1st attempt

[soupdragon]

Another update

The yeast cake was just that, yeast. No crap Smelled lovely too, if the brew turns out tasting anywhere like it then I'll be a happy bunny

Cheers Tom

[soupdragon]

The F.G. ended up at 1.009 so by my calculations with a S.G of 1.039 that should give me a beer of around 3.9 abv. That'll do nicely thank you, nice session beer Can't wait to try it............

Cheers Tom

[soupdragon]

Weeellll

I know it's still rather young but this looks as if it's going to turn out very well indeed. I thought that one of my earlier extract only beers tasted ok after only a week in the barrel but I now realise how far off the mark it really was compared to this. It has such a depth of flavour already and ( fingers crossed ) no hint of the pesky " flavour " that has plagued me for years...............
I'm not going to be totally convinced untill I've supped the barrel dry but this time I really feel as if I've cracked it
Time to celebrate with another beer I think

Cheers Tom

[Bribie]

Well done Tom and welcome to the dark side

Simple really, beer finishes fermenting
racked into cask and primed / fined
delivered to the pub by Shire Horses
Hurled down the trapdoor by Burly draymen.
Put on trestle by landlord then ignored for a few days
Strange things done to the spile hole

First sip to test readiness: nectar
Pumped up to bar: nectar

Sounds like you've hit it in one

[soupdragon]

Well done Tom and welcome to the dark side

Simple really, beer finishes fermenting
racked into cask and primed / fined
delivered to the pub by Shire Horses
Hurled down the trapdoor by Burly draymen.
Put on trestle by landlord then ignored for a few days
Strange things done to the spile hole

First sip to test readiness: nectar
Pumped up to bar: nectar

Sounds like you've hit it in one

He he he

Happy days

Cheers Tom

[minimag]

I've also done my first BIAB brew inspired from what I've read on here and other sites. Got myself a Buffalo boiler, did the thermostat move to allow a rolling boil, and got the ingredients to prepare a Kolsch, unfortunately without the Kolsh yeast (Supplier didnt supply them in time for my brewday). Never mind, I just tossed in an ale yeast. Must say, for all the guys who criticise the BIAB method, I would never had invested in a 3V system, so this made for a relatively cheap transition from kits.

The result was not bad at all (and this from a lager drinker who doesnt actually like ales). I put the beer into a cornie and carbonated it with sugar, drew off 2 pints to clear the sedimant, and took the keg round to my parents for Christmas with a picnic tap. When we left, my father (an ale drinker) suggested we leave the keg, and he would return it today. Well, I now have a keg less than half full, and would have been more so if he could get more out of the cornie without CO2! He has asked if I can do a Summer Lightning, so I will be searching for recipes, but first I have to try a lager. I have attached the keg to my CO2 and must say it has even improved over the last couple of days.

[soupdragon]

I've also done my first BIAB brew inspired from what I've read on here and other sites. Got myself a Buffalo boiler, did the thermostat move to allow a rolling boil, and got the ingredients to prepare a Kolsch, unfortunately without the Kolsh yeast (Supplier didnt supply them in time for my brewday). Never mind, I just tossed in an ale yeast. Must say, for all the guys who criticise the BIAB method, I would never had invested in a 3V system, so this made for a relatively cheap transition from kits.

The result was not bad at all (and this from a lager drinker who doesnt actually like ales). I put the beer into a cornie and carbonated it with sugar, drew off 2 pints to clear the sedimant, and took the keg round to my parents for Christmas with a picnic tap. When we left, my father (an ale drinker) suggested we leave the keg, and he would return it today. Well, I now have a keg less than half full, and would have been more so if he could get more out of the cornie without CO2! He has asked if I can do a Summer Lightning, so I will be searching for recipes, but first I have to try a lager. I have attached the keg to my CO2 and must say it has even improved over the last couple of days.

Hi minimag

How did you find the brew day? I used to try and replicate a bigger setup with plastic buckets as a lauter tun to drain the wort from the grain but I ended up making a right mess I was so impressed how easy my 1st BIAB went, so so easy and the brew has turned out very well I'm now rushing to empty my other barrel so I can get another brew on

Cheers Tom

[minimag]

Tom,

Brewday itself was good. It was all a bit daunting prior to getting the first one done, but I had written down a step to step guide for myself, and it all went well considering. It does mean that now I have my first under my belt I know what to expect for future brewdays. I now know that 35l boiling for 90 minutes generates a lot of steam, and that future brews are going to have to be done in the greenhouse or outdoors. Also the brewday was 5 hours from start to finish, so you do need a clear run at it (and an understanding wife)
I did hang the bag and drain it into a plastic bucket as you said, and it didnt make a mess at all, maybe you need a bigger bucket?

[soupdragon]

Tom,

Brewday itself was good. It was all a bit daunting prior to getting the first one done, but I had written down a step to step guide for myself, and it all went well considering. It does mean that now I have my first under my belt I know what to expect for future brewdays. I now know that 35l boiling for 90 minutes generates a lot of steam, and that future brews are going to have to be done in the greenhouse or outdoors. Also the brewday was 5 hours from start to finish, so you do need a clear run at it (and an understanding wife)
I did hang the bag and drain it into a plastic bucket as you said, and it didnt make a mess at all, maybe you need a bigger bucket?

Hi minimag

The mess I made was when I mashed with the more " normal " grain/liq ratio. One of my attempts I poured the lot into a double bucket home made lauter tun type thing. Problem was that I underestimated the volume involved and ended up spilling loads, the holes I'd drilled in the upper bucket blocked so I had to paddle the contents just to get some wort flowing. The same thing happened when I tried to sparge Next attempt wasn't much better. I used a large colander to drain the mash through before tipping the grain back into my stockpot to batch sparge. Similar problem though with the colander blocking so with both of those brews I ended up boiling with a ton of fine grain particles. On both occasions I tipped the cooled wort through the same colander but what little hop bed that had formed in the sieve soon blocked and ( again ) I ended up paddling the hops to one side to get the wort into the fermenter. Tons and tons of hot break got through as a result and that was where I was presuming my off flavour was coming from
Now with this 1st BIAB I've had no such problems, everything went without a hitch. The best thing for me was when I put the voile over my fermenter and saw all the break that it took out when I tipped the cooled wort The next good sign was how clean the yeast was when I racked into my barrel, previously I was having a good 1-2 inches of brown break material mixed in with the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter. With the BIAB it was so clean and smelt really lovely, the others smelled quite strongly of my off flavour.......
So apart from a lot less effort, this new method has saved me a lot of cleaning up and I'm now ( finally ) making beers that taste of BEER rather than some strange flavoured substance that I was drinking as beer
Bring on my next brew I say

Cheers Tom