macsrevenge
Active Member
Have spent the last month wandering around plumbing supply stores and the like trying to finds bits that fit together for a mash tun manifold and a counterflow cooler. Much drilling, hammering and swearing later we have :
32 litre square beverage cooler mash tun with square copper manifold :)
67 litre brew pot with tap
counterflow wort chller with hozelock attachments :party:
Pics to follow :)
so we were ready for our first AG brew.
Followed the same recipe as our last brew for Amber Pale Ale from the "how to brew" book and used the all grain option, changed the amounts for batch sparging gave us :
4kg pale maris otter
0.5kg crystal 60
0.5kg crystal 90
.25kg wheat
safeale S05
northern brewer, mt hood and williamette hops.
recipe aiming for OG of 1.055
10:00 - brought 25 litres of water to 77 degrees in the pot
10:30 - forgot to preheat mash tun, added grains with help of 8 year old nephew, calculated that 18 litres would give us 3 gallons of first runnings, added water - 68 degrees - happy with that, temp did drift down over 1st 15 mins to around 62 degreed (?due to not preheating) added another litre of boiling water and back to 68, no problems with heat loss following this.
11:30 - first runnings drained - 12 litres at gravity of 1.062, further 12 litres added to mash tun and stirred, 68 degrees again (been lucky today) and left for a further 15 mins.
11:45 - second runnings - 12 litres at 1.027.
12:15 - rolling boil on gas stove top - 1st hops added, yeast placed in bowl with water to rehydrate
12:45 - second hops added
13:00 - last hop addition and 1tsp of rehydrated irish moss added.
13:15 - hooked up to our new counterflow cooler to garden hose - new kitchen water feature installed - my soldering isnt up to much obviously :whistle: ! with the help of a towel and bucket the spray is controlled, wort turned on - went in hot, came out cold! - 5 gallons chilled in 5 mins, great cold break - v. happy with that.
13:20 - 17 litres in total - obviously had a bit more lost in the boil than anticipated. OG 1.045.
13:25 - yeast pitched, aerated and into FV. now in cupboard at 20 degrees, bubbling nicely.
Pretty happy with the brew day as a whole, already thinking about the next! A few technical hitches to overcome - mainly the leaks in the counterflow chiller. Also don't seem to have got particularly good efficiency from the mash, given we have ended up with 2 litres less and 10 gravity points fewer than the recipe was stating. Will do the sums when I get a chance and any ideas on how to improve the efficiency much appreciated.
32 litre square beverage cooler mash tun with square copper manifold :)
67 litre brew pot with tap
counterflow wort chller with hozelock attachments :party:
Pics to follow :)
so we were ready for our first AG brew.
Followed the same recipe as our last brew for Amber Pale Ale from the "how to brew" book and used the all grain option, changed the amounts for batch sparging gave us :
4kg pale maris otter
0.5kg crystal 60
0.5kg crystal 90
.25kg wheat
safeale S05
northern brewer, mt hood and williamette hops.
recipe aiming for OG of 1.055
10:00 - brought 25 litres of water to 77 degrees in the pot
10:30 - forgot to preheat mash tun, added grains with help of 8 year old nephew, calculated that 18 litres would give us 3 gallons of first runnings, added water - 68 degrees - happy with that, temp did drift down over 1st 15 mins to around 62 degreed (?due to not preheating) added another litre of boiling water and back to 68, no problems with heat loss following this.
11:30 - first runnings drained - 12 litres at gravity of 1.062, further 12 litres added to mash tun and stirred, 68 degrees again (been lucky today) and left for a further 15 mins.
11:45 - second runnings - 12 litres at 1.027.
12:15 - rolling boil on gas stove top - 1st hops added, yeast placed in bowl with water to rehydrate
12:45 - second hops added
13:00 - last hop addition and 1tsp of rehydrated irish moss added.
13:15 - hooked up to our new counterflow cooler to garden hose - new kitchen water feature installed - my soldering isnt up to much obviously :whistle: ! with the help of a towel and bucket the spray is controlled, wort turned on - went in hot, came out cold! - 5 gallons chilled in 5 mins, great cold break - v. happy with that.
13:20 - 17 litres in total - obviously had a bit more lost in the boil than anticipated. OG 1.045.
13:25 - yeast pitched, aerated and into FV. now in cupboard at 20 degrees, bubbling nicely.
Pretty happy with the brew day as a whole, already thinking about the next! A few technical hitches to overcome - mainly the leaks in the counterflow chiller. Also don't seem to have got particularly good efficiency from the mash, given we have ended up with 2 litres less and 10 gravity points fewer than the recipe was stating. Will do the sums when I get a chance and any ideas on how to improve the efficiency much appreciated.