DirtyC's dirty great AG experiment

[DirtyCaner]

Hi Everyone,

Having read what everyones saying about the AG brewing I've decided to give it a bash. I hope the results are worth it. I've decided to try it with minimum new equipment. I've taken delivery of my grain and hops etc and hope to have a bash on saturday. If anyone would be prepared to read over my proposed method and offer any feedback it would be appreciated.

Light Ale recipe - 20l

Water- Planning to pour 20l into fermentor and treat with campden and gypsum if they arrive on time.

Mash- Planning on mashing in 9l stock pot. 2.5kg pale malt and 250-500g crystal malt. As much water as I can reasonably fit in. Strike temp 71c/159f. Planning to mash for 2 hours at 65c/149f. The stock pot will be kept in insulated cardboard box and checked every 15 mins for stir and temp adjust. Then I'm planning on pouring off through sieve then into FV.

Sparge- Gonna do 2 washes of grain and stir and pour off (temp suggstions for this would be appreciated) hopefully make up to 16-18l and pour into FV with first extraction. Pour this back into the two stock pots.

Boil- PLanning to stick half the hops in each pot (total 75g challenger total) and boil them for 1 hour lid off then leave to cool 30mins lid on. Will cool each in water bath I think. I will sterilise fementer at this stage before putting cooled wart back in fementer. I plan to check gravity and adjust with sugar if needed (hopefully not) then pitch yeast

I have both 1x 11.5g safale s-04 and 1x nottingham ale yeast 12g. Which would be better?

Ferment 2 weeks and bottle.

Any thoughts anybody?

Cheers,

DirtyC

 

[richc]

I'd strongly suggest getting hold of a square meter or so of voile, a sort of thin fabric you can buy for about a pound a meter. If you drape this into your stockpot and put the grains into it you can easily lift the grain out of the pan at the end of the boil. This is basically a cheap version of the brew in a bag (BIAB) technique described in many places on this forum and elsewhere.

 

[WelshPaul]

I'd second the idea of some (unbleached) muslin to lift out the grain at the end of the mash - it makes it MUCH easier. Also, only 3kg of grain for 20 litres of liquor sounds a little low. I did very a similar one last month and the SG was only 1.030.

 

[DirtyCaner]

Thanks guys.

Richc, where abouts do u get this voile from? I kind of assumed I'd probably have to get a bigger pot for the BIAB stuff. I'll maybe give it a bash next time. Gonnabe using mates muslin bag/ jam straining thing tomorrow.

Welshpaul, I've no shortage of grain what would you suggest for something around th 4% mark? I am however restricted to mashing in my 9l stock pot...

Cheers,

DirtyC

 

[Runwell-Steve]

If you start with 20 litres of water you will lose.

Approx 3 litres due to grain absorption leaving 17L

Approx 15% in the boil, thats a bit high accounting for the fact you are using 2 pots, this will leave 14.5 Litres.

You lose 1.5 Litre per 100g of hops, so you will lose 1.1 Litres to hops leaving you with approx 13 litres of cooled wort in the fermenter.

If you get a good mash efficiency you should get an OG af about 1.045.

Your challenge will be the mash, getting 3 Kg of grain plus enough water in a 9L pot could be a challenge. Ideally you would want at least 6 L of water in with the grain which isn't going to fit.

Do you have a cool box you could use as a Mash Tun, or know anyone who has one. You could Mash in that.

 

[DirtyCaner]

I don't mate, not yet anyway...

My thinking was that (thinking chemistry) your basically creating the reaction vessel in which the enzymes make the starch to the sugars. Presumably if you kept it at right temp for long enough then its all converted and with enough washing with fresh water would be able to yield all the sugars. Maybe not?

My mates bringing another 10l pot round so could always use it for 3rd boil or whatever?

Cheers,

DirtyC

 

[DirtyCaner]

Aye right enough, just weighed everything out and your right, I can barely fit all the grain in at once. Baws...

Looks like Im gonna have to use 2 stock pots to mash in then...

 

[DirtyCaner]

Well that was a day and a half, took about ten hours all in, great fun tho.

I ended up using an extra kilo pale malt to make it just over 4kg total in the end.

I did the mash in 2 large stock pots, one 9l and one about 15 maybe, I'm not too sure. May have been 20quarts, whatever that is in litres...

I preheated them then added the water. Strike temp 159f. I mashed for 2 hours. In this time I placed the pans in two insulated carboard boxes I made. This held the temperature surprisingly well, only losing a few degress at most. I checked it every 15mins and stirred but next time would be inclined to do it every 30 mins. Temp adjustment by either adding splash boiling water and stirring or just putting pan back on stove for a min or two. I poured the mash off through jam type strainer on a stand into my FV. I sparged at about 163, simply pouring the water back into pans, I think I used too much as I would have liked to do a second wash of it.

The nick of the kitchen at this stage, just glad the Mrs was out...

At this point I had about 25L liquor, my FV filled to brim. I had to put this in 3 pans with proportional amount of hops and managed to boil for an hour. Don't know if it was the hops, the heat or few tins I'd had but was getting pretty dizzy at this stage!

We then cooled in the sink, alternating the pans 10 mins at a time, starting with the cloudiest one. This was then poured back through the serilised jam bag. At this stage I had about 15l liquor with OG of about .046 if i remember correctly. I chucked another couple litres water in, temp adjusted to 74f (same as yeast) and threw the nottingham ale yeast in. Fermentation appears to be under way.

Many thanks to all who contributed with their advice including runwell steve, welshpaul, richc, bigyin, stevanders74, wes and anyone else who ive forgotten (I was in some state by end of the day!)

I'll put some pics up if anyones interested.

I'm impressed how well the box worked. I'm now considering just investing in a giant pan to Mash and boil in, instead of a cooler. I also have about a pint of liquor that drained during the night. Is it worth keeping for something, ie boil again and add to brew? or will i just chuck it in my bread?

Cheers,

DirtyC

 

[Cyclops]

get some pics up matey, sounds a good day in the end, :)

 

[DirtyCaner]

Well that's the brew been on for 7 days. The fermentation lock has bubbled at all last few days so I've cracked FV open and taken a sample, gravity no .008 although im not 100% sure of temp, ambient room temp 19c at mo. So should be about right.

I'm thinking of bottling tomorrow, sound like a plan?

I also tried the sample, tasting pretty good, I must say! :

Cheers,

DirtyC