Droopy looses V plates

[Droopy Brew]

After about 6 months of kits and 15 months of extracts, I finally got my shit together to brew an AG.
Thanks to a lot of help from blokes around here (LRG and Tahoose in particular), I ended up using a bastardised 4V system (I think).
Using a 60L boil kettle, a 19L BigW pot HLT, a 25L mash esky and a double bucket lauter (does this constitute a 4th vessel?).

So it started mid week, I worked out my recipe, got all the bits and pieces together including drilling 100000 holes in a bucket, sanding back drilling through again etc- pain in the arse. Got my grains (shop cracked) and ingredients together.

On Saturday I did a boil with 30l of water to get my evaporation rate, kettle loss and heating rates. With the new 210 000 BTU burner it took only 25 minutes to get 30L of 28C water to a rolling boil at medium setting with no lid- that will do me.
I lost 5L per hour so about 16%.



Gave everything a clean and sanitize ready for Sunday.
I jumped onto brew mate and put in my figures and tweaked the recipe. I went with:

Vol in Ferm- 22L
OG 1.049
FG 1.012
Est Efficiency 70%
Est loss 2L

Pale Malt 4.25kg
Munich 0.5kg
Crystal 50 0.25kg

Mash in 15L for 90 min at 65C,
Mash out at 71C with 3.6L boiling infusion.

Bucket Sparge with 15L at 71C


Boil 8g Warrior at 60min
20g Citra @ 10min
20g Simcoe @ 10 min.

Yeast nutrient and brew brite at 15min.

So Sunday was the day. Started out at 10am on the dot and got the strike water to 70C, mashed in and hit 65.1C- perfect.

I added about an extra litre more infusion water to get it to 71C so had a bit less to sparge with.

Spent a while getting the grains and wort into the bucket lauter using only a stein but got there in the end and commenced drain. it took awhile for the grain to settle into a decent bed but once I got the water level right I started sparging and ended up getting 29.5L into the boil kettle which was on the money.

I started the boil but was concerned about the amount of grain that had got into the brew (maybe 50g but it looked a lot). I fashioned a net from swiss voile and a coat hanger and pulled some of it out. Ahh well see how it goes.
The hop boil went as planned- I actually decided to reduce my hop additions from 4 to 2 (skipped the 30min and 5 min) so I could use the 2 hop bags I had available. I was using a cube and swimming pool to drop the temp so wanted to remove the hops at flame out so I could control my IBUs.

There seemed to be a lot of floaties at time out, I just hoped the brew brite was doing its job. I whirlpooled by hand and let it sit for 5 before draining. Concerned about the amount of floculant I made a sock out of swiss voile to cable tie on the end of the drain hose.
I needn't have worried as the wort came out very clear and the floc settled in a nice pile in the middle.



Cubed it, and dunked in the pool by 3:30- all done in 5.5 hours plus clean up.
Ended up pitching the yeast about 9pm that night into what looked to be extremely clear wort.

I ended up with 23L of 1.049 OG wort- hitting the numbers spot on but getting an extra Litre meaning my brewhouse efficiency was 73%.

Pretty happy so far with the result for me first try, now the 2 week wait and the real test.

 

[Tahoose]

Sounds like a good brew day.

Well done on hitting all of the numbers.. I'm sure you managed to crack a cold one after that.

Now the beer world is pretty much your oyster, and if you can dream it, you'll probably be able to brew it.

 

[slcmorro]

loses*

Excited for you mate. Good job, welcome to the wonderful world of AG!

 

[wereprawn]

Well done Droopy. Wasn't sure about this AG caper to begin. Now i wouldn't go back.

Whirlpooling by hand ey? Crikey!! Knew us QLDers were made of sturner stuff than our soft southern cousins but you are one tough SOB.

 

[Droopy Brew]

HAha, it was pretty easy actually. Had a long handled pair of tongs, and just like those trailer park girls, went round the outside, round the outside. Then once it was spinning moved the tongs in towards the middle and as they say- its all in the wrist. Got a vortex going about 15-20cm deep doing this and gave it about a minute and is seemed to do the trick.

 

[panzerd18]

Thought the title was about droopy loose Vajay-jay

 

[manticle]

I whirlpool by hand. All you need is a chef's spoon (ex- chef hands might help too)

Good job on the brew droopy.

 

[Droopy Brew]

Thought the title was about droopy loose Vajay-jay

No mate you will find that thread in the Pub section.

I lost my AG virginity plates- and it feels goooood :kooi:

 

[slcmorro]

No mate you will find that thread in the Pub section.

I lost my AG virginity plates- and it feels goooood :kooi:

He's talking about the typo, a play on the 'loose' and 'lose'. Loose is generally not tight where as to lose something means it's gone missing.

On topic though, you're going to do exactly what I did... wonder why you didn't do AG sooner!

 

[Droopy Brew]

Yeah I figured that- cant edit titles but.

 

[slcmorro]

You gotta pay extra for that

 

[manticle]

Yeah I figured that- cant edit titles but.

I can if you want. Will leave if preferred.

 

[Droopy Brew]

NAh leave it mate- otherwise half the thread wont make sense. I can live with a tipo.

 

[manticle]

Want me to edit 'tipo' to 'typo'?

 

[Droopy Brew]

Pun intended

 

[Droopy Brew]

So I kegged this arvo. Finished 5 points lower at 1.006 in 7 days, gave it an extra 2 and then 2 cold crash. I forced carbed and an hour later gave it the taste test- pretty bloody good!

It is still a bit cloudy and not quite fully carbed but I can taste the difference. I was pretty happy with most of my extracts and wasn't expecting a huge improvement but I can really taste the difference in malts. The fresh grain flavours really come through and I suspect in a couple of days once it has settled I will be calling it my best yet.

Pretty happy my first try turned out so well, I will post a photo once it clears and carbs well. Will be brewing a Dr Smurtos Wiesen on Sunday.

No turning back now- onwards and upwards!