NickW
Landlord.
Hello all,
Well, after a rather stressfull but interesting day I have finally completed my first All Grain brew! With a big thanks to Pittsy who helped me so much before the day came.
Its Pittsy's Hefe. Here is a screenshot of the brew:
The water I used was asda smart price, 36l in total accounting for all my dead space. As recommended by aleman, I added 1tsp gypsum to the mash and one to boil.... oh, ****, hang on... I accidently added one tsp to the mash (great), and 1tsp to the sparge water
... hope that wouldn't effect things too much 
1.) Sterilised everything by running and thin bleach solution through everything...
2.) Enjoyed a pint of the coopers aussie bitter whilst I waited!
3.) Accidently forgot to add boiling water to the mashtun to warm it up before adding my water and grains , and also added the grains before the strikewater, but I think I got away with it as there didn't seem to be any clumping as I mixed well.
4.) Weighed out my hops into mugs, 25g start of boil, 15g @ 15min.
4a.) Added 18l of strike water, this went right up to the brim, just about managed to fit the top on the mash tun!
5.) Took a reading, my mash was at 65c, 1c below my target of 66'c. I put this down to not warming up the mashtun before adding the grains and water, I will remember this next time! I wrapped my mashtun in a blanket and left it for 90 mins.
6.) I drew off the liquor until it was clear of bits then poured it back into the tun, took about 5 litres to do so.
7.) Started sparging, tin foil with several holes in it. One side of the tub seemed to have a lot of raised grain on it. Next time I may give the mashtun a shake before I set it down to even out the grain (maybe do this before the mash?)
8.) Temp near the start of the sparging was 64/65. I'm presuming this will result in a slightly drier higher ABV beer. (Temp of strike water was a relatively constant 78c)
9.) Temp of the mash dropped to around 62'c near the end of the mash , despite strike water being 78'c
10.) After the mash was finished I was left with a lot of wort, well, I think I was. Had to drain the cube once (into the boiler) to accomodate the rest of the wort coming out the mashtun. I syphoned the rest into my boiler.
11.) Was left with this much wort
12.) After half an hour or so, wort came to a nice rolling boil and I added my hops at the stages mentioned earlier:
13.) While the wort was coming to the boil, I actually nipped off to the shop for a couple of ales, this one in particular was a few months out of date, but tasted just fine... :mrgreen:
14.) Stupidly, during the boil, I got rid of the rest of my wort that was in the cube, rather than adding it all to the boil... I think I am now left with a few litres short as I forgot a lot of liquid would be left behind in the boiler
Looks quite short... (I'm not sure of the quantity these cubes hold):
11.) Anyway, newbie mistake over, the rest of the wort is cooling in a bin in the back garden with a few water bottles that were frozen added to the bin too...
Before I go to bed tonight I'll put the cube in my brew fridge, drop it to 2'c (or as near as I can get) then bring back up to 20'c to pitch my yeast starter.
I hope this is OK as a brewday thread as I've never done one before
Thank you all for your help along the way :thumb:
Well, after a rather stressfull but interesting day I have finally completed my first All Grain brew! With a big thanks to Pittsy who helped me so much before the day came.
Its Pittsy's Hefe. Here is a screenshot of the brew:
The water I used was asda smart price, 36l in total accounting for all my dead space. As recommended by aleman, I added 1tsp gypsum to the mash and one to boil.... oh, ****, hang on... I accidently added one tsp to the mash (great), and 1tsp to the sparge water
... hope that wouldn't effect things too much 1.) Sterilised everything by running and thin bleach solution through everything...
2.) Enjoyed a pint of the coopers aussie bitter whilst I waited!
3.) Accidently forgot to add boiling water to the mashtun to warm it up before adding my water and grains
, and also added the grains before the strikewater, but I think I got away with it as there didn't seem to be any clumping as I mixed well.
4.) Weighed out my hops into mugs, 25g start of boil, 15g @ 15min.
4a.) Added 18l of strike water, this went right up to the brim, just about managed to fit the top on the mash tun!
5.) Took a reading, my mash was at 65c, 1c below my target of 66'c. I put this down to not warming up the mashtun before adding the grains and water, I will remember this next time! I wrapped my mashtun in a blanket and left it for 90 mins.
6.) I drew off the liquor until it was clear of bits then poured it back into the tun, took about 5 litres to do so.
7.) Started sparging, tin foil with several holes in it. One side of the tub seemed to have a lot of raised grain on it. Next time I may give the mashtun a shake before I set it down to even out the grain (maybe do this before the mash?)
8.) Temp near the start of the sparging was 64/65. I'm presuming this will result in a slightly drier higher ABV beer. (Temp of strike water was a relatively constant 78c)
9.) Temp of the mash dropped to around 62'c near the end of the mash , despite strike water being 78'c
10.) After the mash was finished I was left with a lot of wort, well, I think I was. Had to drain the cube once (into the boiler) to accomodate the rest of the wort coming out the mashtun. I syphoned the rest into my boiler.
11.) Was left with this much wort
12.) After half an hour or so, wort came to a nice rolling boil and I added my hops at the stages mentioned earlier:
13.) While the wort was coming to the boil, I actually nipped off to the shop for a couple of ales, this one in particular was a few months out of date, but tasted just fine... :mrgreen:
14.) Stupidly, during the boil, I got rid of the rest of my wort that was in the cube, rather than adding it all to the boil... I think I am now left with a few litres short as I forgot a lot of liquid would be left behind in the boiler
Looks quite short... (I'm not sure of the quantity these cubes hold):
11.) Anyway, newbie mistake over, the rest of the wort is cooling in a bin in the back garden with a few water bottles that were frozen added to the bin too...
Before I go to bed tonight I'll put the cube in my brew fridge, drop it to 2'c (or as near as I can get) then bring back up to 20'c to pitch my yeast starter.
I hope this is OK as a brewday thread as I've never done one before
Thank you all for your help along the way :thumb:
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