Horners Brew Day

[Horners]

So with a whole 3 two can kits under my belt since getting bitten by the bug at Christmas I took the opportunity of having the house to myself to get my first extract attempt going yesterday.

It was a packaged up Theakston OP recipe and rather than going through it blow by blow here are some observations of a newbie brewbie:

1. I was heating stuff up in a Klarsteiner thing that I saw relatively cheap in New Year and prematurely purchased hoping that it would come in useful. Whilst probably a bit OTT for the job in hand I would observe that it got up to temperature v quickly and once the first batch of hops went in it kept a rolling boil no bother at all.

2. I was surprised how viscous/sticky the liquor was that came off steeping the speciality grains - also think this was half an hour where at 67 degrees you could leave it to itself whilst you got on with other prep.

3. Surprised at how hot and heavy even a whole 300g of wet cereal was.

4. Having put in first round of hops, a kg of malt extract can't believe how volatile the whole 7 litres or so of boiling liquid looked - would be very nervous with 3 times the volume.

5. After an hour it is very aromatic/ stinks. My missus used to work for an arm of Bass up at the Maltings in Burton and when she got back in it definitely bought back bad memories.

6. Using the supplied chiller coil I struggled to get the temperature down - perhaps because post evaporation there was not enough depth to immerse it in.

7. Given cooling issues bunged a few jugs of cold in.

8. Wort drained out of tap into FV on the floor very easily creating plenty of aeration ( I think from what I've read that' desirable at this stage.

9. The one real slip up of the day - forgetting the water I'd added to cool down I ended up making it a bit long. Maybe 14.5 litres instead of the intended 13. OG came out at 1050 so I guess if the yeast performs I'll be a few points shy of the ABV of the intended brew.

10. Pitched at 22 degrees, temperature stable and 24 hours in healthy looking Kreusen.

In summary it was actually quite a full on afternoon and great hobby, only a shame that in all that time I watched Liverpool lose, England rugby and Palace also lose.

Notwithstanding the slight **** up on the measurements, got high hopes. Even the wort from the sample tasted a cut above the kits.

Cheers

Horners

 

[Dutto]

..............

3. Surprised at how hot and heavy even a whole 300g of wet cereal was.

This is one reason why I Mash one day and Boil the next.

5. After an hour it is very aromatic/ stinks. My missus used to work for an arm of Bass up at the Maltings in Burton and when she got back in it definitely bought back bad memories.

If SWMBO doesn't ban you from the kitchen you are well ahead of the game.

6. Using the supplied chiller coil I struggled to get the temperature down - perhaps because post evaporation there was not enough depth to immerse it in.

To speed up the cooling process keep swirling the wort around.

7. Given cooling issues bunged a few jugs of cold in.

A normal thing to do.

8. Wort drained out of tap into FV on the floor very easily creating plenty of aeration ( I think from what I've read that' desirable at this stage.

Very desirable. :thumb:

9. The one real slip up of the day - forgetting the water I'd added to cool down I ended up making it a bit long. Maybe 14.5 litres instead of the intended 13. OG came out at 1050 so I guess if the yeast performs I'll be a few points shy of the ABV of the intended brew.

Only one slip-up! :bow: Keep going, you will have plenty more! :thumb:

In summary it was actually quite a full on afternoon and great hobby, only a shame that in all that time I watched Liverpool lose, .............

Surely you've got used to that by now! :wave:

A great narration. Thanks for that! :thumb:

 

[AdeDunn]

Regarding 5, my wife loves the smell of boiling wort, for me it depends upon the hops I've used as some smell better in the boil than others. You really can't beat the smell of mashing malt though, like delicious Horlicks!

8 Reminded me of the poor sods who at some point forgot to close the tap on their FV, and very literally poured wort from the kettle onto the floor....

 

[Dutto]

............

8 Reminded me of the poor sods who at some point forgot to close the tap on their FV, and very literally poured wort from the kettle onto the floor....

Sod off! :headbang::headbang:

 

[AdeDunn]

Sod off! :headbang::headbang:

Sorry bud. lol

Heh if it's any comfort, you can always remember the time I tried to run my RO filter ready to brew, and instead the tap under the sink broke clean off, flooding the kitchen....

I have to check the taps, and check again, as some sod bag here likes to mess with the FV taps when they're empty... As I found out when I handed one to my wife to use for RO water, and she didn't bother to double check the FV tap...... Puddle...

 

[Dutto]

Ouch!! That hurts!

However, blaming your wife for anything? Well, "Good Luck" with that one! :wave:

I've never managed to pin anything on mine for over 30 years now! :UKflag:

 

[Poochops]

Well done Horner you're on the slippery slope now, there's no going back! The next one you do will go much more smoothly from the experience, and when you taste the results you'll be amazed you produced it yourself.

 

[Horners]

Quick question - as you can see from the attached I made no attempt to strain the wort. The hops had sat in the grain bucket/ mash filter and no solids were apparent in the wort. Is the beer likely to be full of tiny bits of hop or will they drop out (if there are any)? Any thoughts gratefully received.

 

[Ciaran12s]

Quick question - as you can see from the attached I made no attempt to strain the wort. The hops had sat in the grain bucket/ mash filter and no solids were apparent in the wort. Is the beer likely to be full of tiny bits of hop or will they drop out (if there are any)? Any thoughts gratefully received.

Do you cold crash? If so it'll definitely be fine. If not it will still be fine. Do you rack to a bottling bucket?

After an AG brew I'll end up with some trub and hop debris settled in the FV. It compacts down and after racking to a bottling bucket, using a muslin/nylon straining bag, I get crystal beer to bottle. I, through my work schedule, leave most beers in the FV for in or around 4 weeks.

 

[Horners]

Do you cold crash? If so it'll definitely be fine. If not it will still be fine. Do you rack to a bottling bucket?

After an AG brew I'll end up with some trub and hop debris settled in the FV. It compacts down and after racking to a bottling bucket, using a muslin/nylon straining bag, I get crystal beer to bottle. I, through my work schedule, leave most beers in the FV for in or around 4 weeks.

Thankd Ciaran. Ability to cold crash depends on the weather. Iwill purchase some muslin to use between FV and bottling bucket. Any additional risk of oxidation - im assuming muslin can sit low in the bucket so that I can keep the end of syphon submerged.

 

[Dutto]

,,,,,,,,,- im assuming muslin can sit low in the bucket so that I can keep the end of syphon submerged.

You only need a bit of muslin (about half the size of a handkerchief). When I used muslin, I kept it in place on the end of the syphon tube by means of a small tie-wrap; and then dipped both of them in boiling water to sanitise them.

Now I use one of these ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M74BQ8K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

... (you can buy them cheaper than this one) at the end of a syphon tube as indicated the photograph below.

 

[Ciaran12s]

You can put the muslin on either end. It's best to boil it beforehand to sanitise. I usually just soak in starsan and it's been ok so far.

I did have trouble letting air in to the syphon on my first attempt. I put it down to the nylon bag being on the suction side of the syphon. It may well have been that the tube was still slightly kinked in places from being in the packet.
After that I put the bag on the outlet side of the siphon and had no problems. (muslin will want to float so sanitised spoons or marbles inside it is a good idea)
I also only cold crash with the weather if it suits. Over the winter I tried putting the nylon bag on the suction side again and it worked no problems at all. I'm sure it was kinks causing friction in the flow that first time.

 

[Horners]

So 8 days in the FV and a quick gravity measurement to check that things are progressing nicely, we're down to 1012 and co tents of jar taste flipping exceptional. Given yeast a gentle ztir to see if i can squeeze out an extra couple of points but my goodness feeling pleased