First Ag At The Weekend

[shonky]

My brewing mate Sean and I completed our first AG on Saturday (despite the bad mix of a big hangover and a bloody hot Sydney day)

I've got 34 litres of English Summer Ale happily bubbling away in the fermentor. This will be a LONG week waiting for the first taste test!

Our setup consists of March pump; cylindrical 10 gallon KeepCold with braided s/s manifold; 55lt electric urn as HLT; chillus convolutus CFWC from morebeer.com; boiler from Gerard at Northern Brewing; burner from Ray's outdoors and plumbing using the silicon hose from grain and grape and quick disconnects from morebeer.

Everything went pretty well - we hit all our target temperatures on the nail. We batch sparged and efficiencies came out at 76%. Had a big problem at the end of the day getting the hot wort pumped through the CFWC, the cascade plugs added late in the boil kept blocking up the outlet, ball-valve etc . After trying numerous things (and losing around 3-4 ltrs - D'oh) my fellow brewer came up with a great workaround. While I controlled the pump he held a hop-bag tied to a roasting fork over the outlet at the bottom of the boiler - this did the trick nicely. Next brew we will have the pot scrubby attached to the outlet or similar to hopefullly avoid a repeat.

Wanted to extend a BIG thanks to the Aussie home brewing community - I have spent countless hours learning everything about the equipment and process on this forum. It has been invaluable. Special thanks to JAYSE for his http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/The_...uide-t1331.html espcially the Led Zeppelin advice , Doc for the countless discussions, patience, encouragement and enthusiasm and T.D. for supplying the James Squire Golden ALe clone recipe that we copied.

Finally popped the AG cherry, feel like an excited teenager again. Cheers all :super:

Jon

 

[jayse]

Thanx for the special thanx and welcome to the world of mash brewing.
It sounds like everything went pretty smoothly for the most part, top work.

Happy brewing
Jayse

 

[Doc]

Top work Jon.
You must have jinxed it when we talked pre-boil
Look forward to taste testing the spoils.

Beers,
Doc

 

[shonky]

Yeah, typical Doc. I should have kept my mouth shut!! Next time I'll wait until the yeast is pitched before patting myself on the back. Forgot to thank Gerard at ND brewing for his excellent service. Delivering the crushed grain at a moments notice and then after forgetting the Irish Moss making a special journey on brew day to get it to us - exceptional service. (No affiliations etc. etc.)

Cheers

Jon

 

[dreamboat]

March pump on your first all grain..... you are a real brewer.... more real than me, that is for sure.



dreamboat

 

[shonky]

Hi Dreamboat, one design factor in the brewery was that it had to be portable. Neither mine nor my brewing mates girlfriend wanted the brewery permanently setup so the compromise was we would alternate the house we brewed at. The pump has helped us achieve a portable brewery - (not cheap although Johnno's bulk buy saved a few $)