I made a small Mash Tun too for this http://pdtnc.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/m ... se-bottom/

I saw that space-age mash tun and it is very cool.

I'm going to think quite hard before I acquire/accumulate any other bits and bobs, after last night, I'm close to thinking I need a wort chiller, but, I haven't tried the bath method yet with gallons more water. And I only put the ice on at a very late stage, which was no good - it had not formed so I couldn't use it. I will see how this beer comes out, that's the important thing for me. I don't mind skimping on equipment, but I'll start simple, and if I need to add something or some process to bring the quality up a notch, I always can on the next batch.

Cheers,
Craig

[Anavrin]

I had a go at trying to work out your mash efficiency but got a litle confused as you started with 14l of water and ended with 10l of water and the formula I have is as follows

(Water in l) x (Gravity) x (Plato/100) = x

Then (x / weight of matl used in KG) x 100 =?%

If I use 14l its 69%
If I use 10l its 49%

I have decided to go down the middle on 12l, may be completely wrong but here we go

12 x 1.042 x 0.105 = 1.32

(1.32 / 2.2) x 100 =59.6%

[Anavrin]

just had one final thought, did you aireate the wort as you transfered it to the FV, the boil drives off most of the oxegen from the liquid, I normally alow it to drop about 1meter from the tap on my boiler down into the FV and stir it up as it goes to ensure there is air in the liquid again.