AG Brew.. need some answers before I dew...

[jonewer]

Help! So I have my first AG coming up fast but still have some gaping holes in my knowledge before I start my first mash.

I plan to

1. Switch on my boiler to heat the liquor up to the correct temp
Q. How do I know what the correct temp is? How do I know how much liquor I need to heat?

2. Warm up the mash tun and chuck out the water... add heated liqour
Q. How much liqour to add?

3. Add my grain and dough it in

4. Leave for 90 mins

5. Sparge.
Q. How? Add the total volume I want and then drain off? Or drain off, then add more liqour, then collect a second batch? What temp should the liqour be? How much should I use?

:wha:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Q. How do I know what the correct temp is? How do I know how much liquor I need to heat?

Aim for a temperature of 74 C This is known as strike heat :thumb:
To start heat at least 25% more than your required finished batch size. i.e if you are brewing 25 litres heat at least 31 litres. You may need more or less depending on the losses in your system, but this is a good starting point.

2. Warm up the mash tun and chuck out the water... add heated liqour
Q. How much liqour to add?

Why waste the water you have heated ? Add the liquor to the mash tun at 80C and wait for the temp to drop to 74C :thumb:
The recommended amount is 2.5 litres of liquor per kilogram of grain.

5. Sparge.
Q. How? Add the total volume I want and then drain off? Or drain off, then add more liqour, then collect a second batch? What temp should the liqour be? How much should I use?

It depends on your sparge technique I would recommend batch sparging, use THIS CALCULATOR to get your rquired amount of liquor :thumb:

I hope that has helped :)

 

[jonewer]

Answers some questions, thanks! :thumb:

 

[prolix]

1. Switch on my boiler to heat the liquor up to the correct temp
Q. How do I know what the correct temp is? How do I know how much liquor I need to heat?

I batch sparge and heat all the water up at once 1.5 times the final volume. To 80 degrees pour required 2.5l per kg into the mash tun and allow it to drop to 74. Add grain dough in take temp and snuggle the tun up.

5. Sparge.
Q. How? Add the total volume I want and then drain off? Or drain off, then add more liqour, then collect a second batch? What temp should the liqour be? How much should I use?

Depends on mash tun size, for me. I work on principle that grain hold it's weight in water, so if I had 4 kg of grain and 10 L of Liquor then I would want to add 10L, at 80c (9 plus 1L dead space) first sparge to get 15L wort, then 15l of liquor to get 15L second sparge (with 15min wait for sugars to go into wort). total of thirty litres as I will loose at least 3L to boil, 1L to dead space and 1L to hops. Which should leave me at least 23 L in the fermenter.

You will need to find your dead spaces by filling the mash tun with water draining it then measuring what's left same with the boiler.

Do not worry first time go for something like above then if the length is short or long you can adjust accordingly next time

You might want to make a dip stick for your mash tun, hot5 liquor tun and boiler so you can measure these volumes. I mad one by adding water and marking off an aluminium rod.

 

[jonewer]

OK so need some more guidance! :wha:

Based on what the calculator threw out below

Total volume of water: 32.8 L Total quantity of water required
Calculated wort volume: 26.7 L Calculated wort volume required for the boil
Batch Volume: 13.4 L Collect two equal quantities of wort from the mash.
Water required for batch #1 19.4 L Total quantity of water required for batch #1.
Mash Volume: 12.5 L
Top up Volume: 6.9 L
Water required for batch #2: 13.4 L

I need to heat roughly 33L to 80C get roughly 27L wort.
I first add 19.4 L at 76C and dough in.
Tuck in, sing lullaby (hairs on dicky dido seems appropriate) then 90 mins later drain.
Add another 13.4L and... leave for how long before I drain this out?

Whats the Top up volume and Mash volume from the calculator?

Edit - OK Done some more reading

I need to heat roughly 33L to 80C get roughly 27L wort.
I first add 19.4 L at 76C and dough in.
Tuck in, sing lullaby (hairs on dicky dido seems appropriate) then 90 mins later top up with 6.9L water What temperature?.
Then drain
Add another 13.4L and... leave for how long before I drain this out? What temperature to add the water at?

 

[tubby_shaw]

OK so need some more guidance! :wha:

Based on what the calculator threw out below

Total volume of water: 32.8 L Total quantity of water required
Calculated wort volume: 26.7 L Calculated wort volume required for the boil
Batch Volume: 13.4 L Collect two equal quantities of wort from the mash.
Water required for batch #1 19.4 L Total quantity of water required for batch #1.
Mash Volume: 12.5 L
Top up Volume: 6.9 L
Water required for batch #2: 13.4 L

I need to heat roughly 33L to 80C get roughly 27L wort.
I first add 19.4 L at 76C and dough in.
Tuck in, sing lullaby (hairs on dicky dido seems appropriate) then 90 mins later drain.
Add another 13.4L and... leave for how long before I drain this out?

Whats the Top up volume and Mash volume from the calculator?

Edit - OK Done some more reading

I need to heat roughly 33L to 80C get roughly 27L wort.
I first add 19.4 L at 76C and dough in.
Tuck in, sing lullaby (hairs on dicky dido seems appropriate) then 90 mins later top up with 6.9L water What temperature?.
Then drain
Add another 13.4L and... leave for how long before I drain this out? What temperature to add the water at?

Add your sparge water at @ 76C, give it a stir, let it settle for a couple of minutes, recirc the runnings until it clears, then drain job done :thumb:

 

[jonewer]

Brilliant! I'm pretty chuffed with the way my last extract has fermented so I reckon I now have the confidence to go ahead... All I need now is a free day and an empty keg! Better get drinking that yucky stuff I brewed using pots and pans in the summer... :sick:

I reckon I'll use

5kg marris otter
150g flaked barley
200g cara-red
50g chocolate malt

Should give me a nice malty ruby brew....

And some hops... What goes well with this? I have loads of hops, might go with traditional fuggles/goldings.... also have bobeks, progress, and bramlings

SO4 yeasties....

Any thoughts?

 

[Wez]

For me, I'd use a Fuggles and Bramling Cross combo.

 

[jonewer]

For me, I'd use a Fuggles and Bramling Cross combo.

Brilliant. How about 50g fuggles to bitter and 10g fuggles/40g bramling to flavour? with the possiblity of another 10g bramling for aroma....

Will be calibrating my volumes this weekend so hope to do my first AG on the 14th/15th......

 

[Wez]

Have a play with the recipe calc (see buttons top left on the banner) that will help you create a balanced beer.

 

[jonewer]

So just to check I have the correct method:

1. Heat up water to 80C
2. Add my first volume and wait for it to hit 76C
3. Dough in
4. Leave 90 mins
5. Add my top up at 76C and stir
6. Recirc first runnings and drain when clear.
7. Add sparge water and stir
8. Wait 15 mins
9. Drain

Is this the way of the dark side?

 

[jonewer]

Anyone? This weekend may be the one I lose my AG cherry!

 

[tubby_shaw]

Anyone? This weekend may be the one I lose my AG cherry!

Yes mate you've got the idea :thumb: