First Ag

[JonnyAnchovy]

Hi All,

Just want to boast (probably prematurely) about my first AG brew. Efficiency was laughable, technique was sloppy, equiptment was sub-standard, but so far everything seems to be going very well.

this is the story so far - the whole brew was done in a semi-BIAB style in one vessel.

this was a mini-batch - aiming for 9L but ended up with 7 after absorbtion, evaporation etc.

2.5kg Marris otter, .23 medium crystal and aprrox .150 choc chit.
10G perle @45mins
5G Kent Goldings @5mins
5G kent goldings @0mins
whirlfloc
chilled and dumped in fermenter with rehydrated S-04.
OG 1.066 (was aiming for a big 1.08+, but think my equiptment, lack of experience and poor technique put a limit on this...)


Just racked into secondary after a week fermenting at 17-20C - gravity is 1.022 and it tastes AMAZING!

super big body, very malty, no overpowering toastyness or burnt flavors, and very mild bittering. thick, well compacted yeast cake (massive ammounts of yeast - a real supprise for a meadmaker like me who rarely sees anything of that magnatude develop so quickly - the beasties must just love the malt!)

I suspect that as this ages a bit the bitterness might drop a little too low, but at this stage it seems farely well balanced.


Now - can someone please tell me what the hell I've concoted?

 

[Spartan 117]

Looks like a type of english/belgian ale to me. Goldings are used in pretty much all Englis beer, Pearle however is used mainly in lager style beers if I'm not mistaken like pilseners, steams and belgian ales also. I calculated your IBU to be 26. which is in the ball park for ales and colour to be around 35ish(made some subs with grains as dont have them all in my database) which is closer to belgian strong ale. Have a look in the recipe data base and compare your ingridients with those that are in others brews. Hope it turns out great

Aaron

 

[rclemmett]

Now - can someone please tell me what the hell I've concoted?

Beer :icon_cheers:

 

[Gavo]

my first AG brew. Efficiency was laughable

2.5kg Marris otter, .23 medium crystal and aprrox .150 choc chit.
10G perle @45mins
5G Kent Goldings @5mins
5G kent goldings @0mins
whirlfloc
chilled and dumped in fermenter with rehydrated S-04.
thick, well compacted yeast cake

Sounds like my first partial, efficiency of 65%, I hit 78% on my third partial last night. I have also done a 15lt AG (yet to sample it, 4 more sleeps) and found a very thick yeast cake/trub but I believe a large amount if this is the break material (I use kopperflock to seperate the break material). I would think that the thick yeast cake in your situation is the same since you "dumped" the lot in the fermenter. No problem the yeasties seem to go nuts on it.

Congrats on the AG.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[MattC]

Just did my first all grain yesterday (Ross's Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale). All went well. There was only one problem...
When I did my first partial I stuffed up and added too much water which resulted in an efficiency of about 40%. My next partial I reached about 60%. My next partial was infected and my last partial (robust porter) I ended up with about 90% efficiency.

I use Beersmith which I have the efficiency set to 70% (im guessing thats average). The problem was that beersmith assumes that i reached 75% efficiency of all my ingredients, however can this be the case? Doesnt that mean 70% eff. for the grains and 100% for the extract?? Is this why my last partial will end up being about 7% Alc instead of the 5.8% Alc. estimated?

Back to my first AG. because I thought 90% was too good to be true I left the efficiency at 70%. I cubed/ no chilled the brew and forgot to take an OG reading after the boil, however my pre boil OG was 1.049, which gives me an efficiency of 85% way higher than I expected, and thus making my first AG 5.9% alc. and not 4.8% alc.

Is this just a fluke? Should I have my efficiency set at 80-85% in order to minimise ingredients and alc. content?

What efficiencies do others reach in their AG?

What is an average figure?

 

[raven19]

Beer :icon_cheers:

Indeed. Great to hear it is tasting nice already.

Once you've had AG, other beers just dont seem quite right...

Well done! 7L batch is quite small though! Only 1/3 of a keg! All in good time though.