Home Brew Forum

After helping the missus with her wine and a few beers later I decided to fire up the furnace and do my first AG..

I've taken a few pictures but to be honest I was trying to concentrate on making it smooth and not wanting to miss anything.

I have made a big mistake however with hindsight and I'll let you know about that laters.

So, grain weighed and temp taken I fires up the boiler with the beer engine suggested mash liquor of 9l... I have 1l of dead space so put 10 in...; 10 mins later we're ready to fill the MT.. After 5 mins and a check reading of 73Deg I drop the grain in and start mixing.... everything evens out at 67Deg which I'm happy with as I'll be doing a 90 min mash as per GW's Pendle Witches Brew... We're mashin...

I give it 30 mins of fannying about, looking busy wearing a stopwatch, LOL and because I hadn't tried the burner out before I thought I'd give it an hour to boil my sparge water/liquor..

This is where I've made a boo boo... Recipie calls for Mash Liquor of 9L, Total liquor 27L; SO I TOOK THE 9 I ALREADY USED AWAY FROM THE 27 LEAVING 18... Which I put 19 in as I have 1L dead space..

Anyways...

Mash is done, recycled 4 times, wort running clean, done first runnings into a ferm.... started the HLT on sparge (fly) at 77 Deg and away we go with 19L of sparge/9l of Mash liquor.... I eventually collected 25L of wort for boiling which I thought would be about right for a 19L batch.. .WRONG!

Boil on, hops and sugar added, 90 mins tick tock tick tock... 15 mins to go, Irish moss and IC added.

90mins up, flame off, chiller on, hose clamp off and steam everywhere, LOL... Forgot to open the spray end of the hose.. .DOH

Chilled brilliantly in about 10 mins, decanted into fermentor... damn hop strainer came off in the drum; managed to get it back on due to the low temp... but that was my 3 murphy's.!!!

I ended up with 10L in the FV with Gravity reading of 1064... so added 5L of water; not sure how that will turn out but there you go...

Conclusion....

Great enjoyment, a real science lesson and the smells... wow...

Converted already even though there were a few hiccups ( of which I won't make again) Lessons learnt.. Total liqor and mash liquor are completely seperate ( I was 9L missing from my output because of this)

Will order another load of grain and get to it with another..

Great fun, easier than I thought, but just want to get slicker and get it 100% next time...

So for the pics


















And a well deserved beer!!

P.S There were a lot of suspended matter in the trial jar, what was that??

Cheers

Rick

nice one Rick, you've popped your AG cherry,

I made the same mistake on my first AG, ended up with 18litres for a 23litre brew, don't worry, you'll have it cracked next time round

the suspended stuff in the trial jar is coagulated protein, this is good and that's what the Irish moss does, the larger bits make less likely to end up in your fv and your finished beer, giving a clearer pint.

Garth wrote:nice one Rick, you've popped your AG cherry,

I made the same mistake on my first AG, ended up with 18litres for a 23litre brew, don't worry, you'll have it cracked next time round

the suspended stuff in the trial jar is coagulated protein, this is good and that's what the Irish moss does, the larger bits make less likely to end up in your fv and your finished beer, giving a clearer pint.

Yes mate I have

I used Barley Bottom for grain and am happy with cost/service but shipping was around £8.. I've contacted a local MicroBrewery so am hoping for a local source where I can collect...

All in all, this brew cost £12ish, ok so I messed up the brew length, but learnt a lot

Hope it tastes as good as it smells.... As I've said, I'm hooked now..

Oh... started at 1530hrs, finished at 2000hrs including clean up... so set aside half a day newbs, LOL

hi rick_huggins,

well done on your brew day you will look for the mistakes that you made for your next brew, things can only get better

whats the burner your using





hows them seals coming on

I've got one of them out for ya... nearly stabbed myself in the leg too many times to remember trying to get the others out.. Will persevere today mate, I haven't forgot you; just been more focused on finishing the brewery and doing an AG..

I gave up on the DIY burner and went for a big foker http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/L ... _Ring.html

Stand by

hi rick

looks like a good burner mate

so does the barrel sit firmly on the burner, about how long did it take to come to the boil

I use a propane burner with the barrel standing on fire bricks, I always have the fear of the bricks exploding with the heat that is generated buy the burner and spilling my lovely wort

Also, for all you guys using gas on converted kegs, please check that if the base of the keg has a rolled lip then there are ventilation holes drilled in the lip.

Otherwise the lip can explode (trapped air inside expands) and send shrapnel flying..

Well done on first AG.That's it you are hooked now, and by sheer luck you have answered the post I popped on the Brewing Equipment forum this morning regarding Ally Kegs as boilers. I wasn't sure whether the kegs would withstand the heat from a gas ring and I considered fitting an electric element. At least I now know I have the option of gas.
Mmmm, all those pics reminded me, I have a few gallons of Deuchars IPA in the chiller. Sorry, got to go....

"If at first you don't succeed, brew, brew and brew again"

Well done there Rick! Wait until you taste your 1st matured ag brew, then you will know why there are so many ag brewers on the forum. Hope you don't mind me moving this to the brewdays section.

The burner took about 10 mins for 10l and 20 mins for 25l of wort etc... It may be how I have it set but didn't want to go crazy and either run out of gas or melt my copper.

The buner actually fits inside the lip (which has vent holes) i.e if you lift the keg up, the burner comes with you... now that's stable!
Infact you need to disasemble the legs to remove the burner..

I will raise it off the floor next time to improve syphon effect and to take some heat away from my concrete floor.

Got a nice head on the pancake now and a lot of the suspended clumps are dropping down to trub land..

Happy days, summer lightning next...

Where can I get cheap Maris otter in ton bags then?

excellent stuff

rick_huggins wrote:The burner took about 10 mins for 10l and 20 mins for 25l of wort etc... It may be how I have it set but didn't want to go crazy and either run out of gas or melt my copper.

The buner actually fits inside the lip (which has vent holes) i.e if you lift the keg up, the burner comes with you... now that's stable!
Infact you need to disasemble the legs to remove the burner..

I will raise it off the floor next time to improve syphon effect and to take some heat away from my concrete floor.

Got a nice head on the pancake now and a lot of the suspended clumps are dropping down to trub land..

Happy days, summer lightning next...

Where can I get cheap Maris otter in ton bags then?

man thats a fast boil up

I'm deffo going to buy one of those burners