What a glorious feeling, I'm brewing again

[notassuch]

Good Lord, it seems like such a long time.
No sooner had I started AG brewing when everything came to a grinding halt.
I hang my head in shame in the presence of the likes of Wez, who started AG brewing at around
the same time that I did, but probably has around two-dozen brews on the go.

My only excuse is that I set myself several goals regarding equipment before I brewed again.
Following the advice of you guys and gals, I've got myself a spinny sparger, a second element for
my boiler (courtesy of Tesco's £4.88 cordless kettle) and control of the pH of the mash.

Also pictured below is a water filter, which I'm hoping filters out my tap water nasties, a hop strainer
which I foolishly started brewing without, and an aquarium heater. (which admittedly I'm not actually
using for this particular brew.





So, I'm brewing Wheeler's TTL clone for this one. Not that I'm expecting to perfectly recreate Timmy's
drop of sheer heaven, but more to approximate a brew that I've been completely hooked on for
months.

Another bit of advice I followed is that the grain is the cheapest part of the brewing set up, and after the
disappointing yealds of my last couple of brews, I stuck a whole 5kg of Golden Promise into an intended
23L brew length. This really seemed to pay off as I sparged down to 1006 and collected 35L of lovely wort.

But now the cock-ups, where theory and practise divide.
I completely misunderestimated [Bush-ism] the loss of volume to evaporation and also the
retention/displacement of the hops in the boil.
Basically, I collected a pitiful 20L of post-boil yummies, still with a good 5-8L of unboiled wort in another
bucket. That plus leaving the FV tap open as I ran off the boiler meant a pretty poor show indeed!

So, I can certainly identify and (hopefully) fix the obvious balls ups.
One thing that is concerning me, and one that I'd really appreciate advice on, is the consistancy of my
post-boil brew.
My final photo above is of my post-boil, post-chilled wort. And as you can probably tell, it's exceptionally
soupy. There seemed to be a very high volume of protein floating around in there that didn't sink to the
bottom with chilling or fining.
Indeed, this seemed to affect the chilling. It took an absolute age to get anywhere near 20C with my
immersion chiller.
The majority of this seems to have been caught in the hop-bed when I ran off, but there are certainly
some rather huge chunks of strange alien matter floating in my FV right now.

The upside of all of this is that, when I stuck my head in the FV to skim the krausen, it smelled
very encouraging indeed!

Again, I have to thank you JBK-ers for all of your knowledge. Seriously, this is the primary resource I'm
using to learn brewing and I'm having such a fun time in doing so.

All the best,

Dave.

[wooyay]

I completely misunderestimated [Bush-ism] the loss of volume to evaporation and also the retention/displacement of the hops in the boil.
Basically, I collected a pitiful 20L of post-boil yummies, still with a good 5 8L of unboiled wort in another bucket.

This is something that you get used to with practice. My first full scale AG attempt was aiming for 20L post boil, but I ended up with 16L. My second go was better, and my third better still. Hops absorb much more than I originally gave them credit for.

My final photo above is of my post-boil, post-chilled wort. And as you can probably tell, it's exceptionally soupy. There seemed to be a very high volume of protein floating around in there that didn't sink to the bottom with chilling or fining.
Indeed, this seemed to affect the chilling. It took an absolute age to get anywhere near 20C with my immersion chiller.

I know what you mean, I've had similar in the past. I used a Whirlfloc tablet on my last brewday and I've never seen a cooled wort look so clear before. Irish Moss (in my experience) often leaves a lot of break material floating around on the top, but should be filtered by the hops. My H&G immersion also isn't the fastest, taking about an hour to cool 20L or so. I've found a way to raise it higher in the kettle which I'll do properly next time, but I may also have a go at recirculating the wort whilst it's chilling to see if that helps speed things up.

Looks like you had a good day though, and I'm sure you'll enjoy drinking it in a few weeks.

[steve_flack]

I think brewing wanes off and on.

I've been brewing for around ten years now. Once I got it sorted and was making decent beer I went made buying stuff and had everything. My interest then waned and I got rid of a lot of stuff (although I still kept brewing). Now I'm really back into it again (and have spent another sh*tload of cash!)

[UserDeleted]

28% evaporation per hour! In the ideal world you should be aiming for 10-12%, so the first thing I would say is to get some sort of power regulator on one of your elements. Use both to achieve the boil then switch one off and use the other regulated to control evaporation, If you don't get a good rolling boil then insulate the boiler, and leave the lid partially on

Given the thermal loading that the brew has I'm surprised that the run off isn't crystal clear, but then Golden Promise can be like that.

Hop retention is something in the order of 15L per Kg OTTOMH.

IC's work best if they are gently 'jiggled' in the wort, which helps prevent stratification building up. I'm thinking of adding an IC to the boilers to chill the wort to 70C during the recirculation phase, and then to use the Plate chiller to chill the wort. (DIsappointed with the PC as I could only get 26-29C at quite slow flows, but if I can pre chill I should be able to get to pitching temps.)

HTH

[steve_flack]

Here's one method to get an IC to work quicker but you'll need a pump.

http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

You can also do this by stirring but it's rather less effective. I do something similar using a CFC and get 20L to pitching in 10-15 minutes.

ICs should have most of the coils near the top of the wort and fewer at the bottom - why? Because cold wort sinks and there's no point cooling cold wort. You need the coils at the top to cool the hot wort.

[notassuch]

Thanks for the further tips and comments.
I'll definitely be taking it all on board, and the WIC looks fascinating. Could well be my next "Make."

Should be brewing again this week, so I'll have to see if the protein goblins return.

Thanks all.

[notassuch]

Oh BTW.... I completely forgot.

The new hop strainer was installed using the drilling-out-the-tap-to-15mm technique to accommodate the copper pipe.

Just to reassure those who are as DIY-phobic as I am that it's really not a big deal at all.
I just took it nice and slow, and Robert's your father's brother. Nothing to worry about.

[Wez]

I hang my head in shame in the presence of the likes of Wez, who started AG brewing at around
the same time that I did, but probably has around two-dozen brews on the go.

now thats an exaggeration, then again i've just counted them though....9 25L batches since the start of April

All the best....hic!

[AT]

I hang my head in shame in the presence of the likes of Wez, who started AG brewing at around
the same time that I did, but probably has around two-dozen brews on the go.

now thats an exaggeration, then again i've just counted them though....9 25L batches since the start of April

All the best....hic!

You don't have to brew as much as Wez, he has the bug bad

I started the same day as Wez and i only have 4 brews done although it it wasn't for the love (crying) of my better (nastier) half i'd imagine i'd have a few more done. I'm sure you'll catch up on Wez once you get cracking

Best of luck with your brew i hope it's a good un

[Wez]

Can I just point out that 5 of the 9 are still kegged, only drank 4 of them so far! I'm making the most of it before Mini Wez Mk II arrives in October, you'll catch up then!

[AT]

Can I just point out that 5 of the 9 are still kegged, only drank 4 of them so far! I'm making the most of it before Mini Wez Mk II arrives in October, you'll catch up then!

See just like i said he has it real bad

[Chiltern Brewer]

Remember lads, its quality not quantity... but then I've only made one brew so far this year.

[Vossy1]

Remember lads, its quality not quantity

I want both

[Chiltern Brewer]

Remember lads, its quality not quantity

I want both

BTW, how's the latest haze Vossy?

[Wez]

Remember lads, its quality not quantity

I want both

BTW, how's the latest haze Vossy?

now that's low