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:
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:
