1st All-Grain brew day - complete!

[Crouch]

So with my electric brewery finished and ready to go I set about today on my very first all-grain brew. The day did not go without problems but in the end I have 42L of APA in the fermentation fridge that looks, smells and tastes amazing!

I tested the system several times, re-did valves and bulkheads and water tested it twice ... but somehow on brew day I had leaks, very small ones but leaks! After so much testing and prep work I was a little annoyed.

I made some mistakes with temperatures and valves, forgetting to close them before removing hoses etc .. but luckily my brew-room has an in-ground drain so spills and cleaning weren't really a big issue.

Most of my target vs actual numbers were pretty close:

Boil Volume target was 57.8L, I got 54 into the kettle before the MT & HLT were empty - I swear I had enough water for my sparge but will double check my calcuations for next time. I added a little extra water to the kettle to make up the volume.

Estimated pre-boil gravity target was 1.044. I got 1.047 so pretty close and was happy with that.

I didn't measure the post boil volume but the target was 46.8L. I know I was over that as I had setup in Beersmith my boil-off rate at 11L but with the PID's I was able to 'tone down' how vigorously the boil happened so didnt lose that much to evaporation. I'll need to do another water test to calculate the boil-off rate with the adjusted PID settings.

Est Post Boil gravity target was 1.056 and I hit 1.058 so once again was well happy!

My target was 42L into the fermenter and I made that, with some extra in the kettle (again due to reduced boil off) but left that as I forgot to add my hop filter so didn't want to suck up to much trub/hop etc.

All in all a great day! I've kept some of the spent grain to make some bread and some treats for my dog. I'm looking forward to brewing again on the weekend!

Here's my fermenter in its little fridge hooked up to a cheap one-relay STC knock-off (I'll grab an enclosure and some cable glands from Jaycar tomorrow and do it up properly!). At the moment its hooked up to a hair dryer as the heating source, but I'll also grab a heating mat tomorrow to replace that. I don't expect to need to cool the fridge as its quite cold down the back of the warehouse so is only set to heat ... 19C.

Cheers :chug:

 

[Kingy]

Top effort mate! It's a full time job ya first couple of grain brews. Fun and rewarding.
As time consuming as it is i hang out to brew beer. I'm doing 2 x46litre batches on Saturday. It's meant to rain here to so it's all weekend in the shed brewing, kegging,cleaning, sampling, lol.

 

[Tahoose]

Sounds like a pretty successful brewday, minus the couple of leaks.

 

[slcmorro]

Not sold on the hairdryer for heating. That'd use a shitload of power, and any dust/husks etc sucked into the element is a big fire hazard. Saw you were getting a heat mat to replace it, but be really careful buddy.

 

[Donske]

I'd be getting worried about now mate, surely a first AG brew day where you were 2 points over estimated OG will anger the beer gods.

Also, top effort jumping in head first, double batch electric rig for your first system is pretty cool.

 

[technobabble66]

Looks great! Seems like a relatively trouble free brew day - which is a massive success for your first AG brew, leaks aside.
At a guess, I'd think your loss of volume from the mash will be grain absorption. What ratio/factor did you use to calculate that? I use 1L per kg, but I suspect I should be really using something like 1.2-1.5L per Kg. For your double batch, that diff would account for 2-5L extra losses. Then there's liquid left behind in the dead space under your tap (I assume you calc'd that from your dry runs tho).
Welcome to the AG Vortex! :lol:

 

[Crouch]

For anyone interested in watching a 30 minute video .... haha, my highlight is at ~1.35 when 'brew baby' makes an appearance

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMChycY3mnk[/media]

Thanks for the comments! I did some quick reading about hairdryers in fermentation fridges as it didnt feel right and after said reading I unplugged it. The fridge dropped 1.1C over night, but I'll be grabbing either a heat mat, or a ceramic heating lamp from the pet store today (I ordered some cheap ones from ebay but they will take ages to get here)

Brewing again on Saturday (hopefully) and really looking forward to it!

 

[Adr_0]

Not sold on the hairdryer for heating. That'd use a shitload of power, and any dust/husks etc sucked into the element is a big fire hazard. Saw you were getting a heat mat to replace it, but be really careful buddy.

Yeah, not the greatest idea. Do you need it? Can you set your temp a touch higher and maybe have a small hysteresis?

Congrats on the great brew day!

 

[Adr_0]

Not sold on the hairdryer for heating. That'd use a shitload of power, and any dust/husks etc sucked into the element is a big fire hazard. Saw you were getting a heat mat to replace it, but be really careful buddy.

Yeah, not the greatest idea. Do you need it? Can you set your temp a touch higher and maybe have a small hysteresis?

Congrats on the great brew day!

 

[Donske]

Looks great! Seems like a relatively trouble free brew day - which is a massive success for your first AG brew, leaks aside.
At a guess, I'd think your loss of volume from the mash will be grain absorption. What ratio/factor did you use to calculate that? I use 1L per kg, but I suspect I should be really using something like 1.2-1.5L per Kg. For your double batch, that diff would account for 2-5L extra losses. Then there's liquid left behind in the dead space under your tap (I assume you calc'd that from your dry runs tho).
Welcome to the AG Vortex! :lol:

I'm not sure grain absorption is that high, I use the default 0.9L/kg in brew mate and I'd say its pretty close, apart from the rare issue with losses my volumes are dialled in to about +/- 1L, maybe I'm accounting for the losses elsewhere, I'll know in the next month or so when I have enough data points from brew days to be sure (currently measuring volume at every stage of a brew day to get the system dialled in).

 

[pilgrimspiss]

Sweet Rig and video Viv!!

I actually watched your video!! You're an entertaining bloke!!

Leaks always happen. When you water test you tend to open all your taps full. Then when you run them at 1/2 or 1/4 on your brew day you put back pressure on your seals and they leak!! ARGH!!

Looks like you've put a lot of thought into it though. Good work mate!!

Cheers
Matty

 

[sjp770]

Just watched the vid, its great! The hoses look like a must, i was going with barbs which sounds stupid now...

After all the faffing about with the pumps and valves did you end up just opening the feed and return sides 100% and restricting with the ball valve on the pump only?

Might be worth labeling the pumps too.

 

[mofox1]

Good work! It's so rewarding to be able to use it, and not just think about what's not working yet.

I've used 1L/kg as my absorption rate... Seems to work fine. Always have extra in the HLT, not only does it safe guard against running out, but it caters for being able to flush out lines while brewing and you also have a readily available amount of hot water to clean with art the end.

Glad your unplugged that hair dryer... as well as being dangerous it's also going to heat to fast. I use a desk lamp with a 40 or 60w globe sitting under my wooden support shelf (check my gallery pics). Heats nice and slowly. The temp probe is blutacked to the fermenter with some polystyrene sheet taped over the top so it measures the fermenter temp accurately (as accurately as a stc1000 will do anyway).

Anyway, fantastic work. I must check out the video when I've got time.

Prost!

 

[panzerd18]

Love the control box. So many flashing and digital things, looks so professional and fun.

Just a quick observation, you may be getting a bit of heat loss through the metal table. You could possibly rest the pots on a foam matting to help insulate against the heat loss and allow you to heat quicker.

 

[panzerd18]

Just finished watching, that setup is friggin awesome! You have a floor drain and sink, clean area, you could become a nano-brewery and go commercial!

 

[Dan Pratt]

top stuff on your first AG brew, hope she taste great.

I'm so glad you unplugged that hairdryer.......for the love of god that could of been bad.

 

[Crouch]

top stuff on your first AG brew, hope she taste great.

I'm so glad you unplugged that hairdryer.......for the love of god that could of been bad.

Yeah I was worried about it when i was wiring it up and then after reading other threads and unplugging it, I felt comfortable to go to bed!

I picked up a ceramic heating light (as per recommendations in other threads) that I'll feel comfortable having running unattended.

Cheers

 

[mofox1]

Yeah I was worried about it when i was wiring it up and then after reading other threads and unplugging it, I felt comfortable to go to bed!

I picked up a ceramic heating light (as per recommendations in other threads) that I'll feel comfortable having running unattended.

Cheers

Slight :icon_offtopic:... What sort of heat lamp did you pick up (and $'s)? I'd prefer to regain my desk lamp for needed gargage lighting, and I was thinking along the same lines.

 

[Crouch]

Slight :icon_offtopic:... What sort of heat lamp did you pick up (and $'s)? I'd prefer to regain my desk lamp for needed gargage lighting, and I was thinking along the same lines.

I'll grab a picture of it when I get back home .. but it was around $33, the globe was on special reduced from $22 to $10. You can find them much cheaper on ebay, I bought 2 of these as well but they will be for the larger multi-fermenter space and wont be here for a few weeks anyway. The one I picked up from the pet store did not have the clip on type holder so will need to be mounted onto/into something - I'm thinking some sheet metal I have laying around, maybe some MDF.

 

[Mr B]

Nice vid, very interesting and entertaining

Couple of q's - What size were your pots? Is that an available controller design setup?

Cheers