First Ag Round The Corner

[Yob]

Well... to mark the 2 year anniversary of me getting my Kit gear (best birthday present EVER) Ive decided to give the dark side a go... Ive been madly trying to get the system in order to give it a crack next Thursday. I think Im almost there so started having a play with recipies..

Im mad for Pale Ales so here is the recipe Ive got, hoping of a Steam Ale'ish kind beer...

I have been using BrewMate to come up with some sort of plan but there are some values I do not know, such as what my losses will be to trub, boil off etc... also in the Brewday mode it has a final volume of 24.0 with a 4% loss after cooling, as I will be doing NC wont this mean I will not have losses to cooling? do I just adjust the sparge water down by 1 lt?

anywhooo... here is what Ive got



Any suggestions guys/gals?

(need to check my AA% against what I have in the freezer too)

2 Years in and Im a noob again

 

[bignath]

yob,

looks pretty good to me mate. Just a couple of things i noticed.

You'll need to click the "no chill" box if you're no chilling, as this will affect your IBU's.

I'd also up the AA% of your yeast a bit. I reckon your FG will be lower than 1.012 I work on 80-82 for US05.

Also, i'd put some figures into the losses to trub box. You won't get everything out of your boiler.

Regarding cooling losses. This isn't specific to method. Your wort will still cool down (albeit very slowly) but it will still cool down, therefore it will still shrink in volume. You'll need to account for this. I leave it at the default setting in my software packages.

Other than that, looks like beer to me. Best of luck, let us know how it goes. I'm sure you'll do great and have a ball doing it.

Nath

 

[pk.sax]

Good stuff mate. I wish you a great brew day, inaugurate the rig by leaving the fermenter tap open a crack and hope it never happens again

Btw, no chilled wort contracts too. The hot wort will swell up your cube and both will shrink a bit as they cool.

Don't get too stuck in the calcs. Just go for it, there is so much to figure out that comes easy when actually doing it.

 

[hbnath]

Looks like a good basic recipe to start with...similar to the one I did that was about the same % of Pilsner and Crystal.
I got some advice from a local guy who told me to reduce the efficiency down to 60% being my first brew. I also put about 2L to trub loss.

This meant that I had to up the amount of grain required....something like 6.3kg base malt and .57kg crystal. Total strike water being around 36L.

The bonus of doing this is if you happen to get a good efficiency out of the whole process, you'll end up with a bit more end product.
I ended up being a couple of % over 60 so was pretty happy for a first attempt. Will try a sparge with the next one this coming week and hope to up my efficiency.

Good luck with it though...you'll love the end product and wonder why you haven't had a go earlier :lol:

 

[Lecterfan]

get into it chief! :beer:

 

[Yob]

thanks fellas, will let you know how I get on...

thanks for the tips, will adjust as noted.

:icon_chickcheers:

 

[Bribie G]

If you've got time, I'd grab a Wyeast 1056 - it's supposedly the brother of US-05 but to me it's just a bit cleaner and smoother and never fails to make a good Yankee.

 

[Maheel]

i don't want to go off topic (or hijack)

but in brew mate the differences in hop IBU from chill -> no chill seems massive ?

i am just doing a LFPA and when selecting no-chill i have to cut the hops down heaps to stay around the same IBU ?
is that normal ?

i dont want to have it weak in taste

was thinking Yob will have the same issues

 

[bignath]

i don't want to go off topic (or hijack)

but in brew mate the differences in hop IBU from chill -> no chill seems massive ?

i am just doing a LFPA and when selecting no-chill i have to cut the hops down heaps to stay around the same IBU ?
is that normal ?

i dont want to have it weak in taste

was thinking Yob will have the same issues

im pretty sure that the no chill feature in brewmate affects the different additions in different ways - in order to get a realistic result. if you look at the difference between the 60min addition vs say a 10 or 15min addition, the no chill button will add a bigger figure to the smaller addition, as once you get past a 60min you're not really adding much extra bitterness. It tapers off after that.
Obviously, the size of the hop addition will also affect how much extra is added to the no chill calculation. IE: if you had a 15min 5g hop addition, compared to a 15min 50g addition, the no chill feature will add a greater number to the bigger addition.
Just like you'd expect in real life.

 

[fergi]

i no chill all my brews, i dont make any allowances for it and to be honest i dont think i notice any extra bitterness, i know this has been discussed before but all my recipes are just left as they are with no variations and i cant pick out any xtra bitterness, try it with the original recipe and see for yourself.
if you pick up to much bitterness then you can adjust next time ,but rather a touch more bitterness than too weak. i dont think you will pick any difference.

fergi

 

[Yob]

Well.. that was an EPIC fail... still not sure where I went wrong but suspect my measuring stick played a small part, or at least my inability to follow it correctly.. says to self, "should have waited till I installed the site tubes".... mumble mumble..

Areas that need attention were many and not restricted to the following.

Temp controll device for the HLT overshot and didnt turn off, lukily i was still on hand and wasnt a huge drama as I had to go out to get some whirfloc and other bits.. but still an issue to be sure, I aimed for 65'c and hit 64'c.. small fail.. but recognised I should have hit the HLT with a bit more heat before transfer.

Sparge/mashout was an effing disaster for temps and required of me more patience for the HLT convection to slow down and a stir would have helped I suspect... missed my temps badly I think... none of my thermometers said I got it above 70'c... confusing.. and I think an evening in calibration mode is in order.. and in future closer to boiling for sparging than I was today methinks..

Got to boil in a short time.. Well happy with my adjustable keggle stand. and should have remembered the adjustable reg come boil coz I managed to blow the effing burner out in quite a spactacular and scary manner with the taps then in a a panic put the stinking hot keggle down onto the rubber mat instead of the dirt... hilarity ensued... grumble..


boil and hop addition went well and minor adjustments were made when it was discovered that the citra for the recipe was in somewhat short supply.. LHBS was also not able to assist with re-stocking.. <_< ...


post boil volumes were an complete and utter calamity with almost 8Lt missing somewhere.. :blink: No I-F#@KING_IDEA_ (not total in the photo)


various things it would seem require a little attention but it must be said I had a F#@KING good time making a disaster zone out of a brewday :kooi:

this was my solution to immersoin element depth.. those rubberised kegs are a little thinner and taller than Id thought..


and I didnt have a beer until the boil

 

[hsb]

You got wort out, so don't be too hard on yourself, sounds like an epic WIN to me!

How did your gravity turn out? Is it higher than expected? You might be able to recover some of your missing 8l by adding water?

I ended up with an extra 7 litres a couple of brews ago, same - no idea where that came from! We all go a bit wonky on the numbers here and there! :wacko:

No serious injury, wort produced, no visits from the forces of law and order - a stunning success I say!
Good luck with the next one, nice to see a coat hanger in there = a million solutions that never involve hanging up clothes.

 

[bconnery]

and I didnt have a beer until the boil

That's alright, once you've got your process down you can start ignoring this advice

 

[Amber Fluid]

Well done Jesse. I am sure you will learn by your mistakes for next time and at least you got something from it to taste and tweak.

Being inexperienced with AG myself I can't really offer any advise, sorry.

All the best for the next one mate :icon_chickcheers:

 

[manticle]

64 instead of 65 is not even a small fail.

Epic fail would be if you had spilled the lot.

Remember what you did and adjust your calculations accordingly next time you plan a recipe. Don't forget grain absorption, left over wort in the tun and loss to trub can all add up to a reasonable loss. You may also be evaporating more than you expect.

Don't forget you are probaly still working out the idiosyncrasies of your system. Was the OG close to expected?

I hope I get to sample a bottle.

 

[WarmBeer]

Good onya, dude!

Next time you will stress less, and get to kick back, enjoy the smells, yack to your mates, and rock out to some tunes \m/

and I didnt have a beer until the boil

I thought the rule was "no beer until after the grain is crushed"?

 

[kymba]

I thought the rule was "no beer until after the grain is crushed"?

^ why i crush the night before

good work ozzy, nothing to worry about there. no wort on the floor = no fail

 

[Yob]

All the best for the next one mate :icon_chickcheers:

god damn I had fun cocking it all up though... such a good game

Remember what you did and adjust your calculations accordingly next time you plan a recipe. Don't forget grain absorption, left over wort in the tun and loss to trub can all add up to a reasonable loss. You may also be evaporating more than you expect.

I hope I get to sample a bottle.

agree to all of this .. still cant put my finger on where it went pearshaped and suspect a combination of all the above.. must... get... site.. tube.. fitted!!!! good place to start anyway... ha!

Next time you will stress less, and get to kick back, enjoy the smells, yack to your mates, and rock out to some tunes \m/

music was kick arse and the smells were divine and both were enjoyed regardless of the outcome.. lol

no wort on the floor = no fail

last night when I was testing the HLT pickup I wondered why my foot was getting cold... yup I'd left the tap open... Im just greatful it was cold water at the time... today I was careful with it :lol:

:super:

 

[Yob]

Righto, Number 2 is in the cube... I thought I had it... after missing many numbers last time, I focused on getting a few bits of data to help me.. ran 20lt through and measured what I had on the other end.. factored my 5lt boil off etc and damn it if I didnt fill the cube exactly today.. Only problem is...

OG 1034 instead of 1048 predicted.. mash in target was 65 and hit 68 (preheated the MT), dropped 2'c over the hour (with a damn good mash in), hit 78 Batch Sparging/recirc easily this time so was happy there.. in fact overall I was terribly happy with the whole process and what I did... as well as the expected losses... which can be tuned down I think a bit but...

where the have my 14 points gone??? Ive been robbed again hit my cube at 23lt pretty much spot on, losses surely cant account for 14 points.. where should I be looking to find them?

anyone see where I went wrong? was pretty much as follows, only change was a kettle top up of about 1.5lt

 

[razz]

It's a pretty big error on the gravity so at a guess the wort needed to be stirred better before you took the sample yob. Is it the same error as last time?