First Ag!

[MCT]

Well, after a month of collecting all the bits & pieces and building my kettle and mash tun, it all pays off!
Started at 9.30am this morning by going around to Linz's house where he cracked the grain for me. What a legend.
10.30am started heating water for mash, mashing by 11.00am.

I missed my mash temp (66c) by 1.5 so I threw in a litre of boiling which got it to 67. Close enough.
After 1.5 hour mash time, the temp was 63. Hope that is ok?
Mashed out, sparged twice and ended up with a pre boil gravity of 1.045 which beat my estimated efficiency of 70%. Still haven't worked out what my actual efficiency is as I didn't take a gravity reading post boil. Will do so when I start fermenting tomorrow.

The recipe I did was DrSmurtos's Golden Ale.

All in all it went incident free (apart from a nice burn on my hand from picking up the kettle without a mit). No boil overs & hit my target volume into the kettle without a decent means of measuring. I think volume into the cube was a bit low, maybe 18L instead of 20L so I'll have to adjust for evaporation rate next time.

Thanks go to Linz (couldn't have done it without all your help) and to all on this site that gave me the courage to cross to the dark side!

Some pics:

The setup (Brewstand is on it's way)


Heating strike water with the new Rambo burner! What a beast, got 25L to the boil in 15-20mins!


First runnings.


Spent Grains.


Whirlpooling before cubing. Does that look right?? Lot's of cloudy crap in there.


The fruits of my labour!! 1x20L cube. Hope theres not too much air in there! That was as hard as I could squeeze and still get the lid on.
Linz, you might be getting a new 20L cube if it doesn't go back into shape..... Thanks for the lender.

 

[Pumpy]

Well done MCT .

there is no stopping you now


pumpy

 

[Doc]

Good job. Well done.
Did the microwave come in handy too ?

Doc

 

[MCT]

Good job. Well done.
Did the microwave come in handy too ?

Doc

Thanks mate, the microwave wasn't used .
Don't even know why it's there? Might have to quiz the flatmate.....

Can anyone see any blinding errors from my pictures? It's better to find out now altough I think it went OK.
How are people measuring there water in the HLT etc? The old dipstick method?

Also, is oxidisation of the wort a problem pre-boil? I had a bit of a problem with bubbles in the tubing when racking from the mash tun into the kettle....

 

[The7]

Congrats of your first AG!. I also got a burn on my first one :angry:

 

[Adamt]

Also, is oxidisation of the wort a problem pre-boil? I had a bit of a problem with bubbles in the tubing when racking from the mash tun into the kettle....

I would not think so... Dissolved oxygen is driven off at boiling point.

 

[leeboy]

I still get burns probably more than 100 ag's through now.

Also oxidation pre boil is no issue at all. Only a concern once cubed and fermention/post ferment particularly.

 

[wambesi]

Excellent work!
Good feeling getting that first AG up, I'm looking at my second in a week or two with the same recipe.

 

[Stuster]

Also oxidation pre boil is no issue at all. Only a concern once cubed and fermention/post ferment particularly.

No, hot side aeration (HSA) is supposed to be an issue, leading to early staling. It's really not much of an issue at our level, but something to think about if you're thinking of keeping this beer for a while (seems to take 3 months or so to show any big difference). Of course, there's one easy solution to prevent staling of the beer. :chug:

 

[kabooby]

So thats what a new Rambo looks like. Mines covered in crud from boilovers

Well done MCT,

Looks like you nailed it. I use my BBQ as a brew stand as well

Kabooby

Buy the way it tradition for all MALE members to sample your first AG