My first AG brew

[sozzled]

Well after meddling with the recipe , I went with this to get a lager/amber ale type brew

6 lbs pale malt MO
2.3 lbs lager malt
1.8 lbs crystal malt
3.5 oz flaked wheat

1.76 oz saaz for 60 min boil

yeast salfager W 34-70

ended up with OG 1042 which was down from the 1047 which I had hoped for but maybe the mash was nt efficient enough

well the mash seemed to go ok but temp dropped down to 61 c which probably didnt give me the result i expected but next time i will insulate better & start with slightly higher strike temp.judging the water quantities was a bit hit & miss but now I know how much I lose on mash , I can adjust it for next brew.

boiling went ok & I used hop bag since I hadnt added a strainer to bottom of boiler , the homemade cooler worked a treat & got the wort down to 20 c in 30 mins.

Eventually got it transferred upstairs in fermenting bucket to spare room , added the yeast & it is fermenting nicely.

Q1. is a hop bag ok or is using a strainer & letting the hops float on the wort essential
Q2. is strike water better at 70 c because while adding all the grain & stirring it , it loses a few degrees from my homemade mash tun (cooler box converted)

[kane]

Hi sozzled,

Looks like you had a pretty smooth first AG! I couldnt even think about takinig pictures on mine!

Regarding strike temperature, i usually heat my strike water to about 80C and transfer it to the mash tun, to let the mash tun preheat and drop to strike temperature (usually about 74C for me).

Cheers
kane

[sozzled]

thanks kane , regarding strike temp mine was about 68 c which didnt allow much cooling since 65c was the planned mash temp , next time I will use 74c & hopefully get a better mash result as my mash tun isnt very well insulated (cool box with polystyrene insulation) , but i wrapped it in a thick quilt to help

[kane]

Oh i forgot to mention, you can use aleman's strike temperature calculator

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

This should give you pretty much the desired result.