1st AG

[macsrevenge]

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.

 

[llannige]

Well done on making the big step,I'm sure you enjoyed it. :clap:

Try not to rush things,be patient and as your technique gets better so will the end product.It gets easier the more brews you do.

I'm sure this one will turn out well by the sound of things. :thumb:

Let us know how it progresses.

 

[Neil09]

Nice one :

Look foward to the pics :party:

 

[Muddydisco]

Nice one Mac, me and you both did our first AG last weekend!

 

[EskiBrew]

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.

Glad you had fun :thumb:

That looks like a shade under 49% efficiency I reckon. Not great but it was your first brew so don't feel bad :clap:

 

[jamesb]

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:

:lol:

BTDTGTTS.

Congratulations on your first brew, don't worry about the problems - they'll usually sort themselves out as you brew more.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Well done with the first mash :thumb:
Just an observation that may help with your efficiency, reading your post it reads as though your sparge process was, drain tun of sweet wort, add 12L of liquor, stand 15 mins, drain ?
If so you could have added a second batch of liquor to the mash tun to extract more of those lovely sugars :)
A theoretical batch sparge for your beer would have been,
Mash with 13L and two separate liquor additions of 11.5 L, after losses to absorption by the grains, evaporation and dead space etc this should have left you with 20L :thumb:
I hope this helps for next time :)

 

[highwayman]

Well Done Mac :clap: :clap: ....Keep us updated on how the beer turns out :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Well done Mac, hope the brews a good'un :thumb:

 

[A T]

Well done mac :clap:

 

[Wez]

Nice one mac :thumb:

 

[macsrevenge]

Cheers for all the support guys : , plenty of things to think about for next time.

Was going to post some pictures of the process but forgot to put the memory stick in the camera. So was taking lots of lovely photos and storing them no where

Anyway, the bubbling has settled down a bit now, another week or so in the fermenter and then into bottles.

 

[dennisking]

Always good to see a cherry popped.

 

[Vossy1]

Was going to post some pictures of the process but forgot to put the memory stick in the camera. So was taking lots of lovely photos and storing them no where

:lol:

 

[macsrevenge]

Managed to bottle the brew up a couple of weeks back, added some isinglass (1/2 tsp dry reconsituted in 250 ml water) to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar and gave half an hour to settle. Those fish guts work good!

Trialled one last night. There is still a bit of chill haze but the isinglass has really done the trick, the yeast is pretty secure on the bottom of the bottles. There was a bit of chill haze but not enough to get scared about (might have to try the feck test at some point).

Smooth, fresh and nicely bitter. A bit like a more bitter belhaven best (but tastier ). Will be interesting to see how it matures. This batch is actually for a wedding so glad the first AG turned out well or I would have been in big trouble!

Going to make something paler next time. Does anybody know who to phone/e-mail to get water electrolyte reports in Perthshire?

 

[jamesb]

There is still a bit of chill haze but the isinglass has really done the trick, the yeast is pretty secure on the bottom of the bottles. There was a bit of chill haze but not enough to get scared about (might have to try the feck test at some point).

Chill haze is proteins coming out of suspension, not yeast. Give it time and the yeast should eventually clear down.

 

[macsrevenge]

The beer was clear before going in the fridge, only developed a haze when cold and cleared up again when warmed.

I had added irish moss to the boil and used a wort chiller with a good cold break (whole volume cooled within 10 mins of turning off the heat). Anything else I can do to minimise protein haze?

Thanks.

 

[jamesb]

Auxillary finings such as Polyclar will help.

Alternatively, you could chill the beer down to about 2degC and keep it there for a few weeks until all the protein has dropped out - pretty much the same as lagering. I don't fancy this one myself though unless I was doing a lager.

TBH, fridge temperature is too cold for beer anyway. I've seen big name microbreweries beer get chill haze when it's been put in the fridge. I wouldn't worry unnecessarily.

 

[tubby_shaw]

The beer was clear before going in the fridge, only developed a haze when cold and cleared up again when warmed.

I had added irish moss to the boil and used a wort chiller with a good cold break (whole volume cooled within 10 mins of turning off the heat). Anything else I can do to minimise protein haze?

Thanks.

There are traditional methods to reduce chill haze. These include a 50C protein rest during the mash, the use of adjuncts and sugars to reduce the amount of protein and lagering :thumb: