Fergis 1st All Grain Happening Now

[fergi]

the gravity reading was pre boil out of mash tun, the wort is now in a cube,"no chill" so tomorrow nite i will take a gravity reading before i toss the yeast in.
fergi

 

[sav]

Mate I have been brewing a while and I don't secondary ales ,I fermenting krausen dies down about 7to8 days dry hop leave for another 3 days depending on Fg Then crash and clear, I filter. So good job on your first AG, beer smith is a great program and it will do the work for you , get the free trial.

You said you will not smash this beer because you have others in kegs. This is your first AG beer It will blow before your others I bet you.

SAV

 

[fergi]

Mate I have been brewing a while and I don't secondary ales ,I fermenting krausen dies down about 7to8 days dry hop leave for another 3 days depending on Fg Then crash and clear, I filter. So good job on your first AG, beer smith is a great program and it will do the work for you , get the free trial.

You said you will not smash this beer because you have others in kegs. This is your first AG beer It will blow before your others I bet you.

SAV

guess what Sav, i think you may be right. it was probably a stupid statement, if it turns out half nice i will probably be asking all my mates around just to show off.

fergi

 

[fergi]

this maay be a strange question but as i have just done my first ag would it be wise to do my second one straight away , or do you think it wise to wait and see how my first one turns out in case i need to change something that i may have stuffed up in the first one.
fergi

 

[Nick JD]

If you made sweet wort and then bittered it ... I'd do another if I were you.

 

[Crusty]

well now i would like to work out my efficiency,how do i work that out guys, anyone help me out here.
cheers fergi

fergi,
I use brewhouse effiency & basically measure my temp corrected SG in fermenter & my volume. For example, if I collected 25lts into my fermenter @1.044, I have achieved 80% efficiency with my grain bill. Using Beer Tools Pro, I can go into my analysis page & say I enter 25lts @1.042, I will get a brewhouse efficiency of 76% & so on. A lot of guys on here use BeerSmith, which I have installed on my computer as well, but BTP is so much better. It's a little harder to get your head around setting it up for your brew day but once you work out how to drive it, it's awesome. I consistently hit my SG targets & volumes all the time.

I think your first one was a cracker fergi,
To infinity & beyond, go for it.

 

[bignath]

this maay be a strange question but as i have just done my first ag would it be wise to do my second one straight away , or do you think it wise to wait and see how my first one turns out in case i need to change something that i may have stuffed up in the first one.
fergi

If you had done an unknown recipe as your first AG then i would definitely wait until you can sample it - and for the reason you hinted to, "just in case"....

BUT, you didn't do that. You picked a VERY good recipe as your first AG, and then you (with the exeption of the manifold problem) had a textbook brew day. Everything according to your brewday run down seemed to go to plan, so if it was me, i be brewing like no tomorrow mate.

Go on, get another brew happening - you know you want to....... :icon_cheers:

Cheers,

Nath

 

[speedie]

Patients is a virtue

If you feel that your first batch may have issues wait until it is in the glass and sample it

If it meets with your admiration brew again aspa

There is nothing more frustrating than bad beer

Good brewing practice will all ways yield good results

speedie

 

[Nick JD]

Patients is a virtue

Patients in an STD waiting room are not virtuous.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

Patients in an STD waiting room are not virtuous.

That's Gold!!

Fergi if you have a soda stream carb up a small amount and have a taste. If you don't I agree with most, do another As someone else suggested use a known recipe from the DP if you can, even if you mess them up they will be balanced and taste awesome. I've done Tony's LCBA and it's great too. With those two Ag's under you belt you will never look back.

 

[Hatchy]

Go again mate.

 

[Lecterfan]

Go again mate.

Yep. If the first one was good you will want another batch to drink as soon as the first batch is gone, and if the first batch is not good then you will be keen to try your next batch to see if it is better.

There is really no way out of it...

 

[argon]

Yep. If the first one was good you will want another batch to drink as soon as the first batch is gone, and if the first batch is not good then you will be keen to try your next batch to see if it is better.

There is really no way out of it...

ad infinitum

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

ad infinitum

I'd have to agree. The only reason (sorry for accidentally feeding the troll, though that other forum post is so funny!) I wouldn't is that sometimes, something that is wrong in your process can only be sorted and understood by drinking the beer afterwards.

If you can carbonate a stubby and drink cold, it would be ideal. I learn more about my beer and any mistakes I make, where I go wrong and and what ingredients work (probably not an issue, as you've used an existing, well documented recipe) and why - after I drink.

Having said that, no-one likes to run out of beer! And I have by doing the above, in times past.

Not trying to contradict anyone (or myself) - just presenting both sides of the argument.

As for programs, download qbrew or use beercalculus.hopville.com - they are both free.

Goomba

 

[Nick JD]

I can't see anything in Fergi's process that would indicate anything other than supurb beer.

My process is way, waaay more foolhardy and if I do say so myself - my beers are exemplary as to how using grain and hops makes nice beer not obsessively focusing on the details.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I can't see anything in Fergi's process that would indicate anything other than supurb beer.

My process is way, waaay more foolhardy and if I do say so myself - my beers are exemplary as to how using grain and hops makes nice beer not obsessively focusing on the details.

I'm with you - I don't pay that much attention to the details. most of the time I end up with great beer, but every so often, I end up with a clanger that occurs because I've been too lazy. And I don't find out until the beer is in my glass after work and I'm wondering what the hell I've done.

The first time it happened (well actually it happened on two consecutive beers), I stopped all production, went back to what I did wrong, altered my process a little and came up with the solution.

Given I started with your $20 on the stovetop procedure and then went on from there - I will be corrected by you at any given time with great humility.

My process is now akin to BIABAMIAE (BIAB after Mash in an Esky) - my voile is now a great filter inside a colander where I drain from esky (cheap as chips) into my 2 big w pots. Given I bastardised your procedure, I needed to iron out the kinks in its illegitimate offspring.

Fergi - listen to nick - this is his baby.

Goomba

 

[manticle]

Boil should be done by now, but to answer this question, you need to boil hard enough to get 8 to 12% evaporation per hour.
From what you had said to me previously you were aiming for 15% which is more than what's necessary but with the kettles we use in homebrewing sometimes unavoidable.
If you boiled of 3-4 litres from your preboil then the vigour of your boil would of been fine.

I am one that will disagree with manticle with regards HSA and preboil splashing. You are going to boil for at least an hour so any oxygen that may have got into the runnings by a little splashing will be boiled out of the wort.
After the boil is a different matter, don't splash the wort before it has dropped below 40C. So when you are filling your cube in no chilling run your hose from the kettle to the bottom of the cube to avoid any splashing.

I'm not sure which way to lean. I've read a bit which states splashing during mashing and sparging is particularly bad and will actually cause exponentially larger oxidative reactions when boiling. Dissolved oxygen is not (as far as I understand) the problem - it's reactions created by oxidation which the boil doesn't drive off.

I'm not claiming to know - just interested in what I've been reading on the issue.

From BYO

The Hot Zone
Hot-side aeration describes the pick-up of air during the hot stages of the brewing process. However, it is really only a concern during the mash and sparging stages. During the mash and sparge, there are certain enzymes present in the malt that, when in the presence of oxygen, can combine with malt compounds and form the flavor and aroma compounds that we perceive as oxidation. Therefore, taking care not to splash the wort too much during mashing, sparging, and runoff into the kettle will help you avoid these flavor and aroma compounds. As soon as you begin the boil, the enzymes will be destroyed, and the risk of oxidation at this point is then eliminated. So dont worry about stirring and splashing during the boil. Boiling will drive any remaining oxygen out of the wort, and many large commercial breweries actually aerate the wort during or immediately after boiling to help precipitate tannins and to strip unwanted volatile gasses from the wort. But remember, because boiling strips the wort of oxygen, it is even more important to aerate the wort when you pitch the yeast.

(from this page: http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/arti...ng-the-air-wars )

Small discussion on another forum: http://www.brewingkb.com/homebrewing/hot-s...ation-2323.html

Trying to download the brewing network podcast with Bamforth at the moment.

Sorry to take it so far off topic fergi. Yes brew again soon, especially if you think you have a handle on the process.

 

[Nick JD]

Fergi - listen to nick - this is his baby.

It's not actually. I stood on the shoulders of greats.

I'm the publicist, not the inventor.

 

[fergi]

well i have put my first ag into the fermenter last nite after cooling it in a cube,i measured OG at 1048 @ 18 deg wort temp. how do i work out my efficiency ,i have a trial version of beersmith, grain bill was 4.4kg.

cheers fergi

 

[np1962]

well i have put my first ag into the fermenter last nite after cooling it in a cube,i measured OG at 1048 @ 18 deg wort temp. how do i work out my efficiency ,i have a trial version of beersmith, grain bill was 4.4kg.

cheers fergi

Quick calcs on my iPhone using Brewpal gives an efficiency into the fermenter of 75percent.
Well done, looks like everything went well.
Not going to try explain beersmith on the phone
Beersmith website has tutorials.
Cheers
Nige