First AG Day

[Western Brewer]

And we're off and running. Mash water heating, grain weighed out. About to check the water temp. Sort of Summer Lightning clone.
Keep your finger crossed for me.

[BlightyBrewer]

Best of luck WB...enjoy!

Don't forget the pics...we're a visual bunch on this forum.

[Western Brewer]

Ok Mashing is under way, ends at 13.40. sparge water heating in Burco. Going to try to boil in my Electrim but wonder if it's going to be man enough to get a rolling boil. Don't know about pictures very dodgy set up for sparging might get the HSE down on me. Not even sure if it's going to work! Should of done a test run using water. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I'll keep you posted if I can.

[Bigster]

Keep on going WB - my electrim boils like a good un so no reason why yours shouldn't - just takes a bit of time to get to boil. :rolleyes:

Also leave the lid off

[Western Brewer]

Hi again,
Sparge complete, took around 25 minutes. Currently waiting to see if the electrim will get to the boil. Have taken a couple of pictures so will post when I get time.
Bigster does your electrim keep turning on and off even when it hasn't got to boliing point yet or have I got a dodgy thermostat.
Smells right though. Better go and check again.

[Western Brewer]

Right, bit of a feeble boil from the electrim, may see if I can install a second element or better still get a bigger bin with 2 elements and no controller from Richard at Cheers. He uses both elements to get it to the boil then switches one of to keep the boil going. Not sure if this brew is going to come out well at all

[Bigster]

Hi WB

Good advice from daab about splitting the boil if you have to. I turn my electrim dial up to full wellie (9 I think ) and it just keeps on going...

Not sure how you bypass thermo though :huh:

[Western Brewer]

It suddenly seemed to wake up and get going. I see what the books mean about it 'kicking' for the first ten minutes or so after adding the first lot of hops, didn't really see that on the course. I think I put them in too early though. going to boil for 1 1/4 to make sure the boil is long enough so will be putting in the late hops around 14.25.
Still a bit hazy about seeing a hot break as well. Looked the same to me on the course
Then it's cooling time just tested the set up seems like it will work ok.
How do you guys sterilize the inside of the copper pipe in your counter-flows?

[BlightyBrewer]

I flush through with iodophor before connecting up, then after boil I run boiling wort through and put back in boiler for good measure (the latter is probably not necessary though).

[Western Brewer]

Cheers All,
Cooling as I write. Flow of wort very slow but imagine that's normal. Wort coming out nice and cool so pleased with it's performance. Thought I would have been finished by now, certainly is a long process even though most of it is waiting around. Hope the flow from the cooler doesn't stop altogether. I have hop strainer in place (Brupaks one, had to buy that).
Can you put the used grain in for composting BTW.
Update again later, pictures tomorrow I expect.

[Western Brewer]

Oh yes, nearly forgot. Why do we boil without the lid on, would it not prevent so much loss of wort due to evaporation?

[BlightyBrewer]

Yes, you can compost the grains, or feed to livestock (if you have livestock).

We boil with the lid off because certain "volatiles" are given off (from the hops I think?) during the boil, so if you left the lid on these would condense on the inside the lid and drop back into yor beer, producing off flavours.

[mysterio]

QUOTE We boil with the lid off because certain "volatiles" are given off (from the hops I think?) during the boil, so if you left the lid on these would condense on the inside the lid and drop back into yor beer, producing off flavours.

DMS (Dimethyl Sulphide?) from the malt, I think. Has a horrible smell. Although, I boiled my first batch with the lid on and didnt notice any in the beer.

[Western Brewer]

Thanks for those replies knew there must be a reason.
Ok! Nearly done now. Taken a Hydrometer reading which is 1054@23c. my hydrometer is calibrated to read at 20c. The correction table sez @ 25c to add 0.001 so guess mine with a 2 degree difference it there won't be much difference. Any thoughts on the OG?
Mark

[BlightyBrewer]

QUOTE (mysterio @ Aug 6 2006, 03:19 PM)  Although, I boiled my first batch with the lid on and didnt notice any in the beer.
Maybe it's another one of those "brewer's myths" like hot-side aeration?