Home Brew Forum

My second ever all-grain brew and I took pictures this time. I posted a full blog entry about it at http://www.stormcock.net/node/595 but here are some selected pictures. What I learned this time round is to watch my liquid levels more carefully (I ended up with too much wort. My digital thermometer was reading too high, after I managed to get steam into the sensor I think, so I reverted back to mercury-style and realised I had to add some more hot water to the mash. I then forgot to adjust for this during the batch spage). Anyway I think some of the pictures came out quite nicely, here are some:

My basic setup

The hop and grape mash tun. Works really nicely. I may try fly sparging some time just to use the nice perforated metal sheet that they included.

Mmm... malt...

Getting ready for the mash

First runnings

Still murky after a bit of re-cycling but I think this'll do

Draining off after the second batch.

Mmm... hops...

Nice rolling boil. And yes, I had too much wort!

Sterilising the cooler in the last 20 mins.

Cooling in progress, helped by one of our cats.

Running into fermenting vessel. I hope that the long drop with help with aeration.

I think this was around 1039. The recipe calls for 1042 but the wort was still quite hot at this point, and I had made too much of it, so not too bad.

Looks good enough to drink, but not just yet!

And a final arty shot of the hop strainer!

It's in the bin and fermenting now. I'm a little worried about the temperature at the moment as the house is quite hot, but we'll see.

Paul.

Looks a good one In fact nearly good enough to drink

Chris-x1 wrote:Well done. Just a word of caution, if that's dust from the grain on the tap, grain is full of lactobacillus bacteria. Boiler taps are best wiped down and given a spray with a no rinse sanitiser before use.

It is indeed - and many thanks for the tip.

Cracking photos
Your photos make it look a very organised affair, are they misleading? My last brewday took around 7 hours and left me feeling shattered.

Cheshire-cheese wrote: Your photos make it look a very organised affair, are they misleading? My last brewday took around 7 hours and left me feeling shattered.

The camera never lies!

Actually it does The brew day started at 10am and I was done by about 4.30pm I think. The first brew day I did, on one of the recent bank holidays, was a killer as I was so wound up with anticipation about it all. I thought this time round I'd be much more cool and calm about it all but I still was pacing the kitchen, checking and re-checking everything, re-reading the recipe... you get the idea. Still an immense amount of fun though!

That 'is' a very full FV looking good

pdtnc wrote:That 'is' a very full FV looking good

Just what I was going to say. I would probably fit a blow off tube and snap the lid closed. It could get messy.

Looking to do this one myself. Love TTL, looking forward to hearing about the results.

Chris-x1 wrote:Well done. Just a word of caution, if that's dust from the grain on the tap, grain is full of lactobacillus bacteria. Boiler taps are best wiped down and given a spray with a no rinse sanitiser before use.

Thanks for that one boss I shan't sleep tonight

btw, good blog Post
is that the Hop & Grape or leyland Home brew IC ?

Excellent pics...

Am I wrong in thinking I'd read somewhere its adviseable not to allow batch sparge wort to splash into the boiler (as seen here) as it will oxidise, i know the boil removes the oxygen but im a little confused, or doenst it matter?

First AG looming soon i hope.

escapizm wrote:Excellent pics...

Am I wrong in thinking I'd read somewhere its adviseable not to allow batch sparge wort to splash into the boiler (as seen here) as it will oxidise, i know the boil removes the oxygen but im a little confused, or doenst it matter?

First AG looming soon i hope.

It doesn't matter on small batches ie under 600L

pdtnc wrote: is that the Hop & Grape or leyland Home brew IC ?

I originally had wanted to order everything from H&G from their 10G brewery kit and their cooler (with birthday money), but just before I was going to order, the problem with the change of manufacture of the 10G bins came and they couldn't supply. I eventually ended up with the mash tun from H&G (along with another KingKeg) and the 33litre boiler and cooler from Leyland. The latter really impressed me with free postage and the kit turned up the next day so I'll be using them again. As has been mentioned elsewhere on the site, H&G are a little slower but I am very pleased with their mash tun and some day I will try fly sparging to make use of the metal cover sheet that they supply. It's just a shame they couldn't supply the large capacity boiler to me.

Paul.