Hi guys yesturday I did my first AG it was very dodgy and crude for a first time.I copied the instructions Pistalpatch wrote on one of the forums for Ross's Swartzbier.I actualy started on friday but once I heated my sparge water and pored it into my mashtun I had leaks coming from my plastic fittings and so had to retighten it all and waited till saturday.Things I learnt is to buy a thermometer that goes to 100c , my electronic one only goes to 70c so when I put my sparge water in and grain I only got to a temp of 63c instead of 66c.
While I was waiting for the grain I tried to boil the rest of my sparge water but ran out of time before I had to start my first run, hence I only hit 66c but for the second run I hit 87c which was better.Because I don't have a big enough pot my fist run off I had to use my fermentor to collect the wort and once the second lot of sparge water went into my mash tun I could pore the wort into the pot and start the boil, I also used the fermentor to collect the second lot of wort.After the boil off I collected around 20L a bit short and my OG is 1040.
Two questions when boiling on the stove do you leave the lid on or off? I had mine partialy off to the side to let the steam out and by the end I had a lot of hop scum on the lid.
Second question instead of using a heat exchanger can I siphon the hot liquid into my fermentor and leave it in the fridge overnight at 17c and pitch the yeast, just seam to waste alot of water using the heat exchanger.
I guess I will see how it tastes in a few weeks time.Now I'm ready to do another one.
Cheers Andrew
While I was waiting for the grain I tried to boil the rest of my sparge water but ran out of time before I had to start my first run, hence I only hit 66c but for the second run I hit 87c which was better.Because I don't have a big enough pot my fist run off I had to use my fermentor to collect the wort and once the second lot of sparge water went into my mash tun I could pore the wort into the pot and start the boil, I also used the fermentor to collect the second lot of wort.After the boil off I collected around 20L a bit short and my OG is 1040.
Two questions when boiling on the stove do you leave the lid on or off? I had mine partialy off to the side to let the steam out and by the end I had a lot of hop scum on the lid.
Second question instead of using a heat exchanger can I siphon the hot liquid into my fermentor and leave it in the fridge overnight at 17c and pitch the yeast, just seam to waste alot of water using the heat exchanger.
I guess I will see how it tastes in a few weeks time.Now I'm ready to do another one.
Cheers Andrew