Planning my first AG brew, with limited space

[sven945]

Paranoid I've made a hash of this! My recipe says the post sparge wort should be 1035, except it's only about 1015. I'm going for it anyway (I've not got much choice really). Oh dear..

It's heating up ready for the boil now.

 

[sven945]

So having boiled and chilled and added to my fermenter, the OG is pretty much as expected, so maybe I misunderstood the guidance the recipe was giving me?!

(I do seem to have got my thermometer stuck at 50°C. Not sure how that happened!)

 

[Ajhutch]

Nice work. I managed to damage a thermometer during my first all grain brew yesterday, high five to that!

1.015 sounds like it was referring to just the run off from the sparge (you'd normally stop before the gravity was too low as you risk extracting tannins as well as sugars). 1.035 sounds more like a pre-boil gravity of the entire contents of the boil kettle. If I'm correct in that assumption then it sounds like a misunderstanding.

Congrats and all the best for the ferment, it's a cool feeling to finish the first brew day!

 

[sven945]

I got 1015 before the boil :/ But I realised I'd not given the bag a proper squeeze before rinsing the grains. So I did that just before the boil (though I didn't take another gravity reading after I'd done that).

Also I thought I had far too much wort so I extended the boil to 90 minutes (I took out my bittering hops after 60 minutes, then put my aroma hops in the appropriate time before the end). My electric hob was clearly struggling with keeping 15 litres boiling enough.

I'll see how it turns out anyway! The yeast needs to be kept warm which will be difficult, but I've wrapped it in a blanket to keep in the heat that it gives out.

 

[Ajhutch]

Yes that makes sense, squeezing the bag would have released a fair amount of sugary wort I guess. What beer did you make? What temperature are you fermenting at, at the moment I'm struggling to keep the temperature down rather than up

 

[sven945]

It's a Rosehip Saison. My local brew shop sells a selection of ingredients measured out for recipes. It comes with m27 Belgian yeast that's best at 26°C. The usual temperature in my flat is a fairly consistent 18°C so a bit low. I'm hoping that insulating it will keep in enough warmth, once it gets going.

 

[Fil]

I think everyone has a hectic #1 brew, in my own case listing what went right would be quicker

If you hit your target gravity then it sounds like a resounding success to me and all the lessons learnt on what not to do will make brew #2 and subsequent brews all that much smoother an experience too..

im sure you will be enjoying a grand pint in a month or so

 

[sven945]

Thanks for the reassurances! I'm already planning my next one (I'll stick with a pre packaged recipe for now). I've got a notebook for my brews, so I can remember what I did wrong and can improve next time.