First AG tonight 03/04/08 - Kegged 15/04/08

[Aleman]

but there are huge sponge like structures hanging below the surfaces like sad amputated hands from manky cuddly toys.

You'll find that that is just break material that is sat at the surface cause its trapped CO2 which makes it buoyant. as the ferment goes on it gets carried up into thte yeast cap, so just skim it when it forms and another cap will form fairly quickly which should be a lot cleaner.

[fivetide]

Okay will do.

Thanks for all the really nice posts on this thread by the way - it was great fun last night running from a rolling boiler to the website and back and reading all the messages!

I'll persevere with this and see how it goes - it was so close to being very cool indeed. Any more interesting disasters or strange formations and I'll be sure to shout about 'em. Cheers.

[buzzrtbi]

I don't think it will be okay, to be honest. I came down this morning and it's just beginning to ferment, but there are huge sponge like structures hanging below the surfaces like sad amputated hands from manky cuddly toys.
.

Well Dr Frankenstein looks like you created a monster last night

only joking - it will be all good give it time skim off the crud.

[Andy]

As aleman said, the sponge stuff is normal - it's break material.

Well done on your first brew!

[thesaintv12]

Everyone has bad moments like this. I did my first AG after too many beers and made just about every error possible. Beer still turned out well though.

Did you discover the fault in your tap?

Where did you get the shelving from? I want to build a set up similar to yours (return to AG after long break).

[fivetide]

I got my shelving from eBay but a lot of it comes from a guy called BigDug apparently! Cutting the shelves short and putting little sides on to allow the different brewing elements to slide worked really well. I only had it set up with every tier for brief periods and removed the MT entirely when its job was done. I recommend getting a 5L heat resistant enclosed jug with a spout too as I found this very handy for a few jobs.

I am going to make some changes before I do it again, notable cutting new water-resitant shelve pieces and putting a wider bore proper lever tap on the boiler with a more rugged hop strainer. And other things, grumble, moan...

Can't photograph the hanging tendrils inside the fermenter but they are just much bigger versions of this stuff:


The thing itself is just sitting there resting after it's difficult night, airlock just starting to blub. Not a great deal of volume, just over 19L:

[Beerwulf]

I think it'll be a hell of a brew, and the experience will be invaluable in any case. But I really think all the experienced guys here would have told you if it was a total lost cause. Carry on, bottle it up and invite me over for the BBQ

[fivetide]

Thanks for that - I'll let it plod along for a week and think about improvements for next time while I watch it. A Bosch circular saw could be high on the list, as could a trip to Wickes.

In the meantime as punishment, I will post this bizarre little clip I made at a jolly moment mid-boil which doesn't show me in the greatest light!

Strange little film

[stevezx7r]

Who would have thought watching a load of liquid boil could make for decent entertainment. It'll be on TV soon, you watch.

[delboy]

whats the blue line dangling in the wort for FT? BTW congrats on losing your cherry and try not to worry im sure it'll turn out fine.
On my first AG i tipped in a lot of mouldy finings into the beer (didn't notice until it was too late), and it turned out to be a cracking beer with no signs of infection

[fivetide]

Cheers Delboy. I managed to knock in the seive and a load of pooled condensation while pouring back in the hops and crap I'd just seived out. So I fished out the seive, finished pouring the boiler contents into the fermenter through this then poured the entire contents of the fermenter through the same seive into a fresh fermenter that I had also sanitised earlier in the day. Instead of nice clean wort I now had a big soupy mess, but aerated and pitched as usual before going to bed in a huff. I also broke a floating glass thermometer in the confusion (fortunately not near the brew itself).

That blue line going into the boiler is the digital thermometer probe. I used it for the MT temperature mainly, but also the HLT and then the boiler so I could judge the time to the most vigorous boil. This meant I could go and get my baked potato and another beer in relative confidence...

[fivetide]

Following great advice (as ever), I let a decent yeast head form above a thick layer of break/trub. Today I used a sanitised paddle to skim as much of this off as practical. I had to leave some trub floating around but managed to fill a few inches of a large saucepan with porridge-like goo.



Almost immediately fermentation has kicked on with new energy and a cleaner yeast head has already begun forming (as promised!)

Brew still looks a mess, but certainly a more positive mess.

[fivetide]

I'm surprised how radically different the ferment is to any I've done previously using extract. The wort is clearer and all you can see are a million pieces of trub flying around in a hectic snowstorm of activity as if it were being vigourously stirred.

Clicky (please excuse sideways-ness, I'll sort it out at some point)

Also now the more scabby head has gone, it has been replaced with a big foamy creamy one.

Is the power of the ferment due the richness of the wort and the fact yeast just prefers it to feed on than the diluted extract? Also I guess the method of collecting wort from multiple vessels (not to mention the cockup and sieving) plus the enraged paddling gets a lot of air into it prior to pitching compared to paddling alone.

[fivetide]

Interesting, thanks. It's okay, after that initial skim (there really was a heck of a lot of crap in there thanks to the tap problem and even taking that much out has left plenty behind but more active) I've left well alone other than watching the fermentation and airlock which are very impressive. No yeast-vit required this time by the looks of things...

I'm now pre-occupied with ball-valves and hole saws and files and drills and other plans. The boiler worked well other than draining, so I think I'll fit a tap to it first up rather than go directly down the more expensive and tricky nordic-optical conversion route just yet. One day. Vossy1's posts are a constant temptation.

[delboy]

Hi FT, come the summer months (in fact i'd recommend you do it now) you'll want to put a bin bag over that fermenter as its very transparent and will let your beer get light struck very quickly. This isn't a problem with kits but when making AG and using fresh hops it is (i know i've had to bin a brew because it was light struck )

BTW thats an impressive looking ferment, all my plakky buckets are opaque so i never get to see all that activity.