First AG Day

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Hi all,

Thought I'd let you know how things go on my first AG day.
I've just come across the first problem and solution
I live in Belgium and my boiler came from H&G with a three pin plug, so as I needed to find an adaptor I used a shaving plug.... 13 amps into 7 doesn't go well and ends up with plastic burning and fuses blowing. Well I'm now using a PC cable direct to the element and it seems to be working, I'll have to buy a plug for the thermostat later on this morning......

I'm borrowing a recipe called Exmoor Gold that I saw on a post by Wez (thanks):

23L brew length

5100g Belgian Pale Ale
40g Fuggles 4.11% at 90 minutes
27g Challenger 5.7% at 90 minutes
24g Styrian 2.9% at 90 minutes
24g Styrian 2.9% at 15 minutes

The water is heating and all is ready to go, hopefully all the bad dreams I had last night will steer me in the right direction!

[BritishBelgianTwst]

OK, doughing in complete and the temp was about 67 degrees once complete. I'll check in a bit if the temp has dropped, fingers crossed it won't as the basement is pretty warm even if it's -8°C outside.

By the way, when I said water I meant to say liquor.....

Time for a shower and then give the little un her bottle.

[haz66]

Good luck with your first brew, the first one is always the hardest, but you`ll soon know where you need to improve things to
make the brew day run smoother.

I`m about half an hour behind you, got another 50mins of mash time left as i write.
Just having a quick brew (tea) and then going to get the sparge water warming.

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Already found one area to improve.... don't wear expensive jeans when brewing just after Christmas excesses....I've put my @rse through them.... oops.

All going relatively smoothly, just drilled the holes in my h&g hop filter and then weighed out the hops.

Sparge liquor almost up to temperature....I'm a little late there as I had to give the bottle and drop the little un off next door!

More later and thanks for wishing me luck, the fun part is about to begin.

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Sparging has begun at 80°C, the first run-off is already in the boiler, I recirculated the vorlauf but the wort still seems a little cloudy, I'm wondering if the slots in my mash tun manifold aren't a little too large...heres to hoping that it'll clear after the boil and then fermentation.....
Second run off is underway, it tastes and smells good already!

Paul

[BritishBelgianTwst]

26.5 litres are now in the boiler... current temp is 75°C, I guess the boil will arrive in about 30 minutes....problem! I've got to go to the doctors with my daughter at 2:00 which means only time to start cooling and probably not enough to get it into the FV and pitch the yeast.... oh well, I'll have to do that when we get back.

Now to sterilize the FV in preparation for the final step.

Hops, Irish Moss and immersion chiller are all prepared.

[ade1865]

Good luck! sounds like its all going well. I made an Exmoor Gold and its an absolute belter!

[adm]

Good job!

Sounds like you are having a fun day what with the childcare activities as well as brewing!

[Horden Hillbilly]

Sounds like it is going smoothly for you, well done on your 1st ag brew.

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Because of events outside of my control I've had to cut the boil to 60 minutes. Last lot of hops & Irish moss have gone in along with the immersion chiller.

Only fifteen minutes to wait before the cooling starts. With a bit of luck I'll be pitching before 2 and still make it to the doctors for 2:15.

Paul

[BritishBelgianTwst]

OK, my first AG brew day has now finished (apart from cleaning my gear).
I ended up getting 21 litres at 1049 (after correcting for temp of 22°C).

Can anyone tell me what my efficiency is for this brew? I don't know how to calculate it unfortunately.

All in all I'm happy with how things went, I should probably have sparged a bit more and also checked the dead space in my boiler before hand but 2 litres for a first try isn't bad in my opinion.

Looking forward to the first taster of real beer and hopefully I'll fit in another brew day before too long.

[tomU]

Sounds like a fairly smooth first AG day besides the 'wardrobe malfunction', nice one.

Work out efficiency by working out the potential extract from the grain and comparing that with what you achieved. I think belgian pale is slightly less than marris otter but I dont know exactly how much less. Using figures for MO, I'd work it out as:

1kg = 300pts in 1 litre
5.1kg = 300x5.1= 1530

so 5.1kg gives 1530 points in 1L
therefore it gives 1530/21 = 73 in 21L

You got 49 so efficiency is (49/73) X 100 = 67%

thats not bad at all - thats the sort of efficiency I tend to get. Well done, and good luck with future brews!

[haz66]

If Belgian Pale Ale Malt is equivelant to Maris Otter Pale malt then your efficiency is approx 68%
which is not bad at the first attempt, most peoples are between 70/75%

which is worked out like this
5.1 Kgs Malt x 300 = 1530
1530/21 (your final volume) = 72.8 (thats the most you could have got on the hydrometer SG1072.8 @ 100% efficiency)

but you got SG1049 so divide 49 by 72.8 x 100 = 67.3%

The 300 comes from the extact available from Pale Malt other grains have differant values.

Hope this helps

I was beaten to it

[tomU]

Sorry Haz. Yeah, as I said, I think the extract potential is slightly less in belgian pale than Marris Otter, so that would make your efficiency slightly higher, maybe 70 at a guess, so pretty damn good!

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments, I really did enjoy myself and I'm pretty satisfied with myself.... this brewing lark is more addictive than porn, I can't get enough of it!