AG #1 done!

[andylanc1975]

Well I've done my first all grain, via the BIAB method and things were OK-ish...

I used the iPhone app, Brewpal after a couple of others said they used it and got good results, however my first mistake was probably not actually following it to the letter and doing the volumes it was saying.

Started with 4kg of Maris Otter aiming for an volume in the FV around the 5 gallon mark. According to Brewpal, that was going to make a 4.9% beer (too strong for me, but I was expecting mistakes to be made, efficiency to be well off so in reality a 4% ale). Not having a recipe to follow, I went for the following hop additions:

Boil
90 minutes, 6.04 gallons

Fuggles hops 6%, Leaf 30g
90 minutes (+0)

Fuggles hops 6%, Leaf 10g
60 minutes (+30)

Challenger hops 7%, Leaf 20g
15 minutes (+75)

Irish moss Fining 1 tablespoon
15 minutes (+75)

Chinook hops 13%, Leaf 20g
0 minutes (+90)

Steep went well, to allow for grain space I only put 25 litres of water into the boiler, brought it up to 70C and then added the grain. Temp was a fairly constant 66C for the whole 90 mins, thermostat kicked in once to bring it back up as I gave it a good stir a couple of times. Mashout was 76C for 10 minutes as recommended by one of our goodselves, all was going good.

I managed to get the bag out, let as much of it drain out before my arms gave way (must come up with a pulley system for this!), sparged the bag in some water again at 66C and once that had fully drained added that to the boiler which made it up to the 30 litre mark, brought it all to the boil and took my gravity reading... this is where I think things went wrong. It was reading 1032 at 42C (took me a while to get round to reading the hydrometer so I took the temp as well in case that was important), which I thought was good?

Anyway, boil starts, and panic sets in... does it have to be a rolling boil or is it the temperature that's the most important???? Well I went for the rolling boil vote and kept it going like that for the 90 mins, adding the hops as I've put above.

Boil finished, cooling coil was in the for last 15 mins time to attach it to the tap and cool this wort down... Big problem, ***** here knew he had the right connector for the tubing but didn't bother to hunt it out prior to starting this. Hunt started, shouting began, accusations of people not putting stuff back where they're supposed to be, nerves shredded... so I ended up using gravity to get my water through the coil rather than water pressure. That took a while, after 40 minutes it had dropped the temperature down to 40 odd degrees but the kids were now complaining they needed tea, so it was leave the boiler to cool down naturally. Sample was taken to check the gravity, bang on 1042, happy days :party: Hang on a minute, once I remove the hops in their bag, plus the coil, that level is going to sink... and it did, it sank, it ended up at 4 gallons Anyway, let it cool down, transferred it to the FV pitched the yeast and went to bed feeling a bit down about it all.

This morning, there is the protein gunk that someone else has put a picture up of, so not too worried about that, there appears to be the odd bit of yeast activity so hopefully at the end of 14 days I'll have a golden ale with a hoppy aroma to it and that is more beer than shandy/ coloured water.

Rome of course wasn't built in a day, so I'll continue with AG, will try and master a simple golden ale and get my efficiencies and volumes right before playing around with different malts and more varied hops.

So good brethren, what mistakes did I make, how can I stop so much evaporating off, should it be a rolling boil constantly or is the temperature the key here and another other pearls of wisdom please?

:thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Welcome to the dark side.

 

[graysalchemy]

Dennis has beaten me to it but welcome to the darkside Young Padawan. :twisted: :twisted:

 

[joe1002]

Another cherry popped, well done :thumb:

You need a rolling boil, so you made a good decision there.

What was your boil off amount? I'll check my brewing notes tonight but from memory, if i start with 30l in my boiler I will end up 23l (ish) in my FV. This is taking into account the boil off, losses to the hops and deadspace in my boiler.

Certainly don't feel down about it, it is a steep learning curve and no-one's first AG goes exactly to plan. You will be short on volume, OG etc while you 'learn you equipment' but getting more brews in to 'learn' is all part of the fun.

I am sure what you have made will turn out well :thumb:

 

[andylanc1975]

Cheers all :thumb:

Joe, must admit, this is guess work as I don't know 100% the mark on the boiler is a true 30 litres, but at the start the wort level was on there and I ended up with 18 litres in the FV, so that's a rather steep 12 litres gone? I did have the kitchen window open at the same time as complaints were being made about the steam downstairs... oops!

 

[andyd]

Well done! I don't see too much wrong with your method, I'm no expert but it's pretty similar to what I do. Your loss to boiling and hops (from 30L to below 20L) does seem a steep. You do need a rolling boil though rather than a simmer, maybe a bit less vigorous?

You say that Brewpal suggested 4.9% at 5 gallon from just 4kg of pale malt. This can't be right, maybe you need to adjust the efficiency. I'm not familiar with Brewpal but Beer Engine suggests circa 3.9% at 75% efficiency (a sensible expectation in my experience). So your outcome of 4 gallons at 1042 is not so bad, especially for a first bash.

Let us know how it turns out, it will be worth it :)

 

[joe1002]

The boil off depends on how vigorous your boil is, the ambient temperature and humidity of the room.

Lets assume a fairly average 10% per hour, so 4.5l for 90 mins
Losses to hops say 10-15ml / gram of hops so between 80ml - 1.2l. Lets go slap bang in the middle with 1l
Loss to deadspace, i'm guessing it's not more than 2.5l??

So adding those together gives a loss of 8l, so you still have somewhere in the region of 4l or more unaccounted for. Either you have a massive deadspace in your boiler, your hop stopper/filter blocked and you didn't collect all your wort or your boil-off was inordinately high (which is unlikely as you were brewing in the house so woulnd't be that cold).

Edit: Re-read your original post. I assume you dont have a tap on your boiler? When you removed the hops did you hang them over to drain a little (without squeezing them)?

 

[andylanc1975]

The kitchen was rather cold, there's not a lot of heating in there and I'm a tight sod so that might be the explanation for this one.

I have got a tap, but not got a hop stopper hence the bag. Dangled the hops over the pan for as long as I could, to allow as much to drip out, I don't think there could have been much more than the litre you've plumped for there. As for at the bottom of the boiler, it's a buffalo boiler with the a concealed element so in theory could get as much out as I put in. Thinking about it, there was a good inch or so left at the bottom of the boiler that was full of crud, so I left it in the boiler, that might explain a good few litres actually :thumb:

Andyd, ah, efficiency... yeah, I didn't touch that figure as I had no idea what I should be looking at! Brew #2 might be a better effort, I'll aim for 70% efficiency in it and see how I get on.

 

[pittsy]

yes i was going to say put in 70% , i only get 72% after many brews , i would say you have too vigorous a boil , i try and get it so i have a least 1 area in the pot that is rolling nicely but not going mad for it all over the pan as i lose too much otherwise plus i have to collect around 32l from my runnings to boiling to get 23L , p.s a smaller amount of excellent beer is still excellent beer , get your next brew planned , p.p.s i normally brew 23l aiming for around 5% abv and use around 5kg of grain to get this .

 

[mattrickl06]

Congratulations on your first AG.

I felt exactly the same after my first one - very underwhelmed and fairly sure that i had made big mistakes and was it all worth the effort.

I did my second AG yesterday and was far more relaxed about everything - and I enjoyed the experience immensily. Everything went really smoothly and even though there were hiccups along the way I always felt in control.

My first AG about 6 weeks ago was a TT Landlord and even though i completely thought that i had messed it up, i have drank a good few bottles of it and it is superb - by far the best beer that i have ever brewed by a country mile, and almost as good as any i have tasted in a pub - I am even entering it in the Spring Thing competition - Probably for the wooden spoon prize but who cares - i am still very proud of it :rofl:

It is just a fear of the unknown on the first one but just keep telling yourself that you have made a batch of beer from a sack of malted barley and some hops - tell other people how you did it and how much you know and you will soon feel a lot better in yourself.

 

[joe1002]

I have a buffalo 40l and always have it on full blast, my losses aren't that much even in the cold weather (I brew in a concrete shed).

Get a hop filter fitted and go from there. You will still have a deadspace of about 1.8l :thumb:

 

[andylanc1975]

Well after a few nervous days, happy to confirm that the FV is blooping away with the little yeasties doing their thing, so hopefully I'll get a pint I can hoist at the end of it.

Big thanks to all those who took the trouble to help calm my nerves, hoping to get a clear day on Sunday and will start with #2 (exactly the same recipe as #1 to see if I can perfect it).

:

 

[fbsf]

Congrats - the first is always a little nerve-racking, but they do get progressively less stressful!

I normally get between 68 and 72% efficiency depending on what I'm doing. It's accurate enough for me not to worry about things too much.

I also normally get around 4-5L boil off form 30L, but I do have the boiler lid half-on as my extractor hood starts dripping condensation after about half an hour, which I really don't want in the brew, so the half-on lid collects it for me.

It'll take you a few brews to become one with your kit - once you know what it does and how it does it, you can tailor your recipe and timings accordingly.

And finally - I bet it will be one of the best beers you have tasted. Just don't panic if it doesn't taste quite right straight after fermentation or when bottling/kegging. It will take a few weeks for everything to mingle and taste the best it can. After 6 weeks or so, it'll be lovely.