Almost my first AG!

[Hops_and_Dreams]

I was planning to cross over to the dark side soon, when I got a text from my dad a week or so ago saying he'd found his old bruheat boiler in the loft when he was clearing it out. I thought 'great, it will save me buying one or at least tide me over until I got something else'. He dropped it off and said he'd tested it and worked ok.

So....comes to brew day today and I thought I'd give it a try to make sure it didn't leak as I thought the seals might have gone hard. It didn't leak, but it didn't boil either! The thermostat kept cutting in and out, so gave up with that and AG#1 will have to wait for another day!

As it happens, I have plenty of DME, so went for a partial mash instead. Fancied something a bit more English as I've tended to use American hops for the last few batches. Based it largely around Greg Hughes' English IPA and went as follows:

3000g Maris Otter
1000g Light DME
250g Light Crystal
100g Melonoidin

Target OG 1052
IBU 55

40g Challenger 60min
35g EKG 15min
35g EKG 0min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Rehydrate 11g Gervin GV12 and pitch at 21c. I'll probably dry hop the remaining 10g Challenger and 30g EKG for 5 days.

It's currently boiling away nicely, so looking at stainless steel boilers on the interweb to pass the time!

Think I'll invest before the next brew, so I'll actually be able to post AG#1!

 

[Slid]

I was planning to cross over to the dark side soon, when I got a text from my dad a week or so ago saying he'd found his old bruheat boiler in the loft when he was clearing it out. I thought 'great, it will save me buying one or at least tide me over until I got something else'. He dropped it off and said he'd tested it and worked ok.

So....comes to brew day today and I thought I'd give it a try to make sure it didn't leak as I thought the seals might have gone hard. It didn't leak, but it didn't boil either! The thermostat kept cutting in and out, so gave up with that and AG#1 will have to wait for another day!

As it happens, I have plenty of DME, so went for a partial mash instead. Fancied something a bit more English as I've tended to use American hops for the last few batches. Based it largely around Greg Hughes' English IPA and went as follows:

3000g Maris Otter
1000g Light DME
250g Light Crystal
100g Melonoidin

Target OG 1052
IBU 55

40g Challenger 60min
35g EKG 15min
35g EKG 0min

1tsp Irish Moss 15min

Rehydrate 11g Gervin GV12 and pitch at 21c. I'll probably dry hop the remaining 10g Challenger and 30g EKG for 5 days.

It's currently boiling away nicely, so looking at stainless steel boilers on the interweb to pass the time!

Think I'll invest before the next brew, so I'll actually be able to post AG#1!

Nice one, Hops. To me this is as close to AG, as "dammit" is to swearing!

A 3.25kg grain bill cuts it for sure :hat:

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Cheers Slid. I think 3kg is about as much as I can get away with in my current set up, sparging that much through my colander is almost pointless. Hit the target OG of 1052, which works out to the 65% efficiency I'd expected.

I'm hoping/wondering that with a new boiler, I will be able to dunk sparge using this pot and the efficiency might go up a bit. But as space won't be as much of an issue, I can just use more grain if needs be.

I've not used this yeast before, but the krausen has started to form after about 12 hours. It seems quite popular and I'd read it packs down pretty well.

 

[Fore]

Good luck with it. Exciting times! Can't stop thinking about AG myself, and bore everyone else half to death. Seems so interesting to me; why can't others see it? :grin:

 

[clibit]

That is Very close to AG. :thumb:

 

[Hops_and_Dreams]

It's down to 1011 and looks like it's done, so chucked the dry hops in and will bottle next sat. Seems to be clearing well compared to the high temperature yeast I used over the summer.

Ordered a nice shiny stainless steel electric boiler a couple of days ago, in plenty of time for the next brew - looking forward to a proper AG brew.

Another convert to add to the list Clibit!