1st AG Brew: 25th August 2008

[dr_bob]

Hello

I'm all prepped and ready for my first ever brewday, tomorrow, Monday 25th. All equipment is sterilised (using VWP) and sealed, ingredients all weighed out and everything all setup in the garage. My wyeast was smacked on Friday and has been bubbling away in a DME starter since then.

One of my favourite ales is Fullers' ESB, which I'm going to attempt to emulate, using Norman's recipe here.

So, here's my thread, I'm hoping to update it throughout the day tomorrow - hopefully without too many catastrophes!

My only fubar so far was managing to spill around 500g of malt all over the dining room floor whilst trying to measure up, SWMBO not pleased! Oh well!

Can't wait for tomorrow!

[maxashton]

You can't reliably sanitize today for a brew tomorrow, unless you're using stayclean or simmilar stable QAT based sanitizer.

I strongly reccomend you re-sanitize tomorrow.

Good luck for tomorrow! Hope everything goes well.

If you're sanitizing with VWP, make sure you give it a good rinse in either sodium metabisulphate solution, or boiling water.

[Totem]

Hope it goes well, remember lots of pics!

[dr_bob]

You can't reliably sanitize today for a brew tomorrow, unless you're using stayclean or simmilar stable QAT based sanitizer.
I strongly reccomend you re-sanitize tomorrow.

Erk. I'll go at it again in the morning then - I was following a fellow poster's advice, Horden Hillbilly, in his guide here. :/

If you're sanitizing with VWP, make sure you give it a good rinse in either sodium metabisulphate solution, or boiling water.

Double erk! The instructions on the tub say to rinse well with cold water, which is what I did - should I be using boiling water?

[maxashton]

That works great for Horden, and he's got more brews under his belt than a lot of folks.

I'm just reccomending what i always reccomend for new brewers, and that's sanitise shortly before you brew.

I don't bother sanitizing the hot side stuff like the mash tun or boiler, but i will be spraying the fermenter with iodophor every few minutes right up until the point i am actually going to use it.

I could be being a bit OCD here, but i'm on my soap box now.

[Jim]

Also to quote from HH's website:

"Although it is better to sterilise the equipment shortly before you use it...."

If you are going to sanitize the night before, you must keep everything closed tightly, which is what HH does - he puts all the small stuff in a fermenting bucket and puts the lid on tightly, thus preventing contamination.




Good luck with your brewday, by the way. A nice way to spend a bank holiday, instead of fighting your way through traffic to try and find somewhere nice.

[booldawg]

Hope all goes well today Dr. Bob

[Horden Hillbilly]

Just to clarify what I do regarding sterilising. It is better to sterilise shortly before you intend to brew, but in my case I have to brew 1st thing in the morning, quite often I start brewing 4:30-5:00 am-ish. The reason I do this is because our kitchen is on the small side, therefore I like to be done & dusted before Mrs H wants to be in the kitchen to make the dinner. Also, the youngsters are still sound asleep, well out of the way of the boiling wort.

Therefore, I sterilise all my gear late in the evening before I brew, around 10pm-ish, & place if in the sterilised fv's & seal the lids down tightly. I can honestly say that I have had no problems doing it this way.

[dr_bob]

Ok, re-sterilised everything an hour or two ago, and we're off.

Water's heating up....


Only using one element due to the electrics in the garage.

[Garth]

God, what a clean looking virginal boiler, soon to be sullied by the devil's water

I cannot remember when I saw my elements that clean

The H&G is a pretty effecticve hop strianer, but if you find the runoff from your boiler slow, drill quite a few 3mm holes in between the slots in the copper manifold (only underneath though), it helps no end.

Have a good one Dr Bob

[dr_bob]

Water took ages to get up to temp, a good 40 minutes :/ Need to get these electrics sorted out.

Mash is now on:


Temperature at the start of the mash is 65c. Fingers crossed.

[fraserjaxx]

good luck Bob I will be keeping an eye on things as I have just started a brew myself today.My mash started at 2.15pm.I think we're almost in sync mate!!?
How is your mash tun insulated to hold your mash temp?

[dr_bob]

good luck Bob I will be keeping an eye on things as I have just started a brew myself today.My mash started at 2.15pm.I think we're almost in sync mate!!?
How is your mash tun insulated to hold your mash temp?

Good luck with your brew, fraser!

I'm doing nothing special to keep the tun up to temp - I'm hoping it'll hold out. It's a H&G converted thermos coolbox, from other reports on here it shouldn't lose too many degrees over the mash... I'll see what temperature it's at when i check the mash after the first 60 minutes (at 15:08 )...

[Dennis King]

Just to clarify what I do regarding sterilising. It is better to sterilise shortly before you intend to brew, but in my case I have to brew 1st thing in the morning, quite often I start brewing 4:30-5:00 am-ish. The reason I do this is because our kitchen is on the small side, therefore I like to be done & dusted before Mrs H wants to be in the kitchen to make the dinner. Also, the youngsters are still sound asleep, well out of the way of the boiling wort.

Therefore, I sterilise all my gear late in the evening before I brew, around 10pm-ish, & place if in the sterilised fv's & seal the lids down tightly. I can honestly say that I have had no problems doing it this way.

Like HH I get the stetilising out the way the night before and seal in the fv. Don`t use VWP any more but when I did I only rinsed with cold water. Good luck dr_bob we all remember our first time.

[dr_bob]

Just checked on the temp of the mash after 60 minutes. Gave it a good stir around too. 63c. The tun lost just 2c over 60 minutes, which I reckon isn't bad being as I'm in a unheated garage and the doors are open, and the tun isn't insulated other than it being a coolbox.

Notes for next brew (already!) - aim for a higher mash temp, 63c with 30 minutes before sparging is cutting it a bit fine, no?