Have a go at simple AG

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Afternoon all,

I finally got round to picking up some pale malt and a packet of Goldings from the very helpful guy at the Hop and Grape in Darlington.

I've got the day free tomorrow so I'm hoping to get this brew going, but I have a couple of questions first. Well, 3 actually.

First off, I haven't been able to get hold of any sort of bag to go inside my pan yet. I'll have a scour round in the morning and see what I can find but if I don't come up with anything would it be possible to add the grain straight to the water, then pass it through a sieve after? Or would this be a bad idea?

Secondly, I have a couple of 25L FVs. I'm planing to double the quantities as I have a 15 litre pan so I should end up with a 10L batch. Would the extra head room in the 25L FV have any adverse effects? Would I be better off getting something smaller?

Thirdly, and forgive me if this is a daft one! I've got a 3Kg bag of pale malt. Would it be possible to use it all in a shorter volume of water, effectively making a more concentrated wort, then top up the volume to 15L with water in the FV? I'm sure it's not as simple as that, but worth an ask!

Sorry for the lengthy post. This is my first AG so just want to make sure I know (vaguely) what I'm doing before I start.

Cheers :)
 
Afternoon all,

I finally got round to picking up some pale malt and a packet of Goldings from the very helpful guy at the Hop and Grape in Darlington.

I've got the day free tomorrow so I'm hoping to get this brew going, but I have a couple of questions first. Well, 3 actually.

First off, I haven't been able to get hold of any sort of bag to go inside my pan yet. I'll have a scour round in the morning and see what I can find but if I don't come up with anything would it be possible to add the grain straight to the water, then pass it through a sieve after? Or would this be a bad idea?

Secondly, I have a couple of 25L FVs. I'm planing to double the quantities as I have a 15 litre pan so I should end up with a 10L batch. Would the extra head room in the 25L FV have any adverse effects? Would I be better off getting something smaller?

Thirdly, and forgive me if this is a daft one! I've got a 3Kg bag of pale malt. Would it be possible to use it all in a shorter volume of water, effectively making a more concentrated wort, then top up the volume to 15L with water in the FV? I'm sure it's not as simple as that, but worth an ask!

Sorry for the lengthy post. This is my first AG so just want to make sure I know (vaguely) what I'm doing before I start.

Cheers :)
Very helpful people :thumb:
Steve
 
A sieve is fine. The big fv will be fine.

How big is the vessel you will mash in? And boil?
 
A 15L pan will be OK, no worries. Sieve will do the job, as clibit says, and a paint straining bag, a nylon net curtain, will be sufficient to strain out the liquid without having to get it all through a small sieve.

I do my boiling at a very gentle boil and can see no reason for a more vigorous boil, other than reducing the wort, which you may not need to do.

The amount of CO2 produced by fermentation means that the "headspace" in a sterile FV is not important either.
 
A sieve is fine. The big fv will be fine.

How big is the vessel you will mash in? And boil?

Awesome :)

I was planning to mash and boil in a 15 litre pan. ill be doing it out side on a gas burner this time though as I was in the bad books for stinking the house out when I did the boil on my last extract kit :lol:
 
Bottled the AG Brew #3 this morning. This one looks like a winner. The 1/2 Wirfloc tablet I used this time has left it almost completely clear as it went int the bottles. I seem to have lost a fair bit in mucky trub at the bottom of the vessel. I only got 8 litres into bottles and had an inch of slurry in the FV.

Smells and tastes nice. This time, I crushed most of the malt myself. Maybe it was a bit fine and that could be why I had so much trub. It has come out at 6%ABV from 2kg Marris Otter.
 
What hops, grains and yeast did you use?
2kg Marris Otter (1.5kg crushed by me).
Mash 68c for 18mins, declining to 66 by end of 60 mins.
Dunk sparge for 10 minutes (and stirred) sparge water at 80c initially.

11gms cascade 60min boil
10gm E.KentGoldings 60min boil
29gm cascade 5min boil (funny amount was end of packet).
IBU about 40
Yeast Coopers Ale yeast
1/2 wirflock tablet for last 15 minutes of boil.

OG 1054
FG 1010
Abv a tad over 6%

8litres bottled. Trying to filter another 500ml out of trub.

14 day fermentation and bottled today.
 
I finally got this brewed yesterday.
I did a 10 litre batch with 2k Marris Otter and East Kent Goldings. I also added 1/2 a whirfloc tablet @15 mins.

My scales are about knackered so I'm not sure how accurate my hop weighing was. I like hoppy beers but I'm hoping I haven't over done it! Time will tell.

Being a hot day it took me a while to get it down to pitching temp in the sink but I got there in the end.

Got a SG of 1044, threw in the S04 and got it sitting at about 20°C.

If you haven't already done this, get on it. The best part is, I've got a kilo of malt and some hops left so I have an excuse to make another batch :)
 
One thing I was wondering, if I was pushed for time would it be possible to mash one day, keep the wort over night and boil the day after? Or is it best to not let it get too cold in between?
 
You can do that. Just means it takes a while to heat up again. Seal it as well as possible.
 
One thing I was wondering, if I was pushed for time would it be possible to mash one day, keep the wort over night and boil the day after? Or is it best to not let it get too cold in between?

When I was investigating overnight mashing, I read you need to keep the wort above a certain temp (cant remember what ot was now, maybe around 50C) else bacteria can sour your wort. Even it you boil it after to kill the bacteria, the damage will be already done
 
I'm going to be having a go at an overnight mash tonight. I plan to add the grains c11.30pm, and get up to switch the urn (HLT?) on at 6.30am, batch sparging at 7.15am.

It's my first go, and I plan to take some piccies / post details to get some feedback from older hands.

<ETA: Black Sheep Clone>
 
Try this Clibit gave me this one and it is a great beer
Originally Posted by clibit View Post
A lovely stout:

Batch Size (L): 10.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.052
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.52 %
Bitterness (IBU): 38.4
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

1.700 kg Maris Otter Malt (75.06%)
0.200 kg Roasted Barley (8.83%)
0.190 kg Cane Sugar (8.39%)
0.100 kg Crystal 60 (4.42%)
0.075 kg Chocolate (3.31%)

18.0 g Northdown Leaf (8.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.8 g/L)
3g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Mash at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Ferment with Safale US-05

Had a nice friendly chat with the very knowledgeable guy at House of Home Brew. I bought the above with a few tweaks and one faux pas (although I think I'll be OK). Regards his website, it's never up to date so anyone from NI, don't be put off taking a trip to the shop as he has a large selection of everything.

The reason my beer was so cloudy last time was because I kept the trudge when I transferred to a demijohn! I didn't realise I had to leave most of that behind. He said most all grain brews have some cloudiness so not to worry. The proof is in the tasting. I'm gonna bottle that tomorrow.

He also said he had a brew spoil because he left it 5 hours Budgie so I'd be wary of doing it overnight.

Gonna brew this tomorrow or Sunday.

3.400 kg Irish Stout Malt (75.06%)
0.400 kg Roasted Barley (8.83%)
0.380 kg Cane Sugar (8.39%)
0.200 kg Crystal 70 (4.42%)
0.150 kg Chocolate (3.31%)

18.0 g Northdown Leaf (8.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.8 g/L)
3g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

My faux pas: The guy in the shop let me mill my own grains (makes sense as it's time consuming and he's other customers to attend to). I milled my Irish malt into 2 bags, I though to save space I'd put my chocolate malt on top as it was all going into the same bag - I forgot I only needed 150g of the stuff :oops: Just got home and removed the top 350 grams so hopefully not much of it was mixed so no real damage done.

I've now a surplus of some stuff so to stop it going to waste I'll have to start planning my next brew :)
 
Don't forget to double the hops!

I'm not sure the trub is the main reason for cloudiness. Maybe. But it should settle out. Remember to use Irish moss or protofloc or whirfloc, that will help clear the beer.
 

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