First Ag Tomorrow

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chopdog

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Hey guys I will be doing my first ag brew tomorrow which will be a DSGA (award winning version). I have looked up the recipe and noticed that it is for a 20L batch, I have always made 23L batches. Can anyone help me with how much extra grains I should add.





cheers :icon_chickcheers:
 
Mate once you've done your first AG, you will be hooked. Its a lot of fun to do.

If you download brewmate (which is free) you can enter your recipe then scale up the litres and it will automagically re-calculate the grain bill and hops.
 
Mate once you've done your first AG, you will be hooked. Its a lot of fun to do.

If you download brewmate (which is free) you can enter your recipe then scale up the litres and it will automagically re-calculate the grain bill and hops.


thanks bud
 
Best of luck its alot of fun and you'll never turn back!

For the first brew day try and keep things as simple as possible and write everything down for later if you have any questions.
 
For your first brew day make sure you can laugh at yourself.. your gonna need to after you miss every target, burn yourself mulitple times, forget a hop addition, wife yells at you for all the spilt wort everywhere and the kids for some reason REALLY WANT YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT NOW, when they are usually happy to ignore you

But the best thing is you just made your best beer to date and will be hooked on a great new hobby :p
 
first thing i leart was to not pour myself a beer until that first hop addition went in the boil
if you pour your first pint when you dough in you will be in all kinds of strife by the end of the boil :icon_drunk:
 
Don't drink, wear gloves, tell SWMBO & legtanglers to go to the movies.

And get brewmate.

Use the notes area to make notes on how the day went, tasting notes when you drink it and keep it for future reference.

Goomba
 
Thahks guys. Just as a guide as i dont know the efficiency of my rig, what should my initial litres be in the hlt and what temp for a mash of 66 deg, how much water in the mash for 4.8kg of grain? Also do I drain the mash tun and sparge with the remainder of the water in the hlt until i have approx 26L in the kettle? or do I do something other then this?
 
Your questions are answered by being automatically calculated by brewmate. Download it and get your head around it well before brew day.
 
Thahks guys. Just as a guide as i dont know the efficiency of my rig,

Pick a number, probably between 60 and 70% and base your recipe on that (or just use the default given with Dr's recipe).

Don't focus on numbers too much first time around - this brew will give you an understanding of how your system and methods work so you can tweak them.

While you are learning this, take gravity readings at the different stages of the brewing so you can work out where any deficiencies might be. Make sure the wort is cool first obviously (but easy to forget on brewday).

what should my initial litres be in the hlt

I always just fill mine and top up with extra while it's mashing. You can calculate the exact amount you will need and add a couple of extra litres for Justin. Any excess can be used for cleaning or for watering vegetable/herb/hop garden

and what temp for a mash of 66 deg,

This is something you need to work out for your system. Again don't sweat one or two degree - just learn for next time. I regularly see (and use) 9-10 degree above intended temp.

However there is a great description of the hows and whys here: http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/articles_o..._StrikeTemp.htm and there is a calculator if you scroll down. This can be used to calculate water additions if you ever step mash by infusion.

For now, have some hot and cold water on hand to adjust. Better to mash in slightly under and top up with hot but remember your first go won't be perfect. Enjoy and learn rather than stress.

how much water in the mash for 4.8kg of grain?

Usually a ratio of 2.5 - 3 Litres of water per kilo of grain unless BIAB obviously. Grain will absorb roughly 1 litre per kilo and you aill have some at the bottom of the tun that won't drain.

Also do I drain the mash tun and sparge with the remainder of the water in the hlt until i have approx 26L in the kettle? or do I do something other then this?

Pretty much. Sparge with roughly half your intended preboil volume. The first brew you will work out your evaporation losses from your kettle and other losses too. I always lose about 10 litres from my kettle over a 75 minute boil but every system will be different. Losses include trub/hot break (as in wort that remains with the debris). You can lessen this by draining the last bit of debris laden wort into a separate sanitised vessel and putting in the fridge. Next day a lot of crap will settle out - gently decant the clear wort at the top, reboil, cover and cool and add gently to the wort at the beginning of ferment (not sure if you are chilling or no-chillling).

Yes brewmate will answer all this for you but nothing wrong with knowing the hows and whys.

Good luck and I call bollocks on the notion of not having beer while you brew. Get into it - just leave some parts of your brain untouched, be cautious (hot liquids etc) and enjoy yourself. Don't expect perfection, learn from your mistakes.
 
Pick a number, probably between 60 and 70% and base your recipe on that (or just use the default given with Dr's recipe).

Don't focus on numbers too much first time around - this brew will give you an understanding of how your system and methods work so you can tweak them.

While you are learning this, take gravity readings at the different stages of the brewing so you can work out where any deficiencies might be. Make sure the wort is cool first obviously (but easy to forget on brewday).



I always just fill mine and top up with extra while it's mashing. You can calculate the exact amount you will need and add a couple of extra litres for Justin. Any excess can be used for cleaning or for watering vegetable/herb/hop garden



This is something you need to work out for your system. Again don't sweat one or two degree - just learn for next time. I regularly see (and use) 9-10 degree above intended temp.

However there is a great description of the hows and whys here: http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/articles_o..._StrikeTemp.htm and there is a calculator if you scroll down. This can be used to calculate water additions if you ever step mash by infusion.

For now, have some hot and cold water on hand to adjust. Better to mash in slightly under and top up with hot but remember your first go won't be perfect. Enjoy and learn rather than stress.



Usually a ratio of 2.5 - 3 Litres of water per kilo of grain unless BIAB obviously. Grain will absorb roughly 1 litre per kilo and you aill have some at the bottom of the tun that won't drain.



Pretty much. Sparge with roughly half your intended preboil volume. The first brew you will work out your evaporation losses from your kettle and other losses too. I always lose about 10 litres from my kettle over a 75 minute boil but every system will be different. Losses include trub/hot break (as in wort that remains with the debris). You can lessen this by draining the last bit of debris laden wort into a separate sanitised vessel and putting in the fridge. Next day a lot of crap will settle out - gently decant the clear wort at the top, reboil, cover and cool and add gently to the wort at the beginning of ferment (not sure if you are chilling or no-chillling).

Yes brewmate will answer all this for you but nothing wrong with knowing the hows and whys.

Good luck and I call bollocks on the notion of not having beer while you brew. Get into it - just leave some parts of your brain untouched, be cautious (hot liquids etc) and enjoy yourself. Don't expect perfection, learn from your mistakes.

Thanks man, that calculator makes things pretty easy. The only thing I guess im stressing about is the fact that I have been making excellent extract brews for 2 yrs now and I dont want to go back to brewing shit quality brews. For this reason I was looking at buying the braumeister, but my set up is 98% complete so I decided to give it ago.
 
How long should I aim to sparge for? you said to sparge with approx 1/2 the pre boil volumn, where does the other half come from? (sorry for sounding like a twat!!)
 
Your initial strike water will give you volume. You should sparge with at least half - you can use more. If you mash out with an addition that roughly equals your grain/tun losses it can make calculating easy.

Basically I add strike water, mash, add 8-10 L mash out water, drain then sparge with whatever I need to hit final volume. Until you know your system, it will be a bit of guesswork.

Presuming you are batch sparging, I wait 10 mins after adding the water before draining (a good stir straight after adding). Some people drain straight away. One day I'll try doing that and see if it makes any difference to the end product.
 
first thing i leart was to not pour myself a beer until that first hop addition went in the boil
if you pour your first pint when you dough in you will be in all kinds of strife by the end of the boil :icon_drunk:

+1. That's why I typically brew at 9am Sunday morning.

By the time I'm ready to add hops it's midday and the kegs are open :icon_cheers:
 
G'day mate, just in case you want to do it with out Brewmate some time.

To scale the recipe for the amount of litres you want, just use a calculator.

For example, with the DSGA 20L, divide by 20 then times by 23 to get your 23L.

Hope that helps.
 
Agree with some of the posts above.

I waited until my Mrs left the Country before attempting my first AG.
Took 7 hours for a BIAB, missed every target, there was grains and hops and dust and buckets and eskys and bags and tools and ropes and god knows whatelse all over the shed.

Like a brewing cyclone had hit it.

Was fun though, beer was average, only got 16L into the keg after all that effort. Man it was bitter.
Now just kegged BIAB#3 and it is well worth the initial 1st AG brew day pain.

Can get a batch out now in <4hours and only 20mins of that i am actually in the shed for, rest of the time i am watching tele / playing xbox waiting for Brewmate alarms to go off. 80L pot, only 40L full so no boil overs to concern me at this stage, until i try for a double batch :).

Get into it! take photos, I have some somewhere my mates took of me whilst i was struggling through it all, making every mistake possible.


Cheers,
D80
 
All great advice but here is a slighlty different angle.

The links in my signature will take you to either the beersmith files or pdf files for the golden ale recipes.

They are designed for 20L and will enable you to work out volumes based on my system which is set to an efficiency of 70% and should be in the ballpark for new brewers.

Unless you have some earth shattering reason why you have to brew 23L, the simplest approach would be to follow the step by step instructions in the pdf file and brew 20L.

Yes, you will have 3L of beer less than you would if you aimed for 23L but you wouldn't need to modify anything.

Have fun
DrSmurto
 
Thanks man, that calculator makes things pretty easy. The only thing I guess im stressing about is the fact that I have been making excellent extract brews for 2 yrs now and I dont want to go back to brewing shit quality brews.
Don't worry too much about this part. I was in the same boat. You'll find that a) the whole process isn't as complicated as it sounds when you read about it (It's complex in many ways, but doesn't have to be complicated...) and B) You'll make good beer unless something goes royally wrong.
 
Hey guys, just finished, all went reasonably cruisie, only problem was I sparged too much and ended up with 28L in the kettle instead of 25L, and it came out at 1.034 instead of 1.038. whats the best way of measuring your voloumns?? I used a piece of timber that I cut notch's in but I dont think it was very accurate. After the boil I ended up with 21L in the fermenter at 1.040 when it should have been 1.047, is this because of the over sparge? When I mashed in after about 10mins I hit my mash temp of 66deg and after the hour it had dropped to 65deg, so i was pretty happy with that.
All in all a good day, smoked a pork neck on the kamado (so pulled pork rolls for tea), brewed my first all grain (which only took 31/2 hours from start to finish) and the aussies are belting india. STOKED
By the way i took smurtos advive and went of his pdf file.
Will post pics tomorrow. CHEERS FELLAS :icon_chickcheers: :icon_chickcheers:
Should I add some dex to get the alcohol up to about 4.5% as i dont have any dme and the brew shops wont be open tomorrow, Does bigW sell dme??
 
Yeah BigW sells DME at about $5-6 per kg bag (off the top of my head).
 
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