Problems I faced with my first AG brew:

[adefm]

Hello, this is a bit of a ramble just to report on the problems I faced with my first AG brew:
Going back to my plan from the 11th. I simplified it. Still BIAB, but now 2Kg Maris Otter, 20g fuggles at start of boil and 10g East Kent Golding at 55 mins of 60 min boil.

Brew 1:
Problem 1: Only put in 1.8Kg Maris Otter ( missed off 200g forgot the to reset the scales properly).

Problem 2: Only 8L in FV.; At the start I changed my recipe to have a Mash liquid Volume of 7L and for sparge, 6L poured over the suspended mash bag over the kettle. This gave 12.1 L of wort after mash, this was so it would not boil over in my 15 L kettle. After the boil I was left with 10L. After Syphoning racking the 10 L, I was left with 8L in the FV with 2 L (Trub) left in kettle.

Problem 3: Took 55 minutes to heat up kettle to 100 Centigrade. Combination of me, keep taking the lid of to check temperature and not starting the heat as soon as I took the bag out.

Problem 4: It took a very long time to get the temperature down. I bought hoze type connector parts but I just could not fit the tubes properly on my kitchen mixer tap going to my New Wort chiller, so only a trickle of water went through. I eventually pitched the yeast at 24.9 centigrade.

Problem 5: I could not measure OG properly with my hydrometer as there was not enough height of liquid in the FV. Using the hydrometer container I think it was about 1040.


Brew 2.
I tried Brew 2, a day later to try to correct brew 1 problems using same recipe

Solving problem 1: Measured properly 200KG of Maris Otter.
Solving problem 2: Changed Mash Volume to 7.5L and for sparge 6.5L poured over the suspended mash bag over kettle. As I was now more familar with the process, ended up with 9.6L in FV and only 1.5 L of trub in kettle.
Solving problem 3: I started boiling straight away as soon as I started draining the mask bag. It was at 100 centigrade in 15 minutes.
Problem 4: I connected the wort chiller to my outside tap. Better flow. Temperature went down to 40-35 celcius quite quickly. Then seemed to get stuck no matter how long I ran the wort chiller (20-30 minutes) and even having the kettle in tap water bath. It appears my tap water was about 30-35 degrees centigrade as well. I did not have much frozen stuff I could use. I thought for a while my digital thermometer was stuck. So I think I pitched the yeast when the FV liquid was 30-34 degrees.
Problem 5: still difficult to measure the OG without a measuring cyclinder/jug.

Anyway I know its a learning process and I have 8L from the first brew and 9.6L from the second to see where they are at in a week.
Regards,
Adrian

 

[NPi]

You could reduce the trub loss by letting it settle in a 2l container (fizzy drink bottle and then slowly pouring off the wort, after the trub had compacted. To speed this up put it in the fridge. Adding this cold wort will also bring your pitch temp down. Pitching yeast so hot may stress it, causing off flavours.

But all things considered, it sounds like your doing well. Even the best (I am not anything near that) made these mistakes to begin with.

Keep us updated with how it turns out.
Nick

 

[NormanHurst]

Sounds like you have made a great start. It's a big learning curve. I am still very much at the steep, bottom bit of the curve but the constant tweaking, learning, thinking, refining is the real fun for me.

The challenge of trying to get better every time is the essence of the hobby - and pouring a beer you have made from scratch is very rewarding, even if you are its biggest critic and immediately start plotting how to make the next version better.

 

[Davvy]

Hello Adrian,
welcome to the world of experimentation versus expected results...!
You have probably started with the correct assumtion that you are the harshest critic...keep lestening to him !

Have a look at basic set up and review where you need to be , don't assume you are there....most people evlolve into a more easy or more effective brewing setup - the BIAB is the simplest, but for many people this needs to be amended to make sense, and you need to research via the internet/youtube as to where you should be...

You're source water temp. is a bit of an issue....You could try batch cooling your "bucket" of wort in a chilled bath (frozen water in bottles - swilling around / outside) to cool...or you could go the Kviek (starter) route which likes high temperature fermentation.... or extend your source pipes to go through a length/coil of pipe which goes through cooling / ice water ....?

As for OG - buy yourself a litre plastic jug to scoop some wort, and a plastic hydrometer jar - you can seperately pour into it and measure, then pour back....

Your efforts, the process and the results will be the combined benefit of the hobby - enjoy every part !
All the best,
David.

 

[adefm]

Good idea about the 2L bottle, I have ordered a hydrometer cylinder and just realised I have lots of camping style freeze blocks I could sterilise and use next time. Also measured tap water temp today and it was 24degrees. So not sure what was going on. also think I am starting to get my head around the brewer's friend calculator. Next one will be an English ipa 2.3 Maris otter, fuggles at start,then east Kent Golding, then a bit of challenger for flavour hopefully it will be bitterer and more flavoursome than what I have done

 

[NPi]

You might want to look into the high temp of your cold tap water. Stored cold water at that high may be a serious legionella risk, I would get that checked out.

 

[adefm]

Thank, got worried and ran the tap for a minute and measured it again its 18.7 degrees at 9:00pm this evening

 

[AndyEW]

Hello Adrian. Its good of you to post your experiences as everyone has to go through the learning curve. With regards to cooling the wart have you considered using a steriliserad 10 litre plastic jerrycan? You can pour the how wart into the jerrycan and let it coo down naturally over night. Pouring it from the jerrycan into the fermenting vessel the following day also helps to aerate it.

 

[adefm]

So brew day was Tuesday 14th and 2nd brew day Weds 15th. Friday, electrician doing electric checks on our house knocked one of the 2nd brews FV over, he was only in the house a few minutes and I just told him be careful and does he want me to move stuff. Lost about a litre and what a mess. Today, checked SG and taste of first brew; don't have hyrdometer cylinder yet but as best as I can measure looks like its already 1010 or much less. Very cloudy, tastes fine, nice and bitter, not watery, mainly bitterness i taste, v.drinkable, not infected!! Will leave for a only a full 7 days, as it is warm and then rack to another FV. I am very happy

 

[adefm]

This update is really for myself. Racked both brews once then bottled. Added 60-70g of sugar to 17L of liquid for priming. Ended up with 24 x 330ml bottles of brew 1 and 24 x 330ml bottles of brew 2. Took 3 hours with washing. My kids helped bottling, they enjoyed the siphoning and what they term puddling "playing with water". Two weeks would be the 8th August.

 

[UKSkydiver]

As someone already said, you are your harshest critic.

After a few brews (and I only have a handful) you will realise you can make small errors and still make good beer.

Cooling: don’t waste your cool-blocks from the start. I put my pot (albeit a 16litre one) in the sink with just tap water a couple of times. That takes the majority of the heat out and if you can siphon the hot water in to a bowl you can used the saved water for washing up. After that, when the temp comes down, you can start to use your cool-blocks. I leave it overnight to cool and it also allows a lot of the break / protein material to sink to the bottom so there is less crud going in to the FV.

 

[adefm]

Thanks for the tip, I did this on brew 2 last Friday, used cool blocks for the last bit, got bit down to 20 to 22 degrees, worked a treat.