Ag Starting Brew

[manaen]

Well it looks like I have scored an aluminium 36L stock pot with lid pretty cheap, so really I could do a AG for my next brew. Full wort boils .. woohoo. I am on the hunt for a decent burner, but I can still use by single ring wok burner from my bbq until I get something better. I even ordered that AG DVD from the states last night to get some hints.

So guys .. does anyone have an kick arse (maybe award winning) recipe I can try for my first AG? I'd prefer pale and amber ales. All things going to plan I will give it a go next weekend :beerbang:

Does this sound like the right process to go:

* Steep 5kg(ish) grain in 66degC water for about 60 mins, recirculate a few litres through the grain until it comes out of tap clear, drain most of it into 36L stock pot.

* Put another 10-15L of 75degC water back into mash tun stir well, let it sit for 15 mins, recirculate till clear then drain off to stock pot.

* Boil full volume for 90 mins adding hops and Whirfloc (irish moss)

* Cool stock pot in ice bath (until I get an immersion chiller) until 25degC

* Transfer wort into fermenter, airate, take SG reading and pitch yeast.

Does this sound like the right way to go or am I missing something?

 

[agro]

I'll be doing my first AG in a couple of weeks, just building the last of the equipment.

* Have 40L Aluminium Stock Pot from a kitchen supplier who was going out of business.
* Picked up a three ring gas burner from a disposals for $35, has been in their window for years.
* Have made my Esky/mash tun. Will be changing to a copper manifold now I have the copper.
* Making my immersion cooler today.

So will be ready soon. In all honesty I could go AG today, but I'm trying to use up my malt/extract stock pile first.

I plan on my first recipe being a Whitbier, based off a recipe posted here:



BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: wheat beer
Brewer: Jason Ball
Asst Brewer:
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 24.08 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 17.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.70 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 56.3 %
1.80 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK (2.0 EBC) Grain 37.5 %
0.30 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 6.3 %
19.23 gm Hallertauer [5.30%] (80 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
10.00 gm Hallertauer [5.30%] (15 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

I'm planning on a batch sparge (don't have a dedicated HLT) and have set the efficiency at 60% assuming the worst as I can always dilute it later

 

[Aaron]

That is the basics. The BEST thing you could do is have a read of "How to Brew". You can use that as a bible for brewing. I would also reccomend getting a hard copy, most brew shops will have it. It is an invaluable resource. I have not seen this DVD but I can't imagine it coming close to Palmer's book. The DVD would have to be 100 hours long to get all the info in.

 

[Jye]

Sounds like you are set to go Might be worth while downloading the demo version of Beersmith so you get all of your water volumes correct.

Have you seen KrOtChROTTs video?

For APA recipes have a flick through the SFPA thread, lots of good stuff in there.

 

[Jazzafish]

That is a good start, it will work. Be careful of hot side aeration, easy to achieve with this method.

For really basic all grain brewing, check this out: http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page1.php

There are step by step photos and instructions. Quite a simplified approach. There are also illustrated instructions for many other brewing procedures.

If you do a search under "skunk fart ale" you will get some great pale ale recipes.

Best of luck! It really isn't all that hard to make a decent AG beer... if you let it be easy

Cheers,
Jarrad

 

[tangent]

36L stock pot with lid pretty cheap, so really I could do a AG for my next brew

or you could have used 2 smaller pots and done an AG brew ages ago

 

[PistolPatch]

Cheers Manaen!

Never done an AG before but saw a great illustrated site yesterday thanks to the recommendation of someone here. It's called Paul's Brewing Page and can be found at...

http://cruisenews.net/brewing/index.php

After looking through this, I now for the first time have some idea of what AG is all about and the pictures (about 5 photos for each step)make it look pretty easy to do.

Also got a 3 ring Primus burner yesterday for $40 which seems to be the going price at camping stores. Other guys here would know but I don't reckon a single burner would be enough for you. Hate to see you sitting there for a year waiting for a boil.

Cheers mate!

 

[PistolPatch]

Jazza beat me to it but at least you have 2 recommendations now on Paul's Brewing Page!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If you want to make 22ltrs of beer you will need about 29ltrs of wort before you start to boil.

I usually fill the mash tun 2-3 times after first runnings, depending on the amount of grain.

Personally I would start off with about 4kg grain and it should give a wort of about 1044 at the end of the boil. This will depend on mash efficiency, evaporation rates and trub losses.

Use 4kg of pale ale malt and bitter to about 25-28 IBU using 18grms POR (60mins) and 14grms cascade at 15mins.

This will give a beer that you can evaluate your system with, be nice and simple, taste good and give you a starting block to work on for future beers.

You could try adding 100gms or more of crystal to help the head on it.But dont go overboard

 

[pop_shots]

I'll be doing my first AG in a couple of weeks, just building the last of the equipment.

* Have 40L Aluminium Stock Pot from a kitchen supplier who was going out of business.
* Picked up a three ring gas burner from a disposals for $35, has been in their window for years.
* Have made my Esky/mash tun. Will be changing to a copper manifold now I have the copper.
* Making my immersion cooler today.

So will be ready soon. In all honesty I could go AG today, but I'm trying to use up my malt/extract stock pile first.

I plan on my first recipe being a Whitbier, based off a recipe posted here:



BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: wheat beer
Brewer: Jason Ball
Asst Brewer:
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 24.08 L
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 17.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.70 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 56.3 %
1.80 kg Pilsner (2 Row) UK (2.0 EBC) Grain 37.5 %
0.30 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 6.3 %
19.23 gm Hallertauer [5.30%] (80 min) Hops 13.9 IBU
10.00 gm Hallertauer [5.30%] (15 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat

I'm planning on a batch sparge (don't have a dedicated HLT) and have set the efficiency at 60% assuming the worst as I can always dilute it later

[post="105240"][/post]​

greetings fellow brewer. just wanted to point something out.

if I were you i'd just use the aluminum boiler for seafood, frying turkeys, etc. supposedly brewing in them makes the beer taste funny, to my knowledge. if it helps, I picked up a stainless steel 36 quart pot from a large sporting store here in the U.S. named Academy, not sure if you guys have 'em over there. g'luck with your first AG.


edit- almost forgot, head to your local walmart before paying 35 for that burner you speak of. head to home and garden, shelved they should have these 37.00 'complete turkey fryer sets' , I picked up one yesterday and it worked perfect for heating my first brew. (i used a stainless steel pot that was 60 bucks though, only thing I used out of the fryer kit was the burner, stand and regulator)

it's kind of a cheap burner, but it definately gets the job done and I assembled it in like 5 minutes, so it isn't that big of a piece of junk (although it's made in china, it IS welded..)

also, if you dont have a vice for cutting holes in your manifold, go ahead and get someone to give you a hand holding it down on a tailgate or something and cut the holes with the manifold assembled. i kept trying to do it to single pieces of pipe at a time and it was a huge pain in the ass, also the fact that I think I bought regular copper piping instead of the softer tubing may have been a contributing factor.

hope I helped... later

-Patrick

 

[Kai]

Aluminium pots are just fine, they won't taint your beer in any way.

 

[pop_shots]

Aluminium pots are just fine, they won't taint your beer in any way.

[post="105608"][/post]​

Interesting, I've never done it personally..but figured the 10 or more articles I read saying not to use aluminum couldn't be wrong.

http://www.arachnyd.com/david/brew-how.html
http://www.houblon.net/article.php3?id_article=524
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic....ff7e819990a308d
http://www.gotmead.com/making-mead/equipment.shtml
http://www.freshops.com/homebrew2.html
http://www.homebrewnet.com/Gadgets.html
http://www.homebrewsupply.com/begin.htm
http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0079027
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic....0ee838fa2c2e377
etc. i have many more links that say not to use 'em.

then there's links out there with people saying that aluminum is okay such as this..
http://hbd.org/brewsandviews/messages/2000...html?1083799312
reading all these really steered me towards the SS pot.

 

[Kai]

Link 1, Comic Sans. Never trust a site that uses Comic Sans.
Link 2, offers no reason to back up its throwaway statement
Link 3 is about rootbeer, not beer
Link 4 is about mead, not beer.
Link 5 again offers no factual backup.
Link 6 is about wine, not beer.
Link 7 again offers no factual backup.
Link 8 is again about mead, not beer.
Link 9 offers several different opinions on using aluminium

And Link 10 is the only one that actually contains any backup information, and it's the one in support of using aluminum.

Really, we could both dig up hundreds of links of people's opinions on using aluminium, but that wouldn't prove anything.

 

[pop_shots]

Really, we could both dig up hundreds of links of people's opinions on using aluminium, but that wouldn't prove anything.

[post="105610"][/post]​

agreed

so youve always used aluminum? i might try a batch with my huge aluminum pot then

 

[Kai]

Nah, I've only just started using it myself as I've only just upgraded to a larger-sized brewing setup. But I know a lot of brewers who do use it and they all make great beer.

 

[pop_shots]

Nah, I've only just started using it myself as I've only just upgraded to a larger-sized brewing setup. But I know a lot of brewers who do use it and they all make great beer.

[post="105612"][/post]​

well...if you've tasted great beer that was alum boiled, ill have to take your word for it that it doesnt affect the taste.
makes sense economically too, especially for 15+ gallon batches. the big ss pots are a bit ridiculous price wise, i was looking at a nice 14 gallon one and it was 165.00....

 

[pop_shots]

i should've made a yeast starter. waiting on initial fermentation to begin, it should take place in about 4-5 hours (that makes the 24 hour mark for me) but I'm not seeing anything..no slight bubbles or any of that yet. hopefully I won't get too much of a lag time, (used white labs liquid yeast in a vial)

 

[warrenlw63]

Pop_shots.

One thing you'll learn pretty quickly with a lot of HB writings (particularly from your side of the pond) is the huge amount of urban myth and straight out BS that can be passed from brewer to brewer. <_<

Aluminium pots work well. I've now done 3 Batches with my new 80 litre job and the beer tastes just fine. The only flavour imperfections are purely brewer-related when they occur.

Sorry about the light hijack, I don't want to create another aluminium/alzheimers debate and it's obvious jocularity. When you've got somebody close to you who suffers this condition it ceases to be a laughing matter.

Warren -

 

[Weizguy]

Hear, hear, Warren. Experience beats BS negative hearsay. :super:

I've read that science has refuted the aluminium link to Alzheimer's (sory, no link). I'm thinking that it's much better to get this sort of info from scientific sources, rather than urban lore, which includes Brewer's forums.

BTW, don't want to be seen to be beating up on foreigners, but we spell it correctly as aluminium. When I studied at University in the 80's, there was an internationally adopted (SI) spelling convention that was introduced. The correct (unless it has been altered since...willing to be corrected) was that Sulphur now be spelled with an F (sulfur), and that aluminum now have the relevant I included (aluminium). I prob won't get anywhere with this, as we are not published in an internationally recognised journal (however international we may be), so I present this for informational purposes only.

Apart from that, aluminium is cheaper, seems to work well, and I'd be happy to use it, if I got the right size at the right price.

Sethule (B.Sc) out

 

[warrenlw63]

Added to all that Weiz don't forget that ally all but negates hotspots on the bottom of the kettle. :beerbang:

Right size and right price? Go to any catering supplier Weiz. They're as cheap as for their volume. I paid $150 for mine (80 Litres).

Warren -