KJ's First AG Brewday with Pics a Plenty!

[kay-jay]

Hi everyone.

Yesterday (tuesday march 24, 2010) was my very first AG brewday!

I brewed 'FOOLS GOLD' an IPA style recipe provided by Pas8280 (cheers mate )

basically it was MO pale malt, Crystal malt and a bit of torrified wheat


hopped with Pacific gem 90 mins,


and Aurora 15 mins (recipe 44 IBU)



i started at 9.50 am...an hour later than planned because i had to drive back home (i brew at my dads) cos i'd forgot the extension lead, and the tap connector for the chiller wouldn't go on dads square taps so i swung by homebase for one that would work!

The set up!
HLT into Mashtun


Mashtun into Boiler


close up of inside the Boiler



10.20 hlt water to strike temp of 74 degrees
doughed in and put to sleep


mash temp was only 62 degrees! hope this is ok?? i think i took too long doughing in and also i think i should have stirred the HLT water to ensure an even reading before taking the temp. aah well lesson learned!

90 mins and one sausage butty later....ladies and gentlemen i proudly present...the Wort


Heating to the boil....looks a bit like the moon!


the Boil starting to break through!


The rolling boil....cunningly obscured by steam on the camera!


straining, aerating and filling the fermenter


showing the strainer set up in perspective


i managed to get the required 27 litres for the boil by adding 1 and a half litres of water to the boil, i ended up with more or less the required 23 litres in f.v (looks just more than 22.5) so i'm happy!

tested the gravity and i hit the required 1.047 very pleased with this! when using beer engine i had to guess efficiency as 80%, as i hit my target does this mean i'm 80 percent efficient???

lessons learned.

1. brew beer ...its great!
2. stir HLT water before taking temp reading!
3. my syphon pipe fell off in the HLT so that needs sorting for next time
4. brew beer ...its great!

All in all i couldn't have hoped for better results with my first brewday...i just hope it turns out ok! but from pics of other members brewdays it seems that each stage resembled what it should! so i have high hopes. My next brew is going to be a blonde ale, followed swiftly by a stout then a bitter. all that remains to be seen is whether i can carry over some consistency to my future brews or whether yesterday was beginners luck!

finally thanks to pas8280 for advice, and the loan of a mashtun and IC.
A big thankyou to Jim for this wonderful site, and to all whose wisdom and knowledge have helped me (and many others) enormously!

KJ

[Hawkinspm]

Looks like a great first day out, and running very smoothly for first go, well done!!!!!



74 degrees down to about 62 for a mash sounds about right for this time of year, I am using strike water of around 77 degrees at the moment to get a mash temp of 64. Depends where you store grain etc and how cold it is ( mine is in the garage, so pretty cold!!) . Also helps if you pre-heat your mash tun. 62 degrees will not give you any problems though, a higher temperature will give you a fuller body to the beer, but 62 will be ok.

If you are batch sparging then you can also adjust your evaporation rates in Beersmith so you collect the right amount of wort.

[chris_reboot]

nice one!
you've popped your cherry, welcome to the club!

looks all-in-all pretty succesful. setbacks on the first brew (if not all) are to be expected.
this is half the fun.
I'm still not 100% happy with my gear, there's bits I'd change, and looking at your hop strainer, that's a neat job I'll be copying to drain more from my boiler as I have a wide groove in the boiler bottom where I'm wasting wort.

your efficiency must actually be higher than 80% if you topped up with water, and still hit the OG.
normally I would top-up with more collected wort to reach bigger volumes, so plain water is bringing the OG down in effect.

go with the same next time (but not water- wort) to see if that's consistent, if so, your efficiency is high and reduce the grain bill accordingly. most software lets you nomintate that %.

well done, big smiles all round I take it

[kay-jay]

and looking at your hop strainer, that's a neat job I'll be copying to drain more from my boiler as I have a wide groove in the boiler bottom where I'm wasting wort.

cheers mate, i specifically designed the strainer to allow for a raised bed in the bottom of the boiler. if i used the standard strainer model it would sit on that raised bit and i would lose quite a bit of wort also!
the bits with the holes in are 22mm and these slip over a short length of 15 mm, i crimped the end of the 22mm with a pair of grips to prevent hop entry and to keep it from falling off during the boil but still removeable by hand.i also measured the pipe and the bends (handy being a plumber) so that the far ends of the 22mm push against the sides of the boiler and prevent movement during the boil. on the opposite ends i've put stop ends on, these are also drilled!


KJ

[chris_reboot]

ah, plumbing skills - that's what I lack
you might want to consider holes only on the underside to increase the draining effectiveness even more

[kay-jay]

ah, plumbing skills - that's what I lack
you might want to consider holes only on the underside to increase the draining effectiveness even more

for my design it would make no difference! the syphonic action works from the 15mm pipe which is inserted only a couple of cm into the 22mm and all the 15mm is a tight fit to the tap so i get a good syphon. the purpose of the 22 is simply to keep the hops above the base and allow liquid to enter the 15mm. which is why i have holes all the way round...it allows more liquid to the base.

hope this makes some kind of sense??

rgards

KJ

[chris_reboot]

yes I see.

[kevthebootboy]

Nice work on the brewday there Kay-jay, first of many no dout!

[kay-jay]

Nice work on the brewday there Kay-jay, first of many no dout!

cheers kev! your stout recipe is pencilled in for 3rd brewday!

KJ

[kevthebootboy]

Ahh nice one,
hope the stout comes out good for you, i was really happy with it, im brewing a stout on saturday, im toasting some rolled oats for it

[crookedeyeboy]

Nice one Kay! Good work you'll never look back.
I wouldn't worry about the 62c I did that once and it even went down to 58c! Turned out to be a lovely traditional copper beer. Like many people have said on here it's hard to clone beers but you will never make an undrinkable one! It all helps to hone down what flavours you like. I've just started using live yeast and I'm hoping that improves the flavour too.
Good luck with the next one!!

[Horatio]

Good stuff! Now your in you'll never leave

All the 62 degree mash may do is produce more fermentables and result in a slightly higher ABV than anticipated and possibly an ever so slightly thinner mouth feel. I bet it turns out to be a belter!

[pas8280]

Well done mate looks like a very successfull brew day i take it the sausage butties were tasty ? Onward and upward now get the brews on looking forward to sampling some of yours now.
Paul

[floydmeddler]

Well done, you're in up to your eyes now I hope you know!

One question, where did you get the fermenter for your boiler from?

Cheers

[Scroogemonster]

Lookin' good buddy..... I've managed to upload my pics now (after an hours messin' settin' up user accounts and all that) I didn't capture every part of the process like you did (too busy concentratin' an all that!)
Looks like we're on a slippery slope towards AG addiction. Can't wait to sample my first ever AG in 20 years!!!
Regards
Kev