Home Brew Forum

I'm having a go at my first grain brew tomorrow, doing a mini mash using this recipe minimash clicky but i'm going to double everything up and use my coolbox mash tun and 8.5" sparge arm for the first time rather than using the oven and batch sparging, hoping for >9L at the end, will boil in a massive stock pot. Any last advice for a first-timer? Wish me luck i'll update as i go along!!!

i've had a shocker today, the only advice i'd give is pay more attention to it than i did, although with the insulated mash tun you shouldn't have the problems i did, and dont forget to put in the hops!!

good luck for tomorrow

Good luck Wez

And we're off!!! My first ever mash is underway, grains added to MT temperature dropped from 72 to 64 it's now wrapped up in a quilt doing it's thing.

have a good one wez.

Good work Wez
Enjoy the rest of the day

Cheers guy's just checked the temp 30 mins in and it's stayed steady. Well happy with the mash tun

go for it Wez, stay cool and have a great brewday

Goog luck with it Wez and keep us updated through the day!

Sparging now looking good!!!

11L collected, boil started.

Well the wort finally came up to the boil at 12:30, thats when i added the first hops. So it'll be finished by 2pm. One question, is there any harm in putting the lid on my stock pot to save evaporation?

Wez wrote:Well the wort finally came up to the boil at 12:30, thats when i added the first hops. So it'll be finished by 2pm. One question, is there any harm in putting the lid on my stock pot to save evaporation?

Yes the lid needs to be off during the boil. There are some nasty tasting volatiles that are driven off during the boil, you don't want these condensing on the lid and dripping back into the wort.

Phew, good, glad i left it off then. What should i do with the 'scum' that floats around on the top?

MAN! I just smelt irish moss for the first time.......it smells like the bottom of a fish tank! WTF is that stuff????