May the force be with you ðŸËâ°
Cheers.
Hopefully with this beer it'll be the Dark Side.:lol:
May the force be with you ðŸËâ°
@HOPMONSTER:
Will boiling in two pots increase the amount I'll lose in evaporation??? Yes. It'll be trial and error, maybe have a practice run with water.
Also thinking about the option of doing a partial AG and adding some DME to produce a full 23 ltr batch. This would make the mash and boil volume more manageable but will the end result be noticeably different? I wrote a how to on this too, it works well, a partial mash beer with DME can be very close to AG beer in quality.
Last question! I have bought my grain, hops and yeast but forgot to order Irish moss. I know this helps with clearing but I could live with cloudy beer if there's no difference in taste. (I do have a packet of wilko finings - could I use this instead of Irish moss?) Yes just use the finings.
Good luck. :thumb:
First attempt at using grains went into the FV today. Think it'll be a bit more bitter than I intended, but you live/you learn I guess! :) OG came out at 1.048, so pretty happy with that
Currently had about a week in the fv. Experiencing the old newbie "it's infected" terror... Google search suggests I'm looking at yeast rafts!
Had a nice thick krausen after 4/5 days but gravity hasn't really moved as much as I'd thought it would. og 1048, currently sat at 1020 after 8 days... Ah well. Patience is a virtue I guess!
:clarity edit: smells and tastes ok though. Though I may have overdone the bittering hops
How hot was the mash at the beginning? I have had mashes that were at the upper end of acceptability and perhaps a tad more (they have got as high as 70C) and this knocks off the beta amylase enzyme that makes your fermentable sugars out of the malt starch. This leaves you with unfermentable sugars which are great for mouth feel and (for me) flavour, but leave you with a rather higher final gravity than you might want. The brew before last that I made finished at 1.019 after a fortnight. I'm noit bothered, it is still at 5.8% Abv before carbonation, so I'm expecting it to be a great drink and entirely to my taste. A always try to mash at about 68 for that big mouth feel effect, but I overshot a bit that time.
On the other hand, if your brew has been a little on teh cold side it might just be working slowly. What yeast did you use and what temperature was it kept at?
Thanks for the reply!
Haven't got my notes at the moment, but I think temp was around 67, losing a degree or 2 over the 1hr mash.
Might just be working on the slow side. Don't know what temp it's been sat at, but it's sat in a double glazed spare room, so shouldn't be too cold.
Yeast was just some generic unbranded sachet of English Ale yeast from my LHBS. I used the same type in a reasonably successful extract brew before Xmas...
Whatever's the issue, it's a fairly tasty also & with a bit of bottle conditioning should be OK. I'll see what it does by the weekend I guess
:edit: for info same yeast brand went as low as 1008 last time
congrats on your first AG, what was the recipe?
Thanks!
It was the Cornish Tin Miners Ale recipe from Greg Hughes book. Described as a satisfying malty ale with undertones of blackcurrant. Has First Gold and Bramling Cross hops. Fingers crossed it will be a good one - I've only found one review online and the chap who brewed it was I bit disappointed. Still, it's going like stream train at the moment - so far so good.
All went OK for me at the weekend... I think...
Going to try and whittle down all the things I want to do and come up with a sensible second AG.
I think if I write a shopping list for all the recipes I want to try, see which ones share ingredients and go from there.
Looking forward to it, as I thoroughly enjoyed the first one.
Just wait until you get to drink it Notlaw. If it is as I expect, you will be enjoying it a lot.
Thanks Tony. I'm going to try my best to leave trying it until Easter weekend, so I've got 8 weeks to wait.... I'll give it my best shot :-?
Hi All,
I am going to do a batch of AG on Saturday morning, and looking for a bit of advice. I was going to do a dead simple brew, I currently have in stock just some Maris Otter and some Fuggles Hops, so I am a bit worried I'll end up with a beer a bit lacking in taste.
Should I pick up something to add to it? I have a local shop that will carry the basics.
cheers,
Herb
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