Summer Lightning (with photos)

[JamesH]

With some time in lieu on Thursday I decided to have my first brew day for a few months. I made a Summer Lightning (GW recipe).

The brew went pretty smoothly and I was impressed with the hop strainer I made from a splatter guard. Judging by the smells coming from the FV now, having the hops boiling freely has helped get more flavour out of them. The only disappointment was that the final brew length was four litres short but, thanks to a few posters here, I should be able to remedy that in my next brews.

So, here are the photos. I'll add one of the final pint once it's ready.

I'm a relative newbie to this so let me know if anything in the photos looks iffy.

Grist - pure pale malt


Hop strainer - pretty impressed with how it worked


Steamy Mash Tun


Hops at the ready


Initial Runnings


Grain bed post mash (forgot to take photo at start of mash)


Sparge Arm - works a treat


Sparge setup


Beautiful Burco


Coming to the boil


Bittering hops get rolling


Late hops


Wort chiller - did the job in 25 minutes


Nottingham at the ready


OG = 1.048 (you'll have to take my word for it)


Cooled wort into the FV


Trub Gubbings


Ready to ferment

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice work

[StrangeBrew]

Smooth brew!

...but where's the pic of the boil over?

[6470zzy]

Nice range hood!

Cheers

[homer brew]

im new to AG and made summer lightning for my first go tuesday before last, smelt really weard when fermenting
All bottled and tried some last night and i was well impressed , supposed to be ready for crimbo but is already pretty clear.
i hope yours is as good as mine

[JamesH]

Well the camera wasn't the first thing to cross my mind when I saw the boil over!

Hope it turns out as good as it smells. Checked the temperature a couple of times and the fishtank heater seems to be keeping it stable, which is nice, although it is fairly high at 23 degrees. I was thinking of turning it down until it reached 19 degrees but maybe it would be better to keep it constant and adjust the temperature for the next brew.