first All Grain brew on xmas eve. (with pics)

[kevthebootboy]

Right me little toffee puddings
first off hope you all had a great christmas, i finaly did it, got my first AG under my belt,for my first i decided to keep it simple and brewed jims stock bitter, i wanted a stronger brew so i upped the grain bill to 5.5 kg

5kg morris otter
500g cyristal malt

bittering
30g fuggles
20g bodicia

late
5g fuggle

nottingham yeast


mash for one hour 15 minutes at 67'
90 minute boil

grians weighd out



HLT heating up some water (bottled ASDA water untreated)


doughed in


mash temp , i waited tilll it was closer to 67 befor i snapped the lid shut,

insulation,2 x fleece sheets from asda, 2 pound each, didnt loose any heat over the mash.


first runnings, nice and clear, recycled about 6 pints


second runnings


cooking on gas,


the IC


first hops in


cold break, the ic worked really well, from boiling point to 20'C in about 25 minutes.


airating the cooled wort, afew bits of hops got threw the filter but other wise not too bad,


stater bottle, bubbling away nicely


my brew day started at 7 in the morning and i pitched the yeast at 12 noon, everything went sweet as a nut, only two gliches, the tap on my HLT came loose once and stared pissing water out, luckly it was while empying it to transfer the the mash tun and it only happend once, and the other is that i fell short on my final volume, i only got 18 litres, i put this down to the dead space in my boiler, (5 litres!) so i topped up to 23l with bottled water,

the OG came out at 1059 at 20'c

im suprised how relaxed i was, easy it was and how smoothly it all went, i had no access to the internet so i had to go on notes id made,

finaly a big thanks to all you fellas that have helped me out with all my stupid questions!
right...im off for a pint.

cheers and beers, kev

[edit1now]

Well done!

[yashicamat]

For a first AG brew, you've got a pretty sweet equipment setup!

Nice one, welcome aboard!

[kevthebootboy]

For a first AG brew, you've got a pretty sweet equipment setup!

Nice one, welcome aboard!

thanks mate, all built with my own two hands may i add

[yashicamat]

For a first AG brew, you've got a pretty sweet equipment setup!

Nice one, welcome aboard!

thanks mate, all built with my own two hands may i add

Nice one. I am slowly adapting my mostly pre-bought AG brewery with my things now. If I had the time (and patience ) I'd have gone the route you did! With that setup it looks like you're set for a good while.

[adm]

Good job Kev!

Now you just need to wait for a month or so to see how it comes out.

You might as well get another brew on while you're waiting....

[WishboneBrewery]

excellent stuff...
fingers crossed my first Kit brew will be in about a month... After that, who knows, but all pictures and write-ups on how things went are certainly encouraging

[Horden Hillbilly]

Well done there Kev, nice one!

[kevthebootboy]

Cheers fellas, ive been back to my gaff to check up on the the brew, heres how it looks so far...



thing is, its fermenting ok, but were it is the temp is currently 14'C in the attic room with no heating, it was either that or under the stairs at 25-27 'C witch is too warm,
the gravity its 1028 at 14'C, not sure how many points to take off for the temp correction...

[yashicamat]

I'd say 14 C is probably on the lower limit for Nottingham, but apparently it can lager too it will keep on working at low temperatures. Fermentation is quite exothermic, especially with a relatively active strain like Nottingham. I suspect that in reality the temperature of the beer is probably a good few degrees warmer than the ambient temperature in that room.

[kevthebootboy]

That was the temp of the beer i put a therometer in the sample i took you see, ive repped the bucket with two fleece blankets for now, ive got a heat belt but i didnt want to end up boiling it with it, seen as im not around to keep an eye on the temperture, will i end up with off flavours at a 14'C ?

i had a little sip of the sample...couldnt help my self, tastes really good ,far better then any kits ive done, remimded me of martsons pedigree, early days though eh,
taa, kev

[yashicamat]

That was the temp of the beer i put a therometer in the sample i took you see, ive repped the bucket with two fleece blankets for now, ive got a heat belt but i didnt want to end up boiling it with it, seen as im not around to keep an eye on the temperture, will i end up with off flavours at a 14'C ?

i had a little sip of the sample...couldnt help my self, tastes really good ,far better then any kits ive done, remimded me of martsons pedigree, early days though eh,
taa, kev

On the contrary, lower fermentation temps result in a cleaner tasting beer with less fruity esters, although Nottingham doesn't do much of that anyway. I think it's a wise move to not put the heater belt on, they can overheat the beer a bit. A thought, but maybe the heater belt on the outside of the fleeces? Not sure how hot the belts get, but it might prevent it getting too much heat through.

[kevthebootboy]

i did think about that but then i thought id end up burning the house down or somehting, , ive got the bucket sat on an under turned stock pot,(to get to the tap fpr samples) so what i might do is put the heat belt around the stock pot, making a heat tray of sorts, if it comes to that anyways, im going to check it in a coulple of days and see how its going, fingers crossed!

[yashicamat]

i did think about that but then i thought id end up burning the house down or somehting, , ive got the bucket sat on an under turned stock pot,(to get to the tap fpr samples) so what i might do is put the heat belt around the stock pot, making a heat tray of sorts, if it comes to that anyways, im going to check it in a coulple of days and see how its going, fingers crossed!

That sounds like the most sensible course of action, just see how it goes. You might find it will ferment out by itself anyway.

[kevthebootboy]

yeah thats what im hoping, trying not to interfere with it as much possible, i think the next project will have to be a temperture controll chamber!!