First Ag - Little Creatures Pale Ale

[Lurks]

Nice to see a first brew day described in such detail. It's interesting to compare what went wrong with what went wrong when I did it... It's interesting you went straight for chilling. I 'no-chill' in a cube in a bath, purely because any sort of copper solution costs a bomb and I'm skint.

I've been using BIAB on regular kitchen gas hobs. My 50L pot is big enough to sit over two of the hobs and it has no problem boiling so I've escaped those sorts of woes. That said, I find BIAB to be a bit less than satisfactory. It's damn heavy bag, the whole draining and squeezing is annoying quite frankly.

This post actually convinced me to go build one of these two-bucket lauter rigs ala the great youtube BABS system wars 'ghetto' system. Dead simple and cheap and I reckon less hassle than BIAB. I'm not hugely convinced of the need to get crystal clear wort by recirculating through the grain bed but it'll be an interesting thing to try anyway. I'm planning on heading out to Bunnings imminently to try find those buckets.

If I might make one suggestion, based on me picking it up on these very forums. Dump the whole lid and the air lock thing from the fermenter. Tease out the rubber seal from the lid and just use it as a large rubber band over a bit of glad wrap. Seeing bubbling is pointless but it's nice to see the the top of the brew clearly, and it's less cleaning etc.

I would say the largest lesson I learned is that you can never really get enough yeast in a brew. The difference is quite spectacular between a well-pitched versus an under-pitched brew. I personally wouldn't bother with liquid yeast where US-05 is perfect for this style. A packet of dried US-05 correctly hydrated (not pitched straight in) works ace, liquid yeast really does need you to make a starter in my deeply amateur opinion. These days I pitch a jar of recycled yeast cake and that results in a rocket take off. (I also use the tiny prick of olive oil and do not aerate the wort - might be something fun for you to search on the forums as to why).

Anyway, thanks for documenting the day. I might ask you for construction tips on your ghetto lauter setup

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I've been using BIAB on regular kitchen gas hobs. My 50L pot is big enough to sit over two of the hobs and it has no problem boiling so I've escaped those sorts of woes. That said, I find BIAB to be a bit less than satisfactory. It's damn heavy bag, the whole draining and squeezing is annoying quite frankly.

This post actually convinced me to go build one of these two-bucket lauter rigs ala the great youtube BABS system wars 'ghetto' system. Dead simple and cheap and I reckon less hassle than BIAB. I'm not hugely convinced of the need to get crystal clear wort by recirculating through the grain bed but it'll be an interesting thing to try anyway. I'm planning on heading out to Bunnings imminently to try find those buckets.
....
Anyway, thanks for documenting the day. I might ask you for construction tips on your ghetto lauter setup

Hey mat - look in my sig at the 2 pot lauter method. Might not be everything you want, but it details how I went about brewing full sized batches on the stove with 20L big W pots and the ghetto lauter with 2 x 20L bunnings food grade buckets. On a tightwad budget (I'm part scottish, part gypsy, part everything) - and I have 3 kids.

I ain't no handyman - and I did it comfortably. And it is far less effort than lifting the bag.

Efficiency is even better - I'm well over 80%, and not half as much effort as getting 80% with BIAB (which is doable, but time consuming and lots of effort).

 

[Lurks]

Hey mat - look in my sig at the 2 pot lauter method.

That thread had not escaped me! Epic win, thanks a bunch fella. How'd you make a neat hole for the tap?

Mat.

 

[[email protected]]

Nice to see a first brew day described in such detail. It's interesting to compare what went wrong with what went wrong when I did it... It's interesting you went straight for chilling. I 'no-chill' in a cube in a bath, purely because any sort of copper solution costs a bomb and I'm skint.

Well, it's a standard homebrew copper chiller, like this one: http://www.homebrewery.com/images/wort-chiller.jpg
$12 of copper tubing from bunnings, some vinyl tubing for a few bucks, some ties and a tap connector - altogether I think the total was less than $25.

This post actually convinced me to go build one of these two-bucket lauter rigs ala the great youtube BABS system wars 'ghetto' system. Dead simple and cheap and I reckon less hassle than BIAB. I'm not hugely convinced of the need to get crystal clear wort by recirculating through the grain bed but it'll be an interesting thing to try anyway. I'm planning on heading out to Bunnings imminently to try find those buckets.

I got my inspiration here on this forum - thanks Goomba!!
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=60922

Best of luck with your setup!!

I would say the largest lesson I learned is that you can never really get enough yeast in a brew. The difference is quite spectacular between a well-pitched versus an under-pitched brew. I personally wouldn't bother with liquid yeast where US-05 is perfect for this style. A packet of dried US-05 correctly hydrated (not pitched straight in) works ace, liquid yeast really does need you to make a starter in my deeply amateur opinion. These days I pitch a jar of recycled yeast cake and that results in a rocket take off. (I also use the tiny prick of olive oil and do not aerate the wort - might be something fun for you to search on the forums as to why).

Yup - I recently acquired a magnetic stirrer - all I need now is a fan (there's a few lying around here where I work) and an Erlenmeyer flask - I'll check our local store to see if they have one. Oh, and some sort of voltage transformer. As I told my wife, all homebrewers have a yeast lab at home

 

[Lurks]

$12 of copper tubing from bunnings,

I thought copper was a fair bit more than that. I'll have a look when I'm down Bunnings. Water access to a tap in my (2nd floor) kitchen is a bit problematic. Maybe I'll just cut some of my silicon hose (for wort siphoning into cubes) off as a sort of push on fitting for the sink tap...

Yup - I recently acquired a magnetic stirrer - all I need now is a fan (there's a few lying around here where I work) and an Erlenmeyer flask - I'll check our local store to see if they have one. Oh, and some sort of voltage transformer. As I told my wife, all homebrewers have a yeast lab at home

I've been toying with making one of those, given I'm swimming in the gear to make them. Put it off on the basis that pitching yeast cake does the job and those flasks seem to cost a lot. Still, I'm using the odd speciality yeast so maybe I'll knock one up some time. Probably be based on a large vegemite jar

 

[Parks]

The new boil setup -
View attachment 53352

Is the kids blackboard a necessary part of the brew day :lol:

 

[[email protected]]

Is the kids blackboard a necessary part of the brew day :lol:

Of course, and the fact that the backing was made of cardboard just enhanced the risky fun!!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

That thread had not escaped me! Epic win, thanks a bunch fella. How'd you make a neat hole for the tap?

Mat.

My bad DIY skills are going to be exposed in specifics.

I got a wide-ish knife with a sharp tip, and made a small hole. Twirled the knife around to slowly strip the plastic in a circular motion, keep checking with the tap until you get to the right size.

Goomba

 

[Lurks]

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Mat's ghetto lauter tun

 

[Lurks]

I've a question about sparging.

There seems to be two ways I could do it. Either just leave the tap open to drain and pour/sprinkle the water in. Or close the tap and do a couple of batch sparges with a stir and and recirculate until clear.

I'm not sure what's better.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I've a question about sparging.

There seems to be two ways I could do it. Either just leave the tap open to drain and pour/sprinkle the water in. Or close the tap and do a couple of batch sparges with a stir and and recirculate until clear.

I'm not sure what's better.

I do a couple of batch sparges, but don't stir. Just dump it in, then open the tap. When it pours to virtually nothing, add the second lot in (I have a spare 9L saucepan and a kettle to get out what I need)

My efficiency has improved considerably, though I couldn't tell you the pros and cons - I just went with what made sense and am satisfied with result.

Have a play with either, if it's a massive concern.

 

[Lurks]

I managed 75% efficiency. It stuck when recirculating... couldn't get it free. Dumped sparge water in and it sort of unstuck. Not awesome.

Overall it went well, defo better than BIAB. Seems my tap isn't fitted properly though, it spins - gah.