AG #001 - Irish stout

[BrewDan]

Well I am finally doing it (as we speak, its 16:20 and I still have about 40 mins left on my mash) I am making the homebrewcompany irish stout kit

So today has been interesting, I started building a wort chiller, using the guide that BigYin put together, I got about half way through and could not get the joints to stay together :x , I have only ever soldered one joint prior to today, and that was a few weeks ago using lead based solder and some waxy flux, needless to say that I cannot for some reason work with this lead free solder and water based flux, it just doesnt seem to flow very well when it melts, so the wort chiller will have to be completed in a few days time once I have cleaned up all the joints again, and this first batch of AG will have to be chilled in the bath.

Anyway, back to now, using my 'bootsale bargain baby bucro' for this, and all seems to be going well so far. I filled it up to around the 6.5G mark added warm tap water, a camden tablet, and a tablespoonof mash PH stabaliser, heated this up to 71C and then added my grain bag, and grains, gave all a good stir and I hit my mash temp spot on at 67C, quite impressed as its my first attempt!

Anyway, as I said, I am typing this as I go, the instructions with the kit say to mash for 60 mins, but I think I am going to do a 90 min mash as I am going biab and probably wont be sparging as I dont think I will be able to without making a complete mess all over the floor.

That is pretty much where I am at currently, if anyone does happen to be reading this on Christmas eve, any pointers would be great for the next few steps, should I attempt to sparge, should I do a mash out, or should I mash for longer? :whistle: its all good fun, cant wait to start adding the hops!! :thumb:


Have a good christmas all, shall update this a bit later on once I have figured things out, Cheers!! :


Edit 16:39 - Just as I posted this (slow typing today) , went back to check the temp, its been 55 mins, and the temp droped from 67c to 65c, so I have fired the burco up for a bit and started to stir to bring the temp back up , is this ok? :hmm:

 

[graysalchemy]

Welcome to the Darkside young Padawaan, :twisted: :twisted:

 

[PD]

go for it I've never BIAB'd but I didn't think you sparged with that method, just dunked....

anyways I'm sure youve read all about it and know what to do,

Have fun and enjoy the stout in January...

 

[BrewDan]

Thanks guys, I shall keep you all posted!

 

[dennisking]

Well done Dan. :thumb:
Did you see the post a few weeks back about a local meet. viewtopic.php?f=29&t=32421

 

[Fireblade]

Using my make-it-up-as-you-go-along BIAB method, I lift out the bag at the end of the 90-min mash, support it on a baking tray over the boiler or FV, and sparge by slowly jugging water at about 70C to get the rest of the goodness out of the grain. Probably no more than 3-4l, stop when the runnings are no longer a nice colour.

Seems to work so far, but sure I'm only on my 3rd ever brew.

Good luck, and Happy Christmas,

FB

 

[jonnymorris]

Welcome to AG and Merry Xmas. I'd rather be brewing than wrapping presents. Got any pictures?

p.s. I made my wort chiller without any soldering. Worth considering if you're having issues.

 

[BrewDan]

Not long to go now, just finishing off the boil.

In the end I did a 10 minute mash out, the temp went slightly higer than what I wanted, but I will know now for next time, that the electric is tricky to control. I also sparged the grain bag with 2 kettles worth of water, which took me up to 6G, I am guessing that a fair bit will boil off, so I should think I would end up around the 5Gal mark.

Time will tell, as for pictures I will see if I can get a couple up over the next few days, I didnt really take many to be honest, as I just wanted to do this one to get a feel for the whole process, AG#2 will have plenty of photos!

Thanks all :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Well done on your 1st AG Dan and welcome to the dark side :clap: :party:

went back to check the temp, its been 55 mins, and the temp droped from 67c to 65c, so I have fired the burco up for a bit and started to stir to bring the temp back up , is this ok?

Modern malts will convert in around 45 mins so I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to test for conversion and have iodine handy place a drop of iodine on a white plate, then a few drops of mash runnings, it should stay brown if done, it'll purple if starch is still present and it needs longer :thumb:

 

[BrewDan]

Mostly tidied up now, it's been in the fermenter a while sitting in the porch with the door open, which I hope will help cool it a bit. I will move it indoors later, I dont think I have anything to stick it in, and the bath will take ages to fill as its quite large.

Will this be ok to bring Indoors , leave it in the fermenter under airlock, and pitch the yeast in the morning?

I only took a few photos, as I just wanted this to be an experiment to see if everything worked, not really a fan of electric so I want to go about building a gas based system.

Anyway thanks for the help and comments, it doesn't Smell too bad, and its very dark! Didn't have any iodine to do a test, I'm guessing it's worked as the residue was very sticky, so I think we have sugars!

Here are the few photos I took during the process:

Wort chiller pre soldered

Hitting the mash temp spot on

Grains, filled to the brim

After the hop bag went in, they were pretty potent!

Filled fermenter sitting in the porch

Steamy wort!

Stuck the spent grains outside in a bag to drain and cool, as long as its ok to do so, they will be a horse's Christmas breakfast tomorrow morning, shall get a photo of that up tomorrow. If anyone knows If the above is a bad idea , please let me know. I should think it would he fine as its only grain, the hops were not added by that point, cheers

 

[LeedsBrewer]

Well done on your 1st AG Dan and welcome to the dark side :clap: :party:

went back to check the temp, its been 55 mins, and the temp droped from 67c to 65c, so I have fired the burco up for a bit and started to stir to bring the temp back up , is this ok?

Modern malts will convert in around 45 mins so I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to test for conversion and have iodine handy place a drop of iodine on a white plate, then a few drops of mash runnings, it should stay brown if done, it'll purple if starch is still present and it needs longer :thumb:

on another thread someone said use iodine or videne. does videne do the same thing?

 

[LeedsBrewer]

well done Dan :thumb:

 

[joe1002]

Well done & welcome to the dark-side :thumb:

 

[BrewDan]

Yeast pitched, og 1.051, instructions state 1.045. So I shall leave it a few weeks to ferment, pitched the yeast a little warm, but I didn't want to leave it any longer as I was worried about infection.

It was great fun, and will be the first of many, just tried a small bit from the sample I pulled, wow!!! As long as this ferments out, I have high hopes for this, the sample was very sweet, but it had such a lovely roasted dark flavour to it


Happy Christmas all!:grin:

 

[cnelsonplumber]

Well done on your first AG. :-D

 

[pittsy]

yes well done Dan , that's it now no turning back . It's a slippery slope .....but it's worth it