Airgead
Ohhh... I can write anything I like here
- Joined
- 6/4/05
- Messages
- 3,651
- Reaction score
- 1,055
Folks
After 3 months of building gear I finally made the first AG Oatmeal stout yesterday -
Brewstand - check (finished on Saturday)
Chiller - check (also finished Saturday)
Kettle with tap - check
Mash esky with slotted copper manifold - check
Large pot and electric hotplate for HLT - check
Right.. on to brew
Strangebrew said 14l at 76 degrees to hit a mash in temp of 66 so 14l at 76 degrees went in. In went 4kg JW ale malt and 1/2gk coles organic instant oats. Stired. Checked temp and what do you know - 66 degrees. Spot on. Lid on and wrapped the esky in blankets to help with temp stability.
Left to mash for 60 mins then added the dark grains (having read that mashing them for too long can extract tanins and stuff). Checked temp - 65 degrees. Excellent. In went 300g JW chocolate and 600g JW roast barley. Time for the first mistake of the day. Left the thermometer propped up in the esky for a minute to see what adding the extra grains did to the temp. One small sploosh later and I am sans thermomenter for the rest of the mash. I didn't feel like fishing around for it as broken thermometer was not on my recipe sheet.
Mashed for another 30 mins than added 5l of boiling water to get it up to 76 degrees for mashout. Actual temp - ??? I'm sure the thermometer was reading it perfectly but I just couldn't see it through 6 inches of grain.
Time to sparge. Opened the tap. New manifiold works like a charm. Runoff was clear within 1/2 litre. Started running into the kettle. Good fast flow even with the oats. Start fly sparging.
Arrrrggghhh.... need bigger pot for sparge water. I was taking out 1 or 2l to sparge with then adding 1 or 2l of tap water to top the pot up again. The electric hotplate wasn't fast enough to heat it so my sparge water was dropping in temp rapidly. By the time I had my final volume It was nearly room temp. Oh well. Note to self for next time. Use bigger pot.
Started boil with my new 4 ring burner. Wait. Wait some more. Put NASA burrner on wish list. Wait more. Ahhh.. finally. Boil 30 mins then add 60g fuggles for the remaining 60 mins. I was assuming a 20% loss during the boil. It was actually around 10 so I now have too much wort to fit in the fermenter. No time to boil longer, its getting dark and I need the gas bottle to cook the BBQ. I'll just chill and will have to dump the excess as I don't have a spare fermenter *sob*.
Fire up the chiller. Fantastic. 9m imersion chiller. Boy it cools quickly. Discover a problem - a pinhole in my solder is causing hot water from the out end of the chiller to spray back into the kettle. Bugger. Quickly rig up a screen. Will have to fix that for next time. By this time I have recovered my thermometer from the mash esky so I can see how the cooling is going. From boiling to 22 degrees in under 20 minutes. Great.
Into the fermenter. pitch yeast. Done.
A bit on the low side OG wise due to my mis-calculation in volume but still well within spec. The calculations show 75% efficiency which I figure isn't bad for a first go.
Well done me. Pat self on back. Cook BBQ. Drink several beers to celebrate.
Couldn't have done it without you guys. The fact that things went so smoothly is a testament to the incredible wealth of collective knowledge here. In a couple of weeks when its all done I'll raise a glass to everyone here.
Cheers
Dave
After 3 months of building gear I finally made the first AG Oatmeal stout yesterday -
Brewstand - check (finished on Saturday)
Chiller - check (also finished Saturday)
Kettle with tap - check
Mash esky with slotted copper manifold - check
Large pot and electric hotplate for HLT - check
Right.. on to brew
Strangebrew said 14l at 76 degrees to hit a mash in temp of 66 so 14l at 76 degrees went in. In went 4kg JW ale malt and 1/2gk coles organic instant oats. Stired. Checked temp and what do you know - 66 degrees. Spot on. Lid on and wrapped the esky in blankets to help with temp stability.
Left to mash for 60 mins then added the dark grains (having read that mashing them for too long can extract tanins and stuff). Checked temp - 65 degrees. Excellent. In went 300g JW chocolate and 600g JW roast barley. Time for the first mistake of the day. Left the thermometer propped up in the esky for a minute to see what adding the extra grains did to the temp. One small sploosh later and I am sans thermomenter for the rest of the mash. I didn't feel like fishing around for it as broken thermometer was not on my recipe sheet.
Mashed for another 30 mins than added 5l of boiling water to get it up to 76 degrees for mashout. Actual temp - ??? I'm sure the thermometer was reading it perfectly but I just couldn't see it through 6 inches of grain.
Time to sparge. Opened the tap. New manifiold works like a charm. Runoff was clear within 1/2 litre. Started running into the kettle. Good fast flow even with the oats. Start fly sparging.
Arrrrggghhh.... need bigger pot for sparge water. I was taking out 1 or 2l to sparge with then adding 1 or 2l of tap water to top the pot up again. The electric hotplate wasn't fast enough to heat it so my sparge water was dropping in temp rapidly. By the time I had my final volume It was nearly room temp. Oh well. Note to self for next time. Use bigger pot.
Started boil with my new 4 ring burner. Wait. Wait some more. Put NASA burrner on wish list. Wait more. Ahhh.. finally. Boil 30 mins then add 60g fuggles for the remaining 60 mins. I was assuming a 20% loss during the boil. It was actually around 10 so I now have too much wort to fit in the fermenter. No time to boil longer, its getting dark and I need the gas bottle to cook the BBQ. I'll just chill and will have to dump the excess as I don't have a spare fermenter *sob*.
Fire up the chiller. Fantastic. 9m imersion chiller. Boy it cools quickly. Discover a problem - a pinhole in my solder is causing hot water from the out end of the chiller to spray back into the kettle. Bugger. Quickly rig up a screen. Will have to fix that for next time. By this time I have recovered my thermometer from the mash esky so I can see how the cooling is going. From boiling to 22 degrees in under 20 minutes. Great.
Into the fermenter. pitch yeast. Done.
A bit on the low side OG wise due to my mis-calculation in volume but still well within spec. The calculations show 75% efficiency which I figure isn't bad for a first go.
Well done me. Pat self on back. Cook BBQ. Drink several beers to celebrate.
Couldn't have done it without you guys. The fact that things went so smoothly is a testament to the incredible wealth of collective knowledge here. In a couple of weeks when its all done I'll raise a glass to everyone here.
Cheers
Dave