AG#1 Theakstons Old Peculier

[Floodster]

Well tomorrow is the day.. after months of reading, buying/making equipment I have come to the point where it is time to just do it.

In one way I am worried about certain things so I expect a sleepless night with things on my mind. Such as:
Have I worked out the amount of water required correctly?
Have I got all the temperatures written down correctly for the various processes?
Am I going to create a lot of steam damage to the house?

But hey.. only one way to find out.

I have gone for an all grain kit from my local brew store which actually has the same ingredients in it for Old Peculier as is in Graham Wheeler's book and wasn't priced bad at all.
Have all the instructions written down step by step, checked all the equipment so lets see what happens tomorrow!

Thanks to the people on this forum that has got me this far.

 

[carl_saint]

Good luck! Done the GW recipe twice and both times it turned out better than the original IMO!

 

[joe1002]

Enjoy and keep us updated (with pics :lol: )

 

[Good Ed]

just relax and take your time, no need to rush, if you get stuck with anything there'll be somebody about on here. First one is exciting though

 

[Floodster]

So far so good. Just started the 90 minute boil.

Only real problem I have had was during sparging. My sparge arm wouldn't turn and I slightly paniced and then noticed I had a lot of malt coming out of the mash tun.
So I took the sparge arm off and went for the jug over foil method. My only concern was about how much water to put on top of the foil and the temperature of that water.

Ah well it's all learning isnt it.

Anyway some pics -

Mash tun at desired temp -

Mash tun nicely wrapped up

Mash tun after 90 minutes (not sure how it went up?)

Stupid sparge arm...

Coming to the boil

 

[Baz Chaz]

Well done on the brew so far, hope all continues well :thumb:

.......Only real problem I have had was during sparging. My sparge arm wouldn't turn and I slightly paniced and then noticed I had a lot of malt coming out of the mash tun.
So I took the sparge arm off and went for the jug over foil method. My only concern was about how much water to put on top of the foil and the temperature of that water.

Thats how I sparge as well, I pour water onto the foil and water temp is at 70 deg, pour it over until theres about an inch of water over the foil, drain off 2 or 3 jugs of water from the tap and re-circulate ie pour back onto the foil, check mash temp is around 68, adjust water temp that is being added as you go :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

looking good :thumb: I don't know if you can take your sparge arm apart at the ferrule, but if you can just go over the fitting with a kitchen scourer or wire wool to reduce any friction.

 

[Floodster]

Well it's done and in the fermenter.

The SG came in lower than expected at 1050 should have been 1058 probably due to sparge not being the best. I lost 7 litres during the boil? If I take into account 1 litre due to dead space and say 0.5 litres due to hops that would mean 5.5 litres due to boil. Seems a lot.

 

[carl_saint]

That's perfectly normal loss for a 90 min boil!

If you use SO4 yeast it should attenuate lower than the stated 1.015 in GWs book. So 1.050 should still turn out to be around 5.2 maybe 5.4%.
Good effort!

 

[PD]

well done on your first brew. Did the kitchen decorations survive ? ..

If you cut back to a 60 min rolling boil, I don't think you will notice too much difference in your brew. I certainly havent.
I also do a batch sparge out of personal preference and it seems to make for a more relaxing mash time.

Still now the first brew is done you can relax and enjoy many more " perfect brew days " where absolutely nothing goes wrong,,,, :twisted: :twisted:

 

[carl_saint]

I always 60 min boil! It's the way forward!

 

[Dr Mike]

Congrats on your first AG :clap:

I had same problem as you with spinning sparge arm on my first and have gone to the tin-foil method since. It's so easy I don't feel any need to try and get the sparge arm to work !

 

[Floodster]

well done on your first brew. Did the kitchen decorations survive ? ..

lol yeah they did!

Congrats on your first AG :clap:

I had same problem as you with spinning sparge arm on my first and have gone to the tin-foil method since. It's so easy I don't feel any need to try and get the sparge arm to work !

Yep, think mine is pretty much going in the bin after using the tin foil method.

 

[bobsbeer]

Well done. :clap: Now you can plan AG 2. hope the beer tastes great which I'm sure it will. :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

well done on your first brew :clap:

if you allow 1.6L/100g of hops for absorption and displacement, my losses to evaporation are 9% per hour and I also allow another 1L for a 23L brew for a reduction in volume as your wort cools; you'll soon get used to your equipment, and the best way is to get another brew on :

 

[VSat]

With that size cool box you could batch sparge which is even easier

 

[Vossy1]

Well done on breaking your Duck F :clap: and time to take pics too
I would say they get easier from here in but there's always 'something' :lol: ...a brew day wouldn't be the same without that little 'something' :lol:

 

[flyan]

Good luck with it Flood. I still expect a bottle in the post

 

[LeedsBrewer]

well done :thumb:

 

[hairybiker]

WRT the sparge arm, you probably need more head (height) on your HLT, if it is gravity fed. I feed mine using my solar pump and controller and pump the water from the hlt on the ground to the MT on the counter, then gravity feed my boiler via tubing. (Only issue is priming the pump before connecting it to the LONG (~3M) pipe I keep connecing it first)

Might try an OP tomorrow, was going to do a Dark Island but not had an OP for a few years now.