Brew Day Plan

[Leyther]

Given I want my first AG brewday to go as smoothly as possible and to allow me to capture some equipment details for my new Guten I thought I would pull together a spreadsheet with steps in it for my day.

I've learned so much from this site I'd like to give a little back, hopefully will be of use for any other newbies going through the same process, spreadie attached.

The steps in the process are as follows:

Step Desc
1 Fill strike water, note quantity
2 Program Guten - Initial Program - S1 Strike (30mins, 2500w, 75C), S2 Mash (60mins, 1000w, 68C), S3 Mash Out (15mins, 2000w, 76c), S4 Boil (75mins, 2500w, 100c)
3 Boil Strike Water
4 Prepare Malts
5 Dough In - start of mash
6 Turn on recirc pump for entirety of mash
7 Prepare Hop Additions
8 10mins before end of mash start heating sparge water - note quantity
9 Take Gravity Reading at end of mash
10 Mash Out - programmed (15mins)
11 Start Boil - programmed (75mins, allowing 15 to get upto boil)
12 Lift grains
13 Sparge (fly style, pour slowly over top grain basket)
14 Take Gravity Reading at end of sparge
15 Discard Grains
16 60 min hops
17 20 min hops
18 15 mins left to boil - Add Whirlfloc table
19 15 mins left to boil - Put Chiller in Wort
20 End of Boil - allow to cool for 10mins
21 Add 0 min hops
22 Whirlpool
23 Start Chilling - Note Start/End Temps
24 Take Gravity reading when cool
25 Transfer to fermentor - note quantity
26 Pitch Yeast when reaches correct temp
27 Transfer to temp control fridge

With the programming, I'm taking a stab at some of these times initially, I'll take notes and refine for the next time. In S1 (Strike) I'm allowing 30mins to get upto dough in temp of 75C, S3 (Mash out) I'm allowing 5 mins to raise to mash temp and in S4 (Boil) I'm allowing 15mins to get to the boil temp. With the boil this will coincide with lifting the grains and starting the sparge.

I've chosen to let the wort cool for 10mins before I add the 0 min additions, I like a hop forward beer so this i more for my personal taste.

If there are any steps you think should be added let me know.

Cheers

View attachment BrewDay.xlsx

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Don't forget to adjust your hydrometer readings for higher temperatures

 

[n87]

From exprience: No matter how many lists you make, you will always be running round like a headless chook looking for that something you forgot, but need it right now.
Usually the 15 min hops or wirlfloc or cubes

 

[Coodgee]

Don't forget the whirlfloc. Make sure the fermenter tap is closed when you fill the fermenter. If in doubt, sanitise it again. And just remember unless you do something really stupid you will probably end up with great beer.

 

[n87]

Personal rule: Dont start drinking til atleast the boil of the last batch of the day

 

[earle]

 

[manticle]

Personal rule: Dont start drinking til you've set up your mill

Fixed

 

[n87]

Actually your list, you will want to lift (and sparge) your grains at the end of mash out

 

[Leyther]

Just done a prep run on the chiller, epic fail, water spraying everywhere, had to use 3 different fitting to get to one that I could attach the garden hose too, PTFE tape to the rescue, good job I found out now rather than having rain water spraying all over my precious wort.

Had a quick run through the guten programmer too....errm....I am a programmer by trade but I think I need to do some more research before brew day on this too!!!

On the +ve just transferred my last extract/part grain from fermentor to make way for the AG and it tastes bloody great, probably the best one yet so this AG has a lot to live upto!!

 

[Jase]

What are your batch sizes Leyther?


Cheers,
Jase

 

[Leyther]

Jase,

well, its been a longf (but good) day, I wanted about 23L in the fermentor but ended up with about 21L I think manily due to me missing a boil over. I'm gonna post a full review tomorrow!!!

 

[Leyther]

So brew day went very smoothly, much better than I thought it would, ended up starting later than planned due to skinfull at the F1. Started at 1030 and was all done dusted and gear all cleaned by 345.

The new guten is 95% awesome, worked an absolute treat, the thing heats very quickly. Did a 3 stage program, mash, mash out and boil. Things I learnt is you definately don't want to have the lid on when on the boil or you should turn the wattage down a lot if you do, I left it for 10 mins only to return to a boiling mess of hops all over the lid.

Sparging was another area I made a mild feck up on too. I undid the top of the overflow pipe to peek at the grains and I couldn't then get it back on as the grains had expanded, just meant I had to place something over the whole while sparging, no biggie and I sparged with 14l in about 20mins.

Next up was the chiller, I got the one with the guten, it's SS and for 18 bucks US I thought be silly not too. I was originally going to no chill but for this one I wanted to try it out.

I was amazed how quick it seemed to cool, down to 35c in 10 mins, I was in awe at it, then I noticed it still looked very hot so I dipped the thermometer to find a reading of 80c!!! I think the problem was the chiller is sat on top of the thermowell so it was false reading, at this point I thought I know I'll use the recirculating pump to move the liquid around, did that and it worked a treat, the temp on the machine quickly went North again as it now was reading more accurately. After about 25 mins was down to about 35c happy with that, however afterwards I did wonder if using the pump was such a good idea as wondered if that would be a add a bit oxygenation.

Only one thing left, transfer to fermenter put i fridge and pitch. This is where the machines major fault lies, it has a small hop bazooka on the tap but it blocks very easily, I think I got 1.5l out before it blocked, I had to keep scraping it to get it to flow, in the end I gave up and used the pump into the fermenter instead, that worked a treat but I ended up with a lot of trub in the fermenter. Simple solution for next time, hop sock or basket or just pump into fermentor via strainer.

I was aiming for 23l In the fermenter as I wanted 19l for the keg and a couple of liters for bottles, only ended up with 21l and will lose a lot to trub so think I'll be lucky to get the keg full. I boiled 19l and sparged with 14l so lost a lot of liquid, boil over cost a little but I suspect most was boil off.

Was an excellent day thoroughly enjoyed it, happy with my machine and looking forwards to the next brew day, learnt some good lessons along the way too!!

Just hope the beer tastes good now!!!

 

[Stouter]

That was an interesting read. The whole brewday seems long with lots of steps. Though realistically only a few hours.
Good to see you guys are happy with the machine, there appeared to be a few sceptics, myself included.

 

[clickeral]

I wouldnt worry about adding oxygen to your wort before it ferments the yeast will use that oxygen

 

[Matplat]

The other reason you don't want a lid on while boiling, is to allow evaporation of a compound called DMS (Dimethyl Sulphate), if you leave the lid on it condenses on the lid and drips back in, gining a cooled corn flavour to the beer....

 

[Leyther]

The other reason you don't want a lid on while boiling, is to allow evaporation of a compound called DMS (Dimethyl Sulphate), if you leave the lid on it condenses on the lid and drips back in, gining a cooled corn flavour to the beer....

Was only about 10mins max at about 20min stage and I boiled for 70mins so hopefully would still have boiled off.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Funnily enough Leyther I make a plan and carry it out even for the most mundane things, when I took a break from working and started helping out with domestic duties I planned each operation, once you have the plans down pat it is surprising how efficiently things get done.

 

[Leyther]

Funnily enough Leyther I make a plan and carry it out even for the most mundane things, when I took a break from working and started helping out with domestic duties I planned each operation, once you have the plans down pat it is surprising how efficiently things get done.

Haha, my Mrs cracks it at me sometimes as I always need a plan!!!

I think next one will go smoother again, few good lessons learnt