First Ag Finally

[Midnight Brew]

My first AG brew day.

BIAB 60L ish
Wheat Beer - 50/50 pils/wheat
Step mashed ( I should of just aimed for 66-67 and did that for 90min cause it took a long time but owell it was fun)
90min addition of Saaz to 15ibu
No spice or citrus
No chill

Recipe and method is based very loosely around Tony's Wit except no oats, spice or citrus.

After the weekend just got finally got my ass around to constructing my mill and adjusting my burner. Then on Saturday discovered I had a long weekend.
So today got all the gear out realising I had tinkered with the facotry settings of the monster mill. Whoops. Nothing a feeler gauge couldnt fix.

Milled my grain and was pretty happy with the crush. Well wait a minute how the hell would I know what it should look like?
Had gap set to .89mm I think.



Filled the kettle up to 60L (doing a double batch, not too sure if i'll have time in the next few weeks to do another but hoping to!)

Started adding the grain and stiring but the one detail i forgot was i didnt have a mash paddle. Balls.
The old man has a paint stirrer so we put into onto a drill then it got caught it the bag and a bit of grain went into the pot. No good.
Eventually found a 60cm stainless steel ruler which kinda did the job.

Did all my mash steps then raised the bag and let it drain a bit into a bucket. Then sparged with 6L of hot water out of the tap which comes out about 45C. Added the sparge water back in and rose to a boil and added my 90 min addition






Cubed and cleaned up so in total it took a bit over 5 hours and ended up with about 42L of wort. Tell you what that BIAB calculator that Thirsty Boy sent me is spot on.

So I'll see how it ferments out as its proberly gonna be my Vic Xmas swap beer. Before my next batch I'm defintly getting a mash paddle and installing a tap and thermometer.

Cheers and beers for all the advice I've received. Also feels good to be on the dark side.

 

[Yob]

:icon_chickcheers:

Did you use that f-off sized beam and hoist thingy? :lol:

+1 on the mash paddle omission for my first

 

[Midnight Brew]

Went ghetto and used some electrical wire wrapped around the clothes line. Almost burnt my hand twice without a mash paddle so its on the shopping list. Big f-off beam and hoist is gonna be for the winter brewing. Hop this batch turns out good as I wont have a chance to brew for another 2 weeks. Now just gotta decide on which yeast to use.

:icon_chickcheers:

Did you use that f-off sized beam and hoist thingy? :lol:

+1 on the mash paddle omission for my first

 

[pk.sax]

Now just gotta decide on which yeast to use.

3638

 

[jakub76]

3638

if you like bananas (not me)

If going for a Hefe I'd use 3068 pitched low for spicy clove character, your recipe and high mash temp should ensure a nice Hefe.

But...sounds more like American wheat territory, maybe keep it simple and try a neutral yeast - if done well you could end up with Murray's Whale Ale

 

[raven19]

Milled my grain and was pretty happy with the crush. Well wait a minute how the hell would I know what it should look like?
Had gap set to .89mm I think.

Well done!

I run my MM2 at 40thou or 1mm at the moment, however with you brewing in a bag, you could probably go finer as per your 0.89 above.

Trial and error, look to reduce flour and keep grains cracked but intact as far as possible.

The BIAB'ers may be able to add further to the above though.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Well done!

I run my MM2 at 40thou or 1mm at the moment, however with you brewing in a bag, you could probably go finer as per your 0.89 above.

Trial and error, look to reduce flour and keep grains cracked but intact as far as possible.

The BIAB'ers may be able to add further to the above though.

Cheers! Wouldnt of been able to do it without the advice from this forum and a few info sheets and calculators that can be found on here. It was a great expeirence to jump in and do it myself finally. Actually my first batch in 8 months!!

I've got a MM3 and it seems its just the bottom roller that can be adjusted and the instructions I didnt find all that clear either so trial and error is what Im gonna work with. I know why they call them monster mills now haha the thing is a beast!


Overall I'm glad I jumped ship to AG and learnt a few things for next time:

get a mash paddle
save some wort for a yeast starter, maybe just a bit near the trub
measure the OG, and make any adjustments if needed with DME
Get a tap installed.
Use half a tablet of whirlflock for a double batch at 10 mins to go.
Whirlpool and then after 10mins cube.

Quiet simple and nothing to be afraid of so give it a try stove top style if anyone is thinking of giving it a go on a small scale!

 

[stux]

Did a .6mm grind last week on my MM2. That worked great.

This week I tried 0.5mm. I ended up with a very fine sludge in the bottom of the kettle that blocked my sieve when I was filtering the trub

So, if you're not planning on sieving your kettle trub let it rip

 

[under]

Do youself a favour and go and get one of these. Been using one for years in my BIAB mashing. Best buy ever and so cheap. Bunnings btw.

 

[under]

Also noticed your comment about whirfloc. Its 1/2 tab per 23L. So 1 tablet for a double batch. I personally add it crushed with 15 to go.

 

[craigo]

what is whirlpooling and hoe do you do it?

 

[raven19]

what is whirlpooling and hoe do you do it?

At the end of boil power off the kettle, then start to stir your wort contantly at a reasonable speed to get a really good circular whirlpool happening. Remove mash paddle and wait till wort has ceased spinning.

This should help form a hop/trub cone at the bottom of your kettle. Then you can drain your kettle with clearer wort.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Do youself a favour and go and get one of these. Been using one for years in my BIAB mashing. Best buy ever and so cheap. Bunnings btw.

I ended up using a small one of these and worked good except it wasnt long enough. Was in bunnings the other day looking for thebig ass paint masher and they had cheap little plastic ones cause they phased the range out :angry: . Either gonna try a painting store or fork out for the beer bell mash weapon.

Also noticed your comment about whirfloc. Its 1/2 tab per 23L. So 1 tablet for a double batch. I personally add it crushed with 15 to go.

Did a bit of reading into this and 1 tablet seems the norm for double batches and others may use half. Going to give it a try using half for a double batch see what results I get. General thought seems to be a tablet for 50-100L so very broad. All trial and error :icon_cheers:
These are the threads I was reading:
[URL="http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51784"]http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=51784[/URL]
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry249938

Wish I had of whirlpooled, could of ended up with an extra 3-5L of wort. All part of the learning

 

[Bribie G]

Personally I find that Brewbrite / BrewBright does a far more effective flocculating job than Whirlfloc. Now widely available and it also protects against chill haze in the finished beer.

 

[under]

Expensive **** brewbrite. Hook a welsh man up

 

[Midnight Brew]

The result :icon_cheers:

 

[donburke]

The result :icon_cheers:

looks nice,

looks a little dark for 50/50 pils/wheat, what brand grains were they ?

hows it taste ?

 

[Midnight Brew]

looks nice,

looks a little dark for 50/50 pils/wheat, what brand grains were they ?

hows it taste ?

Grains were Joe White Pils and Wheat. Came out fantastic. Really balanced beer with a nice creamy mouthfeel and the slightest tough of banana. Fermented at 20C and its been in the bottle 10 days. I thought it was quiet dark too the first glass was a tad lighter due to less yeast falling in the glass but not alot was in there as 3333 flocs like crazy and the sediment wasnt disturbed. First glass was reasonably dark still.

Any idea why?

 

[donburke]

Grains were Joe White Pils and Wheat. Came out fantastic. Really balanced beer with a nice creamy mouthfeel and the slightest tough of banana. Fermented at 20C and its been in the bottle 10 days. I thought it was quiet dark too the first glass was a tad lighter due to less yeast falling in the glass but not alot was in there as 3333 flocs like crazy and the sediment wasnt disturbed. First glass was reasonably dark still.

Any idea why?

melbourne smoggy sunset ?

both jw pils and jw wheat are very pale malts, and i would have expected a lighter coloured beer

looks out of whack as far as colour in concerned unless its a really strong beer,

perhaps its not just jw pils and jw wheat ? perhaps it just the photo ?

how were the grains purchased ?

not that it matters, you have made a good beer and thats what its all about !

 

[Rowy]

My antivirus keeps blocking a high risk website when I click on this topic. Just a warning might be nothing.