First brew day - a success I think?

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Underthethumb

First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Underthethumb » Sun Mar 06, 2011 4:54 pm

Afternoon everyone. Just finished my first brewday and thought i'd report in to you, as without this forum i'd be clueless.

The headline figures are that I was aiming for an OG of 1.039 on 23 litres, and ended up with 1.042 on 22 litres.

This is the recipe:

Bath Gem clone:
Pale Malt 3590g
Crystal Malt 320g
Chocolate Malt 40g
Wheat Malt 40g
Golding hops 20g
Challenger hops 35g
Protafloc tablet
Campden tablet
Carbonate Reduction Solution (1.3ml per litre treated)
Safale S04 yeast
Yeast nutrient

There were a few mishaps along the way and i'm not sure of some of the measurements I came to, but here are the pics.

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All set and ready to brew!

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The mash at 3 litres/kg

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Vorlauf. Had a few problems at this stage with a stuck mash but gave the tube a blow. Next time i'll make more cuts in my filter.

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Sparging

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Running the sparge water into the boiler. At this point I took a reading of the volume (30.9 litres) and the OG (1.036). Using beer engine this gives me a mash efficiency of 93.5%. Ridiculously high, so somewhere I must have made a mistake.

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Putting in the hops.

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Cooling. This is where I had the most fun. Firstly the inlet hose wasn't secured tightly enough so water seeped out the sides. Worse, the outlet tube kept coming off drenching the garage. Found a solution in the end (but still have wet jeans!)

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Running off the cooled wort into the FV. At this stage my thermometer stopped working, but it would have been much worse if it happened earlier.

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Hot trub, and hops at the bottom of the boiler.

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The wort - finished - phew!

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:D
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Horatio
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Horatio » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:51 pm

Looks like a good one! =D> =D> =D>
If I had all the money I'd spent on brewing... I'd spend it on brewing!
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GrowlingDogBeer
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:51 pm

Looks like it went well, better than most peoples first attempt, mine included.

Hope it turns out well.
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Dennis King
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Dennis King » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:53 pm

Always good to see another cherry popped. :D
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far9410
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by far9410 » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:44 pm

whats the foil for at sparging stage?
no palate, no patience.


Drinking - of course
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Underthethumb

Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Underthethumb » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:52 pm

I had read of this technique to avoid disturbing the grain bed when doing the vorlauf. I just put lots of holes in the foil and sat it on top of the mash.

;)
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trucker5774
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by trucker5774 » Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:12 pm

Well done............the foil is a good precaution. I use a plastic plate with holes in :wink:
John

Drinking/Already drunk........ Trucker's Anti-Freeze (Turbo Cider), Truckers Delight, Night Trucker, Rose wine, Truckers Hitch, Truckers Revenge, Trucker's Lay-by, Trucker's Trailer, Flower Truck, Trucker's Gearshift, Trucker's Horn, Truck Crash, Fixby Gold!

Conditioning... Doing what? Get it down your neck! ........

FV 1............
FV 2............
FV 3............
Next Brews..... Trucker's Jack Knife
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L2wis

Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by L2wis » Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:58 pm

ace stuff! looks like it went really well!
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Eric
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Eric » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:37 pm

Definitely a great start, you've cracked it.
Now you will be faced with the choice of fitting regular brewing into your life or fitting your life around regular brewing.
Good luck.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.
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bosium
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by bosium » Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:46 am

Well done, welcome to the obsession!
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Naich
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Naich » Mon Mar 07, 2011 2:23 pm

Nice one! Welcome to the dark side. One thing I'd keep an eye on though - the wort seems to be pretty much at the top of the boiler at the start of the boil. It wouldn't take much for that to boil over and ruin your day. Personally, I'd want it a couple of inches lower than that to be safe. One thing you can do is keep a few litres of wort back until the level has gone down a bit after 1/2 an hour.
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fego
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by fego » Mon Mar 07, 2011 3:34 pm

Wish my first day had gone that well....
Tea is for mugs...
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GeordieBrewer

Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by GeordieBrewer » Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:36 pm

Great result mate! =D> =D> =D>

Looks like you've an almost identitcal setup to me...

I stuggled a bit with sparging on the coolbox at first, and my started off with a foil roasting tin which I put loads of holes into with a darning needle. Not have a perforated galvanised sheet shaped to slot in the top of the coolbox (the mod I'm most chuffed with!)

You also have the same Burco as me.... I don't have a hop strainer, and use muslin bags.... can I ask how you attached the hop strainer, as it looks like you have the original Burco tap?

You'll need to keep up posted how this brew turns out... looks a gud'un :)
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Underthethumb

Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by Underthethumb » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:07 am

Hi Geordie Brewer,

the hop strainer was straightforward in the end. I bought a female connector from Wickes to replace the locking nut that was there before, and then inserted a piece of 15mm copper pipe into the compression fitting, drilled with lots of holes.

I think this was the one:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/compression-fem ... vt/424900/

This is how it ended up looking:

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Hope this helps

:wink:
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phatboytall
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Re: First brew day - a success I think?

Post by phatboytall » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:32 am

Cracking pics, looks like a textbook first brewday!

Just keep everything clean from here! Would love to see a pic of the finished pint and how close it tastes, i love this beer.

Get planning the next one :-)
I am not a Beer expert.....thats exactly the point.

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http://www.thebeerbunker.co.uk/ or find me on twitter @thebeerbunker
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