Hello all.
I thought I'd share my experiences about my first ever AG brew. I've been brewing with kits for the best part of a year now but after tasting a friend's AG brew I had a bit of an epiphany.
Thing is, I'm also a combination of short-on-cash and tight-fisted. I couldn't justify the £200+ I was told I would need to fork out for the kit. Having done a bit of trawling on this forum and elsewhere on t'Internet and also sitting in on part of a brew day, though, I realised that I could cobble something together to do the job.
I won't go into details about my boiler. It's basically a fermentation bucket with a kettle element and a tap on it. You'll see it in the pictures anyway.
...And so, with a borrowed mash tun (and a manifold I made with my own fair hands) I was off...
Here's the recipe I went with. It's kind of based on some of the things I've seen other people doing. I wanted to keep the number of different ingredients to a minimum to reduce costs and also make comparing future brews a bit easier.
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 9 lbs. 14.6 oz 4500 grams 92.8%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 0 lbs. 12.3 oz 350 grams 7.2%
Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
EKG 6.8 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.4 oz 40 grams 40%
EKG 6.8 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 30%
EGK 6.8 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 30%
I got a bit carried away with "doing" and not taking photos. The first one I took, then, was the first runnings.
Next up is the very start of the boil. I had to keep the lid slightly on at this stage as I've filled the boiler a bit full and it was splashing everywhere. That's something to bear in mind for next time.
Another picture of the boil. Notice the tea towel wrapped round the handle trying to catch the drips above the electrics.
Here's the chiller being boiled. That's borrowed too.
And finally.. the chilling
I thought I'd taken more pictures than that but I can't have. The brew is happily fermenting away now. The only question I do have is do I have to mess about with it at all while it's fermenting?
By that, I mean there's a lot more "stuff" in the FV than when using a kit. I think it's some of the proteins that have separated out and not got caught by the hop filter. Do I need to skim it off or anything. I erring on the side of leaving well alone (that's generally worked so far with fermenting) but I'd appreciate your advice.
Cheers :thumb:
I thought I'd share my experiences about my first ever AG brew. I've been brewing with kits for the best part of a year now but after tasting a friend's AG brew I had a bit of an epiphany.
Thing is, I'm also a combination of short-on-cash and tight-fisted. I couldn't justify the £200+ I was told I would need to fork out for the kit. Having done a bit of trawling on this forum and elsewhere on t'Internet and also sitting in on part of a brew day, though, I realised that I could cobble something together to do the job.
I won't go into details about my boiler. It's basically a fermentation bucket with a kettle element and a tap on it. You'll see it in the pictures anyway.
...And so, with a borrowed mash tun (and a manifold I made with my own fair hands) I was off...
Here's the recipe I went with. It's kind of based on some of the things I've seen other people doing. I wanted to keep the number of different ingredients to a minimum to reduce costs and also make comparing future brews a bit easier.
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 9 lbs. 14.6 oz 4500 grams 92.8%
Crystal Malt 130 EBC 0 lbs. 12.3 oz 350 grams 7.2%
Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
EKG 6.8 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.4 oz 40 grams 40%
EKG 6.8 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 30%
EGK 6.8 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 30%
I got a bit carried away with "doing" and not taking photos. The first one I took, then, was the first runnings.
Next up is the very start of the boil. I had to keep the lid slightly on at this stage as I've filled the boiler a bit full and it was splashing everywhere. That's something to bear in mind for next time.
Another picture of the boil. Notice the tea towel wrapped round the handle trying to catch the drips above the electrics.
Here's the chiller being boiled. That's borrowed too.
And finally.. the chilling
I thought I'd taken more pictures than that but I can't have. The brew is happily fermenting away now. The only question I do have is do I have to mess about with it at all while it's fermenting?
By that, I mean there's a lot more "stuff" in the FV than when using a kit. I think it's some of the proteins that have separated out and not got caught by the hop filter. Do I need to skim it off or anything. I erring on the side of leaving well alone (that's generally worked so far with fermenting) but I'd appreciate your advice.
Cheers :thumb:
