1st all grain brew

[Alex.Tas]

Just thought I would share my story.

A week or so ago i made up my first batch of AG beer. I decided on a similar recipe to one i had made previously with kit can and liquid malt extract.
It was somewhat based on boonies LCPA clone. featuring cascade and golden cluster in the boil and chinook late/dry.
The AG brew i ran with some enigma (courtesy of hobart brewers club) as a small 10g bittering addition 60 min, then 30g and 20g of cascade and cluster respectively. These were cube hopped. predicted IBU was 29.
malt i went with 4.5kg of marris otter and 500g of wheat. mashed for 90 min at 66 degrees. boil was 90 min in total - with some koppafloc with 10 min to go.
I had some US05 in the fridge, so i ran with that.

I was aiming for a 23 batch size, but only got 19.5L into the fermenter. I seriously underestimated the losses to trub in both the kettle and the nochill cube!
No matter, good way to learn is on the job.

Some others may have seen a few posts i made in the thread on bunnings fermenters. I used one of the cubes as a nochill cube.
Even after several rinses with boiling water, there was still a noticeable plastic taste in the hydro sample going into the fermenter.

after day 4 in the fermenter the gravity is down to 1.015 and the plastic taste has pretty much all gone. This is brilliant because i was getting very close to dumping this brew, becasue it was undrinkable out of the cube!
I dry hopped it tonight with 29g of chinook and 15g of cascade.

super excited to get this one into a bottle!

 

[mrsupraboy]

Always wait till the end before dumping cause half the time Ur having a panic attack over nothing. Well that's my experience

 

[marksy]

How much did you collect pre boil? How big are your cubes?

 

[TheWiggman]

Good stuff, barely a tragedy to be noted. Sounds as smooth a first brew as any.
The plastic taste is odd, lucky it's gone away. Try soaking the cube with napisan and hot water and leave to sit for a day or two. Rinse with hot water and any plastic-ness should be gone. I've had no issues with mine.
Hope it turns out well.

 

[Alex.Tas]

How much did you collect pre boil? How big are your cubes?

28L post boil. So i think its roughly 1L loss to cooling shrinkage, and 7.5 to trub (combined from cube trub and kettle trub).
Bunnings BMW cubes are 25L, so i had to give it a fair squeeze to get out all the air.
Edit: sorry i misread, preboil volume was 33L, 90 min boil got down to 28L so an evap rate of 3.33L per hour. Thats on a crown urn with no mod to the thermostat/cutoff.

The plastic taste is odd, lucky it's gone away. Try soaking the cube with napisan and hot water and leave to sit for a day or two. Rinse with hot water and any plastic-ness should be gone. I've had no issues with mine.

Yeah i gave that a run straight after i tipped it into the FV. i made up a second batch of the weekend and the cube smelt normal (no plastic smell) before i transferred hot wort this time.
I did take a sample in a glass after the boil from my kettle (on my second batch) for a gravity reading, and there was a small plastic taste evident. Maybe its from the new hopsock i used and stupidly didn't napisan soak it like the cube - or maybe i just have a low tolerance for plastic tastes, or maybe i imagined it because i was looking for it.

 

[The Judge]

Sounds good. Regarding your losses to trub in the kettle, different folk have different opinions about wasting wort in trub. I personally move most of my trub to the primary fermenter when brewing ales. Then I rack to secondary once it's all settled out. Also, trub has been "proven" to produce marginally clearer wort. Reference this guy's exbeeriment: http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

Edit: I mean, marginally clearer BEER, not wort

 

[mrsupraboy]

Ps them bunnings cubes are more then 25 litres. I just did a batch and filled all the way to the top and Mayb had an extra litre to 2 still on there

 

[marksy]

Wow 7.5 to trub. I lose 2 to my kettle and toss the whole cube in minus maybe 500ml if it looks gunky and if I remember. If you know how much you want into fermenter then just work backwards with your measurements. An eg for me based on 23L into fermenter. I loose 6L an hr. So 23 + 6 + 2 trub loss, 31, but I always take a few litres to have up my sleeve. If I have extra I cap it into a longy and use it for starters another day.

 

[Spiesy]

That is a lot of loss to trub.

I have a larger 70L pot and only lose around 4.5L. Would probably be less if I could actually whirlpool (the one chink in my armour).

I throw everything from the cube in, generally. After I crash chill, all the leftover trub generally settles below the tap line.

The plastic taste/smell is a bit of a worry. What plastic is your cube made of? It should have something written on it, like HDPE or LDPE (from memory, at 6am).

 

[Alex.Tas]

Wow 7.5 to trub. I lose 2 to my kettle and toss the whole cube in minus maybe 500ml if it looks gunky and if I remember. If you know how much you want into fermenter then just work backwards with your measurements. An eg for me based on 23L into fermenter. I loose 6L an hr. So 23 + 6 + 2 trub loss, 31, but I always take a few litres to have up my sleeve. If I have extra I cap it into a longy and use it for starters another day.

yeah i did something similar to you when i brewed up a dunkel last weekend. I haven't dropped it into the ferementer yet, so i don't know the volume yet, but i reckon it's closer to the mark. I just based the volumes for brew 2 off my losses from brew 1.

That is a lot of loss to trub.

I have a larger 70L pot and only lose around 4.5L. Would probably be less if I could actually whirlpool (the one chink in my armour).

I throw everything from the cube in, generally. After I crash chill, all the leftover trub generally settles below the tap line.

I'll see how im going volume wise and then decide if i can fit the trub from the cube into the FV. I assume this is mostly cold break rather than hot break, and arguably not a terrible thing to let go into the FV?
I read somewhere (can't remember where on AHB) that you can store the kettle trub in some pre warmed glass jars, then store as you would your nochill cube and then let the trub floc to the bottom. when you goto pitch your cube, just add the wort from the glass jar off the top of the settled kettle trub.
Might be a good excuse to get some glass 2L cranberry juice bottles...

The plastic taste/smell is a bit of a worry. What plastic is your cube made of? It should have something written on it, like HDPE or LDPE (from memory, at 6am).

Yeah i was worried about that. all the info i found on those BMW cubes available from bunnings (the blue plastic ones) is that they are made from HDPE. There are not any markings on the plastic though which is strange. After a wash with napisan it seems to be okay though.

I dry hopped my brew with 29g of chinook and 15g of cascade on tuesday night. tasting good so far...