My First Ever Brew! BB Mucky Duck (shiney, shiney)

[dodgyal]

HI All well I've just done an intro in the "Introduce Yourself" section and here is my first attempt at AG (or any type of brewing for that matter! its BB Mucky Duck Bitter (aint BarleyBottoms shop and customer service great!)

Grain Bill
4kg Maris Otter
180g Crystal Malt 120SRM
120g Wheat Malt

Hops
30g Northdown 90mins
18g First Gold 15mins
12g Crystal Hops 1min

1 Protafloc tab 15mins
1 pack of S-04 Yeast

Mash 90-120 mins @ 66c
Boil 90mins
OG 1045
Alcohol 4.5% ABV
Bitterness 31.1 IBUs
Colour 9.3SRM

Quick shot of my mash tun, yes been polishing that a bit!

Temp probe & gauge I got from ebay

Grain bill at 9.3c

Hydraulic disconnects with flow shutoffs, they are cheap on ebay
and can be disassembled, flow is good to! £20 for 2 male and 2 female

Mash tun with copper strainer, cut slits with a dremal

My Pump March May MMP-3 (ebay again!)

Moved to the floor, I felt moving the barrels around would be safer

Nearly at Mash temp

Recirculate to keep at temp, I had a problem with my temp probe sitting at the bottom
of the mash tun and giving off high temps which were inaccurate, after dumping
the grain bill in I notices I was nowhere near, so back on the burner it went!

See the recirculate pipe thing I made after seeing it on here somewhere

My BB hops, first time I've ever smelt hops before! (except in beer :) )

Boiler getting up to temp..

Hop additions, wish I has lidded the pot lost a lot in evaporation about 6 litres!

My counterflow cooler

I attached a coffee filter thing (sterilised)to catch any bits and also attached a temp probe
to the copper pipe all in duct tape (or repair tape as we call it in the old VW trade!)

Nice high drop

Coming out! temps about right, kept having to go outside to adjust the tap which
was a pain! I'll be putting a valve inline next time!

Good aeration I hope!

about 1047, slightly higher than the 1045 but I did loose 3 liters more than
expected in the boil I'll try a lid next time.

All in all I learnt quite a bit! I only had two vessels ready the mash tun and the boiler, I was waiting for parts on the HLT so thought I could do it without, then when I batch sparged I realised I had nowhere to put my first runnings! anyway it ended up all going in a fermentation bucket and then transferred back to the boiler with the second runnings. I now know what the third vessel is for! lol..

It was all a bit stressful, but I really enjoyed it, lets hope the beer tastes good! bye for now! Alan.

 

[Muddydisco]

Welcome to the HB forum :party:
Congratulations,
1- for going straight in the deep end Ag
2 - it looks like you had a good day, and you'll come out with some nice beer!
3 - your right arm must be huge from all that polishing

 

[A T]

Well done, i hope it's a cracking beer :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Fantastic 1st AG post and pics, you should be very happy :thumb:

 

[timbowden]

great pics by the way!
Don't put a lid on during the boil it creates something that i cant remember the name of which is not good for your beer!
I'm sure someone else will tell you what it is! Aleman?
:

 

[jamesb]

great pics by the way!
Don't put a lid on during the boil it creates something that i cant remember the name of which is not good for your beer!
I'm sure someone else will tell you what it is! Aleman?
:

There's a few undesirables, of which DMS is the main one. It can give your beer a cabbagey/sweetcorn type flavour.

 

[dodgyal]

There's a few undesirables, of which DMS is the main one. It can give your beer a cabbagey/sweetcorn type flavour.

Oh I see, well I guess understanding the brewing equipment will help with my next brew! I'll add some more water next time.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[corby_brewer]

Great brewday post. Keep up the good work. :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Wow! Dodgyal thats brilliant and the pics excellent.
My personal rule of thumb is: sparge to 6gals and boil to 5 gals.
Sorry about the old money, didn't have my calculator handy.

 

[dodgyal]

Wow! Dodgyal thats brilliant and the pics excellent.
My personal rule of thumb is: sparge to 6gals and boil to 5 gals.
Sorry about the old money, didn't have my calculator handy.

Yup I think that would have done it! Thanks for that.

 

[unclepumble]

Well done, another shiny AG brewery on the go they are breeding fast!

Enjoy your beer.

Shane

 

[evanvine]

Bah Humbug!
Don't need shines :mrgreen:

 

[rickthebrew]

great looking brewday - wish my kit was as good as that

 

[dodgyal]

Just moved to my secondary after 4 days it was fermenting at about 22.5c and seem to have slowed to a bubble every 2 mins. Gravity was at 1.010 (OG 1047) does that seem about right? Nervous it being my first! Had a taste and it was great!

Anyway now in secondary for 2 weeks then racking into bottles. :thumb:

 

[dodgyal]

Finally got round to bottling, just have to wait 2-3 weeks to sample (not that I haven't already!!) :drink: