ello all
I'm following the Courage directors recipe in GW's book tonight on my first ever AG brew. I have pictures but will add them probably tomorrow. I'll edit this along the way - sparging to be added once I start it at 2205hrs!
I'm mashing tonight and sparging but boiling, cooling (hopefully) and pitching tomorrow night hence the two process brew.
First thing I noticed was how bloody hard it seemed to be for me to get the strike temp right. I threw the grain in at 72 deg C only for the mash temp to drop to 60. Topping it up took ages to bring the temp up, but I got it there in the end (66 deg).
1st AG, 2 Stage process
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Deebee
- Even further under the Table
- Posts: 2324
- Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 9:13 am
- Location: Mid North West Norway
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
HI.
Remember to heat the wort to around 80 degrees then hold it for around 15 minutes before letting it cool. It stops the enzymic conversion
Remember to heat the wort to around 80 degrees then hold it for around 15 minutes before letting it cool. It stops the enzymic conversion
Dave
Running for Childrens cancer in the Windsor Half marathon.
Please consider helping a good cause:)
Running for Childrens cancer in the Windsor Half marathon.
Please consider helping a good cause:)
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dogchillibilly
- Steady Drinker
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:29 am
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
Hoodlum wrote:hmm, didn't do that and it's midnight now.
Don't fret. I've done 8 split days and never done it.
Would it have made a difference? Don't know.
Did it spoil the beer? Nope - tasted great and clear as water.
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Hoodlum
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
i took the bull by the horns - did the whole lot from mash to pitch the yeast. Knackered.
Pics tomorrow, well, later on today!
Pics tomorrow, well, later on today!
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GeordieBrewer
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
Well done Hoodlum! Congrats on your first AG brew 
It's defo a long process, and not for the faint hearted! I normally start around 9am in the morning, and am rarely finished before 5pm.
Did you manage to measure your Starting Gravity?
It's defo a long process, and not for the faint hearted! I normally start around 9am in the morning, and am rarely finished before 5pm.
Did you manage to measure your Starting Gravity?
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Hoodlum
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
starting gravity was 1052, which is slighty higher than the recipe's 1046, but not so bad I thought?
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Hoodlum
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46844832@N06/4297450064/
Don't know how to get the pictures to show in the body of the post without clicking. Anyway, this is the Mash Tun, which consists of two buckets - fermenters in this case, stackied inside each other. The outer one has a tap really low down on it, the other has very small holes drilled all over the bottom. You can work the rest out i'm sure.
Insulation consisted of radiator backing material which I got from a DIY shop ages ago, this goes round the buckets, before the liquor is added to the tun. The grains went in, temp control was done - no pH testing as I didn't have the facility. Water treatment consisted of boiling the living daylights out of the water before using it. The red wraps are hot water jacket insulating blankets from Focus and they're pretty neat. Temp drop was 1 degree C over the 90 minutes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46844832@N06/4297450374/
My able assistant is one of my boys Aaron. He held the jackets on when I tied them into place. I concentrated the jackets over areas where the grain wasn't - if that makes sense - as I considered that the grain area would hold heat in the mash bed itself, heat loss through the top and bottom I thought more likely, so these places got a good covering.
The sparge http://www.flickr.com/photos/46844832@N06/4297449820/ three levels seemed appropriate. This took forever as I thought it might, and there was a ton of cloudy run off at the start. I was surprised at how quickly it seemd the wort ran light coloured and far less sweet than at the start. A few points throughout I thought I wouldn't get enough wort and stopped the sparge until I cooled a sample in a jar with a hydrometer in it. I stopped at roughly 1010, which I calculated would give me enough wort to leave 20 litres after the boil (I had nearly 28 litres altogether). Water temp for sparging was possibly a little too hot - we shall see in the end product!
The rest of it is the same process for extract brewing I guess - although I havea question - Protafloc AND Irish Moss or just one of those products? I think they might do different things so I added both anyway. I'm sure it won't be hugely problematical.
I tried my immersion copper water chiller which was hugely successfull cooling the wort from 80 to 30 in around 15 mins. The water from the supply was flipping freezing, so no surprises that the cooling was fast. My biggest drama was getting the hoses connected to the end of the small copper tubing - In the end I wrapped the copper ends with sellotape, forced the hose over, then clamped with a jubilee clip. There was the odd spot of water coming through, but not loads. Still not happy with it though.
After cleaning up, washing stuff out in the pitch dark in th egarden, I finished around 3 am. First child in the household awoke at 0540. Typical....
Don't know how to get the pictures to show in the body of the post without clicking. Anyway, this is the Mash Tun, which consists of two buckets - fermenters in this case, stackied inside each other. The outer one has a tap really low down on it, the other has very small holes drilled all over the bottom. You can work the rest out i'm sure.
Insulation consisted of radiator backing material which I got from a DIY shop ages ago, this goes round the buckets, before the liquor is added to the tun. The grains went in, temp control was done - no pH testing as I didn't have the facility. Water treatment consisted of boiling the living daylights out of the water before using it. The red wraps are hot water jacket insulating blankets from Focus and they're pretty neat. Temp drop was 1 degree C over the 90 minutes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46844832@N06/4297450374/
My able assistant is one of my boys Aaron. He held the jackets on when I tied them into place. I concentrated the jackets over areas where the grain wasn't - if that makes sense - as I considered that the grain area would hold heat in the mash bed itself, heat loss through the top and bottom I thought more likely, so these places got a good covering.
The sparge http://www.flickr.com/photos/46844832@N06/4297449820/ three levels seemed appropriate. This took forever as I thought it might, and there was a ton of cloudy run off at the start. I was surprised at how quickly it seemd the wort ran light coloured and far less sweet than at the start. A few points throughout I thought I wouldn't get enough wort and stopped the sparge until I cooled a sample in a jar with a hydrometer in it. I stopped at roughly 1010, which I calculated would give me enough wort to leave 20 litres after the boil (I had nearly 28 litres altogether). Water temp for sparging was possibly a little too hot - we shall see in the end product!
The rest of it is the same process for extract brewing I guess - although I havea question - Protafloc AND Irish Moss or just one of those products? I think they might do different things so I added both anyway. I'm sure it won't be hugely problematical.
I tried my immersion copper water chiller which was hugely successfull cooling the wort from 80 to 30 in around 15 mins. The water from the supply was flipping freezing, so no surprises that the cooling was fast. My biggest drama was getting the hoses connected to the end of the small copper tubing - In the end I wrapped the copper ends with sellotape, forced the hose over, then clamped with a jubilee clip. There was the odd spot of water coming through, but not loads. Still not happy with it though.
After cleaning up, washing stuff out in the pitch dark in th egarden, I finished around 3 am. First child in the household awoke at 0540. Typical....
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WHL
Re: 1st AG, 2 Stage process
It's hell of a way to start the weekend. Hope you're able to get in a cat nap today. Well done!