AG#1 - Hooky Bitter (GW) BIAB - PICTURES!!!!

[calumscott]

Morning all!

Today's the big day for the big pot. Chilli in the slow cooker already, brewsheet printed, off to gather all the stuff...

:thumb:

The recipe is an amendment to Graham Wheeler's recipe from Brew Your Own British Ale to make it grain only, and a bit stronger (mostly on account of being nervous as hell about producing, well, hoppy water), I've also monkeyed around with the hop schedule a bit, again on the principle that more is better... Brave or stupid for AG#1?!?!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 33.16 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.91 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.02 l
Bottling Volume: 21.32 l
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 17.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 23.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 87.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.5 EBC) Grain 1 83.8 %
0.36 kg Corn, Flaked (3.0 EBC) Grain 2 9.3 %
0.24 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (135.0 EBC) Grain 3 6.2 %
0.03 kg Black (Patent) Malt (1300.0 EBC) Grain 4 0.7 %
28.00 g Challenger [7.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 5 22.5 IBUs
5.00 g Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
10.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 1.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg NBS Ale Yeast 12g Yeast 8 -
20.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Dry Hop 1 Hop 9 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 3.88 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 35.53 l of water at 69.3 C 66.7 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

 

[Vossy1]

Have a great day C, enjoy the christening ...and pics are always nice :P
Nice looking pint to boot :drink:

 

[Jeltz]

Looks good :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

Got all doughed in, temperature dropped a couple of degrees, fired up the burners but ended up with afar too hot mash... 73C and falling now...

What's the effect of mashing too hot?

 

[pittsy]

Hi good luck with it , you have set your efficiency at 75% on your software , for your first attempt i would lower that to 65/70% and if its strong to can add top up but if its low you already have a low abv% , just a thought :thumb: , just seen you've posted , oh well best of luck

 

[calumscott]

Came up a couple of points short on the mash but I'd lashed in a couple of extra litres of water when the mash got too hot so I'm not too phased.

Boil on now...

 

[RokDok]

Congratulations C,

Keep the news coming.

I bet it's nice to see all the work you've out in to getting your kit sorted starting to yield.

Cheers

RD

 

[calumscott]

Boil all went well, gave it a good while longer on account of that extra water and it looks like I've hit my gravity target.

Happy!

 

[calumscott]

OK, so I ended up with less wort than I thought I would... 21 litres now in a bucket and sat out in the back garden cooling...

...off to the fireworks, photos when I get back! :

 

[Good Ed]

a nice days work :hat: well done :clap:

 

[calumscott]

OK, so here's how it ran...

One nice big shiny pot washed and ready to roll.

And it fits on the hob. Just.

Grain and hops and hand made grain bag and whatnot.

Chilli, for afterwards...

Getting there slowly.

All doughed in and doing its thing.

Mash temp looking good, shame it didn't stay that way.

Tucked up and mashing - had to bung in a couple of extra litres of cold to get the temperature back down.

Grains out, mash over.

Challenger, first hops...

Coming up to the boil.

A nice rolling boil.

Fuggles and Irish Moss, 10 min additions.

Heat off.

Looks nice to me! :thumb:

Dropping to FV.

MONEY SHOT!! (Bang on too, well chuffed, took an extra half hour boiling though)

Lots of break crud.

Natures big wort chiller...

The aftermath...

So it's still not cool enough so I've brought it in, still sealed up, and I'll pitch in the morning.

The best of it is this should be drinking by Christmas.

I've just given myself a Christmas present. YAY! :lol:

Fireworks were ace, time for a pint... :

 

[jonnymorris]

Congrats on #1.

Love your chiller... is it any good?

 

[calumscott]

Congrats on #1.

Love your chiller... is it any good?

:lol: Not really, its still warm...

 

[calumscott]

...and this morning - wort aerated by thrashing the hell out of it with a big balloon whisk till my arm got tired, yeast pitched and tucked up.

Fingers duly crossed.

Now, the patience I so carefully fostered when brewing kits has just evaporated! I could stick a kit on and forget about it for a fortnight. In fact, I've got a Bitter that's been in FV for three weeks which needs bottling, but the AG is different... I'll be pretty much peeking in to look for the lid-bulge, the first airlock bubble...

Ho hum... :thumb:

 

[Devonhomebrew]

I used to have one of those huge wort chillers :rofl: Lasted about 5 brews then i made a smaller one which works much better :twisted:

 

[calumscott]

I used to have one of those huge wort chillers :rofl: Lasted about 5 brews then i made a smaller one which works much better :twisted:

Yeah, I'm either going to build the hosepipe counterflow or just buy a plate chiller from Rob... I'll need to do the sums but with the price of copper nowadays it might be worth the extra to just buy one...

 

[Muddydisco]

Well done :thumb: Another cherry popper tis the season by the looks :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

Looks smashing! Hooky's a great beer. Glad to hear you succeeded :

 

[calumscott]

Bloody hell!!! Do AG brews go off faster than kit brews as a rule??? Or is it Rob's yeast?

Less than two hours and I got gas production, three hours and the airlock's going. Never had one go as quick as that before...

 

[pittsy]

mostly yes but its also down to good yeast and the right temps etc and of course oxygen