First Ag (lots Of Images)

[rangaz]

Hi all,
This isn't really my first all grain brew, probably about the 3rd or 4th because the first few times I was too excited to take any pictures. I've been making beer from kits for a little bit but then ended up having to design a microbrewery as a third year engineering project this semester, so thought now was a good time too get into all grain brewing for a little bit of "research". This site has been a great resource so I thought I might post up my results and try putting something back into the community. Luckily I had enough equipment to make do with for now to get me through while I upgrade.

From the first lot of recipes tried it seems the most simple one was the most popular among my friends, I'm not even sure of what you would call it.
19L Batch
4kg of pale malt
mash 1 hour @ 66deg C
30g stirling (6%) 60min
15g stirling (6%) 30 min
15g stirling (6%) 10 min
15g stirling (6%) dry hopped after racking to secondary

I bought all my ingredients in bulk so it is fairly cheap to make at $11.70. I figure with the lpg gas, co2 and other misc things like bleach, it will come up to about $20 per 19L batch

I started last night by weighing out and grinding 4kg of pale malt in my corona mill. Cant remember what I bought it for but it was good to have it just lying around. It took about 15mins to get thruogh all the grain.

Next I weighed out my hops into little bags. I think the scales will be next for upgrading as I'm currently using a set of scales designed for measuring powder for reloading ammunition (It measures in grains not grams).

 

[rangaz]

Currently I'm using a 3 ring burner and it seems to work ok

A while back a mate who works in a pub gave me 3 free kegs that had been sitting in the basement, unused for years. The one that I am using for mashing has been cut back so that there is no lip, making it easier to transfer the mash to my improvised lauter tun. I started with a liquid/grist ratio of 3L/Kg, giving me 12L of mash water needed. For this I just used hot tap water at about 54deg C, dumped my grain in and then heated it up to 66 degC while stirring to avoid burnt grains. It took about 10 mins to heat up to temp.

I then covered it in towels and a lid and left it for an hour hour. I did check the temp after 30 mins but it was still sitting at 66, so I just left it.
After the hour, I turned on the gas again to heat up to mash out temp. It took about 5 mins to get up to 72 deg C, then I transferred to my improv lauter tun.

 

[rangaz]

This is probably one of the more dodgey parts of my set up. Its just a foodsafe plastic bucket. To filter the grain, The siphon hose has bee wrapped in SS mesh from a seive and a bit of SS wire to add strength. Ill probably just get a false bottom for my keg.

The first stuff to come out is very cloudy but quickly clears. To recirculate and Sparge I use a vegetable steamer to sprinkle the liquid on top. The keg Im using for boiling still has most of the top intact, making it much easier to fit a lid. Total time for wort separation and sparging was about 25mins.

Judging by how clear my last runnings were, I probably should have recirculated for a bit longer.

 

[rangaz]

It took my kettle about 45mins today to get from 50degC to first boil. It seems a bit longer than the last couple of times but oh well, it gave me plenty of time to make some lunch and pour a few beers.

Top is a wheat beer and the bottom is a pale ale. Both the beers were filtered cold with a 1 micron filter so the cloudiness I think is chill haze. I think the culprit was my old improvised immersion chiller made from a short section of copper found in the back yard. It took a full 40 mins to get the wort down to temp. The plate chiller on the right was bought yesterday, so today is its first run, will be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[rangaz]

After the boil was done, I moved the kettle to a higher spot and started a whirlpool with the mixing spoon. After leaving it for 15mins, you can see that it is pretty much completely clear, which is the most succesfull attempt at whirlpooling I've had so far.

I cranked up the plate chiller and in 5 mins it was able to chill my wort at 90degC to 29degC, using tap water at 20degC. I couldn't be happier with it especially seing as it was siphoned as opposed to pumped. I thought I might have had some flow rate issues but it was all good. This picture shows the neat little trub cone that formed at the bottom, making it very easy for me to drain around it.

Measuring the OG, I got 1.047, meaning that my overall efficiency is 75%.

Time to pitch the yeast. This is the first reuse from an original brew using safale US05 i think.

And thats it. I started at 9.20am and finished at 1.05pm, giving a brew day of 3 hours 45mins, which is not a whole lot of time considering the jump in quality of beers I've gotten over the kits. Thanks for the wonderful resource :icon_cheers:

 

[proudscum]

It took my kettle about 45mins today to get from 5degC to first boil. It seems a bit longer than the last couple of times but oh well, it gave me plenty of time to make some lunch and pour a few beers.

Top is a wheat beer and the bottom is a pale ale. Both the beers were filtered cold with a 1 micron filter so the cloudiness I think is chill haze. I think the culprit was my old improvised immersion chiller made from a short section of copper found in the back yard. It took a full 40 mins to get the wort down to temp. The plate chiller on the right was bought yesterday, so today is its first run, will be interesting to see how it goes.

Good work.Basic kit with a nice bright wort.Where is the low tech brewhouse may i ask?

 

[BjornJ]

That looks great, good job!!

I've never tried stirling hops, are there any commercial beers that use this for comparison?

thanks
Bjorn

 

[DKS]

Nice work on (almost)first AG Can.
I noticed you did the same as me when raising mash temps, using direct heat to mash tun. I was advised to use water and not to directly apply heat. I took the advice and have made better beers since .
I don't have scientific evidence or anything, just experience but found I got a better result by raising temp by adding water into the mash
Others may help with whys & wherefores to explain.
Good effort with the pics and all. :icon_cheers:
Daz

 

[breadenhound]

Nice move on the plate chiller :icon_cheers: Is it 20 or 30 plates?

 

[rangaz]

Thanks for the replies
The plate chiller is a 20 plate, which is probably a bit excessive for 19L batches but it does leave room for expansion considering I've got 50L kegs for boilers.
My guess for using hot water instead of direct heating is avoiding burnt grains on the bottom. As long as the you stir them constantly its fine. Perhaps the high temp of the bottom of the kettle also causes flavour changes? I'm not that worried about doing everything perfectly to begin with, just happy to be making AG beer. Besides, the beer tastes quite good already, I can refine later.
I think stirling is from the US and was bred to substitute Saaz. I couldn't find saaz cheaply so went for the stirling instead at $20 per 500g.

 

[Banshee]

Is there something wrong with direct flame to the mash tun? How would I decoc then? I apply heat but continualy stir and keep stirring even when flame is out. Is this bad?

 

[felten]

As long as you don't burn the grain, no.

 

[Sammus]

wow, that wort is so clear in all stages, I wouldn't worry about recircing a little longer or whatever, I've never seen wort that clear before in my system and i make fucken awesome beer

 

[Cocko]

I agree, that is fuckin clear wort but my main issue is that sandwich, what are the black seeds that are so big?


:unsure:

 

[goomboogo]

I agree, that is fuckin clear wort but my main issue is that sandwich, what are the black seeds that are so big?


:unsure:

They're not seeds, just mice paying a visit. Nothing wrong with that; people use coffee beans sifted out of monkey poo so the sandwich will be fine.

I echo the congratulations. I applaud the effort of cracking 5kgs on a corona. As others have said the wort looks o.k so the recirc seems to be sufficient. In terms of scales for hops there are plenty of places online selling inexpensive scales with 0.1g increments.

As you mentioned, a false bottom in the tun may be easier. I don't know how easy the siphoning was but taps in the bottom of the tun and kettle may also make things a little easier. You seem to have a good grasp of the mash/boil process. Do you have any controls in place regarding yeast/fermentation management? Once again congratulations and I am glad you and your friends are enjoying the fruits of the labour.