First Brew Day underway

Alexislife · Aug 31, 2015

Thanks to today being a bank holiday i'm now getting underway with my first brew day :)

All the equipment is what i got from Get er Brewed with the BIAB Starter kit, the AG kit i got with it is their Hoppy Pale Ale.

As i type the Grain is currently mashing and i have sterilised everything in anticipation of moving on, 30 minutes left until i the next step of boiling and adding hops etc.

Taking various photo's throughout out so will post these later of anyone is interested:)

Soundtrack to todays brew (for anyone like me who thinks these things are important) is the New Chelsea Wolfe Album "Abyss"

Halfacrem · Aug 31, 2015

Good luck!

Hope it goes well.

Alexislife · Sep 7, 2015

Hello,

Attached a bunch of photo's from my brew day, most the gear used is the stuff i got from get er brewed.

All told it seemed to go ok, my biggest issue was chilling the wort as much as i wanted as quick as i wanted to. Before my next brew day i think i'll be investing in a submersible pump. i figure i can adapt the hose i have using a couple of hoselock clips then could chill the first stage with the tap and use iced water to really get the temp down at the end.

The photo of the temp of the thermometer is what my the heat was after the hour the grain was mashing for. I'd wrapped the boiler in a fleece blanket and towel to keep the heat as this is what i had available. Water started at 65c and ended at 61.5c which doesn't seem too bad? (please correct me if i'm wrong)

The brew has been in the FV for a week now, hadn't seen much activity in the airlock but took a gravity reading earlier and things seem to be progressing so i'm not going to panic too much. Will give it another week and see how we're getting on and then hopefully will be ready to move to bottles to condition.

Any suggestions/criticism on anything please let me know:)

Lesinge · Sep 7, 2015

Alexislife said:
Thanks to today being a bank holiday i'm now getting underway with my first brew day :)

All the equipment is what i got from Get er Brewed with the BIAB Starter kit, the AG kit i got with it is their Hoppy Pale Ale.

As i type the Grain is currently mashing and i have sterilised everything in anticipation of moving on, 30 minutes left until i the next step of boiling and adding hops etc.

Taking various photo's throughout out so will post these later of anyone is interested:)

Soundtrack to todays brew (for anyone like me who thinks these things are important) is the New Chelsea Wolfe Album "Abyss"

Hope it works out for you. I have 2 Get Er Brews on the go at the moment one using extract malt and the other Maris Otter but both have very little hop profile at the bottling stage so I wonder whether there is an issue with the hop tea bags? Using Muslin bags gives me a far bigger profile in my other beers.

Alexislife · Sep 8, 2015

Lesinge said:
I wonder whether there is an issue with the hop tea bags?

Thanks Lesigne. I did wonder about the Hop tea bags. They seemed rather bloated at the end of the brew which I thought must restrict them movement of the hops around the wort, but this was my first brew so what do I know! (Maybe they should make pyramid bags)

Hope your brews go well.

Leon103 · Sep 21, 2015

Where did you get that thermometer from?

Alexislife · Sep 22, 2015

Leon103 said:
Where did you get that thermometer from?

The thermometer came in the BIAB kit I got from Get Er Brewed.

Not sure if they sell them individually but if I remember when I get home tonight I'll check the details on the box and let you know what it is.

MrBarrySir · Sep 28, 2015

Hi Alex, I've just done this brew myself after buying the same kit. How did you find the false bottom? Did it stay in place and did you use anything to prop it up?

Did you sparge at all and did you have to top up with water at any point? At the end I was left with just 15l in the fermenter. (which I topped up with tap water)

Alexislife · Sep 28, 2015

MrBarrySir said:
Hi Alex, I've just done this brew myself after buying the same kit. How did you find the false bottom? Did it stay in place and did you use anything to prop it up?

Did you sparge at all and did you have to top up with water at any point? At the end I was left with just 15l in the fermenter. (which I topped up with tap water)

Hello Barry,

The false bottom isn't great, didn't really stay in place at all. I did another brew yesterday using dried hops and so may got under it that it clogged the tap when I went to move it to the FV (I'm thinking about putting the hops in a bag next time). I started a thread when I first got the kit which has some good ideas regarding the false bottom (here), there's a suggestion of using some nuts and bolts which I think I'll give a try.

I didn't sparge but I took the bag out of the wort and left it in a colander in the FV which after it had cooled a little I have it a bit of a squeeze then transferred this to the boiler. I think I ended up with about 17.5l over all which I was happy enough with.

Going to be giving the brew a try on Thursday after having it conditioning in bottles for the last two weeks :)

Alexislife · Sep 28, 2015

Leon103 said:
Where did you get that thermometer from?

Looked at the box and it doesn't say much more than LCD Thermometer, looks pretty cheap to be fair. Does the job though.

MrBarrySir · Sep 28, 2015

Alexislife said:
Looked at the box and it doesn't say much more than LCD Thermometer, looks pretty cheap to be fair. Does the job though.

They must have changed what thermometers they are giving out with the kits, received one of those cheap Chinese probe ones. It's digital and does the job but takes a while to get to the correct temperature.

MrBarrySir · Sep 28, 2015

Alexislife said:
Hello Barry,

The false bottom isn't great, didn't really stay in place at all. I did another brew yesterday using dried hops and so may got under it that it clogged the tap when I went to move it to the FV (I'm thinking about putting the hops in a bag next time). I started a thread when I first got the kit which has some good ideas regarding the false bottom (here), there's a suggestion of using some nuts and bolts which I think I'll give a try.
)

The problem I seemed to have was it was rising up during the boil. I used a metal microwave stand thing with the false bottom resting on top, perhaps it wasn't low down enough to get a tight seal. I don't see how using bolts would keep it from popping up though :?

Alexislife · Sep 29, 2015

MrBarrySir said:
The problem I seemed to have was it was rising up during the boil. I used a metal microwave stand thing with the false bottom resting on top, perhaps it wasn't low down enough to get a tight seal. I don't see how using bolts would keep it from popping up though :?

I'm hoping that the bolts might add a bit of weight to the false bottom to help prevent it rising up a little.

I think for my next brew I'll be using a bag for the hops to see how that turns out.

I had my first try of one of the bottles from the brew session using the "Hoppy" ingredient kit last night. it had been conditioning for just under two weeks but it had been one of those days and was the only beer I had in the flat. Was a little under-carbonated so I'll be leave the rest for a wile before chilling. Taste wise for a beer called "Hoppy" it was a lot less hoppy than I'd hope for, still it was perfectly drinkable so none of it will go to waste:)

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