1st Go At Ag 20l Stove Top Brew

[dags333]

g,day all just done my 1st 20L AG .from nick jd post

hit strike temp a tad over 70. mashed all the grains gave it a good stir. rapt 4 towels around the 19L pot
left for 90 mins . pulled bag out let drain then sparged bag again in 6L OF 70C WATER .pulled bag out squeezed shit out of it
put all the liquid back in to the 19l pot took a test. temp 58 and the hydro test was 1050 . put it on heat put in POR hops .
gave it a rolling boil for a hour . took of heat . added water to 18L (READ THAT SOMEWHERE) stirred it. left outside all night
put it in fermenter . topped up to 20L . added us-05. (couldent use lager yeast. cant get the low temps)

before i throw in the yeast i took a test it come out 1034 . i think it all might be up the shit creek
can somebody let me know if this is up the shit or ok. by the numbers . thanks darren

ps. it liked and smelled like tea .had a sweet taste

 

[prongs_386]

g,day all just done my 1st 20L AG .from nick jd post

hit strike temp a tad over 70. mashed all the grains gave it a good stir. rapt 4 towels around the 19L pot
left for 90 mins . pulled bag out let drain then sparged bag again in 6L OF 70C WATER .pulled bag out squeezed shit out of it
put all the liquid back in to the 19l pot took a test. temp 58 and the hydro test was 1050 . put it on heat put in POR hops .
gave it a rolling boil for a hour . took of heat . added water to 18L (READ THAT SOMEWHERE) stirred it. left outside all night
put it in fermenter . topped up to 20L . added us-05. (couldent use lager yeast. cant get the low temps)

before i throw in the yeast i took a test it come out 1034 . i think it all might be up the shit creek
can somebody let me know if this is up the shit or ok. by the numbers . thanks darren

ps. it liked and smelled like tea .had a sweet taste

Its definitely not up shit creek. Your beer will just be light. It will still taste great but I think you will have troubles getting high alc volumes with your current equipment.
Your mash temp is going to be optimally between 64 and 68 depending on the style. You also should try and find a way of stopping the temp from dropping so much. You could possibly sit your pot in hot water and maintain then temp of the external water (say in your sink). I would strongly recommend trying to get an esky to be your mash tun however.
Another problem is anytime you add water to top up a brew you will lose efficiency. Ideally you would boil something like 24 litres down to 20 over the hour, rather than boiling 18litres and topping up but you would obviously need a larger pot. You could always try just making a 15 litre batch instead of 20l.

Also when you add the hops, I would bring it to rolling boil first, then start your boil clock and add your hops. If you add hops when you first put it on heat they will be in the pot for longer than planned. (You may have done this, I just wasn't sure from your description)

I think the best thing to realise though is that your beer is probably going to taste great even if you aren't getting perfect efficiencies so I wouldn't worry so much at this point.

I'm a novice myself still so hopefully some of the gurus will add their comments as well

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

I use the same method, I use the hydro after the sparge and find it almost comes out the same after the boil (so is a good guide)and the wort has cooled t work out my top up volumes.

The 20ltr stovetop gets easier and you will find you will be bashing out consistent beer in no time.

+1 for prongs advice

 

[Bretto77]

g,day all just done my 1st 20L AG .from nick jd post

hit strike temp a tad over 70. mashed all the grains gave it a good stir. rapt 4 towels around the 19L pot
left for 90 mins . pulled bag out let drain then sparged bag again in 6L OF 70C WATER .pulled bag out squeezed shit out of it
put all the liquid back in to the 19l pot took a test. temp 58 and the hydro test was 1050 . put it on heat put in POR hops .
gave it a rolling boil for a hour . took of heat . added water to 18L (READ THAT SOMEWHERE) stirred it. left outside all night
put it in fermenter . topped up to 20L . added us-05. (couldent use lager yeast. cant get the low temps)

before i throw in the yeast i took a test it come out 1034 . i think it all might be up the shit creek
can somebody let me know if this is up the shit or ok. by the numbers . thanks darren

ps. it liked and smelled like tea .had a sweet taste

Well done Darren! First time is always a bit tricky.

Hope seeing my AG set up in action helped on the day.

Watch out here come the Fassifern AG brewers, we now have two!

Bretto
Boonah, QLD

 

[Lecterfan]

Hey dude, you have some good replies but I thought that I'd chuck my 2c worth in (had an awesome day so am knocking back a few).

Your post is a bit confusing to read (for me)...

What was the actual mash temperature? "hit strike temp a tad over 70"...did you mash at 70c or did you have the water at 70c before adding the grains? This will have a big effect on how much fermentable wort you have (see Prongs post).

If you added the grain and then wrapped with towels without measuring the temp it could have dropped below 60c which could be a problem for you also. So even though you started with 1.034, this is only a problem if you end at 1.022 or something (which even then it ISN'T a problem; as others have said get the taste and balance right before stressing about efficiency). If your FG is 1.010 then yea you still have a light-mid strength beer but that's no big deal.

I haven't read Nicks guide in a while but a pre-boil gravity of 1.050 is fine if you only have to top it up by a litre or so... topping up too much will of course dilute the solution significantly.


If you are only using the one pot then you can make a measuring device. Either on the outside of the pot or on a spare brewing spoon from a brew shop you can mark off the 10L, 12L, 14L etc levels so you have some idea of where you are.

I'm only new to AG brews (by comparison to most people here) but I agree with everyone else:
1. The beer is not up shit creek; go for flavour and balance and you still have a decent product - if you want cheap piss there are plenty of other options.

2. Maybe have another read of everything to make sure you have the theory locked in. No offence intended, but your post doesn't make it clear if you understand why you are following the steps in Nicks guide rather than just following them because they are there. Having a rudimentary understanding of mash temps, hop additions etc. can do wonders. Yes it makes the stuff a bit more complicated, but the theory allows you to make decisions on your feet.

Good luck champ, the doorway to awesome beer is opening... :icon_cheers:

 

[dags333]

thanks everybody for your help . @ lecterfan i got the temp to 70c then i added the grains.stirred
then put the towels around the pot for 90 mins . its my 1st go at AG . been doing kits for a while now
so have to start at the bottom and work my way up. i understand most of it .but sometimes things dont turn out the way you want them to. thanks for the feedback mate it all helps. darren

 

[flano]

I have done the same one a few times now .

One thing I do is have the temp a little bit higher...75 -ish. By the time the towels are added and stirring is done it probably would have dropped a bit.
Another thing I do is use big woolen blankets and sit it in the sun for the 90 mins.

Temp is 66 dgrs every time so far after 90 mins...or 60 min ...got it wrong a few times.

I also have it around 75 dgrs for the sparge part.

I don't add any water after the boil.

I just wack the cling wrap and lid straight on.

My beer has been coming in at over 5 % alc so far.



did you hang the bag?

I reckon that could be where you are losing a bit.......maybe I am wrong.

 

[Mikedub]

I'm new to Biab too, what a beautiful thing it is,

I've been using a sleeping bag as insulation during the mash, I have it unzipped on the floor and sit the 20L pot in it, zip it up and rap the top of the bag around the outside held with an ocky strap. Both times I've done I've only lost a couple of degrees over 90 minutes.

 

[malt_shovel]

Just a couple of other thoughts on adding top-up water. For extract brewing, taking a SG after adding water can be a bit hit and miss if the water isn't entirely mixed in with the wort, this can have the effect of the SG measurement looking too low. In your case, you boiled for an hour (so guessing about 4 ltrs evaporated), topped up to 18Lts (so 4 plus what ever you were short of 18Ltr prior to boiling), then again to 20Ltr. I think there is a good chance that unless you beat the wort within an inch of it's life, the mixture will not be even throughout, so I wouldn't get too hung up on the pre-pitching SG. I know extract and BIAB is a different beast, just throwing out a suggestion.

On the mashing temps, I suspect you will also be fine here. There is a chance it may be a bit low, but that will create extra fermentables and alcohol as a result. US-05 is a fairly high attenuative yeast, so don't be suprised if it gets down to 1.008 or lower. This would make it a little "dry", but still very drinkable.

On the whole I think you have done a bloody good job to start your AG adventure. Now the most important question you should be asking next is, "what's my next AG going to be?"

RDWHAHB and all that jazz.

Cheers
:beer:

edit: Another thought is on the SG measurement at higher than calibration temps. The corrections for these measurements (i assume the 1.050 is corrected for this elevated temp) can get a bit loose for anything much higher than the calibration temp for the hydrometer (typically 20oC), so again don't get too hung up on this measurement. If you can, next time take your SG sample and throw it in the freezer with a lid on (prevent evaporation prior to measuring) and get it closer to 20oC. This will give you a bit more confidence in the SG measurement over all.

 

[flano]

For extract brewing, taking a SG after adding water can be a bit hit and miss if the water isn't entirely mixed in with the wort, this can have the effect of the SG measurement looking too low

sounds good to me...you may have it.

 

[KGB]

Also a good point about measuring the gravity at significantly higher than calibrated temp.

Good post by Prong.

If all you're concerned about is lower %alc then you could always dump 500g of dextrose in with the boil.
I'm using a 19L pot as well, I don't lose more than a couple of degrees over 60-90min steep. If I want a 20L batch, a mate (with another 19L pot) and I will run tandem brews and combine into the fermenter. We're using gas burners and not the stove top.