RichieBeer
Junior Member
My first AG attempt - Saturday 19th September
After a few years doing just kits I decided to have a go at All Grain. Mainly because I spotted a chap down the road from me was getting rid of a load of home brew equipment. I chose to get a recipe pack and settled on the Hopback Summer Lightning AG Recipe Pack from Brew UK. It's one of my favorite beers and at least I have a good idea of what the end result should taste like. I was given Greg Hughes' book for my birthday so I had read that and watched loads of YT videos so I though I had a good idea what to expect.
I got my strike water to temperature (12.25 litres at 73c - using the Brewers Friend mash calculator) and transferred to the mash tun and added the grain (4.9kg). After a good stir to remove the lumps the mash temperature was almost spot on the 66c the recipe called for. Recipe said to mash for 90min so after wrapping in a couple of blankets for good measure I had some lunch and sorted out my hops.
After 90 mins I checked the mash temp once more and it had barely dropped at all. I then started to drain the mash tun after recycling a couple of jugfulls until it was running more or less clear. This is when I started to have concerns - I only got about 4 litres of wort out when it stopped flowing. This surprised me. I began wondering if I had a stuck mash and the filter/tap had become blocked, or if this is the amount I should be expecting before sparging? I gave the grains a bit of a stir and a little more flowed out but not much.
Anyway I decided to go ahead and sparge (77c water as suggested by the recipe). This took a long time and a lot of sparge water until I got the 26 litres or so required.
I eventually got the wort up to boil and started adding the hops - for some reason it completely slipped my mind to use a hop bag here and I just tossed them straight into the boiler. After the 90min boil I used the chiller and got it down to 24c in about 35mins, and I then set about transferring to the sanitised FV. This is where the lack of hop bag caused big problems as it took ages and a lot of stirring to get the wort through the hop debris and filter into the FV.
Anyway, I have just under 20 litres now in the FV. I pitched the yeast at 1.053 (just over the 1.049 according to the recipe) and 36 hours later it seems to be bubbling away quite vigorously.
Overall I was fairly pleased with how the day went (started just before lunch and had the beer in the FV about 6.30pm. My main learning for next time is to use a hop bag. But I'm still puzzled about the amount of wort I got from the mash before sparging - should I have expected more?
I'm looking forward to tasting the finished product and having a go at another.
After a few years doing just kits I decided to have a go at All Grain. Mainly because I spotted a chap down the road from me was getting rid of a load of home brew equipment. I chose to get a recipe pack and settled on the Hopback Summer Lightning AG Recipe Pack from Brew UK. It's one of my favorite beers and at least I have a good idea of what the end result should taste like. I was given Greg Hughes' book for my birthday so I had read that and watched loads of YT videos so I though I had a good idea what to expect.
I got my strike water to temperature (12.25 litres at 73c - using the Brewers Friend mash calculator) and transferred to the mash tun and added the grain (4.9kg). After a good stir to remove the lumps the mash temperature was almost spot on the 66c the recipe called for. Recipe said to mash for 90min so after wrapping in a couple of blankets for good measure I had some lunch and sorted out my hops.
After 90 mins I checked the mash temp once more and it had barely dropped at all. I then started to drain the mash tun after recycling a couple of jugfulls until it was running more or less clear. This is when I started to have concerns - I only got about 4 litres of wort out when it stopped flowing. This surprised me. I began wondering if I had a stuck mash and the filter/tap had become blocked, or if this is the amount I should be expecting before sparging? I gave the grains a bit of a stir and a little more flowed out but not much.
Anyway I decided to go ahead and sparge (77c water as suggested by the recipe). This took a long time and a lot of sparge water until I got the 26 litres or so required.
I eventually got the wort up to boil and started adding the hops - for some reason it completely slipped my mind to use a hop bag here and I just tossed them straight into the boiler. After the 90min boil I used the chiller and got it down to 24c in about 35mins, and I then set about transferring to the sanitised FV. This is where the lack of hop bag caused big problems as it took ages and a lot of stirring to get the wort through the hop debris and filter into the FV.
Anyway, I have just under 20 litres now in the FV. I pitched the yeast at 1.053 (just over the 1.049 according to the recipe) and 36 hours later it seems to be bubbling away quite vigorously.
Overall I was fairly pleased with how the day went (started just before lunch and had the beer in the FV about 6.30pm. My main learning for next time is to use a hop bag. But I'm still puzzled about the amount of wort I got from the mash before sparging - should I have expected more?
I'm looking forward to tasting the finished product and having a go at another.
Last edited:
