First Ag/partial

[thesunsettree]

hi all,

brew is mashing as i speak, almost done. here are some pics, sorry done on phone so not so great quality.


the grains


man's not a camel


the mix


was aiming for 65deg, i guess 66.5 shouldnt be too much of an issue, mental note 'lower strike temp'



gone sleepy byes

more soon

cheers
matt

 

[thesunsettree]

hi all,

brew is mashing as i speak, almost done. here are some pics, sorry done on phone so not so great quality.

View attachment 36179
the grains

View attachment 36180
man's not a camel

View attachment 36181
the mix

View attachment 36182
was aiming for 65deg, i guess 66.5 shouldnt be too much of an issue, mental note 'lower strike temp'


View attachment 36183
gone sleepy byes

more soon

cheers
matt

hi all,

so its all done. was a great experience and will happily do again. i agree with mark ******* the process of full all grain would be simplier as there is a removed process via dissolving ldme, however it was a piece of piss and something i would happily replicate. following are the last few pics. i had a pre-boil og of 1046 and a pre-ferment og of 1052 which should deliver 5-5.5alc , bit hard to detrermine where it will end up as havnt fermented partial grain before.

cheers
matt

mash finish temp was actually 65.1 but i accidently deleted that foto so re-took this one


yum yum, sweet liquor


happy days

thanks manticle for the recipe, cant wait to try it

cheers
matt

 

[MarkBastard]

Looks the goods mate. I think the reason why I found AG easier was just generally having better equipment. My urn gave me a great boil, got me to temps quicker, and has a tap. Also when I did stove top stuff I didn't no chill, I tried my best to chill in the sink, tried putting ice in the fermenter, made up to 20L with tap water etc, all the while stressing out and generally not enjoying myself. So much easier to rack into a cube, squeeze it with your knee, put the lid on tight, and then kick it onto its side and walk away. Such a stress relief. Then I'll chuck it into the fermenting fridge so that it gets to 18 degrees, and then I just have to pour into the fermenter, splashing away if I want to aerate, bloody beautiful process I must say. I think I'll buy some more cubes ASAP and start doing end to end all grains, hell I could do four batches a weekend easy hahaha. I'm hooked!

 

[manticle]

Hope it goes well for you. Looks like you hit targets. The AG version is definitely a cracker so I'm hoping my partial interpretation works out for both you and Siborg.

 

[thesunsettree]

Looks the goods mate. I think the reason why I found AG easier was just generally having better equipment. My urn gave me a great boil, got me to temps quicker, and has a tap. Also when I did stove top stuff I didn't no chill, I tried my best to chill in the sink, tried putting ice in the fermenter, made up to 20L with tap water etc, all the while stressing out and generally not enjoying myself. So much easier to rack into a cube, squeeze it with your knee, put the lid on tight, and then kick it onto its side and walk away. Such a stress relief. Then I'll chuck it into the fermenting fridge so that it gets to 18 degrees, and then I just have to pour into the fermenter, splashing away if I want to aerate, bloody beautiful process I must say. I think I'll buy some more cubes ASAP and start doing end to end all grains, hell I could do four batches a weekend easy hahaha. I'm hooked!

thanks mark,

while building (in my mind) my ag equipment i had always thought i would buy a plate chiller and chill that way. no chill has its obvious attractions (less equipment, less process) have u drank something u have no chilled, what r u thoughts by comparison?

cheers
matt

 

[MarkBastard]

I haven't drunk anything I've no chilled but I've drunk other peoples and by god it was good.

 

[thesunsettree]

ok, so after 11 days gravity reading is 1000, totally stoked, around 5.9%! will prob keg friday after work. had a little taste,it tastes like beer so thats a positive start :icon_cheers: . looking forward to final product. i didnt whirfloc and left behind pretty much no trub so i think i will sypon into keg rather than via tap. there was a bit of extra crap in hydrometer tube than normal but see how i go, unfortunately i cant crash it. but it'll be ok

cheers
matt

 

[manticle]

1000? Are you sure? That will be very dry and I'd be surprised if anything featuring extract could hit that low.

 

[thesunsettree]

1000? Are you sure? That will be very dry and I'd be surprised if anything featuring extract could hit that low.

yep, i'm sure. yeah i know it'll be dry but not to fussed about that. the exercise was to get familar with handling grains etc, will focus on ingredients with the next few brews. whatever this tastes like i know full well i have drunk worse B) , gold, vb etc lol.

when i took the first grav a an hour ago i flushed the tap and took a clearer sample and it sat right on 1000, this one (in the photo) has got the tap crap included, it is reading about 1001.5 to my eye, the bottom of the red bit where the thick black line is, obviously, the 1000 mark

cheers
matt

 

[thesunsettree]

yep, i'm sure. yeah i know it'll be dry but not to fussed about that. the exercise was to get familar with handling grains etc, will focus on ingredients with the next few brews. whatever this tastes like i know full well i have drunk worse B) , gold, vb etc lol. View attachment 36403

when i took the first grav a an hour ago i flushed the tap and took a clearer sample and it sat right on 1000, this one (in the photo) has got the tap crap included, it is reading about 1001.5 to my eye, the bottom of the red bit where the thick black line is, obviously, the 1000 mark

cheers
matt

manticle,

will dryness be my only major hurdle?, hope so cos i can live with that. was there something in my process which pushed it too far, or was it just one of those things?

cheers
matt

 

[manticle]

I just can't see how a partial mash/extract brew could get that low. Only an infection or a dud hydrometer would give that reading as far as I can see. Is there any sweetness in the taste?

If it is really that reading (and that floors me) then dryness and a thinness will be the main issues. Some dryness is really good although I like to balance it with some maltiness too.

Your hydro reads right in normal water?

 

[thesunsettree]

I just can't see how a partial mash/extract brew could get that low. Only an infection or a dud hydrometer would give that reading as far as I can see. Is there any sweetness in the taste?

If it is really that reading (and that floors me) then dryness and a thiness will be the main issues. Some dryness is really good although I like to balance it with some maltiness too.

Your hydro reads right in normal water?

hang on, will check

 

[thesunsettree]

hang on, will check

hydro is exactly 1000 @ 26.9deg

cheers
matt

 

[thesunsettree]

I just can't see how a partial mash/extract brew could get that low. Only an infection or a dud hydrometer would give that reading as far as I can see. Is there any sweetness in the taste?

If it is really that reading (and that floors me) then dryness and a thinness will be the main issues. Some dryness is really good although I like to balance it with some maltiness too.

Your hydro reads right in normal water?

as far as taste goes, it tasted normal. prob a bit more bitter than i'm used to,put that down to hadnt boiled hops b4 so prob a bit more hoppy than i'm used to

matt

 

[manticle]

Should be 1000 at either 20 or 15 depending on the calibration (that's distilled water at sea level but it will probably make an eighth's of the circumference of a bee's dick's difference in reality).

However correcting that, I still get 1003 for 15 deg and 1002 for 20 which seems much lower than I'd expect.

Run with it. If it tastes good, then it tastes good.

I would have expected 1010-1016.

 

[thesunsettree]

Should be 1000 at either 20 or 15 depending on the calibration (that's distilled water at sea level but it will probably make an eighth's of the circumference of a bee's dick's difference in reality).

However correcting that, I still get 1003 for 15 deg and 1002 for 20 which seems much lower than I'd expect.

Run with it. If it tastes good, then it tastes good.

I would have expected 1010-1016.

yeah i was thinking 1010 would have been pretty sweet. but hey, cant change what is what is. just read the paperwork that came with hydro, as expected it is calibrated at 20deg (ie a bee's cracker difference)

cheers
matt

ps. will prob have taste test monday

 

[thesunsettree]

happy days, got to taste first partial and it is delicious. as expected it is a bit dry due to the low fg, i now know why, something i added which i'd rather not admit to . the hoppy bitterness/flavour/aroma is exactly what i have been looking for (after kits and fwk's), also tossed a tettnanger tea bag into the keg at carb time just for something to do. thanks to manticle, again, for the recipe. intend on having a crack at a english bitter fri/sat. got a home game sat nite, go lions :beerbang: .

cheers
matt

p.s. hey siborg, how'd you go with yours?

 

[manticle]

Wasn't dry enzyme was it? That would make a bit more sense.

Glad it worked out anyway.

 

[thesunsettree]

Wasn't dry enzyme was it? That would make a bit more sense.

Glad it worked out anyway.

like i said, admitting to nothing.
mental note - dont add things u find at the bottom of ingredients box.
"whatever" that was that i added, it is the last one in my possession

cheers
matt

 

[whitegoose]

like i said, admitting to nothing.
mental note - dont add things u find at the bottom of ingredients box.
"whatever" that was that i added, it is the last one in my possession

cheers
matt

Seriously though, nobody will give a crap if you did something silly - we just want to know what you did to get such a low FG - you know, so we can learn and understand! That's the whole point of this site isn't it?

Glad it turned out well for you anyway :beer: