AG#1 - Dave O's Christmas Cracker

[gsidford]

Well the day has come to do my very first AG Brew, my partner in crime cannot get over due to snow so the Tim Taylor Landlord clone gets put aside and the Dave O's Christmas Cracker kit from the Worcester Hop Shop gets pulled out.

So to ensure that everything is in place a little check list:

• SWMBO Authorisation gained (check)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• hlt, tun, boiler in working order (check)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• ingredients in place (check)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• Taps closed where they should be closed (check)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• Kids out of the way sledging (check)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• Pre-requisite skill (fail)[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]

Ok, ready to get started then ...

First time use for the tun, it has been test driven so not totally in the dark.

Spinny sparge arm from Hampstead Brew Centre

So assembled the ingredients and organised them so I know what should go when

And finally water in the tun and mashed in, now just waiting on the 90 minutes with it nicely tucked in under a blanket.

One thing I did without thinking was to run the mash water from the hlt in via the sparge arm. That lost 10 degrees so I needed to add more water to get it back up to strike temperature of 72 degrees. Once I added the grain the temp dropped to 64 degrees, so more water was needed to bring that back up to 66. Next time I will remember to get the water from the hlt in a less cooling way and also when I adjust to the strike temperature I can drain off some so I maintain my planned volume of water in the tun. As it is I have about 3l more than planned, but that is all good learning stuff.

For the moment I am just enjoying the fantastic smell coming off it all !

Ok, so 90 minutes on we are off .... well not quite, I had forgotten to turn on the hlt at the right time so we are running about 10 minutes late. Checked temperature which is now 67 degrees, so my initial measurement was a bit off which I am guessing that I was concerned about stirring too much that I didn't mix well enough. Based upon my earlier 90 minute trial, I am think my real initial temperature was about 68 degrees.

First runnings taken; sweet as told to expect, but slight bitterness which I am hoping is just the chocolate malt.

Sparging intiated after the first 4 litres put back on top of foil placed on the grain bed, foil removed and then sparge arm left to get it's work done.

25 liters of wort collected before the gravity rapidly fell from 1010 to 1002.

Once stirred, gravity of wort collected is 1036.

Questions for you expert denizens of the dark arts

• I am presuming when the boil is on, as the volume of wort decreases the gravity will increase, but will it get near the 1047 which the recipe predicts ?[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]
• All criticism of my technique gratefully received, I have noted a few areas where I have fallen foul, but any thoughts/comments will only help me to get better in future[/*:m:3bvf1c8n]

 

[Sean_Mc]

:clap: :clap: :clap: I love reading beginners introductions to the dark art :clap: :clap: :clap:


Lovely pics and looks a good brew :thumb:

 

[kampervan]

what temp is the og taken as my 1st one was similar but at 70 deg so after correction 1.057

 

[Wendy1971]

Looks like you did good on your brew we had a few hiccups on our first attempt but easily fixed. :

 

[gsidford]

what temp is the og taken as my 1st one was similar but at 70 deg so after correction 1.057

Oh how silly of me to forget that, I have retaken a reading and 1040@46degrees = 1049.

Now when Graham Wheeler says to stop when you have your desired amount of wort or when it has reached 1008, is that a temperature adjusted measurement is he giving. If so the 1002 I stopped at was actually about 1021

So maybe I haven't made such a boob as I thought.

 

[highwayman]

You did great G ...Well Done mate :clap: ...But..the best is yet to come ..the finished beer :grin:

 

[gsidford]

Boil has now started so on the downhill run now. Since the garden hosepipe is all frozen my immersion cooler cannot be used, so I will have to fall back on persuading SWMBO to aid me in getting the boiler out into the snow and let that do the job.

 

[31bb3]

How much wort did you finally end up with after the boil i tend to lose around 6 ltrs in the boil so i sparge more to compensate

 

[gsidford]

Boil hasn't finished yet, but will let you know.

I did intend to get another 3 litres out of the sparge, but when it hit 1002 I stopped. Now I realise that if I had temp adjusted the reading I would have actually been at 1021 and would have had more to get out of it, but c'est la vie we live and learn.

 

[31bb3]

A good bit of kit is a brix calculator mine cost about £20 but you only need a small drop of wort and the temp is virtually correct straight away then you cvan keep sparging till the required volume is achieved
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/0-32-ATC-BRIX-REF ... 35aec8189d

 

[rickthebrew]

Great first brew day dave - what hops are you using and how many? Looks like an excellent first attempt, well done :thumb:

 

[gsidford]

A good bit of kit is a brix calculator mine cost about £20

Thanks, good to know about, maybe when I have a few more under my belt this might be a good idea.

what hops are you using and how many?

The recipe is here: http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=55

But to summarise

Fuggles 28 g at start of boil
First Gold 23g 10 mins to go
Fuggles 7g at end of boil

 

[gsidford]

How much wort did you finally end up with after the boil

21lites in the end so a 4 litre loss.

 

[Good Ed]

Well done mate. Like my 1st AG its a matter of getting used to the process and the kit. I can't wait for my 2nd one.

I've got the same sparge arm from Hamstead, and if you have a problem with flow due to lack of head height, you can take the arm off by unscrewing the ferrule and use a scourer on the brass to get it clean and shiny so it spins well.

Also I thought from your pics that you were sparging with the lid on your mash tun, if this was the case then you would be better off getting rid of the lid so you can see and maintain 25mm of water above the grain while sparging.

You've got the sampling stage to look forward to now :drink: :drink:

 

[caerleon]

Welcome to the Darkside! :

 

[31bb3]

I have a spinny sparger from hamsted aswell mine sticks aswell i remove the lid then you can see how much water you have over your grains as you sparge i tend to allow about 2 or 3 inches

 

[gsidford]

I didn't have any issues with the sparger sticking, but it did squeak well so the suggestion about taking it apart and giving it a good buff might hopefully quieten it down and put off the chance of it sticking.

Also with the arm in the lid, I didn't have much of an issue in seeing where the water level was and the flow in and out worked out easy enough in this run. Not to say it wont be an issue on other brewdays.

 

[rickthebrew]

I take it your name is not dave then :lol: What yeast are you fermenting with? Looks a lovely recipe it`ll be a great pint even though it won`t be ready for xmas

 

[gsidford]

Hi, no not a Dave and yes not ready for Christmas but Brewed at Christmas so I think the name still stands.

This kit came with S04, but I am trying the Design A Brew Beer yeast, the chap at Hampstead I was talking to was extolling the virtues of their strain and the way it clears down easily, so I thought it would give it a go, nothing to loose.

A bit slow to get started as the temperatures are not ideal, but going well now.

 

[pjbiker]

Now when Graham Wheeler says to stop when you have your desired amount of wort or when it has reached 1008, is that a temperature adjusted measurement is he giving. If so the 1002 I stopped at was actually about 1021

So maybe I haven't made such a boob as I thought.

In my experience, I can collect about 65L of wort from about 10kg of grain over about 1 1/2hrs and the gravity (corrected for temperature) never gets as low as the 1.008 Graham suggests so I don't worry about it.
I do tend to collect and sparge at a quicker rate ~ 0.8-0.9L/min to start with then slow it down towards the end when the sugar concentration in the mash has lowered significantly. Usually get around 75% overall efficiency though have achieved 80% with longer sparges. I think having a heated HLT for the sparge water may improve things, I still need to make one but it's imminent.