First AG complete and bubbling away!

[Ciaran12s]

Got my first AG in to the fermenter last night and it was bubbling away nicely this morning 6 hours after pitching straight from the packet. (Phew)

As I was in a rush and only decided to do it last minute I called in to my LHBS where I picked a recipe fairly quickly out of one their books. Don't even know which book haha. But it's called Gemma's golden ale.

OG/FG 1.048/1.010

5.405kg pale malt
90 Minute mash at 65c 14 litres

Boil 2 hours
Progress 120g (start of boil)
Progress 20g (15min)
Irish moss 5g (15min)

I missed the mash temp by 3c. Added a kettle and a half of boiling water which brought it to 63c. Left it at that and it didn't move for an hour. I stirred it dropped to 62 and stayed there until 90 minutes up.

Kept the kettle sitting at about 82 during the sparge which took about 90 minutes all in! I intentionally let it run very slow due to worry over it looking very watery after a while. Once I had 23 litres out and swirled it up for a gravity which was 1.054 (although quite warm) I was happy that I should be on for the target gravity. (And not somewhere around 1.030 which was my fear) Then opened up full but the flow never really increased anyway. My sparge arm isn't great so that was on and off continuously the whole time.

Around 28 litres got boiled but reduced by 20 minutes as time was getting on. I started cooling as soon as the heat went off. Can't remember how long it was cooling. Maybe 15 20 minutes. Let off in to the fermenter at 21 litres. Topped up with 2 litres of cold water and was at 20c. OG 1.050

I never got a chance to put any decent filtration device on the boiler so it was drained out through a muslin to the fermenter. May have got quite a bit of crap through but it has to sit for nearly four weeks by the time I get back from work and bottle.

That's it in action

 

[Fore]

Nice one. Well done. Decided last minute... I think I spent one and a half years planning mine :lol:.

Still find it surprising when I see new starters choosing fly sparging. Maybe I was corrupted by American Youtube videos.

 

[Ciaran12s]

Well it's been a few months in the making but was going to get everything built and ready to go, then get a recipe and plan it all out. I have to leave for work tomorrow and as everything was complete I though sod it. I'll get some grain hops and yeast and give it a bash.

It was a bit of pain that sparge really. That and a filter for the boiler are top of the list for kit adjustments so far. What way do you sparge?

 

[Fore]

Batch sparge. The aim is to get 2 even sized wort volumes out of the mash tun (assuming a single batch sparge). Throw water in for the mash, calculated at a predetermined liquor to grist ratio (as I guess fly spargers do). Then at the end of the mash you top up with whatever is necessary to meet the even half (obviously stir, 5 min rest, vorlauf, drain). Then add the rest of the water that will achieve the near even split (stir, 5 min rest, vorlauf, drain). I don't know, it just seems simple, as opposed to running water through constantly for near an hour. I never quite figured out how fly spargers choose to stop, but maybe they already calculated the water volume, like us batch spargers do. Never really put much thought into it.

It's supposed to be the case that fly sparging is more efficient. Can't talk from experience, other than to say I get 78-80% batch sparge mash efficiency. Which for me is fine.

 

[Ciaran12s]

I was giving it a a bit of a stir the last half or so. I think I chose this method because it apparently increases efficiency but it's also really simple from a construction point of view. Inside the tun is 15mm tube with a fine stainless mesh bazooka type idea. As I say I let it run very slow but then fully opened and found little to no increase in flow. That process took around 90 minutes. So no matter what method I'm guessing that to drain 30 litres from the tun is going to take that length of time anyway.

I had to keep switching the heat on and off and starting and stopping the sparge as well as it was either dribbling pathetically all at one end or else horsing out. I'll have a ponder and do some.more research for next time. I'm sure I'll be tweaking for many a brew to come

 

[IainM]

Nice one. Is 120g of progress for 2 hours a typo? If not then this will be a very bitter brew!

 

[Fore]

90 minutes seems a lot, for batch sparging anyway. Speed can be variable, depending on crush, water temp, and other things I don't fully understand yet, as it still seems completely random to me. I've never timed it, but I'm thinking each of my 2 batch run-offs takes roughly 15 minutes. It's been longer with fine crushes. The boiler is already switched on as the second is running out, so I'm not losing that time.

But I think that was always the pay-off between the 2 approaches, time vs efficiency. But as I say, I get 80%. Even if you get 85%, you've saved only pence on the grain. And I think I'm right in saying that a fly sparge setup can't be anything but more complicated than a batch sparge setup. I just have a 12 inch bazooka in the bottom of my mash tun and that's it. I pour the sparge water in by hand directly from my HLT. I don't need any "fly" setup.

I hope I don't start the age old fly vs batch argument. I only know batch and it seems easy enough to me.

 

[Ciaran12s]

No 120g is right. I thought myself but just went with the recipe. It wasn't particularly bitter out of the trial jar though.

Yeah, my bazooka is maybe only 6 inches roughly so that could have an impact. I'm up for trying all different ways. That seemed to work well with the og being a couple of points above target but it was lengthy and required a fair bit of input. That was maybe me worrying too much about everything though. I'll likely end up batching anyway after another brew or two. As I say the sparge arm wasn't particularly good so I'd be happy enough for that go.

 

[Grizzly299]

120g of progress isn't too crazy, after all its a reasonably low alpha hop similar to Fuggle. Couple that with the slightly higher boil gravity and I'd say your brew will be a little less bitter than the recipe intended. Probably not noticeably so. Unless the recipe specified AAU's then because there's a good variability in the Alpha acid content of hop crops, there's a good chance e the bitterness would vary anyway.

 

[Ciaran12s]

The recipe says 5.5 but my packets were 4.6 so there's another reduction straightaway. I'm not sure if you can up the weight to get the AAU but as it was quite alot anyway I wasn't even going to bother thinking about that

 

[Covrich]

Congratulations! however it turns out I am sure it will be okay and you will learn plenty for the next one.!!

 

[Ciaran12s]

Cheers! Yeah I'm fairly confident that it'll be at least ok. Smells and tastes good prior to fermenting so happy enough so far.

 

[chesters-mild]

You will never go back to kit beer again once you have tasted the finished and conditioned beer, well done!
Cheers.

 

[Fore]

If all goes well, it should knock your socks off. In my case it didn't work out quite like that. Although I'd put a lot of time into the planning, even water treatment, my first few AGs were astringent. And that even after confirming temps, pH, final running SG, etc. It was a bit disappointing considering the prep work I'd done. But then I noticed a pattern where Blondes brewed with Pils came out really good, but my ales were still bad. So I began to believe it was the pale ale grain I was using and changed manufacturer. I wasn't going to just hope it was that though, and set about a few other changes such as using Campden tablets. Best guess, as I was buying opened partial bags of grain, is that I was being given the old dregs. Or just that that manufacturers quality was low, because it was bargain basement stuff. I can't say for sure exactly which change it was, but it's looking like the astringency problem is behind me. I'm now comfortable to share my beers and get great feedback.

Still, the motto is, even if it doesn't come out so good from the outset, persevere and it'll come good eventually.

 

[Ciaran12s]

My first couple of kits weren't great but got they drunk. It's all improved from there with tweaks and everything. I believe from the smell and taste of trial jar this should be a decent beer. Kits are still alot better than Most commercial stuff available and at the minute with my work schedule and kids I'm probably going to do an AG then a kit. However I do find myself finding more time fro somewhere to put in to homebrewing