First Ag.

[petesbrew]

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.

Thanks for that Warra, I've got a whole bunch of notes written down, but I'll definitely try an extra 10 litres next time. 17 litres leaves me with about 20 long necks. Might have to bottle half into stubbies. They last a touch longer.
It's bubbling away nicely at the moment.

 

[petesbrew]

took a small hydrometer sample yesterday. Down to 1014.
Heaps of sediment. Definitely requiring a secondary in another week with some finings.

The US05 yeast has really made this one taste rather interesting. Probably should've grabbed an S04 instead, but oh well.
Still, looking forward to the final product.

 

[Duff]

Hey Pete,

Missed this thread, but good to see you make the leap B)

You'll never forget that first sip when it's carbed and ready to drink.........

 

[Gerard_M]

Well, it's time. I'm about to attempt my first All Grain tomorrow morning.

What took you so long!!!!!!!!!!

Hope it all went well, it will change the way you look at the world!
Cheers
Gerard

 

[petesbrew]

What took you so long!!!!!!!!!!

Hope it all went well, it will change the way you look at the world!
Cheers
Gerard

Initial outlay of cash for gear, and time.
Honestly, it was easier than I thought, Gerard.
Looking forward to doing another soon.
Just have to book in another RDO with SWMBO.

 

[petesbrew]

After a night of sampling some great stouts, porters and brown ales at the Hills brewers pizza night on tuesday,
I gave my porter another little sample last night. SG down to 1012.
Flavour is deadset awesome, and I'm hanging to bottle it. :chug:

What's the general opinion on sediment in porters? Really to look at, it's like sandy-muddy water , with all the miniscule grainy bits floating around? I'm not worried by it, and am thinking of skipping the secondary-finings, and just bottling it.
Just wondering what you guys think...

 

[Stuster]

Pete, more than likely that graininess is only at the bottom of the fermenter. But if you're concerned, I'd just give it a few more days before bottling it. Will do more good than harm (except to your patience ).

 

[petesbrew]

Pete, more than likely that graininess is only at the bottom of the fermenter. But if you're concerned, I'd just give it a few more days before bottling it. Will do more good than harm (except to your patience ).

Cheers Stuster. Makes sense.
I'll be bottling it sometime next week.

 

[petesbrew]

Bottling tonight. All bottles cleaned and ready to go.
Took a reading, FG is 1010. Down from 1064.... pushing almost 8% after bottling.

Bring on winter, I say.
edit: less sediment with this sample.

 

[petesbrew]

Bottling completed, now for the long wait.

 

[Cracka]

Pete aren't you drinking yours yet

My first AG has neally gone already.

 

[petesbrew]

Pete aren't you drinking yours yet

My first AG has neally gone already.

I'm trying to be patient.

It's bloody hard work.

 

[petesbrew]

I finally tried the porter again last night.

Awesome! Low carbonation (a bit flat, but not to worry), dark ruby colour. I could really taste the alcohol in this one too. I can't really describe the flavour, but I reckon it all worked together nicely, with the fuggles and the US56.
Very very happy with this one.

Now planning the followup for my daughter's 2nd b'day, a Belgian Pale Ale.

 

[Ross]

Bottling tonight. All bottles cleaned and ready to go.
Took a reading, FG is 1010. Down from 1064.... pushing almost 8% after bottling.

Bring on winter, I say.
edit: less sediment with this sample.

Big beer for your first one Pete

Make sure you keep those bottles warm, the current cold weather & the high alcohol will be adding to your slow carbonation.

cheers Ross

 

[petesbrew]

Big beer for your first one Pete

Make sure you keep those bottles warm, the current cold weather & the high alcohol will be adding to your slow carbonation.

cheers Ross

Thanks for that Ross. I'll bring a bunch inside tonight.

 

[petesbrew]

Cracked open a stubby of my porter at a friends place on wednesday night.
"Kssscchhh"
uh oh, it's rising quickly. Uh oh it's a gusher.
Worst thing to do is put your hand over the top.... which I did.
Three brown fountains shoot out across the table and within seconds everyones wallets, keys, steak & salads, and a chair are covered in Robust Porter.
Immense cleanup follows. My teetotaller mate is laughing his head off, as well as giving me shit because his phone & wallet are now beer-logged.
"It smells like a dog's bum! Look at the photo of my kids & santa now!" he yelled, waving his wallet in my face.

Now, I can either put it down to an infection, improperly cleaned bottles, or using carb drops in 330 & 345ml bottles (okay, maybe the last one was NOT a good idea, but I had no spare fermenters for bulk priming that night).

But in the end. RDWHAHB.
I'll just make sure I bring a deliberately undercarbed tallie and a backup to the Hills Brewers pizza night next week.

Oh, and Ross, I took the ones inside back out to the cold garage. Didn't want to catch the wrath of SWMBO if I had any bottle bombs.

 

[Nihed]

Heh, pretty much the same thing happened to me on my 3rd AG recently. Took a monster porter over to a friends place with a few other random beers and when I went to open it, it went everywhere. not quite over everyone but on the table, all over my pants (nice brown stain on them) and on the seat. I'm still not sure what went wrong but luckily I only bottled 2 stubbies and the rest went into the keg. Was too scared to keep the other in case it exploded so I tipped it down the sink .

Congrats on the first AG, from my few attempts I've found that theres not much better than drinking a beer you made from scratch.

 

[Wrenny]

My first 3 ag's were infected. It was heart breaking.

The second one tasted a bit funny, so I took a long neck over to Ross's for an expert opinion. When he opened it it gushed all over his bar.

For me, I think it was airborn infection between chilling and putting in the fermenter. Since I went to no chilling in the fermenter I haven't had any problems (except some bottle infections in some fancy swing top bottles)

 

[petesbrew]

At the moment I'm not worried. If it is infected, it's at least a good tasting infection!

 

[petesbrew]

Just tried it out on the workmates.
Thumbs up all round. What I like to hear!