Apologies for the long-winded post, trying to document this first AG brew in as much detal as possible. All criticism greatfully received.
Brewed 5 kits since the summer, all ok but but keen to get onto AG asap. Went on the Practical Mashing course in September run by Richard Burns of Cheers (looks like another one coming up in Apri, highly recommended - http://www.cheerswinemakingandbrewing.co.uk/evmash.html ). Anyone on this forum go to the Sept '10 one?
The beer we made on that course is one of Richard's recipes called Old Scout, on account of the mashing course being run in the Old Scout Hut in Sutton. He says it is a beer that is virtually impossible to get wrong, so sounds right for me. Richard has been a big help since the beginning, so pleased to make one of his brews AG#1.
I was winging this a bit, not properly prepared at all, some aspects ignored for this brew, just wanted to have a crack at the main parts and had a window of opportunity. I plugged the recipe into Beer Engine and got the following;
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 9 lbs. 14.6 oz 4500 grams 91.8%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 2%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 2%
Sugar, Household White 0 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 4.1%
Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Styrian Goldings Whole 4.5 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 2.1 oz 60 grams 54.5%
Styrian Goldings Whole 4.5 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 45.5%
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 33 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 40.5753872372031 EBU
Colour: 46 EBC
Grains
Some hops;
Bar a campden tablet, I pretty much ignored water treatment for this brew. I know this needs to be addressed for AG#2, according to my water co hardness is 212.5 mg/l CaCO3 and 85 mg/l Ca, and Residual Disinfectant mean <0.16. I meant to add a teaspoon of Gypsom to the mash and the boil, but forgot the mash one so dicthed the boil one too. Not a great deal of thought to the gypsom bit anyway tbh.
Measured dead space in Lidl HLT is 1.8ltrs, 1.8ltrs in MT. Incidently anyone find those Lidl boilers give off a burnt-plastic smell? Anyway filled HLT with 13.6l of water, crushed 1/3 Campden tablet and added, switched on at 5.15pm, water started at 8.1c! Subsequent temp readings were 5.35pm 32c, 6.05pm 59.9c, 6.35pm 77.5c. Had planned to wait until water was at 80c but settled at 77.5c. At 6.28pm Swilled a kettle's worth of boiling water around the mashtun and then my own hand, got away with just a red hand for an hour.
Water let into MT, was 73.5c when in. Chucked the grain in and gave a good stir. Temp reading for start of mash was 66.2c, happy with that. 6.52pm mash begins
Grain in;
Temp at beginning of Mash
Temp at end of mash - gone up ?!?!
Added a futher 21.2ltrs to the Lidl stinker for sparging, 2/3 Campden tablet crushed in. I have read plenty of people's brewdays and about taps getting left open, thought I would defo avoid this. Amazingly I left the HLT tap at the first opportunity of my first AG brew! A few sacrificial teatowels later and was back on track. Sparge water temp progress 7pm 11.4c, 7.40pm 40.5c, 8.16pm 59.9c.
8.22pm end of 90min mash, took temp, and it was 66.5c!!! Is this possible, is the mash exothermic? The tun was placed next to a rediator for help, though not right up against it. You can see from the pic that the mash looks fairly dry, so water covering the grains.
Now I do own a H&G sparge arm, but had not yet worked out how to attach the 15mm connector to this with the Lidl tap, plus don't have the hight stages worked out yet. I only finished connecting up the immersion cooler a couple of hours previously, so the sparge arm would have to wait. Improvised using tin foil with holes, but this didn't work especially well so ended up just running the water at about 75c straight into the MT, running into boiler at the same time. about 4ltrs of first runings rejugged first. Sparging was quite quick, maybe 20mins, collected 28ltr at 1049 at 21c. carried the boiler to the shed (prob most worrying point). I am exposed on the boiler, just a single element, if this went the brewday would be over. Boil began at 9.50, 60g hops in, at 11.05 more hops, plus the sugar, plus 1.5teapsoons of Irish Moss. Cooler in at 11.15pm for 5mins to sterlise, then boiler switched off at 11.20pm. Chiller turned on 11.25, and took only 18mins to get down to 22c.
First running - gravy
Sparging
Initial hops at beginning of boil
Nice rolling boil
Steam shed
15min hops
Cooler in
is this hot break?
I didn't see any cold break gunk, why would this be?
into FV
Greedy beer thief hops;
Nicely airated
Dry pitch Safale S-04
Good night beer
21.5ltrs collected, OG 1056 at 17.4c. Safale S-04 Yeast finally pitched at 12.05pm (another area to re-visit). Touch wood, but all in all this went much better than I had hoped, I am amazed I have pulled it off with such little preparation. Fingers corssed I haven't created vinegar
At 9pm the following day, there is a good yeast head in the FV, bubbler is ticking away nicely too, seems to be going to plan thus far...
Again all comments and criticisms gratefully received. Thanks
Lewy
Welcome to the enjoyable, rewarding hobby that is All Grain Brewing 
I like the idea of the brewing course you went on, it''s a shame there is not more available around the country.
