First AG - 6X - by 3B's brewery

[likesbeer]

First of all to see a bit on the brewery build see link
This is my first attempt at AG have done a few kits progressed to extract and have ended up at this point including building a shed to do it in.
The brew is from Grahams book and is a Wadworth 6X, as I thought there would be enough going on and enough to go wrong I followed the recipe exactly to the letter, so if its rubbish I'll blame Graham
But I know its not going to be as its finished fermenting and sat in a secondary under airlock waiting to clear before going to a cornie and it would have been rude not to try it plus you cant put the sample back in could cause an infection. It tasted great
Getting ahead of myself arent I, so to the beggining,

Measuring out ingredients and heating mash water all was good apart from the thermostat bit doesnt allow the water to get hot enough so I junked it put an external stat on and used it more like an on off switch. Improvements needed are built in thermometer and something to get the water to move about a bit as it layers really badly. At one point it was 60 at the top and 35 at the bottom!
I also messed up the strike temp a little with all the messing about heating the water, I didnt warm the tun properly and after all the grain I was down at about 63 ish so added some boiling water and got it up to 66 (is that a bit cold?) something to get right next time!

Under the steam thats the mash going on, all was fine with that it really kept the heat well hardly lost anything in 90 mins.
Sparging is difficult to show you can see the arm in the above pic and it worked a treat. Again this might have been at a lower temp than intended ~75 instead of 80, will that make a big difference?

First runnings (I think thats what their called anyway, first wort from the tun) gently added back to the top and then run off to the boiler I was surprised how clear it was and the smell was to die for.

Looking good in the boiler there is a screen over the elements and home made slotted copper manifold for the filter it works really well. I opened both the inlet for sparge water and the tun out let about the same for a fairly slow trickle, however I was surprised that this part was fairly quick and how clear the wort was. I started with ~11l mash liquer and sparged with about 25l ish. As the last bit was coming from the tun I measured the gracity and was getting ~996 with it being hot I was adding 010 therefore at the rough 1006 to 8 that I should stop at. I tasted as well at that point at it was fairly watery so stopped it. Not sure total amount of wort that I got as havent calibrated the boiler any suggestions for a level indicator would be appreciated, otherwise I'll make a dip stick. I ran the rest of what was left in the tun into a buck for chucking and very quickly it went all cloudy so I reckon it was timed about right plus not much left in the tun anyway.

I was amazed that at this point the colour looks pretty good very much like 6X

To the boil

Again many thanks to befuggled for the donation it works fantastically well it gets to a rolling boil really quickly.




Spent grains just before getting binned, any suggestions on what to do with spent grain? Is it any good as compost?


Wobbly copper coil made from 10mm, planning to drill the side of the boiler to fix a little better ut for now dropping in is fine


Cooling a not to shabby 15 to 20 mins down to ~30C however not sure I saw a cold break but I might have issed it and dont know what I'm looking for, plus was watering the veggies with quite warm cooling water ;o) it worked a treat.



Last little bit running off into the bucket getting tested and having yeasty added. I ended up about a litre or so short and slightly stronger than intended so I added the missing water and came in spot on 1.046 (I think, notes are at the other end of the garden so not checking now), not really sure why I ended up with slightly to little water any suggestions?

Last pic

Tucked up in bed waiting for yeast to do its job, next to it is the previous weeks (last) extract brew in a secondary waiting to clear before going into a cornie, I was planning to leave for 2 weeks before dropping into the cornie does that sound about right? I covered with CO2 before popping the airlock in as well.
Your comments appreciated as alwasy.
Cheers
I think thats all but ask if I've missed something.

[trucker5774]

That looks like a pretty good start If you want to strengthen the coil just solder the pipe to itself as it passes down the side of the coil. You can then just solder an off cut to mirror it on the other side

[Naich]

Excellent. Congratulations on a smooth brewday. A mash temp of 66C is fine and I'm pretty sure that a sparge temp of 75 is fine too. As for spent grain, stick an "offered" for it on Freecycle and someone who keeps chickens will probably be in touch. I found someone through Freecycle who's son keeps chickens and he picks mine up after every brew day.

I'm very jealous of your shed, by the way. I wish I had one to brew in. Let us know how the beer turns out - I fancy doing Graham's 6X myself.

[boingy]

Spent grain will also compost really well or you might be able to swap it for some sausages at a local pig farm!

[likesbeer]

sausage for spent grain I'm on the look out for that ;o)

[likesbeer]

Forgot to add the FG was ~1008 (target 1009) which is about the lowest I've ever managed most of my extract stuff seemed to give up around 1012 ish.
Any ideas on why I ended with to little water with roughly the required 36l put through the mash either initially or during sparge and how to compensate for future brews? I expect it means I'm getting a lot of loss in the boil, because my dead spaces are very small.