First All Grain Day - TTL

[SMB]

Morning brewers. Long time lurker, first time poster ....

I'm doing my first homebrew for about 30 years this morning - a Timothy Taylor's Landlord clone all grain recipe from Malt Miller. I used to do kits way back in the day when I was a teenager - with very mixed results - but have been inspired by a mate to take up the hobby again. It also coincides with a recent mass clearout of my garage which has allowed me to setup a "brewing area".

I know the gateway brew is supposed to be via malt extracts, but I got seduced by the shiny stuff and brought a Mash Kettle so am going somewhat in at the deepend.

So far, so good. Currently mashing the grains after having cleaned all the kit last night. I boiled up a batch of water in the kettle in case there were any residue chemicals/oils from the production process. The kit came with a Wyeast "smack pack", which I've given a good smack. It's now swelling nicely - ohh Matron!

I let you know how it goes.

 

[Rwilts]

Don't forget to take some pics,,, sounds like a good day ahead for you. Still waiting on my first brew if the year and it's APRIL !

 

[YeastFace]

God speed

 

[SMB]

Well that all went remarkably well for a first time brew. Only one real drama. When starting the boil I nearly had a boil over, despite there being a lot of head-space in the kettle. A bit of vigorous stirring for about 30 seconds got it under control, plus putting the hop-spider in seemed to help to dissipate the foam.

OG came in at 1.042, which was just a little shy of the recipe target of 1.045, but I can live with that.

A few pics of "the rig" below. Very pleased with Klarstein. It maintained the desired mash temp to within a few degrees, and kept a nice gentle rolling boil when set to the max (103C). I've seen a few youtube videos that recommended this setting, and it was spot on.

A few things I wasn't expecting:

1) Look a lot longer than expected to get the wort down to desired temp post boil - about an hour. The wort chiller got it to about 25C but then the temp just would not move. In the end I transferred the wort to the fermenter at that temp and then put the fermenter it in the fridge for a while to get it to 20C before pitching the yeast. The main issue I think is that the wort chiller sits quite high in the wort - the top couple of loops were above the wort level. I may need to extent the vertical bits of the tubes so it sits lower.

2) Lots of brown scale at the bottom of the kettle when I was cleaning it afterwards. Is that what is known as "beer Stone"? Came off with some Barkeeper's Friend and a lot of elbow grease.

3) iSpindel calibration seems out of whack .The gravity using the hydrometer was 1.042, iSpindel showing 1.034! Temperature is spot on though.

 

[Rwilts]

I struggled to get wort down to pitching temp when using a chiller, so I have stuck with no chill (have a look at discussions here about it , but certainly shortens brew day). Sound like you have a bit of scorched wort on the element , happens a lot of you have any control over element you can try lower settings.
I love my I spindle but they are not the most accurate, good for monitoring progress but not for accurate measurements, again a good thread on here all about it.

O and get brewfather if you haven't already.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Well that all went remarkably well for a first time brew. Only one real drama. When starting the boil I nearly had a boil over, despite there being a lot of head-space in the kettle. A bit of vigorous stirring for about 30 seconds got it under control, plus putting the hop-spider in seemed to help to dissipate the foam.

OG came in at 1.042, which was just a little shy of the recipe target of 1.045, but I can live with that.

A few pics of "the rig" below. Very pleased with Klarstein. It maintained the desired mash temp to within a few degrees, and kept a nice gentle rolling boil when set to the max (103C). I've seen a few youtube videos that recommended this setting, and it was spot on.

A few things I wasn't expecting:

1) Look a lot longer than expected to get the wort down to desired temp post boil - about an hour. The wort chiller got it to about 25C but then the temp just would not move. In the end I transferred the wort to the fermenter at that temp and then put the fermenter it in the fridge for a while to get it to 20C before pitching the yeast. The main issue I think is that the wort chiller sits quite high in the wort - the top couple of loops were above the wort level. I may need to extent the vertical bits of the tubes so it sits lower.

2) Lots of brown scale at the bottom of the kettle when I was cleaning it afterwards. Is that what is known as "beer Stone"? Came off with some Barkeeper's Friend and a lot of elbow grease.

3) iSpindel calibration seems out of whack .The gravity using the hydrometer was 1.042, iSpindel showing 1.034! Temperature is spot on though.

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Well done! Is it happily fermenting away now?

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Well done on the brew day and nice write up. Looking forward to your next brew day blog.