First Ag.

[petesbrew]

Well, it's time. I'm about to attempt my first All Grain tomorrow morning.
The wife & daughter are eager to leave the house too - Bonus!

Here's my recipe, done off beertools.

Fingers Crossed Porter

Category Porter
Subcategory Brown Porter
Recipe Type All Grain
Batch Size 23 liters
Volume Boiled 26 liters
Mash Efficiency 72 %
Total Grain/Extract 5.60 kg.
Total Hops 75.0 g.

5 kg. Australian Pale Malt
.3 kg. American Chocolate Malt
.1 kg. Belgian Cara-Pils
.2 kg. British Crystal 55L
40 g. Fuggle (Pellets, 5.7 %AA) boiled 60 min.
20 g. Fuggle (Pellets, 5.7 %AA) boiled 15 min.
15 g. Fuggle (Pellets, 5.7 %AA) boiled 5 min.
Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale

 

[glennheinzel]

Welcome to the club... almost! Good luck for tomorrow.

 

[homekegger1]

Petesbrew, about time you got to AG brewing *tic* I have just got all my gear together as well. 2 brews in and I am planning many more. Welcome to the darkside fella.

Cheers

HK

 

[Rudy]

I've brewed 20 AG, beers now, my first being a Porter. It turned out great, one of my best! Good luck, have fun.

 

[matti]

onya pete
it's brighter on the dark side :huh:

great stuff

 

[homekegger1]

I've brewed 20 AG, beers now, my first being a Porter. It turned out great, one of my best! Good luck, have fun.

What is it with porters. Must be that time of year. My first brew with my own AG gear, was also a porter. Yet to taste it as it matures in the bottle. But my god.

Cheers

HK

 

[Stuster]

Have fun with it, Pete. Just make sure you have enough time and space, and remember that AG can be very forgiving of slight stuff ups.

Porter's a good one to start with. Enjoy it. :super:

 

[petesbrew]

Cheers guys.
It feels like Christmas eve... I'm so excited!
Got Rukh's urn set up outside on the timer to start at 5:30am. And Doc's kettle ready to go too.
Only just felt the gas bottle and, um, it's a bit on the light side, so thank goodness for swap n go (expensive but handy).

Pete

 

[Doc]

Good luck with it Pete.
Hope you are brewing undercover tomorrow. At least with the house to yourself you can have the tunes cranking too.

Doc

 

[petesbrew]

Good luck with it Pete.
Hope you are brewing undercover tomorrow. At least with the house to yourself you can have the tunes cranking too.

Doc

Ah, thanks for the reminder. I'm gonna set up the stereo now, and log off.
Yep, got a small verandah going the width of the backyard. I'll be right.
Will let you all know how she goes. I'm expecting hiccups, but not too worried.

 

[Ross]

Best of luck Pete...looks like a nice recipe :icon_chickcheers:

cheers Ross

 

[MVZOOM]

Have fun Pete - don't sweat the small mistakes that will happen. Take some photo's and let us know how you go!

Cheers - Mike

 

[glennheinzel]

C'mon, Petesbrew. How was your first AG?

 

[petesbrew]

Hey Guys,

The AG went well. I forgot to take photos sadly.

The urn was a lifesaver. Set it on timer, woke up and it was ready to go. Mashed in by 6am.
Picked up the gas bottle & thought, shit, almost empty. Swap n go is now $33! :shock:
That'll teach me to check gas levels.before hand.
Anyway, had a pretty shocking time with a stuck sparge, and doing all the don't-do's like draining with the tap fully open, etc, so it may be a bit grainy.

Boiled up okay, a few issues with the 3 ring burner, but i'll sort that out.
Okay, here's the main thing, Out of 30litres initially, I'm only left with 17.5 litres.
Assuming a 5 litre loss with the mash, and, say 3 litres dead space, that's 5 litres lost in the boil.

OG before boil was 1054
OG after boil is 1064 (measured today at 22degrees). I think that leaves me with a Robust Porter.
OH, the taste is frickin' awesome!!!
I chickened out of using the WLP001 starter (taste is a bit ciderish, is that okay to use?), and went with the S-05.
Contemplating throwing the starter in with a quick K&K over the weekend.

Sorry for the long post
Cheers to all for advice, gear & encouragement!
Pete

 

[glennheinzel]

Congrats on your first AG. So what is lined up for AG#2?

FYI - It is possible to add water to dilute the wort to the gravity that you want, although it may be too late to dilute this batch (which I'm sure will turn out fine anyway).

Re: Yeast. If the WLP001 was tasting cidery, I'd say it was a smart move to leave it.

 

[petesbrew]

I reckon AG no.2 will be a Kolsch, Altbier or an APA.

Just waiting for a free fermenter (although I have an empty cube) and some spare time.

 

[Barramundi]

good stuff pete , welcome to the realm ... youve been a while coming ...

 

[MVZOOM]

Pete,

Was that 30L total of mash / sparge water or was that 30L out of the tun into the boiler? How many KG of grain did you use?

Cheers - Mike

 

[Gulpa]

Congrats Pete. Sound like you did well for the first time.

Cheers
Andrew.

 

[warra48]

Pete,
Good on you, and welcome to the dark side. Looks like a nice recipe.
I had the same volume issues with my first couple of AG brews.
I have come to the conclusion that with my system I need to use about 40 litres of mash and sparge water to end up with approx 30 or 31 litres into the kettle (and the deadspace in my mashtun would not be more than about .5 litres).
I boil for 75 minutes generally, as I don't add my hops until the hotbreak is passed. My boil gets this down to about 24 litres, and after leaving 1 litre in the trub in the kettle I end up with 23 litres into the fermenter.
Just keep records of what you do, such as exact volumes of mash in, mash out, and sparge water. Also record the temperature of the water additions and the mash temperature so that you can build up a picture of what your system delivers for you.