Stove-Top AG #1 - American Pale Ale

[Aarondapastyman]

Yesterday was my first attempt at a 5L stove-top AG brew, having only ever done kits. Good news is I've definitely got a beer coming in a few weeks. Bad news is I'm fairly sure it's not what I had planned! :mrgreen:

Recipe was as follows:

Ingredients came as follows from Malt Miller:

Instructions from Brewmate said to steep in approx 3.6L of water for 60 minutes, which I did (and I think this is where things went iffy...), but steeped grains looked like I thought they would:

As above, steeped for an hour then lautered and sparged with approx 3.5L of water at 80-85 degrees:

Then brought to boil (slowly!!) and boiled for an hour:

Boil schedule was straightforward:

7.5g Cascade at 60 mins
5g Cascade and Irish Moss at 15 mins
5g Cascade and 10g Citra at flame out

Whirlpooled and then used a counter-flow chiller to bring down to pitching temp, which was incredibly quick. Then pitched with half a pack of Mangrove Jack's Californian Ale year. Which was all good, except that I think I've had a couple of issues...

SG was 1066 and not 1050 as planned. I am pretty sure this is because the wort was much more concentrated than it should have been. It's my first time so not sure how mash water I should have had but 3.6L felt low and I'm not convinced on my first attempt at mashing I was SUPER efficient and got nearly 100% efficiency (courtesy of Brewers Friend telling me 100% would be an OG of 1070!).

With SG at 1066 if fermentation gets to 1016 I'm looking at a 6.3% beer! Not a disaster by any means:lol: But I'm wondering if I can dilute what's in the FV now, or if I should just accept it's a strong-ish IPA and just go nuts with a dry hop in a couple of weeks?

The other issue is I'm not entirely sure how much is in the FV, could be 5L, could be 3L :lol:

Still looking forward to trying it though! Gonna bottle half with some grapefruit extract from Malt Miller too, see if it delivers a real grapefruity punch in the face (let's hope!)

 

[pvt_ak]

I always add a little more (pre boiled) and cooled water if I’ve not quite hit volume.

Good effort for first attempt !

Loving the early Xmas present [emoji320]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Slid]

Great news that you did an AG :thumb:

It does take quite a few attempts for most of us to really have much of a clue what we are doing and what is really going on.

 

[MyQul]

Well done mate! AG seems to be a quite steep learning curve. I remember my first one. I got US gallons confused with Imperial Gallons and it came out far stronger than planned.
Your mash and sparge volumes were correct, you need about 7L of water total for a 5L brew (you'll need to determine your boil off for the exact amount).
You'll end up with about 3.5L of beer due to the trub in the bottom of the FV

 

[Irishwizard]

well done. Just a word of warning/advice. As you progress, you will find that bigger grain bills somehow magically give you LESS wort. now that you are familiar with your boiler, its just a matter of sparging using a kettle till you get the required volume for the boil. In fact you will soon just have an eye for it and say "yep, thats enough, Im happy with that" - get boiling and start throwing hops in with gay abandon!

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Cheers guys. I think I'll just add some dry hops and treat this brew as an IPA. The grapefruit extract should pack a punch too so all is not lost. And for next time I'll sparge more! I think Brewmate said I'd lose 0.8L through the boil but definitely lost more than that. Fermentation is off though so we'll see in a couple of weeks. :)

@Irishwizard is that due to the increased amount of grain soaking up more water (with the same volume of water being used I assume?), definitely a good point and one to bear in mind. Might need a bigger pot if I do look to do a bigger beer!

Any tips for insulating the pot on the stove too? Took a while to reach the boil although it stayed consistent throughout once it was there, what's the best material to insulate the pot? Likewise any tips for maintaining constant mashing temp on a stove? I kept it between 65-70 for the most part according to my thermometer but a constant temp would surely be better?

Got the multi-hop pleasure from Geterbrewed to do next which should be good. Hopalicious judging by the amount of additions!! Definitely more involved and enjoyable than kit brewing though. :)

 

[MyQul]

A good way to work out your boil off is to put 5L of water in your pot. Then boil it for 30 mins. Then minus what's left from 5. Then double the figure for your hours boil (or triple if you were to do a 90 min boil). That'll defiantely give you your boil off rather than trying to use a calculator.It's what I have done with the two pots I've had, and works well

My 15L pot fits in my oven. So I put the oven on 65C, and put the pot in the oven once I've doughed in

 

[Aarondapastyman]

A good way to work out your boil off is to put 5L of water in your pot. Then boil it for 30 mins. Then minus what's left from 5. Then double the figure for your hours boil (or triple if you were to do a 90 min boil). That'll defiantely give you your boil off rather than trying to use a calculator.It's what I have done with the two pots I've had, and works well

My 15L pot fits in my oven. So I put the oven on 65C, and put the pot in the oven once I've doughed in

I considered the oven, but worried my mash/sparge bag would catch fire... Assume that's me being a numpty?!:lol:

 

[MyQul]

I considered the oven, but worried my mash/sparge bag would catch fire... Assume that's me being a numpty?!:lol:

:lol::lol:

It definately wont catch fire. I once turned my oven to 165C instead of 65C (and denatured the enzymes in the process, so had to chuck the lot) and it didnt catch on fire

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Sweet, oven next time then!!

Now comes the annoying month-long wait before tasting any of it though.

 

[MyQul]

I'm sure you could have a cheeky 'quality control' tester bottle before then?

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Oh no doubt.

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Took a gravity reading this evening, currently at 1018 which gives me an ABV of 6.3% :whistle:

Bit darker than intended but it’s looking good I think :)

Definitely way stronger than planned but a sample from the trial jar gave me a nice subtle bitterness and some good sweetness from the malt. It’s not overly hoppy but I’m going to use grapefruit extract for that flavour punch when it comes to bottling time.

For a first attempt and lack of top up water aside for the increased strength, have to say so far very pleased. Looks like FG is met based on Brewmate calculations so will give it a week to ten days for the yeast to finish working its magic.

Looking forward to trying the finished product over Christmas (If it lasts that long!)

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Attempted to bottle this last night. Let's just say I'll never forget to liquour back ever again... Got three bottles, most of which was trub as the auto syphon didn't really work and basically everything was an abject failure.

It smelt good though so I'll see how it turns out once its conditioned. Will try it again but next brew is a Geterbrewed ingredient kit that came with my stove-top starter kit.

Grapefruit extract applied though so hopefully a nice delicious punch to the beer.