First All Grain - Sunday Jan 13th (hopefully)

Had a good one? Tell us about it here - and don't forget - we like pictures!
oblivious

Post by oblivious » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:30 pm

prolix wrote:the 13th is the anniversary of my first brew last year, things I try to remember now are

check the taps are shut
clean before the boil sanitised after
check the taps are shut
weights nad measures don't need to be exactly spot on so relax
check the taps are shut
ensure you have something nice to drink
check the taps are shut
make sure grain filter and hop filters are in place
check the taps are shut
clean up whilst the boil is on
check the taps are shut
take loads of photos to put on here
check the taps are shut
Drink the nice drink

the rest as what DaaB said.

did I mention check the taps are shut? :twisted:
Its also the anniversary of my first all grain :D

Still got two bottle of the imperial porter left

Hoppopotamus

Post by Hoppopotamus » Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:40 am

Thanks a lot for all the advice.

Based on the advice given my revised "instructions" are as follows:

NIGHT BEFORE
Get all equipment out and check it is all there and in working order.


MASH
1) Add a crushed camden tablet to 30 litres of water in a spare fermentation bucket and stir - this will be the source of all water for my brew. In future I might want to consider adding 8-10g gypsum, but I don't have any at the moment.

2) Preheat mash tun by adding a couple of litres of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, give it a swirl, and empty it.

3) Add 10 litres of water to mash tun @72C

4) Add all the grains and "dough in."

5) Check mash temp is between 66-67C.

6) Fit lid.

7) Check temperature after 20 mins and add hot water as required. Refit lid and leave for a further 40 minutes

8) Stir mash and take temperature - hope it is OK.


SPARGE
1) Recirculate first runnings into mash tun.

2) Run the rest of the wort into the boiler but stop before grains in mash tun settle and compact...they should always remain floating, keep a few mm of water above the grains.

3) Cover grains with fine mesh.

4) Slowly pour water at 80-85C over grains and collect runnings in boiler. Stop when a sample of the runnings is 1006, see equipment section for temperature correction graph.


BOIL
1) Switch on boiler.

2) Once boil has started and the vigerous foam has subsided add bittering hops (50g Goldings)

3) 45 mins into the boil add flavour hops (20g Goldings)

4) 55 mins add whirlfloc tablet.

5) 1 hour add aroma hops (14g Goldings) and switch off boiler.

6) Cool wort - using immersion chiller.

7) Open boiler tap and let wort flow into fermentation bucket. Aerate and pitch yeast.


If I don't manage to get the immersion chiller working my next best option is to wait until the wort has cooled enough to safely run it int the fermenter, put a sterilised lid on the fermenter and leave it outside overnight before pitching the yeast.

I'm still not quite sure about how much water I use to sparge. Do I just sparge until the OG of the runnings falls to 1006 and let that determine the amount of wort that I collect. I'm aiming for a 25 litre batch, but I could end up with 20 or 30 litres depending on the efficiency of the mash?

SiHoltye

Post by SiHoltye » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:11 pm

I'm not suggesting you would but make sure you don't turn on the power to your boiler elements (obviously if electric) before there are submerged by the incoming wort. Have fun!

Hoppopotamus

Post by Hoppopotamus » Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:28 pm

I've done the brew and its in the fermenter - sorry no pictures this time as it was hard enough concentrating on getting everything right.

Main lessons are:

1) Get a digital thermometer - the one I have with the red liquid takes ages to respond - although it's probably a lot safer than the mercury ones I'm used to
2) Get a measuring cylinder to do OG readings in - I couldn't do any reading of my runnings as I didn't have any tall enough glasses.

After sparging I ended up with 31 litres of wort at approx 1033.5 (difficult to know as I couldn't read the hydrometer properly due to foam.

Boiling went fine, but the hose came off the immersion chiller during cooling and I estimate that approx 1 litre of tap water got into the wort. I'm hoping that the campden tablet I added at the beginning will neutralise any chlorine, but I'm still a bit worried about contamination.

I tried to measure the OG after cooling when the wort was in the fermenter (25 litres) but it was virtually impossible due to the foam. I don't think it was very high though - I'm estimating about 1033.

In other respects it wasn't as difficult as I'd expected. I'll probably find time to have another go in about a months time.

Buzz

Post by Buzz » Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:58 pm

Well done Hoppo. It's amazing how much you learn during your first AG. My first came out about 1035 and I got tap water into the wort during cooling too!

It ended up drinkable but not very strong but, armed with all that info I went on to make a London Pride on my next brew and it was a corker. Not looked back since :D

BrewStew

Post by BrewStew » Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:22 pm

congrats hoppo!

one thing i noted missing from your revised plan of action (although don't worry as i forgot on my 2nd brew and it's fine) is to drop in the IC 15 mins before the end of the boil to sanitise it.

looks like it should be drinkable :) and I wouldn't worry about the tap water, that little amount of water in that volume of wort shouldn't make much of a difference, you may have lost a little gravity, but i wouldn't worry about the chlorine/chloramines.

welcome to the dark side =D> =D> =D>

SteveD

Post by SteveD » Sun Jan 13, 2008 5:10 pm

Hope it's going well :) You'll be knackered by now. All the above advice is as sound as a pound. Re cooling, if you can't get the immersion chiller working, rather than cooling down outside overnight, fill your bath with cold water to about wort line, and put your fermenter of wort in there. Every now and again agitate the wort, and the bath water (NOT WITH THE SAME PADDLE!!) and you'll find it will cool fast enough to be worth it, particularly if your hot wort volume is less than your final brew length volume (total ammount of beer you want to ferment), then top it up to your final volume after it's cooled. Make sure you have treated any top up water you use to remove chlorine, or you might end up with TCP in your beer.

Also, make sure the fermenter isn't floating! I did a brew once and the FV was floating. I went and had dinner, came back to find it inverted in the water. Fortunately I'd snapped the lid on, and as far as I could tell, hadn't lost wort or gained bathwater. The beer didn't taste any worse for it, but I shat my pants for a second! :oops: :lol: The beer was named Bathtub Bitter, of course.


aahh a bit late.....

If in doubt about the chlorine another campden tab in the wort won't hurt.

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Post by Horden Hillbilly » Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:12 pm

Well done hoppo, nice to see that it went ok for you & you have obviously learned a lot from your first brewday, well done!

I bet you can't wait to try the finished brew, then you will know why there are so many ag fans on this forum! 8)

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Post by iowalad » Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:48 pm

Nice one! 1st AGs seem to be catching this weekend.

roger the dog

Post by roger the dog » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:37 pm

Good work Hoppo, looks like a successful day, I'm looking forward to your next AG - complete with pictures !

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