And yet another first AG thread

[mosto]

After months of talking about my first AG ang acquiring equipment, I've just mashed in. The setup I've gone with is BIAB in a crab cooker. Based purely on price I went with an electric element and also installed a ball valve. I'm doing the AG version of my house pale. So far, no major dramas

 

[Mitcho89]

Congratulations on the upgrade mate! It's one that you'll never regret and will seriously come to enjoy.

- Mitch.

 

[lukiferj]

Nice one mate. First few brews you will learn a lot. Make sure you take notes.

 

[mosto]

Well, for the first effort, reasonably happy. I'm no chilling, and got a bit of crap in the cube trying to fill it up. Boil off was a bit more than expected. I'll know to adjust strike volume next brew.

 

[Pickaxe]

Wait till you taste. I expect a gushing over excited post that day, hehe.
Sounds like it went well. Good stuff. I'm putting down my 7th on Tuesday, best day of my week is tuesday, brew day. Ag is so worth it.
Look fwd to hearing how it tastes.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Did you sparge at all?

If you hit your numbers, you should be over on the OG if you boiled too much, just top up in the fermenter (unless you have a full cube and are just rigging the blow off)..

Nice work on the move to AG! Recipe?

 

[mosto]

Recipe below

Parkes Road Pale Ale (Australian Pale Ale)
Original Gravity (OG): 1.044 (°P): 11.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol (ABV): 4.32 %
Colour (SRM): 4.5 (EBC): 8.9
Bitterness (IBU): 34.2 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)
95% Pale Ale Malt
5% Carapils (Dextrine)
0.5 g/L Pride of Ringwood (8.3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Galaxy (13.4% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Galaxy (13.4% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop)

Single step Infusion at 68°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes
Fermented at 18°C with Ale yeast

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I was going to re-culture some Coopers yeast, but didn't get around to it, so will S04, as that's what I have on hand.

I haven't taken an OG yet, as I forgot and it is still in the cube. I'll take one when I transfer to fermenter, and if it's high enough, I'll top up with water.

After checking my volumes again, I don't think the boil off was excessive (around 15%), but the loss to grain absorption seems high. I used the default settings in BrewMate, as I had no idea what my prefered settings should be. These settings took into account an absorption rate of 0.6 lt/kg, but I've calculated that I lost around 6 lt to 4 kg of grain. I don't have a hoist for the bag, instead I had the bag in the crab cooker insert and when the mash was finished, I tied the bag off, lifted the insert out, put an oven tray on top of the pot and put the insert (and bag) on that to drain back into the pot. I 'squeezed', by pushing down on the bag with my mash paddle (paint stirrer), which seemed to get a fair bit of the liquid out. I didn't sparge, so maybe that's something I can look at next brew to bring my pre-boil volume back up.

Anyone see anything else in my process that may explain the loss in pre-boil volume?

 

[yum beer]

its a bit hard without volume numbers but do a sparge for sure.
I also found I've had to really crank up the losses numbers in brewmate...trub and chiller.

 

[mosto]

Cheers yum,

BrewMate calculated a strike vol of 26.66 lt so I went with that. I calculated 20.42 lt pre-boil. I forgot to take a post boil vol, but I weighed my cubes filled to the brim with water and calculated they can hold 17 lt. I filled it to the brim and there would have been maybe half a litre in the pot, so I'm guesstimating a post boil vol of 17.5 lt.

I like to ferment 20 lt batches, as I keg into 19 lt corny's, so I'm hoping the OG is high so I can top up with water without taking the ABV too much below the original recipe.

I bought two 15 lt cubes from Bunnings hoping I could squeeze 20 lt into them, but 17 lt appears to be the limit. After a few brews, I'd like to Maxi BIAB anyway and squeeze two batches out of the one brew, so I'll have to take into account 34 lt into two cubes and aim for an appropriate OG.

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Hi guys,
Just wanted to add something to this first AG thread because I just did my first all grain brew as well.
Just wondering when it comes to no chill does this increase the overall bitterness of a batch?
I tried a sample just before cubing it and it was super bitter. That being said after it chilled down in cube i tasted another sample just before fermenting and it was not as bitter.
Was suprised how relatively easy my first biab brew was but I did sit and watch it because I was super nervous.
Didn't hit desired og of 1.047 but when I took a sample before pitching the yeast it was 1.040.
I think the bug has well and truly bitten and I can't wait to crack my first Dr smurtos golden ale.

 

[mosto]

Well, my first AG effort is now on tap and a very nice drop it is indeed. I've made a few kit and extract versions of this brew and in comparison, the flavour is similar, but the difference in body is unreal. The AG has a lot more body and mouthfeel to it and better head formation/retention. I also think it pours better, if that makes sense. With my kit and extract brews, I've had my serving pressure dialed in at 90-100 kpa, which I know sounds high, but that's what level I've gotten the best our at. The beer tended to be over-carbed a bit twoards the end of the keg, however. With this AG, I started off at 90 kpa, but was getting a bit too much froth, dropped back to 80 kpa, still a little too much, then back to 60 kpa, which seems about spot on (and more like what a lot of people serve at, from what I've read). Not sure if others have seen a difference like this between kit and AG beers, but hopefully this will mean the last bit of the keg isn't overcarbed from now on. Only downside I had was nit as much Galaxy aroma as I've had in some other versions, but I think this maybe more a no chill thing. Might try cube hopping, as well as dry hopping, to achieve this in future.

I've done two more brews since in prep for a bonfire we're having for the missus b'day in a couple of weeks. I've got the same recipe in the fermenter, but with Coopers yeast, and I've got an APA cubed waiting for my WLP001 California Ale yeast to turn up, hopefully today.

All in all, very happy with my first AG :beerbang:

 

[Khellendros13]

Well, my first AG effort is now on tap and a very nice drop it is indeed. I've made a few kit and extract versions of this brew and in comparison, the flavour is similar, but the difference in body is unreal. The AG has a lot more body and mouthfeel to it and better head formation/retention. I also think it pours better, if that makes sense. With my kit and extract brews, I've had my serving pressure dialed in at 90-100 kpa, which I know sounds high, but that's what level I've gotten the best our at. The beer tended to be over-carbed a bit twoards the end of the keg, however. With this AG, I started off at 90 kpa, but was getting a bit too much froth, dropped back to 80 kpa, still a little too much, then back to 60 kpa, which seems about spot on (and more like what a lot of people serve at, from what I've read). Not sure if others have seen a difference like this between kit and AG beers, but hopefully this will mean the last bit of the keg isn't overcarbed from now on. Only downside I had was nit as much Galaxy aroma as I've had in some other versions, but I think this maybe more a no chill thing. Might try cube hopping, as well as dry hopping, to achieve this in future.

I've done two more brews since in prep for a bonfire we're having for the missus b'day in a couple of weeks. I've got the same recipe in the fermenter, but with Coopers yeast, and I've got an APA cubed waiting for my WLP001 California Ale yeast to turn up, hopefully today.

All in all, very happy with my first AG :beerbang:

My first AG, Pacific Ale clone, lacked aroma out of the keg. I bagged 15gm of Galaxy flowers, sat them in about 200ml of hot water for a minute then dumped it all in the keg. I had maybe 8L left in the keg. It worked a treat and I will be keg hopping any future IPA/APA's.

 

[MCHammo]

I have a light bodied APA ready to go in the bottle at the moment. In the fermenter, there was only a slight Cascade/NS flavour and aroma. Three days before bottling, I decided to throw in about 10g of cascade for a dry hop. That made a world of difference - so much delicious cascade flavour now. This beer is destined for a camping trip tomorrow to wow some mates.