First Ag Brew

[stephen]

Well it had to happen. After five extract brews the draw of all grain got to much and I crossed over to the dark side and completed my first AG brew yesterday. How easy is mashing? Place all the goodies in an esky, add water at the right strike temp (thanks Promash) do a couple of loads of washing, mow the lawn etc. for 60 minutes and sparge. Initially I was going to batch sparge, however the setup I have just happen to lead to continuous sparge as the flow was so slow out of the mash tun. I'm not sure of my efficiency as I didn't want to overload my simple brain with too much all at once. The final result is that I now have a beer fermenting quite happily in my brew cupboard.

I'll add the recipe I used:

4.8 kg Joe White pale malt
0.3 kg wheat
0.75 kg English Crystal malt.

27g Centennial hops 9.9 alpha 60 minite boil
15g Fuggles hops 4.6 alpha 15 minute boil
15g Fuggles hops 4.6 alpha end of boil 5 minutes rest.

Yeast: Muntons Gold Ale yeast.

OG 1.048

The only difference from my extract brewing recipe and this AG recipe is the Joe White and wheat malts. The rest is something I picked up from an internet recipe that I have made three times with extract brewing - with slight differences: I don't like to make too many changes from one recipe to another - it makes it easy to taste the differences.

For my next all grain I am open to suggestions form the forum as to what changes I can make to my current recipe and your thoughts on what I have "constructed" My first thought on this is to change the yeast to SAFALE S-04 which, (and I am very happy to be corrected on this) seems to suit my "English Pale Ale" style that I have made.

Over to the Gurus

regards

Steve ( I now have my "L" plates)

 

[Jye]

Well done stephen :beer: sounds like your day was all to easy.

The only comment I have is you might want to cut the crystal back to about half that amount next time... either way its going to taste great because it was your first all grain.

Cheers
Jye

 

[stephen]

Well done stephen :beer: sounds like your day was all to easy.

The only comment I have is you might want to cut the crystal back to about half that amount next time... either way its going to taste great because it was your first all grain.

Cheers
Jye

[post="101530"][/post]​

Thanks Jye

The blokes (Mark and Keith) at the HBS have said the same, however, as I have said to them, this was a basic "model" that I have played with. And. yes. I will take on your advice and reduce it to about 300-400 gm of English Crystal.

Thanks

Steve

(Looking for his "P" plates shortly)

 

[Mr Bond]

Good to see another one cross over! I'm only 5 down but lovin the freedom and control.At last I've made a weizen with grains and the next one will be a dunkel weizen.

Congratulations stephen :beer: ,maybe invest in a suitable english liquid strain and farm it would be the next progression. Search up yeast farming on this site for tips.

 

[Jazman]

well done on your first ag i agree cut down on the cystal also use good yeast if using the muntons 5 grms of yeast aint much yeast for a brew at least 11grm wiht the safale or better still go liquid yeasts

 

[berto]

Well done Steven. Hope your first AG was a bit quicker than my first today. Ive made extremely lrge partials in the past, but finally got my ass into gear and got some bulk grain etc to go AG. Decided my mash tun didnt insulate well enough, so decided a solution to this was to do a decoction mash.

Well i started setting up at midday, just finished at 8pm. I reckon i could probably take about 2.5hours outta that. But not sure where the rest of it is. Maybe take 3 out, and then it would be reasonable again.

Also agree with everyon else that you used a truck load of crystal there. Should still turn out pretty good though.

Cheers, Rob

 

[Ross]

Well done Stephen - welcome to the fold :beer:

Like the others - your crfystal seems very high - but I guess if this is an extract brew you enjoy, it will be a good comparison.

I had been doing an English bitter recipe several times with exttract, which unfortunately just wouldn't come close to the real thing - This was my first AG & the result was almost spot on what I'd been trying to achieve for months - never looked back
Make sure you post your first tasting :chug:

cheers Ross

 

[wee stu]

stephen and berto, welcome to the world of all grain brewing, if you don't already know fellow all grainers in your region, seek them out. This is a great fraternity to be part of, and there is not quicker way to learn than from other devotees.

Stephen, if looking for other dried yeast alternatives before making the move to liquid and yeast cultivation, see if the local hbs has access to either nottingham or windsor yeasts. If they don't go with the saf04 - it is a very competent english ale yeast strain. Did anyone mention that there was a moderately high amount of crystal in your recipe??

berto - decoction mash first up!!! my hat is raised to you. After about 25 all grain brews, decoction is still not part of my vocabulary. Tell us a bit more about your brew day please.

awrabest, stu

 

[stephen]

Well done Steven. Hope your first AG was a bit quicker than my first today. Ive made extremely lrge partials in the past, but finally got my ass into gear and got some bulk grain etc to go AG. Decided my mash tun didnt insulate well enough, so decided a solution to this was to do a decoction mash.

Well i started setting up at midday, just finished at 8pm. I reckon i could probably take about 2.5hours outta that. But not sure where the rest of it is. Maybe take 3 out, and then it would be reasonable again.

Also agree with everyon else that you used a truck load of crystal there. Should still turn out pretty good though.

Cheers, Rob

[post="101552"][/post]​

Berto

Thank you for the kind words. Just to enlighten you my brew day toook six hours to the minute (this included cleaning pu etc) so I was more than happy with my day.

Steve

 

[stephen]

stephen and berto, welcome to the world of all grain brewing, if you don't already know fellow all grainers in your region, seek them out. This is a great fraternity to be part of, and there is not quicker way to learn than from other devotees.

Stephen, if looking for other dried yeast alternatives before making the move to liquid and yeast cultivation, see if the local hbs has access to either nottingham or windsor yeasts. If they don't go with the saf04 - it is a very competent english ale yeast strain. Did anyone mention that there was a moderately high amount of crystal in your recipe??

berto - decoction mash first up!!! my hat is raised to you. After about 25 all grain brews, decoction is still not part of my vocabulary. Tell us a bit more about your brew day please.

awrabest, stu

[post="101568"][/post]​

Wee Stu

Thank you for the welcome. The amount of crystal was mentioned to me after my third extract brew by the freindly staff at my HBS. However, at the time I had found a taste that I could relate to and any subsequent changes I made after this involved hop additions etc. My next AG will definitely be somthing a little more tame.

As for the yeast, I'm having enough fun playing with the current "breed" without extending the finances towards liquid yeasts. (Though, from what I have gleaned from this forum it doesn't sound overly difficult.)

Regards

Steve

 

[Gough]

G'day Stephen,

Congrats on the brew and good to see another (semi) local on the forum Like everyone has said you are working with a bit too much crystal there (for my tastes anyway...) but go with whatever works for you. Let us know how it tastes once you come to drink it.

Best of luck mate. Might see you round Mark's shop sometime Welcome to the obsession...

Shawn.

 

[Prof. Pils]

Well it had to happen. After five extract brews the draw of all grain got to much and I crossed over to the dark side and completed my first AG brew yesterday. How easy is mashing? Place all the goodies in an esky, add water at the right strike temp (thanks Promash) do a couple of loads of washing, mow the lawn etc. for 60 minutes and sparge. Initially I was going to batch sparge, however the setup I have just happen to lead to continuous sparge as the flow was so slow out of the mash tun. I'm not sure of my efficiency as I didn't want to overload my simple brain with too much all at once. The final result is that I now have a beer fermenting quite happily in my brew cupboard.

I'll add the recipe I used:

4.8 kg Joe White pale malt
0.3 kg wheat
0.75 kg English Crystal malt.

27g Centennial hops 9.9 alpha 60 minite boil
15g Fuggles hops 4.6 alpha 15 minute boil
15g Fuggles hops 4.6 alpha end of boil 5 minutes rest.

Yeast: Muntons Gold Ale yeast.

OG 1.048

The only difference from my extract brewing recipe and this AG recipe is the Joe White and wheat malts. The rest is something I picked up from an internet recipe that I have made three times with extract brewing - with slight differences: I don't like to make too many changes from one recipe to another - it makes it easy to taste the differences.

For my next all grain I am open to suggestions form the forum as to what changes I can make to my current recipe and your thoughts on what I have "constructed" My first thought on this is to change the yeast to SAFALE S-04 which, (and I am very happy to be corrected on this) seems to suit my "English Pale Ale" style that I have made.

Over to the Gurus

regards

Steve ( I now have my "L" plates)

[post="101526"][/post]​

It'll taste great Stephen, probably to much crystal, sounds like yr on the right track.

 

[Weizguy]

Stephen,

Just sent U a pm.

The best way to learn and evaluate is to formulate your own recipes. Your tastebuds will tell you if the crystal is too much in this beer.

BTW, I checked my brewlog and found that my first ag was, like Berto, a (double) decoction, and for the same reason (heat loss). I made an Oktoberfest with 30% Munich and it came out brassy-tasting. Why? Coz I left a brass-cased thermometer in the mash tun while mashing. Never make that mistake again. It put me off doing mashes for a while too. My second was a Mild, which was sort of a mini-mash without added extract. I oversparged a little to get some astringency, which is apparently an option for this style.

Stephen, any chance of me tasting your beer, when it's ready. Maybe bring a longneck to the lhbs for evaluation? It always helps to get feedback, especially as Newcastle is likely to see a brew comp (or two?) this year.

Great 2 hear that U have done your first ag brew. Feel free to contact me for advice (if I can help), as you're only up the road (albeit a long road).

cheers & congrats.
You are now an ag brewer (no L-plates required).

Seth

 

[tangent]

I'm not sure of my efficiency as I didn't want to overload my simple brain with too much all at once. The final result is that I now have a beer fermenting quite happily

that's what it's all about - get brewing, tinker later. Well done! The next 5xAG brews will fly past.
Welcome to flavour country :beer:

 

[stephen]

To all that replied to my post, thank you. It was very encouraging to recieve such positive responses. And for those of you that recomend that I reduce the crystal, I thinks I'll use about 300 gms next time.

Thanks

Steve

 

[berto]

Hey Stephen.
Quick run down of my brew day.

Left home bit after 9 to go to Big W for a 20L boiler. they dont stock them here apparently. Searched high and low in Richmond for one. Finally found one for $14, so that was ok.
Needed a new thermometer... Check
New spray bottle for sterilizer... Check
Large scoop for extracting decoctions... Check
Large measuring jug... Could not be found

So i surged ahead without it knowing taking measurements etc would be a touch hard.

Got home about 12, which is when the brewing really started.
Got all my bits and pieces, cleaned out the new boiler, mush tun etc. Checked grain mill was working. almost 1 by now. "geez looks like im in for a long day".

put boiler on and went and got grain mill set up. Got water to temp and cracked the grain. took me a bit longer than i thought. Need to make a new hopper which is bigger and with a wider opening before next time.

Mashed in about 1:30 i suppose. Wasnt really paying much attention by now. Could well have been later.

hit temp spot on. Very happy here. However only used 2.5L/kg. I think this was a bit low, as when i emptied my tun i only got 4L back. Missed gravity by about 6-8 points so maybe this affected it. Also being decoction i lost a bit to evap.

Didnt burn the grains at all while decocting. However beer is very very light on in colour. One of the lightest i have seen. Maybe should have added some munich or choc to get the colour up a little.

Found the decoction to be no harder than a single infusion mash. However it takes about twice as long, and requires you to be there for about 1/2 of it stirring the grains while theyre heating.

However did no iodine tests for conversion, or pH tests, so hopefully decocting didnt extract any tannins.

Batch sparged with a lot more water than i would normally to try and hit the 30L. Still wasnt enough, so had to top up the boiler to 30L.

Got a good solid boil going for 90 mins. Hop additions at 90 and 25 mins. Even removed the hot break at the end of the boil for the first time ever.

Filled fermenter. And voila. about 1.5L short of desired target.

topped up and put in fermenting freezer overnight. Still too warm to pitch. Dropped to about 23 tonight so pitched and put the freezer on manual to get it down to temp quickly at the moment. Will take it off tonight.

Quick recipe run down.

Kolsch, bastardised from other recipes on here.
Yeast. WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch
Grains: 4.8kg pils, 200g wheat
Hops. 40G hallertau @ 60 mins
32g saaz @25 mins
90 min boil

23L batch

SG of 1.042

On a side note. My GF lives at Tanilba. Maybe one sat morning while she's working. On eof you can have a brew day i can come watch. can bring you some liquid teasts up too if you want stephen.


Cheers, Rob

 

[stephen]

G'day Rob

My day wasn't as hectic as your it would seem. I already have a 19 liter stock that I used as my boiler for the first two extract brews. I now have a boiler that resembles a "keg" with the top cut out of it. With my 19l pot I heated 17.25l mash water to 72 deg C. This resulted in a 3l/kg ratio. Mash temp that I selected was 66 degC and this was spot on. Prior to mashing in I preheated the esky "mash tun".

At fifteen minute intervals I gave the mash a stir and at the 30 minute mark I checked the temp - down by 3 deg. Added one liter of boiling water straight from the electric kettle and this brought it back up to 67 deg. At completion of mashing final temp was 65. I think at a later date I will have to invest in a more efficient esky/mash tun.

Whilst the mash was being carried out I heated another 24 liters of water in two boilers on the stove up to 75 deg for sparging. As I said in my initial post, my original plan was to batch sparge. The drain/syphon hose with a tap on the end partially blocked up with grain and restricted the output flow to approx one liter/min. The whole sparge took 45 minutes which worked out quite well.

After all the usual boil etc and into the fermenter. When I try to calculate my water amounts I try to leave myself about a liter short. This I make upwith ice cubes that I make out of boiled water for the week preceding brew day, which quite comfortably brings the wort temp down to 22-24 deg. Unfortunately my cold tap water is currently 26 deg.

The day started at 11:45 am and finished, along with all the cleaning up, at 6:45 pm.

Anyway Rob if you are heading up to see your girlfriend PM me for my address etc and I'll see what I can arrange for a brew etc.

regards

Steve

 

[stephen]

One thing I forgot to add was that the 19l stock pots are available in Big W for $20.00 ($19 something). This is at Raymond Terrace at least.

 

[Prof. Pils]

No worries Steve. Just keep experimenting.It' all supposed to be fun!

 

[berto]

Yeah i know. I see em at terrace all the time. Thought they would be here too, but alas, none to be found.