1st Ag

[rude]

Did my first AG on Melbourne cup day
25litre batch size
34litre pre boil size
4.5kg maris otter
300g crystal
strike temp 72c
mash temp 67c for 90 mins 20 litres
got about 10 to 12 litres ( bit vauge there ) into the kettle. Need check calibration on the dip stick.
sparge strike temp 82c
sparge temp 76c for 10 mins 20 litres
got only 24 to 25 litres
did another sparge with about 10 litres (vauge again ) & the temp would have been a lot lower ?
ended up with about 33 litres
took a gravity reading 1048 at 42c but must have read it wrong. Might have to not start drinking at this stage next time.
boiled for 90 mins added 55g fuggles 60 mins
20g ekg 15 mins
10g fuggles 2 mins
hopefully 33 ibu
ended up with 25 litres into a cube
pitched 1.5 litre wyeast irish ale starter on the following saturday with the trub break the lot from cube.
took og 1048 & it is in its 3rd fermenting day. It has slowed right down, fermented at 22c & come down to 20c.

1st Q what efficientcy did I get ?
2nd Q I will rack off to secondary tomorrow to get it off the trub. Hoping to do SJW's irish red ale, cube it (no chill, havent got a
chiller yet ) Will there be enough yeast from the secondary to pitch this on the cake ?
3rd Q when I ran off my mash & sparge water I turned the tap open nearly full bore, is it better to run it off slower ?
4th Q allowed 6 litres for water into grain & 1 for kettle trub loss so dont know why I was like 10 litres short into the kettle 1st up ?

All advice would be welcomed. Had a lot of offers to help on brew day but ended up doing it on the spur of the moment so thanks to all who ofered. Will put some pics up when I work out how to do it.

 

[rude]

Hope the attachment pics come through

 

[rude]

and this one

 

[matti]

Well done Rude.
Welcome to the dark side.
By looking at the number it appear you have at least got 70% EFFICIENCY.
Some one will plug them into beersmith soon enough for ya.

I genarally use 5 kgs grain for 23 Litre batches working on 75% efficiencies.
With Og around 1.050ish mark.

Great fun and good picks,
There is no stopping now....
Matti

Q2. Will there be enough yeast left in the fermenter to rack off?
This will depend ion how much yeast is left in suspension. The gravity seem to indicate that there is.
Though this is an ale and racking it off the trub is not necessary.

When no chilling I have notice that the trub doesn't really settle until it is well past high krausen.
I would rack it after fermentation is finnished..CC for a week then bottle or keg.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Well done Rude, sounds like you didn't need any of the help. You have done pretty damn well.

Assuming that your volume and gravity measurements are accurate you...

Hit your target volume of 25L (If the 25L into the cube was everything left in the kettle after the boil ended)
And got a mash efficiency of 79-80%

Not sure why you missed your target volume first time... perhaps you miss measured? from your figures you put a total volume of 50L in to get 33 out, and that sounds kinda wrong. How wet was the grain at the end of the process?

Oh and I couldn't quite work out if you were continuous (fly) sparging or batch sparging. I'm guessing fly from the bit of foil on top of the mash. Tell us a little more about your sparge technique and we might be able to track the issue down. And give you the advice you want about runoff rate.

Mind you ... it seems to not have been a major concern from a results perspective. Nice first effort.

Hope it tastes great (it will)

TB

 

[raven19]

3rd Q when I ran off my mash & sparge water I turned the tap open nearly full bore, is it better to run it off slower ?
4th Q allowed 6 litres for water into grain & 1 for kettle trub loss so dont know why I was like 10 litres short into the kettle 1st up ?

Well done on your first AG, good to see you took all measurements etc, so you can refine your setup.

My thoughts on the above Q's:

3. Runoff rate should be slow if fly sparging, as you do not want to compact the grain bed too quickly, and you want to keep a few inches of water depth above the grain bed. However this is all dependant on your sparging technique...

4. Other losses from headspace, grain, evaporation, etc?

:icon_offtopic: I am still getting my gear together for AG, just have to sort this kettle out!

 

[raven19]

and this one

That folding ladder looks a little scary in this pic! :lol:

 

[buttersd70]

good one rude mate. Glad to see you simplified the recipe a bit from what you were originally planning....

Yeah, it looks like you fluffed the hydro reading for the boil grav, but that doesn't matter....For the OG 1048 I read it as 80% brewhouse efficiency, excellent job. :super:

Let us know how it tastes.

 

[rude]

Thanks for advice. I was batch sparging & useing the foil to keep the heat in & to stop the first recirculations from disturbing the grain bed. I am thinking of leaving the fermentation for 2 weeks now & then rack for bulk prime.

 

[rude]

I have recalibrated dip stick & I was miles out. Allso my braid in the mash tun is looped & had curled upwards adding more dead space.
I wasnt really ready but all seams well, spoke to Roy today & he normally racks 2 to 3 days into fermentation so there is heaps of yeast in suspension. So he recons it isnt worth it now, so will ferment out.
Allso he recons I can pitch on the yeast cake with trub & all.
Cheers for all advice

 

[peas_and_corn]

Good on ya for your first AG, it's great to see another turn to the dark side, I'm working hard to convert as many people as possible

 

[buttersd70]

Allso he recons I can pitch on the yeast cake with trub & all.

There have been several threads on this recently.....an entire yeast cake is way over pitching. You only need about 1/2 cup or so.

 

[Bribie G]

There have been several threads on this recently.....an entire yeast cake is way over pitching. You only need about 1/2 cup or so.

Stands to reason that if you keep pitching onto the whole yeast cake you will eventually end up with a fermenter full of trub.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

I found it difficult to understand all the fuss about AG beer. I had a chap down here from QLD 18mths ago and he said that all he brewed was AG. Ba humbug I thought. Well that was until January this year. The rest you might say is history. IMHO unless I can brew AG hell will freeze over before I will brew another K&K. What I enjoy now about AG is the amount of mates that call round during brew day and realise that it is not that difficult to really brew ones own. Once my brewing system has evolved to 98ltr stockpots (BEERBELLY BREWING EQUIPMENT) I will be doing a few more shared brews for those around here that are interested. My 50ltr boils are only just enough for me ATM. You know what else, the more you make the easier and more organised you become.

BYB

 

[rude]

yep use are wright . I was just getting impatient , greedy , wanted to use the cake of irish ale. Any way might still do the irish ale but was hopeing for it to be xmas drop but Ill wait till I bottle or maybe scoop the troob & wash for a starter anyway hard work this brewing. Might have to have a drink & motivate myself cheers all

 

[rude]

sorry butters thanks for the advice I will search can you over pitch an ale spose you can will check up

 

[buttersd70]

no worries, rude.
one of the threads was here
there were a couple of other threads along similar lines.

theres a pitching calculator at mrmalty.com that gives the right amount of slurry to use for a new brew.