Frothy First All-grain 22.10.06

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
Frothy

Frothy First All-grain 22.10.06

Post by Frothy » Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:46 pm

Hi y'all

First of all thanks everyone for all the great advice over the last few months, I'd never have got to this stage without y'all. It's an English Special Bitter that I've produced before using extract and crystal malt. It's based on a Palmer Recipe but I've altered nearly every part of it so I feel it's ok to share.

19L recipe
3.0kg Maris Otter Pale
250g crystal
0.5kg Flaked Maize

35IBU total
17IBU - Northern brewer 60min 14g
11IBU - Goldings 30min 24g
7IBU - Goldings 15min 23g + werlflock tablet (free from H&G order)

mashed for 60minutes
15L strike water @ 74.5oc (ratio of 4L/kg)
69oc strike temp
64.5oc final temp


Photos here -> http://www.pbase.com/mattw/beer

Doughing in
Image
There was initially a good few inches of liquid ontop of the grain but the grain swelled to accomodate this nicely. Could maybe fit in a double recipe at a squeeze?

Mashing
Image

Sparging
Image
The T-bar sparge arm worked nicely
Image
Lauter water @ 80.5oc
collected ~ 25L wort


Stong boil with rapid hot break dispersal. The burner is only 8.5kw but I run it flat out and the final boil volume was ~17L so I lost 7L (a whopping 28% reduction over 1hr)


Left it to rest for 15minutes before cooling. I'd already got the CFC going using a recirculating system based around a 5gal fermenting bucket and a £10 pond pump. This water wound up at ~ 40oc and I used it to clean the boiler out with.

Image
Image

Cold Break
Image
There was a lot of cold break but I didn't see any hot break

Pitched the yeast @ 34oc
Final Gravity @ 1.0467 (corrected to 15oc)
aimed for 1.047 :)

Will have to work out my efficiency sometime

cost= 11.3p/ 500ml :!:
People were sceptical when I reported on here that MrWallis of the Pensans brewery had told me he could brew beer for ~ 20p/ pint :) All I did was buy a 25kg sack of Maris otter from my local microbrewery for £20, the 20kg sack of flaked maize was £5 from a local horse feed shop.

can't wait to drink it
Matt

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:31 pm

Gr8 pics and fab result Frothy 8)

Let us know how it taste's :wink:

eskimobob

Post by eskimobob » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:38 am

Great Pics Matt.

So you have a therminator eh :shock:
Cool 8)

Bigster

Post by Bigster » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:01 am

Well done frothy - exemplary first AG

:D

User avatar
Andy
Virtually comatose but still standing
Posts: 8716
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:00 pm
Location: Ash, Surrey
Contact:

Post by Andy » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:27 am

Hey, well done Frothers! I'm loving the half-inside, half-outside brewing setup :wink: Not great weather for outside brewing was it....

Did you really pitch the yeast into 34 degC wort ? Isn't this rather on the high side ? :?: I usually aim for 25degC maximum....
Dan!

Frothy

Post by Frothy » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:16 pm

thanks for the kind words guys. I was hoping to do the whole brew inside but I needed that bit of extra height to get the 3 tier to gravity drain properly. Fortunately it had stopped raining.

I've pitched my last 4 brews at ~34oc but this is a result of inefficient CFC use rather than anything intentional. The yeast is just fine and I get activity usually within 10minutes or so. I wouldn't pitch it any higher.

& yes Daab I cleaned out the smelly mash tun first :) the real problem was that my boiler still smelt of deep fried turkey after 2 cleans

that cold break disturbs me - there's so much of it!
Matt

Western Brewer

Post by Western Brewer » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:42 pm

Excellent picture and words Frothy! Going to brew myself sometime this week, I'm on holiday for a week but the 'Ayatollah' :D has a few jobs around the house for me to do so I had better show willing, not that I'm under the thumb or anything :wink:
Got my eye on one of those thereminator gadgets. Seen another on the more beer website for around $90 but postage will probably double that so may just go to H&G when I have the spare pennies.
Going for a Vanilla cream ale. Got the recipe of the net, it's an partial extract but I have converted it to all grain using Beersmith so it will be interesting to see how it comes out. I expect there may be some pictures if anyones interested.
Incidently, I gave a bottle of my Summer Lightning clone to one of Sarahs work collegues who drank it at the weekend and gave it 7 1/2 out of 10 so I was pleased with that for my first AG.

Scooby

Post by Scooby » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:59 pm

Wow!! what a boiler I was wondering why we've had so much rain. seems like you had a successful day, well done =D>
I've noticed coolbox tuns with spinny arms in the lid, how did it work? I like to keep the sparge water level with the grain bed certainly never more than 5mm above (Keeps the water from taking the path of least resistance ie straight down the sides.) and find I have to control the input/output quite often so I don't think it would work for me.
Got my eye on one of those thereminator gadgets. Seen another on the more beer website for around $90 but postage will probably double that
I have only bought 2 items from the States a rucksack for my dog, (seems like we keep getting back to them critters) and a camera lens, the rucksack arrived just fine and much cheaper than same thing over here even with shipping, and it arrived 4 days after I ordered it. Much quicker than H&G :lol: but the lens got held up in customs, I ended up paying Import duty, VAT and a handling charge, it was second hand but ended up paying more than the cost of a new one :cry: I enquired and anything from outside the EU with a value of over £18 is subject to those charges. Anyone had any experience of this or was I just unlucky in that they choose my parcel that day.

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:28 pm

I think my PID's at C+E whilst they fit it with a terrorist tracker 8)

Weapons of mass inebriation....has a ring to it :wink:

Frothy

Post by Frothy » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:47 am

Scooby what do you use to sparge at the moment? The one I use is not spinny, just a 15mm copper T with slots cut every inch or so - this pokes through the lid and a speedfit adapter for 1/2" hose keeps it in place.
http://www.willmottw.fsnet.co.uk/brew/e ... parger.JPG

WB the therminator was more than a little hefty in price but very neat. I really needed it to be stainless steel because I use it for other food type applications which are sometimes acidic.

Matt

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:54 am

Hi Frothy,

What temp were you getting your wort down to for one bucket of water :?:

Ta

User avatar
Andy
Virtually comatose but still standing
Posts: 8716
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:00 pm
Location: Ash, Surrey
Contact:

Post by Andy » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:24 am

Frothy wrote: I've pitched my last 4 brews at ~34oc but this is a result of inefficient CFC use rather than anything intentional.
:shock: But..but...but, you've got a shiny therminaninaninator..... :wink:
Dan!

Scooby

Post by Scooby » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:41 am

Yes DaaB's I got fed up lugging his gear as well as mine, food, water, poobags spare lead dog wipes, firts aid, towel etc so now he carries all that as well as my sarnies spare camera batteries etc, just have to make sure load doesn't exceed approx 1\4 his weight, 8kg and keep an eye on his pads and remove it at rest stops. He's carried it up Snowdon and as you know they walk 3 times as far as you do, snored like hell that night. Has trouble with stiles in the Dales thought.
Image
Image

I use a 7 1/2" spinny, I nearly built it into the lid but forsaw the problem of not being able to see ths results of any adjustment made to the flow, with the lid on how do you know at any given time if the grain bed is dry or flooded?

Your sparge bar looks great, much better for a rectangular box than a round spinny but for me still suffers the problem I mention above. It's given me an idea though, to use a watering can spray bar with some sort of drive to rock it back and forth like a lawn sprinkler.

Seveneer

Post by Seveneer » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:00 am

That rucsack is a great idea. Though, I suspect my pooch, Bob, would just eat it... and my sarnies, despite him looking like butter wouldn't melt :lol:

Image

/Phil.

Scooby

Post by Scooby » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:15 am

Bet Bob can't beat this Seveneer, £924 :shock: (On insurance) to remove a tennis ball from his intestines, He had chewed it a bit, but the piece removed was about 2" dia. That soft toy Bob has would last about 5 mins. Thank goodness the Yanks design most things to be bullet proof, the rucksack is made of ballistic nylon.

Post Reply