Still learning @ AG#5

[Fore]

Moorhouses Pendle Witches Brew

Don't think I've ever tasted it before. Recipe from Wheeler. I'll report back on taste later.

I discovered this time that pellet vs. leaf plays a part in my brewhouse efficiency. With leaf I can drain every drop of liquid (that not absorbed in the leaf), but with pellet I leave more liquid in the boiler trub "mush". So I hit 22.5ish in the fermenter instead of 23l. Yes close, but the massive variations are behind me. Thinking perhaps a fine sieve before fermenter might improve efficiency with pellet.

Successfully measured my mash efficiency for the first time, @ 79%. Brewhouse efficiency this time was 69%; brewhouse eff. will be better with leaf.

I don't brew often, and each time feel I'm relearning old tricks, so I decided to write down every step this time. I though it was going to be really long, but it wasn't. Think I'm getting to the point where I can just run through the process without any major surprises.

Buffalo kept topping out, but luckily the final hop addition was 2 minutes before the end of boil, so I could meet volume with a super long boil, then finish when ready. So moving the Buffalo temp sensor is in the to-do list. Already have silicone squeezed between it and the pot, but that's not sufficient it seems.

 

[peteplus1]

I'm on my AG #5 and still haven't got the hang of it but have made some decent beers even with mistakes thrown into the equation! It frustrates me though, I'm not an ***** yet still can't seem to fathom out efficiency be that the mash or complete efficiency. A simple step I have seemed to have completely missed is checking the boil gravity. My last brew fell way short of required volume when I had to stop sparging at 1005. Given my OG reading was ridiculously high I'm guessing I should have topped up to the desired boil volume as the BG was probably way too high also? Consequently I've ended up with figures a mile off, a volume way short and I suspect ultimately an out of balance brew that is way higher in ABV s than I wanted. I'll probably throw this post into a general thread to see if anyone can point me in the right direction but you seem to have mastered the procedure start to finish. Any help would be so so useful!

 

[Fore]

Oh dear, I batch sparge. Can't really help with fly sparge. Better to start a new thread.

The steps I wrote down are really my own practical steps. So for example, I don't reach a point and think "oh no, I need cooled boiled water for the yeast rehydration". Instead, that task is early on my list, so the boiled water has well enough time to cool down before I need it. Listing every step, and in the right order, just makes for a less stressful process.

In respect to mash efficiency, a google search throws up some good calculators. All you need to know is, i) the weight of fermentable grains used, ii) the total volume of wort pre-boil, and iii) the gravity of that pre-boil wort. The one that I used to forget was the pre-boil gravity. I actually calculate my brewhouse efficiency backwards from my recipe tool. If I didn't quite hit expected SG, I dial back the efficiency I had set in my recipe, until the recipe SG matches what I actually achieved. I then start with that efficiency in my next recipe. Hope that helps a little.

This time I had my first ever blow off. In addition to a new yeast pack, I added an old spare pack of the same yeast type, 1 year past it's best before. But having been stored frozen, it seems not to have lost its vigour!

 

[serum]

I'm at 31 ag brews now and still learning a lot each time!

 

[Fore]

Oh this turned out a super beer. @ 100% fuggles, all I can say is, fuggles is clearly my thing. Seems like it's smooth and zesty at the same time.

Previous experience with fuggles as flavour was Batemans Victory Ale (Styrian Goldings, aka fuggles). That was nice and smooth also, dont remember as much finishing zestyness though.

The other "famous" English hop, goldings, I found I'm not too keen on. Just preference I guess. My next 3 planned brews are using up the goldings hop packet, so it has chance to win me over yet.